March 13, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
215 
summer into borders, where the plants grow into good-sized 
bushes and flower. A few plants are well worth lifting in 
autumn to be grown in pots ; I hope to have some next winter 
IT bloom. The tine old double orange and crimson-black 
Wallflowers I have not seen for several years. I should be 
very pleased indeed to hear o: them again. 
The East Lothian Stock. — This is another common 
flower well worthy a place in a greenhouse during the winter 
months. The month of March is quite early enough to sow for 
this pui pose, and the plants should be grown in pots from the 
nrst, those 8 inches in diameter being large enough to flower 
them in. . Plants grown in borders do not lift well. There are 
six varieties grown, those most suitable for pots being the white, 
purple, and a true crimson variety raised a few years ago 
Some gardeners like the Wallflower-leaved forms. The variety 
sold as scarlet ’ is hardly worth growing, the colour bein°’ an 
undecided shade of rosy lilac.—X. 
P.ROPAGATING MISTLETOE. 
Several correspindents have written for information as to Ihe 
methods of propagating Mistletoe, and in compliance with their requests 
we republish the following notes upon the subject which appeared in the 
Journal some years since :— 
The two principal modes by which Mistletoe is increased are by grafting 
and seeds. The middle of May is the best time to graft the Mistletoe, and 
from then to midsummer. The best grafts are three-year-old shoots of the 
Apple tree, with a seedling Mistletoe on it already from the sowing of a 
thrush or blackbird, and the best way to graft it is to cut off all the leaves 
of the Apple-tree graft, and to leave at least four eyes, or buds, before 
the Mistletoe seedling, and only as much wood behind it as will be suffi¬ 
cient to make the union with the stock and no more ; to have it done 
5 feet high from the ground, to clay the graft in the usual way, to moss 
the clay, and to keep the moss damp, and to have the Mistletoe seedling 
just resting or nestling in tbe top of the ball of moss. Another most 
particular thing is to have one or more shoots left on the stock and above 
where it is grafted, and to let that shoot have all its leaves on. If the 
weather is very cold, or very hot, or windy, put a brown paper cape over 
the ball and Mistletoe, and nineteen out of a score of them ought to grow. 
Grafting pieces of Mistletoe is like budding exactly, but make a 
longer and wider slit in the bark, and make the Mistletoe stem in a flat 
wedge-shape on one side, and put in the flat side next the wood of the 
stock, as in budding. Tie clay and moss, and cape with brown paper. 
To bud Mistletoe is merely to take a less piece than the graft, only 
one joint of Mistletoe, “having a bud and one leaf at the end,” but clay 
it and moss it, and paper-cape it as if it were a graft. 
Now, in respect to sowing Mistletoe seeds in a slit made in the bark 
of the plant, or merely on the surface of the bark without the slit. Both 
ways are equally good, for it is not where the seed is placed that the 
Mistletoe seedling plant takes hold. A much more curious thing occurs 
at the germination of the seed of a Mistletoe. Sometimes there is only 
one germ in the Mistletoe seed ; in others there are two, three, four, or 
more germs, and each germ throws up a sucker on the end of a short 
stalk. The sucker then lays hold of the bark of the tree, and holds on 
to it for six or eight, or more months, according to the time of the year ; 
but it is from this sucker that roots penetrate the bark, and not from 
where the germination of the seed took place lower down. When there 
are more embryos than one in the one seed, there are as many seedlings 
from one seed as there are germs ; for each germ, or embryo, has its own 
branch and sucker, and each sucker takes an independent hold for itself, 
and on the place it holds to a seedling plant is established. I have seen 
three good plants thus from one seed, and each of them was haif an inch 
in advance of the seed itself. 
The seed of Mistletoe will vegetate on the bare handle of a Louse 
broom quite as readily as on the bark of an Apple-tree branch. If 
fastened with a bit of putty on a deal board, moss, and moisten it early 
in the summer, it will also vegetate on the board or on a bar of iron ; 
then it dies, for the suckers at the end of the roots find not a proper place 
to fasten to. 
