116 
NATURAL HISTORY OP CANADA. 
are so easily regulated, and the bloom is uni- 
form and permanent, clearing and regulating 
being the only things required after one is 
planted. By cutting out what may be called 
old wood, and leaving young shoots, the plant 
2nay be constantly renewed, as it were, at the 
end of the season, which may be considered 
about September, when the frosts begin, 
though in mild autumns the bloom will con- 
tinue much longer. As soon however as the 
beauty of the plants has gone, let them be 
pulled up, and all the little rooted bits may 
be put into store pots ; the small shoots may 
be put in large pots as cuttings, an inch apart, 
and covered with a glass, the cuttings to be 
prepared as others are, by cutting the bottom 
otFjust below a joint, and cutting off the bottom 
leaves. These pots, if put into a cold frame, 
and preserved from frost and damp, will be 
rooted during the winter, but if any quantity 
be required, or the striking is wanted to be 
hastened, that they may be potted off and 
grown for strength, use gentle bottom heat, 
and the cuttings will root like so many weeds. 
When they ai-e rooted, put them singly in store 
pots, and keep them in the cold frame or in tlie 
greenhouse, or, in fact, any where, so that 
they are protected from frost and damp ; and 
keep them in the store or small pots till 
planting time, or if it be desirable to bring a 
few forward for early blooming, repot thf^m 
in large sixty-sized pots, and place them in 
the greenhouse. Here they will grow and get 
into bloom before planting time, so that as 
soon as we are clear of frostt^, the beds may be 
dressed, and will look gay directly. But the 
verbena occasionally takes a shrubby habit, 
and there are many of the new varieties which 
form pretty greenhouse plants ; these may be i 
treated as such, and are tlie best for the bor- j 
ders, wliich they keep brilliant all the summer, j 
It is the intermediate varieties, those which I 
are neither slirubby nor creeping, thsit are so 
troublesome to manage, and therefore compa- 
ratively valueless ; this renders it necessary 
to see verbenas growing before we select them 
When they are shown in stands, we may judge 
of their forms and their trusses, but we can 
form no idea of their habits; the finest trusses 
may be produced in very small quantities, and 
on very straggling plants, and therefore may 
be not good for much as plants, but even these 
may be desirable for exhibitions. The ver- 
bena will grow in any moderately good soil, 
but for potting, two thirds rich loam, that is 
to say, loam with plenty of vegetable matter 
in it, such as the top short spk of a good 
pasture, and the turf rotted in it, and one third 
turfy peat, makes the best soil for potting, or 
rather for growing them in the second pots. 
There used to be a fashion of training the 
verbena up a sort of trellis in pots, especially 
when the new varieties first came out. and we 
have seen them very gay, but these things look 
too mechanical ; it is, according to our notions, 
an unnatural way of growing plants, something 
like a hundred wooden legs to a geranium, and 
half the number to hold up roses. It is all 
unlike gardening, and m.akes plants look un- 
like nature. When a good verbena is dis- 
covered in the seed-bed, we are naturally 
anxious to pi'opagate it as soon as possible. 
For this purpose it is well to cover the plant 
with a glass ; this has the effect of drawing up 
the plant, and the top should be taken off and 
struck in bottom heat and grown in the pro- 
pagating house, or in the frame where it is 
struck ; the old plant will grow fast and 
throw out side shoots, which may be taken off 
and struck like the first. All these cuttings will 
grow fast, and may soon have their tops taken 
again, and throw out their side shoots, which 
in turn may be taken, and so on, the old plant 
furnishing cuttings, the cuttings in turn 'be- 
coming plants, and, when their tops are taken, 
giving their supply, until, before the season of 
letting out, they are multiplied to hundreds. 
But, there are some who will allow the plant 
to grow in the seed-bed untouched, but pegged 
down as it grows, so that some, that are free 
growers and strikers, will root at every joint, 
and f(n'm so many strong plants ; others let it 
ramble as it likes, until the period for taking 
it up, and then cut it to pieces to strike and 
multiply during the winter ; but it is quite 
clear that the first plan will provide the 
greatest number, and that when we have a 
really good variety, it is much the safest way, 
because it sometimes happens that the seed- 
ling plant from some accident or other dies, 
and the cuttings that are already off, and 
struck, form the only stock, which would have 
been totally lost, but for the early propagation. 
Nobody ought to lose an opportunity of striking 
a cutting of a valuable seedling, because no- 
thing is so vexing as to lose a really good 
variety of anything, for such success as I'aising 
a valuable plant is not frequent, and when 
obtained, every precaution that can be taken 
to prevent its loss- should be adopted directly. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF CANADA.* 
This subject is brought before us in a 
small but neatly got up volume called " The 
Canadian ISTaturalist," in which, by means of 
an imaginary conversation, all the most in- 
teresting subjects are described and explained 
by the father in answ^er to many pertinent 
questions from the son. It need hardly be ob- 
served, that in a small volume the subjects 
treated on must be very limited. They prin- 
cipally comprise curious butterflies, moths, 
* The Canadian Naturalist : a series of Conversa- 
tions on the Natural History of Lower Canada. By 
P. H. Gosse. London : John Van Voorst. 
