»58 
HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
jed in a plain, Bimple, clear, and satisfactory 
manner. It is only accessary to add, that the 
volume is beautifully got up, the illustrations, 
which are exceedingly numerous and interest- 
in.:, me admirably engraved and printed, and 
thai the work must take its place among the 
most useful and inviting of those which are 
destined to win converts to the advantages of 
scientific research. 
HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF TOPULAR 
FLOWERS. 
The A.UBICULA has been subject to the 
most gross ill usage : there is hardly a nasty 
thing that lias not been recommended by one 
empyric or another, from the old florists down 
to the modern scribblers. The cultivation of 
the plant is, nevertheless, to be managed as 
easily as any other plant in request among 
florists, and with compost as inoffensive. Many 
fine collections have been successfully grown 
in good health and fine colour by means of the 
loam of rotted turfs, cow-dung rotted into 
mould, and silver sand, or with a proportion of 
turfy peat. They should be repotted about 
August, the drainage should occupy a third of 
the pot, and six-inch pots are large enough 
to bloom very strong plants in. All the winter 
months they should be kept in frames, very 
dry at the bottom, the plants near the glass ; 
they should have very little water and plenty 
of air. About February, or early in March, 
the top surface of the soil should be disturbed 
a little, and fresh soil added, which is called 
top-dressing ; this may be decomposed cow- 
dung and leaf-mould, in equal quantities, and 
silver sand enough to make the water go 
through it well ; they may be watered more 
freely, have all the air they can in mild weather 
and warm showers, but no frost nor cold wind. 
As the blooms rise and begin to develop them- 
selves, some of the smallest and least perfect 
pips may be removed, so that the number re- 
quired for show be left ; and as the blooms 
come out, they should be separated a little 
from each other by bits of cotton lint, or very 
soft moss, that they may all have room to open 
well, and in their places : they may also be re- 
moved to a sheltered place, and put under hand- 
glasses propped up by puts rather less than 
those the plants are growing in, so that the 
hand-glasses may be lower than the rims of 
the pots. After the flowering is over, they 
may be placed where they will receive the 
rains occasionally, but where they can be pro- 
tected from excessive wet.' If the seed be not 
wanted, it should be prevented from growing 
by picking off the decaying flowers with their 
footstalks only, and not by breaking the main 
srem. The offsets may be left on until the 
potting time, when they may be taken off, and 
if rooted, potted one in a pot ; if not rooted, 
placed round the edges of pots and covered 
with hand-plasses for a time, but kept well 
watered. There are some localities in which 
nothing will make the Auricula succeed ; but, 
generally speaking, attention is well rewarded 
by success. Seed may be sown in spring in 
pots and boxes, and be slightly covered and 
placed in a frame. The soil must never be 
allowed to get quite dry, and, as soon as they 
are large enough to take hold of, they may be 
pricked out round the edges of pots an inch 
apart, and left to grow until they are large 
enough to allow them each a three-inch pot. 
These require now the same management as 
the general collection in every respect. All 
the while they are flowering, Auriculas re- 
quire to be shaded from the hot sun, but they 
must not be darkened. 
Azalea indica. — This plant is easily grown 
and managed, even without a green-house, 
though it is much handier to place them in 
one if you have it. All that is required is to 
keep off violent frosts in winter time. They 
will grow and bloom with but little care and 
trouble. When the bloom is off is the most 
critical period, because they ought then to 
make their growth free, and when done they 
should rest, and then bloom will be set. The 
best soil is turfy loam, dung well decomposed, 
and peat earth, in equal quantities. They are 
grown in all kinds of fantastical shapes, on 
trellises, with numerous uprights and all 
manner of contrivances ; but the only proper, 
gardener-like mode of training them is, first, as 
a bush, and secondly, as a standard — if as a 
bush, begin by stopping the leading shoot the 
instant the rooted cutting is potted, and as 
any of the side ones get stronger than the rest, 
so as to throw the plant out of form, they 
must be shortened in a similar way ; in this 
manner keep the plant growing till the shoots 
have apparently made all their growth, they 
may then be placed in the open ground, in 
rather a sheltered situation, there to remain 
until the time to winter them again. A pit, 
without fire or dung heat, will keep them well 
enough, if covered during the hard winter with 
mats. The propagation is simple. Cuttings 
will strike in a cold frame, or even the border, 
though in all cases the use of a little bottom 
heat hastens the striking, which is sometimes 
an object. When they are required early in 
spring, they will bear forcing, but they are 
better in colour, character, and strength, if 
bloomed without. Seedlings may be raised very 
easily in a cold frame, potted out as soon as 
they are large enough to lay hold of, and kept 
in a common garden frame. 
The Calceolaria requires nearly the same 
management as the Cineraria, but is scarcely 
