162 
CULTURE OF CHOROZEMA CORDATUM. 
exaggerating the subjects of our drawings, simply because we are careful to have 
them taken from plants in a healthy and highly-cultivated condition. 
We are fully aware that there is nothing new in these statements. The effects 
of culture have been many times described. There are, however, individuals who, 
while they perceive them in particular instances, have no acquaintance with them 
in others ; and who notice them in not a few without being able to account for 
them, or to understand the processes by which they are brought about. 
Chorozema cor datum is, we think, an example of both these cases. Ordinarily 
met w^ith either in a loose, straggling, and most unattractive condition, or trained 
to a tall formal trellis, and destitute of leafy and flowering branches, except at 
the summit, many persons have no conception that it is capable of being rendered 
one of the most ornamental of greenhouse plants. And those who have been 
made familiar with its susceptibility of culture, seldom inquire into the mode of 
improving it, or, so doing, ascertain the precise routine by which it is so surpris- 
ingly ameliorated. The general impression on having a finely-grown specimen 
presented to view, is, that it is another and a better variety ; and though there 
is, in reality, a kind with larger flowers existing in collections, the old original 
species is quite as easily influenced by proper means, and very nearly as handsome. 
Our assumption, then, derived from a tolerably wide range of observation, 
and, indeed, based on numerous facts that have come beneath our actual inspec- 
tion, is, that this species, instead of being left in a rambling and almost leafless 
state, with a profusion of nothing but bare stems and branches, and merely a few 
flowers scattered over the points of its uppermost shoots, assuming altogether an 
inelegant and positively disagreeable aspect, may be made dwarf, exceedingly 
bushy, and abundantly productive of both foliage and blossoms of a decidedly beautiful 
description ; thus realizing a degree of gracefulness, neatness, and showiness, which 
enables it to vie with most of the inhabitants of our greenhouses, and to excel a 
large proportion of them. We have here, therefore, to relate the manner in 
which that end, so greatly to be wished for, can be effected. To do this effi- 
ciently, we shall hurriedly trace the progress of the plant, from the time of its pro- 
pagation till it arrives at its richest perfection. 
We need hardly premise that the species is multiplied by cuttings. These are 
taken from the extremities of the terminal or lateral shoots, which, having a 
general tendency to flower, should invariably have their points removed. A sharp 
knife is more suitable for the operation than the hand, the employment of the 
thumb and finger of which is apt to crush the tender tissue, and make it more 
difficult to heal. This stopping of the shoots is one of the most important pro- 
cesses in the plant's culture, and should be begun thus early because on it will 
depend the future beauty of the specimen. Its object is to induce the plant to 
branch abundantly. 
When, from the indications of growth in the cuttings, they are found to have 
protruded an adequate number of roots, they ought to be potted into the smallest 
