SEEDLING CROCUSES. 
189 
least, and they are bound in their places. A 
slight cut is made, sometimes, downwards in 
the stock and upwards in the branch ; these 
tongues, so made, are tucked into each other. 
The branch, having lost half its nourishment 
from the parent plant, by reason of its being 
cut half-way through, naturally seeks to make 
up the deficient quantity from the stock ; and 
the flow of the sap in the stock being inter- 
rupted by the cutting away of its wood at the 
place of union, as naturally gives out its juices 
to the only vessels ready to take them, the 
vessels of the branch inarched. Hence the 
union of the two branches in a few weeks. 
Then comes the separation. The plant from 
which the scion is taken is separated below 
the place of union, and all that was growing 
on the stock beyond the place of union is 
cut off, so that the entire nourishment from 
the root is driven to the branch or scion, 
which, being deprived of its original source 
of nourishment, is ready to take all that comes. 
Sometimes a scion is cut off at first with some 
extra length, and, instead of being able to 
rely on the parent plant for half its nourish- 
ment, is inserted in a vial of water. This 
keeps up a kind of supply for a while, during 
which the union takes place. 
THE NEW FLOWER SUPPORT. 
Mr. Hamilton, the inventor of this very 
simple contrivance for the support of bulbs in 
hyacinth glasses, soon discovered that it was 
as good a support in pots as in water, and has 
now hacL a model upon a much larger scale to 
support flowers in the open air. The above 
represents the support in glasses and in a pot. 
The support consists of three wires in a fixed 
ring to keep them together, and placed about 
one-third of the distance from the bottom, the 
ends of the wires forming three feet to go 
down into the glass or to be thrust into the 
soil. Above this there is a moveable ring to 
slide up and down, according to the height at 
which the plant wants assistance. The same 
principle applied in the open ground to patches 
of sweet peas or any other plant that requires 
stakes or sticks, will be found a neater and 
very superior mode to any other. How far 
it may do for common border flowers where 
a quantity is wanted we hardly know : we 
should think the cost would be too much; but 
for specimen plants in pots there can be no 
doubt of its efficiency, and it would not be so 
costly as some of the unmeaning trellises that 
we have seen used with not only climbing 
but weakly plants, for there are many requiring 
support that are not climbing plants. Many 
thousands have been distributed through the 
country for hyacinths, narcissus, and other 
bulbs, and we can hardly imagine an improve- 
ment, when it is wanted for a support to 
bulbs grown in moss or sand in shallow dishes. 
The three feet are spread out so as to lower 
the ring, which incloses the bulb, and the 
wider they are spread the better they stand, 
without the aid of being thrust into the soil 
of a deeper article. 
SEEDLING CROCUSES, &C. 
At the Knightsbridge Branch of the 
Society for the Encouragement of Floricul- 
ture and Horticulture, Mr. Lockhart, of Par- 
