j(JO 
HINTS FOB THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
soil may be loam, leaf-mould and cow-dung, if 
you have the loam clear j bu1 if you have 
rotted turfs, which are l»\ far the best, two- 
thirds thai and one-third cow-dung brings you 
to the same thing, because the Leaf-mould is 
already in the loam. W this mixture appear 
too Btrong and adhesive, temper it with a little 
silver sand. This Si nil' should lie together, 
and when used run through an iron sieve that 
will just about let a hazel-nut through. In 
this soil pol your plants in April, first con- 
vincing yourself there are no wire-worms in 
it. They now require only proper care with 
regard to water, and a strong neat stake in 
each pot, for the purpose of tying up the rising 
stem- ; allow but one stem to each plant ; and, 
as soon as you can well get hold of the buds, 
reduce them to three ; or, if it be a weak 
bloomer, to two. "When these buds have swelled 
full, and In lore they burst, tie a ligature round 
each pod halfway down, and as soon as the 
calyx parts, and you get hold of the ends, tear 
down the divisions of the calyx as low as the 
tie. that there may be no resistance to the 
opening petals. As the petals develop them- 
selves, gently bring the guard petals down to 
their places, to form a dish, as it Avere, for the 
other petals ; bring down the next largest 
over the place where the outer ones join, and 
continue doing this with the remaining row. 
In any blooms you are to show, remove all defi- 
cient or run petals ; for, if you leave them until 
the show-day, they may be overlooked. The 
grass of the plant should be layered when the 
best of the bloom is over ; they will root quite 
soon enough. In September the layers may 
be cut off and potted in the loam formed of 
rotted turfs, with no dung : let the pots be 
forty-eights, and the plants two in a pot. 
All through the winter they must be kept 
very dry ; the floor upon which the pots 
stand must be dry and hard ; stone, slate, or 
tile flooring is the best, laid sloping a trifle, 
that the water which passes through the pots 
may run away instead of soaking in. Let a 
common frame and light be over them, and give 
all the air they can have in mild dry weather. 
In short, winter them any way you please, so 
that they are free from damp, but one-half the 
Carnations that become spotted in the foliage 
and mildewed, get it through the damp which 
arises from the ground, or ashes, or other ma- 
terial in which they stand. They would be infi- 
nitely better on a dry shelf in the open air, than 
in some of the pits and frames that we have 
seen shut up, with six inches of ashes that are 
not dry the whole winter through. In case any 
of the grass is too short to be layered, they 
may be piped like pinks, and there are some 
who think they make better plants than layers. 
This is a mere fallacy. 
Chrysanthemum. — A flower which, in its 
present state, is very deficient in all qualities 
requisite for perfection; no scent, but a dis- 
agreeable one; no form in one of a hundred; 
and for the most part disagreeably lanky in 
their growth, and naked on their under 
or lower sides. This has to be compensated 
for by their bloom, which comes when nothing 
else can be got in bloom, or at most very little 
else. The cultivator has to counteract as 
much of the evil as he can by the mode of 
treating them. When they have advanced in 
growth considerably, and got lanky before 
they show their bloom, the top three joints 
must be taken off, and, with the aid of bottom 
heat, under a hand-glass, shaded from the sun, 
these tops may be struck rather rapidly. When 
potted out, they may be stood upon some hard 
floor out of doors, where the worms cannot 
get through into the pots, and there left to 
grow themselves up to the blooming point ; 
they will be found very dwarf, and may be 
shifted from their first to their second pots, 
and removed under a frame, or into the green- 
house, to perfect their flowers. The old roots, 
or rather old stools, may be turned out into 
the open ground to grow stock for propagation, 
or perfect their flowers as garden or border 
ornaments. The depriving them of their 
tops makes them push side shoots, which 
bloom in a late season, or which may be again 
taken off and struck. After blooming, the 
plants may be cut down completely, and when 
they shoot from the bottom, the plants may be 
parted, to go through the same operation the 
next year. The best soil for the Chrysan- 
themum is turfy loam and peat, and if there 
be not the entire turf rotted into the loam, 
add leaf-mould. 
Cineraria. — The culture of this now 
favourite flower has become fashionable, 
chiefly because it is approaching that style of 
flower which has been laid down as the perfec- 
tion. Those who remember Waterhousiana, 
and some other of the early, large blooming va- 
rieties, will probably remember joining in the 
hopelessness with which almost every florist 
contemplated any approach to the circle, yet 
how nearly is it approaching the standard ! 
The seed of this plant, like many others of the 
syngenecious tribe, has a woolly or downy wing, 
by which it may be transferred from one place 
to the other, and, were it a hardy plant, it would 
be as troublesome a weed as the common 
groundsel. This seed should be rubbed in a 
little dry sifted soil or sand, to separate it 
well, and then be sown thinly in boxes, pots, 
or seed-pans, in the month of April or May, 
using light soil, composed of turfy loam and 
peat in equal quantities, rubbed through a 
coarse sieve. These pans or boxes should be 
kept in a frame, and occasionally watered, to 
prevent them from drying up, and when the 
