542 
ACCLIMATIZING. 
habit, brandling repe:itedly in a forked 
manner, whicii givs^s rather a singular ap- 
pearance to tlie arrangeaif;nt of tlie young 
-branches, most particularly observable on 
young or moderate-sized plants. The leaves 
are opposite, of a neat oval or elliptic figure, 
and quite flat ; they have, moreover, a rich 
aromatic odour. The flowers, which are 
scentless, grow near the end of the shoots, jn 
smallish dense clusters, and consist of a cup- 
shaped green wavy disk, surrounded by a 
ring of long crimson stamens, the thread-like 
filaments of which form the conspicuous 
portion of the flowers of this group of plants. 
These flowers are produced freely in June, at 
which season the plant is very ornamental ; 
its neat evergreen ibliage rendering it at 
other times cheerful and pleasing. 
It was introduced from New Zealand to 
the garden of the Horticultural Society, by 
J. C. Bidwill, Esq., in 1845, under the name 
of 3Iijrius robusta, under which appellation 
it is now sometimes met with in other gardens. 
It is a desirable shrub for a conservatory 
or for pot-cultivation in a greenhouse where 
there is space for vigorous growing speci- 
mens. The soil in which it should be placed 
is a mixture of equal parts sandy loam and 
peat earth, rendered porous, if need be, by 
the addition of silver sand. The pots should 
be well drained, and of tolerable size ; or, in 
other words, the plants should not be too 
much cramped for pot room, at least until 
they have grown enough to form themselves 
into handsome bushes, when a more restric- 
tive treatment may keep them for a longer 
period within bounds, and also induce a 
more general production of blossoms. It 
does not at any time require a high tempera- 
ture, that of a greenhouse being quite suffi- 
cient for it. Like other similar subjects, it 
must be propagated by cuttings of the partially 
matured young shoots, planted in sand, and 
placed under bell-glasses in a situation where 
there is a slight degree of bottom heat af- 
forded them. The early spring season is the 
most generally suitable for this operation. 
When the cuttings are rooted, they should be 
potted singly into small pots of the same kind 
of soil already recommended, made rather 
more sandy than usual ; the pols must be 
well drained. They should at first be placed 
in a close frame where there is a very slight 
degree of heat to start them afresh into growth, 
after which they should be gradually exposed 
to bear the atmospheric conditions of an 
ordinary greenhouse, and may take the 
ordinary treatment of young hardwooded 
greenhouse plants. Being in small pots, they 
should be kept well supplied with water ; and 
should be transferred from time to time into 
larger pots, as their roots become numerous. 
From the first, too, the young shoots should 
be frequently topped to produce a dwarf 
bushy habit. 
ACCLIMATIZING. 
So much unmeaning and speculative v^M■iting 
has been published on acclimatizing, that it is 
almost impossible to command attention to 
anything that touches on the subject. AYe 
have always repudiated the idea of mj||||ing one 
degree difference in the capacity of a plant to 
exist in cold ; and, although Sir Joseph Banks 
has written somewhat plainly on the subject, 
he has made a distinction between the plant 
itself and seedlings bred from the plant. It 
would be ridiculous to question the fact of 
seedlings being more hardy than the parent 
plant ; every day's experience shows us that 
seedlings differ in some degree from, the 
parent. Some flower earlier, sonie later : 
some are more hardy than others ; but the 
capacity of the plant once settled, which it is 
as soon as it exists, nothing could make it 
live through a greater degree of cold than it 
would bear when it was first matured. Sir 
Joseph Banks took a right view of some por- 
tions of this subject. We agree with him 
that — 
" Respectable and useful as every branch 
of the horticultural art certainly is, no one is 
more interesting to the public, or more likely 
to prove advantageous to those who may be 
so fortunate as to succeed in it, than that of 
inurriuj plants, natives of warmer climafes, 
to bear, without covering, ungenial springs, 
chilly summers, and rigorous winters. He 
says, too — " Many attempts have been made 
in this line, and several valuable shrubs 
that used to be kept in our stoves, are 
now to be seen in the open garden ; there 
is, howecer, some reason to believe, that every 
one of these was originally the native of a 
cold climate, though introduced to us through 
the medium of a warm one ; as the gold 
tree, Aucuba japonica, the Moutan, Pteonia 
frutescens, and several others have been in 
our times." 
He says, too, — " In the case of annuals, 
however, it is probable that much has been 
done by our ancestors, and something by tlie 
present generation ; but it must be remem- 
bered, that all that is required in the case of 
an annual, is to enable it to ripen its fruit iu 
a comparatively cold summer, after which, we 
know that the hardest frost has no power to 
injure the seed, though exposed in the open 
air to its severest influence ; but a perennial 
has to encounter with its buds and annual 
shoots frosts that have sometimes been so 
