410 
THE CHIMNEY CAMPANULA. 
even then, but it would lose what you have 
been getting for it, great extra strength. It 
is quite as well to put it into the frame with 
the auriculas or carnations as any thing, and 
if 3 r ou have no other means, take it into the 
dwelling-house for the purpose of wintering it. 
As soon as it is getting dry it must be moist- 
rued; for, although it ought not to be very wet, 
it should not be at any time distressed. In 
May it may be taken out of doors, and must 
have all the air, plenty of water, and sun; but 
if the water be neglected, and the fibres get 
dry next the pot, it will get a, check which 
will require the whole season to get over. 
There will be a number of stems rise for bloom 
this time, and as the wind will not fail to break 
them if unsupported, the plant should be 
trained and fastened in some way to secure 
them from damage, and the only way to dis- 
pose of the stems to advantage, is to not let 
one branch touch another. Whether this is 
spread out like a fan, on a flat surface, or like 
the upright sticks in a basket all round the 
pot, is a matter of taste; but, if the branches be 
not so supported, there can be no perfection of 
growth and bloom. As these branches or 
spikes of bloom are growing fast, water with 
liquid manure, composed of a shovelful of 
sheep's dung in ten gallons of water stirred 
up and left to settle, — and give this about every 
fourth watering. The blooms will come fine, 
numerous, and large, and will repay you for 
the labour and trouble and losing one year's 
bloom. These plants may be shifted until 
they would literally fill a peck pot; but as 
soon as the bloom has begun to fade, and the 
plant ceases to be a fine subject, it may be 
once more shifted ; a pot number twelve will 
be large enough. The branches or spikes 
must be cut down close, the ball of earth 
shifted without disturbing the fibres or the 
drainage, merely covering a piece of crock 
over the hole or each hole, and adding a few 
over the bottom ; then put earth enough to 
keep up the surface of the ball of earth even 
with the edge of the pot. But it is as well at 
every shift to rub off a little of the surface, 
towards the side, so that 3'ou do not injure the 
fibres. The pot may stand in the open air 
till it is time to put it in a frame again, when 
it may undergo the winter treatment as before. 
"While, however, the plant is out of doors after 
shifting, it must never be in want of water; 
the larger the plant is the less it ought to be 
checked, and drought is as bad as frost. In 
the spring following, the plant will be at its 
largest and best ; perhaps twenty or thirty 
spikes of bloom may rise at the proper season, 
and this time you must remove all the weaker 
ones; for they would not only take away part 
of the strength from the best spikes, but they 
would also spoil the uniformity of the spikes. 
In the season the plant will make a splendid 
object, and cover an immense space. 
PROPAGATION FROM THE PLANT. 
This, like many other herbaceous plants, 
must be propagated by parting the roots or 
slipping off side shoots. These, if with roots 
to them, may be potted at once into forty-eight 
sized pots; and if with no roots, they must be 
struck under a handglass and potted as soon 
as they are struck. They should be kept in a 
frame the same as half-hardy things, or be 
planted out in sunny beds or borders where 
they are to bloom. As, however, they are 
chiefly grown as ornamental plants in pots, it 
is better to keep them in pots from the first, 
and change them from time to time to larger 
pots, and proceed as directed. 
PROPAGATION FROM SEEDS. 
Although there are many plants said to be 
very constant from seed, it will be always found 
that, however true they may seem, some will 
be more robust than others, some more dwarf 
or tall than others ; so that, when a favourite 
plant is easily propagated from slips or part- 
ing of the root, few, if any, attempt raising 
from seed. Those, however, who are partial 
to new varieties, will do so, and therefore you 
must proceed, first, to save it by planting out 
a strong plant into a rich open border in the 
early part of the spring as soon as danger of frost 
is over, and well attend to the watering of it. 
When the flower-stems rise, cut away all but 
one or two, and fasten them loosely to a stake 
each, that they may not be confined, but may 
be supported against the wind. Continue 
watering all through its growth and bloom, 
and you will have plenty of seed. The lower 
seed^pods must be turning yellow before you 
pick off any, and then you may continue to 
pick them day by day as they turn yellow or 
brown. These may be laid by in the dry 
during the winter, and in May rub out the 
seeds and sow them thinly in boxes, pans, or 
pots, of loam, peat, and decomposed dung, and 
cover very lightly. See that they are kept 
moist, and as soon as they are large enough to 
handle well, they may be pricked out into pots 
four or five in a pot, or into a bed made up on 
purpose, in a sheltered situation. In the 
autumn, when they are pretty strong, you 
may select such as you like for pot-culture, or 
you may for the first year let them stand out, 
throwing a little loose litter over them by way 
of protection in case very severe frost should 
occur. When you see, from their habit of 
growth and flower, which you care to save, 
you may cut down the decaying flower-stem, 
pot them up into twenty-four sized pots, as 
the most convenient for keeping through the 
