HAMILTON ON THE PINE, VINE, AND CUCUMBER. 
43 
thought desirable to push the growth of the 
plants so rapidly, they may be set out of 
doors about the end of July, into a place where 
they will be sheltered from strong winds, and 
exposed to the sun ; the pots being plunged 
in moss, sawdust, or ashes, or otherwise pro- 
tected from the drying influences of the sun 
and air. Throughout the growing season they 
require to be regularly supplied with water, 
but not over watered ; in the winter, on the 
other hand, they must be kept somewhat dry, 
but not excessively so, or their leaves will fall 
off. In winter they may always be kept in a 
cool greenhouse, in which just warmth enough 
to exclude frosts is maintained. Older bloom- 
ing plants, after they have done flowering, 
must have all the old flower-stalks removed, 
except where seed is required, and then they 
must be repotted and set to grow, and treated 
in the same manner as the other plants. 
The Indian Azaleas are excellent plants for 
accelerating into early bloom for the decoration 
of the conservatory dui'ing the early spring. 
For this purpose, early and well-ripened wood 
must be secured ; this must be effected by 
exciting the plants into growth early in the 
spring previous, so that their growth may be 
completed by the middle or end of August, 
when they are to be exposed to a sunny situa- 
tion out-doors to ripen their wood. Early in 
the autumn they must be set in the green- 
house, before they are at all injured by 
frost. By the beginning of November some 
of the plants which have their flower-buds in 
a forward state, may be removed to a warm 
and light part of a stove or flower forcing- 
house, where they will be subjected to a tem- 
perature varying between sixty and seventy 
degrees by day, and eight or ten degrees 
lower by night ; if they can be accommodated 
with from seventy- five to eighty degrees of 
bottom heat, so much the better. A week or 
two before these plants are ready to expand 
their blossoms, others should be introduced ; 
in doing which those plants should be selected 
which, from the enlargement of their buds, 
are evidently in a state susceptible of excite- 
ment. It is a good plan, where the early 
blooming of these plants is an object, to raise 
a stock of some of the most distinct colours, 
and grow them for this purpose, reserving the 
finer specimen plants for blooming at the 
natural season. 
The Azalea may be propagated by cuttings 
of the young shoots, taken off when they are 
about two inches long and scarcely half 
ripened ; they must be planted in sand, and 
placed in the influence of a gentle bottom heat. 
They may also be rooted from layers, but 
these do not form such handsome plants. The 
finer and more delicate varieties flourish best 
when grafted or inarched on stocks of the 
stronger and freer-growing kinds, or even on 
healthy, kindly-growing stocks of the common 
Rhododendron. 
The Azaleas ripen their seeds early in 
spring — that is, in February or March, about 
which period they should be sown. Being 
very minute, they require somewhat careful 
management to ensure success. The pots 
must be half filled with materials for drainage, 
and the peat earth employed must be mixed 
with at least a third part silver sand ; with 
this the pots are to be filled to within half an 
inch of the top, the soil being pressed down 
evenly and firmly. The seed is then to be 
sown very thinly, and just covered by a dust- 
ing of very sandy peat, or even pure sand, 
forming as thin a coating as will suffice to just 
cover the seeds. The pots are to be set on a 
shelf in the greenhouse, and are to be thus 
shaded until the seeds begin to germinate : — lay 
a piece of glass over the top of the pot, and on 
this glass a layer of moss kept constantly damp. 
When the plants begin to spring up, the moss 
may be reduced in quantity, and shortly dis- 
pensed with altogether, and the glass likewise 
in a short time afterwards. The seedlings are 
to be pricked out into other pots, in sandy 
peat soil, as soon as they can be conveniently 
handled ; and subsequently are to be potted 
separately into small pots, and treated as other 
young plants. 
HORTICULTURAL LITERATURE. 
Hamilton on the Pine, Vine, and Cu- 
cumber. — Without going to the length of as- 
serting that Mr. Hamilton is without an equal 
among the writers of modern times on particular 
branches of gardening, we may venture to set 
him down among the very few who have given 
us very useful lessons, and shown that they have 
something like original notions. The book is 
valuable on many accounts. In the first place, 
upon the subject of the pine-apple, we have a 
short abstract of all that has been written by 
the principal cultivators of this fruit, or rather 
of the leading points in their various practice, 
as a prelude to that recommended by the 
author — a practice since carried out with the 
greatest success by many gardeners, and 
worthy of attention by every grower for pri- 
vate families; for it is not quite the same with 
gentlemen's gardeners as with the growers for 
sale. The former wants to cut a pine the 
year round comparatively, while the latter has 
to drive them in at the season when they 
bring the most money at market. Mr. Hamil- 
ton's culture brings a sucker to fruit earlier 
and better than by any of the ordinary me- 
thods, and we have seen the system work well 
in several private gardens. By his method, 
the sucker is not taken from the plant at all, 
