DATURA ARBOREA ; ITS CULTURE. 
567 
•and with large foliage ; the best way of pro- 
pagating them is by eyes, the same as you 
would propagate a vine. Take the last year's 
wood, — in fact, Avhen the plant has done grow- 
ing and flowering and the leaves fall, the 
branches have to be cut back to some tolerably 
graceful form. When they have once attained 
a good.size, they should be preserved as if they 
were roses upon a large scale; the branches may 
be pruned to two or three eyes, or even closer 
than that. The whole of the last season's 
growth may be cut into eyes, that is one with 
half an inch of wood to it. These may be 
potted and placed in moderate bottom heat, 
one in a small pot, or more in larger ones, and 
perhaps a good many in a larger pot would 
be more convenient as regards room. These 
must be kept moist, but not wet, and in the 
course of a few weeks they will begin to grow 
and strike root. They need not be forced 
along too much during the winter, but towards 
the spring they may be potted one in a pot of 
the size forty- eight, and should be set growing 
rather briskly in the stove, and if the tan be 
not too hot, they will be better for plunging ; 
they will soon shoot up, and the side buds as 
they appear should be pinched off, except 
always the three or four nearest the top. 
When the stem is as high as you wish for the 
upright of the standard, which should not be 
less than two feet clear of branches, and may 
be as much more as you please, you pinch 
out the top, but you must bear in mind that 
the side buds are to be rubbed off or pinched 
off as high as you mean the trunk to be to the 
lower branches, and if this be two feet, your 
plant will be nearly three feet high, because 
you are always to leave three or four eyes not 
pinched out above those that you have taken 
away, because they are wanted to form the 
head ; when the top is pinched out the three 
or four side or lateral shoots not pinched out 
will grow fast ; we ought, however, to have 
observed, that from the time they are first 
potted you must keep continually shifting to 
larger pots as fast as the roots reach the sides 
of the one they are in, and the shifts should 
be all larger than one size, for instance, from 
forty-eights you miss thirty-twos and use 
twenty-fours — from twenty-fours to sixteens, 
then to eights, and lastly, to what are variously 
styled by the different potteries, but fifteen to 
eighteen inches across. The progress of the 
plant after the top is taken off is rapid, if the heat 
be genial, and as the season is advancing they 
become more robust. When the lateral shoots 
are three inches long, you may pinch out the 
ends of these in the same way as you did the 
top of the plant ; and now they will each 
throw out other branches, enough to form a 
head; these are to be kept growing until the 
plant flowers, merely taking away any of the 
shoots that are in the way of other shoots, or 
grow in cross ways, or spoil the shape of the 
head. They are not to be stopped any more., 
but be allowed to grow in the stove until they 
are on the eve of blooming, when they may 
be first removed to the coolest place, and then 
into the conservatory, where they will perfect 
their flowers, filling the place with their 
fragrance, which is very powerful, and con- 
tinue to grow and bloom for a long time. The 
other varieties, with their red, orange, and 
yellow flowers, are not of such rapid growth, 
quite, but they require the same treatment. 
They grow best in loam, peat and cow-dung, 
or for want of the latter, the dung from an old 
melon bed, two parts of the first and half a 
part of the two latter ; but this is supposing 
the loam to be what every florist ought to get 
at any cost, the turf from a loamy pasture, 
laid by till it is rotted, the loam is then so 
enriched with vegetable earth that it will grow 
any thing, — but succulents will grow better, as 
well as any thing else, for a little peat earth 
and cow-dung ; should the mixture appear 
too adhesive, which is not very likely, a little 
silver sand will correct it. If the plants are 
designed for the lawn, the most protected 
place must be selected, for the wind is a great 
enemy, the foliage being very large, holds it a 
good deal, and is far easier broken than that of a 
dahlia. Standards are the best any where, 
but it is a common thing to grow the plants 
for out of doors, as you would a dahlia ; let it 
take its own course ; do not pinch out the 
eyes, but let the side branches grow as well as 
the top ones. They should not be planted out 
till the end of June, and they will require 
stakes to support them. The first year the 
plants are sometimes too tender to flourish 
well ; if the winds or the nights be cold they 
appear to receive a check which spoils their 
growth, and they are best, perhaps, continued 
in the house until you observe the bloom buds 
coming small at the base of all the leaves ; 
then they may be hardened off a little in the 
greenhouse, and next planted out in the most 
sheltered of the spots intended to be planted 
with flowers. They may be shifted into a 
larger pot, and plunged in the ground, or put 
out in the open ground without a pot, as the 
cultivator may please. The only thing is, that 
if they are required to be potted up again to 
be kept over the winter, there is less trouble 
when they are plunged in their pots than when 
they have been allowed to ramble without 
bounds. At the end of the season, and pre- 
vious to the frost coming, they should be taken 
up and housed. If there are many they may 
be removed with their balls of earth and 
packed up close together on the ground, allow- 
ing no more water, and when all the leaves 
have fallen they may be cut back, root pruned. 
