304 CULTIVATION OF LOTUS JACOB^US AS A " SPECIMEN PLANT. 
takes place, considerable nicety must be observed, for although this be an old and well- 
known plant, it is by no means easy of multiplication, in consequence of the exceeding 
liability of the delicate wood to " damp off," unless the young cuttings are properly chosen, 
and water, as before observed, cautiously given, when plunged into the propagating bed. 
When, sufficiently rooted, the young plants should either be potted singly, or if the 
immediate formation of the specimen be a desirable object, no less a number than three 
plants should be inserted collectively, i. e., not disposed triangularly in the pot, but cen- 
trally, so as to present the appearance of being an individualised plant ; but whichever 
plan it be deemed preferable to adopt, sixty-sized pots, and any light, free, well-drained 
compost will suffice for the first transference from the cutting pot, and should the potting 
be performed so early in the season as March, the young plants should then be placed to 
grow in an intermediate greenhouse, or rather warm pit, in close proximity to the glass for 
a month or two, in order that the advantages of full exposure to the light may be expe- 
rienced ; but at the same time, although freedom of growth be desirable, any tendency to 
become straggling must be obviated at once, by closely stopping back any shoots that are 
inclined to grow redundantly, as in the observance of this point whilst the plants are 
young, a degree of bushiness, or compactness of growth, is presently the result, and on the 
early attainment of which, much of the ultimate beauty and symmetry of a specimen will, 
as a matter of course, depend. 
Should, however, the propagation, and, of consequence, the after-removal into separate 
pots be deferred until somewhat later in the spring than what has been previously 
hinted, there will, in that case, be no necessity for placing them to grow, when potted, 
in a warm house or pit, but rather an airy greenhouse or cold structure will prove the 
most appropriate situation, as being more conducive to the accomplishment of a sturdier 
and compactor growth ; nor must, in either case, their progress be at all retarded by a 
longer confinement in small pots than is requisite for their establishment in them, inasmuch 
as a circumscribed habitude, in place of a free and comparatively luxuriant disposition of 
growth, would thus be precociously engendered ; notwithstanding which, it would be an 
undesirable plan to transfer a plant of such slender growth into a full-sized specimen pot, 
which is, of course, one of considerable dimensions, for undoubtedly an intermediate 
removal into a medium sized pot would be preferable to the adoption of the " one shift 
system" in the case of so fragile a plant as Lotus Jacobmis ; but for this first shift, the 
provision of a more substantial compost must be made, which may consist of nutritious 
loam as a base, partially commingled with decomposed leaf soil, a limited quantum of fresh 
fibrous peat, and an equal proportion of sharp sand ; these ingredients must not, of course, 
be employed in a fine or sifted state, neither when commingled should the compost be so 
rough and porous as the rooting media usually prepared for robust New Holland plants, 
but in a tolerably medium condition of coarseness, just sufficient, by the aid of thorough 
bottom drainage, &c., to ensure an effectual state of porosity in the mass, inasmuch as any 
degree of stagnation of moisture in the compost would immediately become revealed in the 
sickliness of the plant it was destined healthily to support ; and this shifting being per- 
formed, a light airy greenhouse will still be found the most eligible situation wherein to 
cultivate it, provided the stage or platform on which it is placed be sufficiently adjacent to 
the glass to prevent the possibility of etiolation of growth. 
On the presumption that the specimen has become in some degree established after its 
secondary potting, and, moreover, that it is resolved upon the form of growth being 
pyramidically inclined, in preference to a more compact or " clumpish monotony" of habitude, 
sufficient attention must now, of course, be directed to the realisation of this object, which, 
in order to attain one (or if three plants as before suggested have been inserted instead of 
one, an equal number of leaders must of course be trained,) leading shoot must be centrally 
trained erect to a neat flower-stake, allowing at the same time the compact development of 
young wood already existing at the base of the specimen to elongate and grow ad libitum, 
and unchecked in future, unless, indeed, in the case of any unusually rampant shoot getting 
beyond the others, which, of course, must be checked in time, in order that they may pro- 
fusely, and yet with a natural grace, depend over the rim of the pot, obviating, however, a 