The first indication of germination is the appearance of one or more 
radicles, like the sucker of a house fly, but larger ; as at H I, which are 
front views, and at K L in the same figure, which are side views, taken 
from Mistletoe berries which were stuck on the upright trunk of a Cherry 
tree in March, and germinated there, as they appeared on the 20th May 
of the same year. When the white, viscous, pulpy matter of the Mistletoe 
berry is removed, the kernel or seed appears of a greenish colour, and 
flat ; sometimes oval, or other times triangular, and at other times of 
various forms. A Is the male blossom magnified ; B, the female blossom 
magnified ; i>, a berry cut through transversely ; E, a seed divided ver¬ 
tically, showing the two embryos ; G, the embryo magnified ; H, the two 
embryos, with the two radicles germinating ; I, a single radicle ; K, a 
side view, or section, of the two radicles ; and L, a side view, or section, 
of the single radicle. 
It is remarked by Du Hamel, that when the form of the seed is oval, 
generally one radicle only is protruded ; but when it is triangular or 
irregular, two, three, or more appear. It is singular that, while the 
radicle of almost all other plants descends, this is not the case with the 
Mistletoe ; the young root of which at first rises up, and then bends over 
till it reaches the body of the substance to which the seed has been 
attached, as at K and L. Having reached that substance, the point of 
the radicle swells out like the extremity of the sucker of a house fly, or 
according to the comparison of Du Hamel, like the mouth-piece of a 
hunting-horn. 
GARDENS ABOUT BRISTOL. 
HENBURY HILL. 
The garden connected with residence of E. A. George, Esq., has 
long been noted for the excellence of its various productions, Orchids in 
particular being at one time extensively grown; but the fine collection 
formed was a few years since broken up, and the houses are now filled 
with a miscellaneous collection of plants. The houses and kitchen 
garden, beyond which are the pleasure grounds and residence, are dis¬ 
posed near the brow of a rather abrupt southern declivity ; and although 
the peculiar nature of the ground necessitates a rather peculiar arrange¬ 
ment of houses, the position would appear to favour good plant and fruit 
culture. Grapes, notably Black Hamburgh and Golden Champion, have 
long been well grown there. Both are grown on the extension system, 
and the latter confined to an inside border, and not hard-pruned, invariably 
perfects a heavy crop of fine bunches and but little spotted berries. The 
crop of Black Hamburgh was heavy and well finished, and other kinds of 
fruits are successfully cultivated. 
The stove plants are principally such as are seen in the majority of 
good gardens in the neighbourhood, but the collection of Ferns includes 
one of the best specimens of Adiantum farleyense in the country. It is 
about 5 feet in diameter, is perfectly symmetrical, and the innumerable 
fronds are exceptionally large and healthy-looking. It is potted in good 
loamy soil, and when the roots fully occupy this liquid manure is occa¬ 
sionally given. Of the flowering plants the most noteworthy was the 
batch of handsome well-grown Bouvardias. They were planted out in a 
sunny sheltered position during the summer and early autumn months ; 
and, being planted in fine soil in which leaf soil and sand abounded, they 
lifted readily with roots, a serious check thus being avoided. Such a 
batch of plants, placed during the winter months in an intermediate 
temperature, must prove of the greatest service, especially for furnishing 
cut blooms. A conservatory adjoins the residence, and this and the 
pleasure grounds were in perfect order. 
Mr. Smith, the experienced gardener in charge, was the introducer of 
the extremely beautiful Lavatera arborea variegata, of which a good 
illustration was given in the Journal of Horticulture, Juue 7th, 1881. 
Mr. Smith does not consider it perfectly hardy ; in fact it is best to lift 
a part or the whole of the stock of plants in the autumn and use them 
for the decoration of the conservatory and greenhouses during the winter. 
The seed of it, in common with other Mallows, germinates freely, and 
the variegation becomes more pronounced as the plants gain strength. 
The value of tuberous-rooted Begonias for summer bedding purposes has 
long been recognised by Mr. Smith, and he has succeeded in perfecting 
a strain superior, probably, to any in the hands of any other private 
grower. At any rate, I have not before seen such beautiful beds of 
Begonias in any private garden. The plants are very sturdy and even 
in growth, and were crowded with large well-formed flowers, at a time, 
too, when Zonal Pelargoniums were looking very shabby indeed. One 
bed was thinly filled with the Begonias, a groundwork being f rmed with 
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium variegatum, and this lovely mixture is to 
be commended both for effect and also for economy when Begonias may 
be scarce. It must be remembered that a poor dry soil, such as Zonal 
Pelargoniums will frequently succeed in, will not grow Begonias satisfac¬ 
torily. They require a well-worked soil to which leaf soil or decomposed 
manure has been freely added. At Henbury Hill there is a remarkable 
collection of hardy Ferns as well as alpine plants, and these are most 
