CULTURE OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
229 
To perpetuate it, cuttings of the more woody shoots are made in the autumn, 
struck in the same way as those of Verbenas, &c., potted into small pots, and 
stored through the winter in cold pits or frames. All the flowers that show them- 
selves on the young plant should be taken off while in the bud, and, in the month 
of March, when it begins to grow, the point of every main shoot is to be abstracted, 
that the stock may be prepared with an abundance of laterals when the time for 
transplantation arrives, and so be ready at once to cover the ground for which it is 
intended. This is a point which is but rarely attended to, though persons who 
neglect it are little aware of the difference it occasions in the appearance of their 
flower-beds. Where it is disregarded, the plants never spread properly over the 
soil, but commence blooming early, acquire a weakly character, with long weak 
stems requiring support, and lose their beauty before the season has even reached 
its meridian. 
Among the comparatively recent introductions from J apan by Dr. Siebold, is a 
very noble species of Aralia , designated A. japonica , which is in most of the 
London nurseries, and was blooming most prodigally a few days since at Messrs. 
Young's, Epsom. It is remarkable for the strength of its stems, and more particu- 
larly for the great size and boldly expansive character of its magnificent foliage ; 
and as it has proved perfectly hardy, on a trial of two or three years in the open 
border, without shelter, it may be relied on for planting in any garden, at least 
near and south of London, and, most probably, throughout the country. In the 
event of its not being hardy enough to endure the winters of northern districts, it 
would be easy, from its deciduous nature, to protect it with a covering of mats or 
the like material. 
Our more immediate purpose in referring to this plant, next to sketching its 
general features, is to point out its adaptation to the designs of the pleasure- 
gardener, in disposing it on lawns, in conspicuous positions, or planting it in those 
more retired corners of the pleasure-grounds where it can stand isolated as a 
specimen plant, and at the same time be beyond the shade of other slirubs or trees. 
Its stately, erect stems, which, with the ample and equally noble leaves, are 
covered with large spines, render it a no less ornamental than curious object ; and 
we are sure that it would be greatly admired, in the situations we have indicated, 
both for its pleasing individual character, and for the contrast between it and the 
smoothly-shaven lawn, as well as the commoner forms of vegetation, and the more 
showy specimens or groups of flowering plants by which it would be surrounded. 
It seems to flourish in any garden soil, unquestionably preferring one which is of a 
loamy and not too sterile nature, and of which the substratum — supposing this to 
be clay or gravel — is not too near the top. In either of the latter cases, it will be 
better to form a pit from two to three feet deep and four feet in diameter, fill it 
with fresh loam, and plant the specimen in the centre. 
Of all the climbing plants which adorn the greenhouse and stove, there are not 
many which surpass the elegant species of Passiflora. It is to be regretted, how- 
