G8 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
off when nicely rooted into three-inch pots. Then by the 
middle of March they are strong enough to be shifted into 
pots one size larger. We stop them about three times during 
the period between their being potted off singly and their being 
put out in the flower garden, and by the end of May they are 
usually bushy little specimens and begin to flower at once. 
In the autumn a dozen or so are taken up and carefully 
potted and placed in a warm greenhouse, w T here they bloom 
profusely throughout the winter. The best for the flower- 
garden is B. angustifolia , which is of no use for the winter. 
Brilliant , cerise; Belicata , pink; Elegant , scarlet, and Hog arili> 
scarlet, are also good. 
Calceolaria. —The chief fault of the calceolaria is its in¬ 
constancy. It is not uncommon for all the calceolarias in the 
country to perish about the middle of July, leaving the par¬ 
terres they should have adorned with masses of golden flowers, 
abominably ugly with their withered stumps, or, at the best, 
obnoxious blanks. In the experimental garden at Stoke 
Newington the cultivation of this plant has received consider¬ 
able attention, and it is believed that every difficulty expe¬ 
rienced by amateurs may be overcome by the adoption of the 
system of cultivation which will now be recommended. The 
only varieties suitable for bedding are those of decidedly 
shrubby habit, which produce comparatively small flowers. 
Those that have somewhat soft stems, and large leaves and 
large flowers, partake too much of the characters of the 
herbaceous section to be fit for battling with the vicissitudes 
of outdoor life, and, moreover, they always produce their 
flowers in a series of efforts, and not continuously. The 
proper time to propagate them is from the middle of Septem¬ 
ber to the middle of November, when they do not require 
heat; but they may be very quickly multiplied by cuttings in 
a gentle heat in spring; and if the summer is favourable to 
calceolarias, spring-struck plants do well, though they do not 
begin to flower so early as those struck in autumn. There 
can be no better method of procedure than to make up a bed 
of light soil, consisting of such materials as leaf-mould, sweep¬ 
ings of a manure heap, half-decayed moss, and the sandy stuff 
thrown out of pots in the potting-slieds. The bed should be 
in a frame or pit, within a foot of the glass, or on the border 
of a cool vinery or peach-house, as near the glass as possible. 
Prepare the cuttings from soft side-shoots, and plant them. 
