CULTURE OF CHOROZEMA CORDATUM. 
. 163 
sized pots, one in each ; and, supposing the lateral shoots tliey have formed to be 
two or three inches in length, these should again be stopped at the time of 
potting. By checking them at that period, their roots will the more readily be 
enabled to establish themselves in their new position, having less demand on their 
energies from above. 
As soon as the palpable advancement of the plants shows that their roots have 
reached the sides of the first pots, they must be sliifted into others a size larger. 
Never should the plants be allowed to form a matted mass of roots around the 
inside of the pot before they are shifted ; because they cannot, in this case, be so 
healthy as when they have a sufficient medium in which to extend themselves, 
and it is always longer ere they can strike out into the new soil provided for 
them in re-potting. 
In respect to the compost proper for our present subject, a light and very 
sandy loam, mixed with about a third more of sandy and fibrous heath-mould, 
will be fittest for the plants while in a very young state. At the second potting, 
however, a rather more nutritive loam, with less of sand in it, and a diminished 
quantity of heath-soil, will be preferable. And, as the specimen increases in size, 
the earth may gradually be changed to a rich loam, with a very small proportion 
of heath-soil, and the substitution of little pieces of broken sand-stone, or similar 
materials, for the sand existing in the compost previously mentioned. We do not 
mean, by rich loam, that any manure should be added to it, but that it should be 
of a tolerably nutrimental order, and newly derived from a meadow or pasture. 
It ought not to be divested of its fibrous constituents, and, together with the heath- 
mould, simply be reduced with a spade, not sifted. 
With the growth of the specimens, they should be shifted as above directed, 
using a pot one size larger at every removal, and transferring them as often as 
their roots just reach the edges of the pot. The stopping of the shoots must like- 
wise be continued, for they will inevitably acquire a lax and spreading character 
if not duly reduced. When it can be prudently done at the time the plant is 
potted, that is, unquestionably, a better period, for a reason already given. The 
appearances that determine its necessity are the growth of the branches to the 
length of three or four inches, and, more particularly, their disproportionate weak- 
ness, or the distance between the leaves. 
Supposing the specimen to be settled in its second pot, it is time that we 
explained what form it is required to take. If an extremely broad plant, not more 
than a foot high, be wished for, the points of the branches must be cut off more 
frequently than we have suggested, and before they have grown so long. In fact, 
it is almost necessary to stop them, for a while, at every fresh joint, or, at least, 
at every second joint, when they have developed three. The lower shoots, more- 
over, can be pegged down to within an inch of the soil, and most of the others 
tied, at first, in a horizontal direction. An increased power of producing laterals 
will thus be imparted, and the requisite breadth and dwarfness will simultaneously 
