Although the Lactuca soncliifolia has been 
known for some years to English botanists, it 
seems to owe its more general distribution to Her 
Grace the Marchioness of Hastings, who ranks 
with the most active of Flora’s noble patronesses. 
Her Ladyship has obligingly informed us, that 
being attracted by the peculiar colour of the flow- 
eis as they blossomed in the Tyrol, she collected 
seeds, and brought them to England. They grew, 
says her Ladyship, in rocky coarse soil, on the 
banks of the river Inn, near Inspruck. 
This plant proves completely hardy, and by 
being left undisturbed to become strong, produces, 
as we have stated, an abundance of flowers. Its 
roots may be divided in spring, when increase is 
desired ; or it may be raised from seeds, which it 
ripens in dry weather, although with us not abun- 
dantly. These should be kept till spring, when 
they may be sowed in a pot, and be forwarded by 
being planted in a hotbed. Some care is required 
with these, as with most other seedling plants so 
raised, in preparing them for full exposure to the 
open air. Thousands of plants are annually des- 
troyed by their sudden transition from the warm 
moist atmosphere of a hotbed, to the dry cold winds 
that not unfrequently occur in spring. Sudden 
changes are not less uncongenial to vegetable than 
animal life. When plants of any sort, but more 
particularly seedlings, are to be transferred from 
the hotbed to the borders, it should be effected by 
degrees, by first removing them into a cold frame, 
and here gradually, through the space of a week at 
least, inuring them to full exposure. 
