HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
335 
In planting at this season, much of the suc- 
cess depends upon the kind of winter which 
follows ; and it is a very good plan to plant 
one portion on very poor soil, to stand if the 
winter should prove very severe, and another 
on rich soil (these should be the produce of 
the later sowing), to produce fine flowers, in 
case the following winter should prove very 
mild. These plants will flower from the end 
of April to the middle of July, or even longer, 
and should be supplied with manure-water 
once or twice in April and May, particularly if 
planted in rather poor soil. 
The next sowing should be of Ten-weeks 
Stocks, for potting and keeping in cold pits or 
frames during winter, to be afterwards turned 
out into the open borders about the end of 
April ; the seeds of these are best sown on a 
good rich border, about the beginning of Sep- 
tember, in the same manner as those of the 
preceding, and a selection should be made in 
the same manner, rejecting the very strongest 
and tap-rooted plants as much as possible. 
When the plants are sufficiently large, pot 
them in 5-inch pots (48s), putting three or 
four plants into each pot round the side, and 
in very rich compost ; they must be shaded 
for a few days, and afterwards placed in a 
somewhat sheltered situation, so that they may 
remain out of doors as long as possible before 
they are placed in the pit for winter ; other- 
wise, if placed in the pit or frame too early, 
they get drawn, or lose their bottom leaves 
and become unsightly. In spring, as soon as 
they begin to grow, allow plenty of air and 
remove the lights entirely on very fine days, 
watering frequently with manure-water, or 
what is better, placing a portion of rotten dung 
on the surface of the pots. "When the plants 
begin to show for bloom, the single ones can 
at once be pulled out, leaving only those that 
are double ; these plants will flower in April 
and May. 
In sowing in spring for a succession to 
flower from the middle of July until Septem- 
ber, sow the various kinds of Ten -weeks in 
the open border, in very rich soil, about the 
middle of March, and thin out the strongest 
plants at first, and afterwards all the single 
ones as they show bloom (unless you want 
them for seed), and by the end of July you 
may have nothing but a bed of double Stocks; 
by transplanting some of the smaller plants 
about the end of May into very rich soil, you 
may have a later succession of bloom ; and, 
■ finally, if some purple and white Queen Stocks 
are sown at the same time, and treated in n 
similar way, they will commence flowering in 
August, and remain in beauty until they arc- 
destroyed by winter weather. If the winter 
should not prove severe, however, these plants 
will keep on blooming until those sown in July 
take their place, thus producing a constant 
succession all the year round. 
In many cases the most beautiful of all the 
kinds of Stocks, the Bromptons, get killed by 
the severity of the winter ; but this may be 
avoided by taking up the plants before winter 
and potting them, or by planting them in a 
spare Melon pit or cold frame, and afterwards 
replanting them into the open ground in 
spring, but they never flower so well or "row 
so large as when they survive the winter in the 
open border. 
In saving the seed much depends ; for 
Stocks, as well as all highly domesticated 
plants annually reproduced from seed, are very 
subject to degenerate, and it requires a con- 
stant vigilance to preserve or improve the race. 
I shall now endeavour to point out what is the 
best means of obtaining double flowers with 
good colours. In selecting the plants from 
which to save seed, choose always those with 
brightest and clearest colour, broadest petals, 
densest flower-spikes, most numerous side 
branches, and dwarfest habit ; and avoid all 
those plants with few lateral branches, robust 
habit, thinly-set flower-spike, and broken 
colours. Much also depends on the season ; 
for if the summer should prove a very dry and 
warm one, the seeds will be much better as 
regards the production of double flowers ; 
while, on the contrary, if the summer should 
prove to be cold and wet, nearly all the plants 
will be single, and this accounts why the 
German-saved seed is always superior to that 
saved in England. 
It should also be observed that the seed of 
each colour and kind of Stock should be saved 
at as great a distance from the other as pos- 
sible ; otherwise bad colours are the effect. 
The bottom flowers on the spike only should 
be allowed to produce seed, which is easily 
done by pinching the top ones off; and finally, 
the best seed is obtained where large quanti- 
ties are grown, and where the plants are 
allowed to remain where sown, and treated as 
above stated. There are some who suppose, 
because a plant with single flowers be sur- 
rounded by double ones, it must produce seed 
from which nearly all the produce will be 
double ; but I need hardly say that such is not 
the case; for the quantity of double flowers 
has no effect upon the single, hut merely indi- 
cates tltat the breed is a good one. — G. C. 
Catesb.ka sri.vosA. — This very singular 
stove plant is not much seen, though it is an 
object of considerable interest. Miller men- 
tions the plant, but it was figured by Curtis, 
who informs us that there is only one species 
described by authors ; and Mr. Catesby, the 
author of the Natural History of Carolina 
discovered the plant in the island of Vvo\ i- 
dence, where he saw but two, from which he 
