HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
567 
by shaving off a thin piece of the wood "with 
a leaf to it, and opening the bark of the stock, 
which is done by slitting it about an inch 
along to the wood, and making one slight cut 
across, and then lifting it up on both sides, so 
as to tuck the piece with the leaf to it under- 
neath, and adjusting it so that the leaf conies 
to the place where the cross incision is made; 
bind the bark of the stock down to it with a 
piece of worsted or bast matting ; and if the 
weather be hot and dry, put some loose 
damp moss on it, laid very slack, just to keep 
it there a few days, and occasionally damp it. 
The bud will unite and grow, and then all the 
other growth of the stock should be cut away ; 
this is done after Midsummer upon the green 
branches of the stock. Grafting is taking a 
piece of the wood of the variety to be propa- 
gated, and cutting it sloping, or wedge fashion, 
or slitting it like a clothes' peg and making 
the stock to correspond, then splice them, and 
they will unite ; this is done in February or 
March, before there is any growth. 
Tulip. — The Tulip is one of the most 
hardy plants cultivated in the English gardens. 
No frost seems to kill it, yet there is no plant 
the bloom of which is so delicate and so easily 
affected. The common plan of cultivation is 
to dig out the space intended for a bed at 
least two feet deep ; to fill this with fresh 
maiden loam, and so avoid dung ; to plant, in 
November, the tops three inches under the 
surface ; to allow the bed to have all the rain 
and frost until the Tulips spear above the 
surface and begin to open their foliage, and 
then to cover up with hoops and mats, or 
cloth of some kind. When they begin to show 
colour, they should have no more sun, excepting 
early in the morning and late in the evening. 
They should have as much air as possible, 
consistent with this ; therefore, the cloth for 
shading them should never cover them more 
than just enough to keep off the sun. They 
should not be taken up until the stem has 
died down at least half way, and this will be 
promoted by picking off the seed vessels after 
the bloom is gone. They should be carefully 
laid by in the dry, until planting time again. 
All small offsets should be planted a month, 
and, if very small, two months, before the bloom- 
ing roots, as they are apt to dry up and perish. 
Tulip beds always look best when planted in 
duplicate, that is to say, three pair of flowers 
in a row : one and seven alike, two and six 
alike, three and five alike ; and so far as this 
arrangement can be carried out, it should be 
done. Seed of Tulips may be sown as soon as 
it is ripe, or be kept till the spring; but if you 
have glass protection, sow it at planting time, 
in pots in a frame. If you have not glass 
protection, sow in April, and put a little litter 
of some kind to keep off the worst frosts. 
These will keep growing till the foliage goes 
off brown or yellow, when the small bulbs 
should be carefully taken up, and be planted 
again in October, or even before. The 
lings must be planted the same as established 
flowers, until they bloom, when every one 
with a foul bottom, a pointed, or thin, or 
narrow petals, so that they would gape when 
fully opened, should be thrown away and the 
others saved. From the time seedlings first 
come up until they bloom, each bulb, with its 
own offsets, should be kept separate, so that, 
when they bloom, the offsets of the worthless 
ones should be thrown away at the same time; 
for if offsets are allowed to mix, you never get 
rid of the bad ones. When any one of the 
many that will accumulate from one bulb 
breaks, if you find it break badly, throw all 
belonging to it away, for it is not worth while 
to be troubled with even secondary things. 
Verbena. — The very best of the old kind 
of Verbena was good for its use as a plant. 
We allude to the Verbena Melindres, the 
brilliant scarlet creeping thing, which covered 
a large space in an incredibly short time, and 
which was, without exception, the best plant 
for bedding out in fancy gardens or clumps. 
Nor did this require any particular culture. 
If the ground was well drained, the Verbena 
required but putting out at six inches or a 
foot apart, and the branches to be directed the 
way they should go, to fill the space allotted to 
them. The present race of Verbenas, for the 
most part, lose the creeping property, and 
require growing on a trellis, or they assume a 
shrubby appearance, and, although pretty, do 
not aid us in a flower garden the way that Me- 
lindres does; they are, in fact, becoming a differ- 
ent race of flowers; and yet, if we had some of 
the various colours of the dwarf or creeping 
habit, they would be invaluable. There is 
nothing very particular required in the culture 
of the Verbena. It maybe grown and bloomed 
early in a small pot; or, by picking off the early 
blooms, and shifting it to a larger sized pot, 
the plant may be increased to almost any size. 
The truth is, the Verbena is not, properly 
speaking, a pot-plant ; it is out of its place 
when anywhere but in borders, beds, and 
clumps, and cut to show in bunches in collec- 
tions. We do not say that pots might not be 
made to look pretty well ; but give us all the 
colours of the Verbena in the borders till the 
frost cuts them off. They thrive in loam and 
dung ; will keep best through the winter in 
loam and peat, instead of loam and dung; and 
they must not be too wet. Cuttings will root 
like weeds if their branches be laid down with 
a stone upon each joint, and every one will 
have roots. They seed freely, and come up 
like anything wild. They should be pricked 
out into the smallest sized pots as soon as they 
