238 
CULTURE OF THE GENUS ERICA. 
nearly equally well in both materials, yet when they are taken up for potting, the 
fibres are not so liable to be broken in sand as in peat. 
Whatever the pots are filled with, they must have plenty of drainage ; at least 
one fourth of the pot must be filled with broken potsherds. 
The cuttings may be planted with a small dibber about the size of a quill, 
then being watered with a fine syringe, or rose watering pot, until the whole soil is 
saturated, place on a glass, and set the pot in the front of a green-house, and shade 
from the effects of the sun. 
If the weather be fine, it is very likely the cuttings may require watering with 
a very fine rose watering-pot almost every morning during the first week or two, 
and afterwards twice or three times a week, until they begin to grow, which will 
be in five or six weeks ; and in about nine or ten weeks they will be ready to pot 
off. If the weather is damp and cloudy, watering once or twice a week will be 
sufficient. 
Some of the easy growing kinds may be planted under a hand-glass, on a north 
border, where they will grow very freely if kept from being injured by worms. 
By seeds . — The seeds of Ericae should be sown thinly in pots and boxes filled 
with fine sifted peat, as soon as possible after they are gathered. 
When up, the young plants must not be overwatered ; indeed, in damp weather, 
and winter, they should be kept rather dry than otherwise, which will obviate their 
liability to perish by mildew. 
The system of Mr. M‘Nab is as follows *. The best mode of propagating Cape 
heaths is by cuttings : the greater portion strike root freely when the young wood 
is taken, after it has become sufficiently firm to prevent its damping off. 
The pots for their reception should be about nine or ten inches diameter at the 
mouths ; fill them to within an inch and a half of the top, with broken pot or coarse 
ashes, the upper part of which should be of a smaller size than those below ; over 
which should be placed a thin layer of fog ( Hypnum ), a moss so called, to prevent 
the sand from working down amongst the draining, then the remainder of the pot 
should be filled with fine sifted pit sand, as free as possible from earthy or irony 
matter, to the level of the edge, and the sand pressed down very firm ; and, after 
being well watered, the pot is fit to receive the cuttings, the length of which must 
depend on the habit of the species. 
Some of the free growing sorts may be about an inch and a half long ; and others, 
that are of a more stunted growth, may not exceed half an inch : in both cases they 
should be taken from the plant at the part where the young cutting sets off from the 
older wood. 
The leaves should be stripped off about half the length of the cutting, and the 
end should be cut clean with a sharp knife or scissors ; the cutting is then fit to 
be inserted. 
* This excellent mode of cultivating heaths, together with the general mode of treatment, is pub- 
lished in a pamphlet, at 2s. 6d., which every lover of this beautiful tribe of plants ought to have in 
his possession. 
