254 
MANAGEMENT OF A FEW SPECIES OF BIGNONIA AND TECOMA. 
be induced to flower earlier than seedlings, and in a far dwarfer and smaller 
state ; but they will not bloom more abundantly, and doubtless not in perpetuity, 
from having their roots pent up in a more limited compass. 
And this brings us to another position, which, like the last, is wound up in 
every rational system of culture, and is of nearly universal application. It is 
that plants in pots, or under artificial management in houses, should be grown 
before they are expected to" flower much. What we mean may be made more 
clearly apparent by a slight amplification. 
Every flowering specimen has particular dimensions, which it is believed or 
desired to attain, and beyond which it will not materially develop itself. This 
condition, or something near enough to it to satisfy the cultivator, may generally 
be realized in two or three years, or less ; and we hold that, until it is gained, it is 
injudicious to wish or even allow a plant to blossom freely ; because it is not com- 
petent to do so, without enfeebling those developments which are to give fulness 
and perfection to its subsequent display. 
How far our opinion may be correct, or susceptible of application, in reference 
to dwarf shrubs, we leave each of our practical readers to determine. We can 
only allude to the well-known good effects of removing flowers when the advance- 
ment of the branches is desired, and to the extraordinary fertility of mature 
specimens that have not been subjected to premature exhaustion by early blooming. 
With respect, however, to climbers, and, especially, the species to which this 
paper is devoted, we must be more positive in our statements. It is essential to 
them that they be permitted to reach a given size before blossoming liberally; 
since a very young, or a very imperfectly developed or stunted Bignonia cannot 
generate the healthy lateral shoots, from which alone flowers can be protruded. 
Maturity is, indeed, indispensable to its fertility. 
Descending to the more direct and practical bearing of what we have advanced, 
we denounce the idea that small pots can be in any way advantageous to this 
tribe, and would have them altogether disused for specimen plants of every 
description. We speak of them, however, only with an eye to their diameter, 
which is the ordinary acceptation of the phrase. As substitutes, in all sorts of in- 
door culture, we would strongly recommend the adoption of comparatively shallow 
pans, which can be of any breadth, according to the size or nature of the plants, 
and ought to be little more than half as deep as they are wide. We have seen 
these employed for low shrubs in some of the houses at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Kew, and for Cacti in the superb collection of the Rev. Theodore Williams, Hendon. 
When pots of this shallow character shall come into common use, — as we are 
satisfied they shortly will, since they are made upon a principle which is emphati- 
cally philosophical, — we shall look for a very striking change in the appearance of 
our plant-houses. Flowers will then, unquestionably, be far more abundant ; and 
the difficulties — hitherto deemed insuperable — in the way of blooming those species 
which resist all other efforts at inducing fertility, will, in time, dwindle away into 
oblivion. 
