278 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
obtained from crossing the Rhododendron 
with the Azelias ; while it is highly proba¬ 
ble that the range of exceptions will con¬ 
tinue to widen with observation and experi¬ 
ment. 
Varieties of the same species readily cross 
with each other; hence the great variety 
observed in our cultivated peas, beans, corn, 
oats, &c. In these cases, there is a consti¬ 
tutional similarity of organization 'which 
favors sexual intermixture ; but in different 
species, there doubtless exists a molecular 
arrangement peculiar to each, which may or 
may not favor hybridization ; of the existence 
of which, however, we have no infallible ex¬ 
terior index whereby these peculiarities can 
be determined. 
PYRAMIDAL FUCHSIAS. 
As decidedly the best collection of Fuch¬ 
sias shown at Sydenham on Saturday last 
consisted wholly of plants of this shape, I give 
you my plan of growing them, and 1 hope 
that Mr. Boussie, the exhibitor of the group 
in question, will favor your readers with his 
mode of cultivation next week. I put a few 
old plants in a warm pit or vinery, where the 
temperature ranges about 55°, about the end 
of January or beginning of February, in 
order that they may have pushed out plenty 
of young wood by the middle of March. I 
then take off what cuttings I can get from 
each sort, preferring the shortest jointed 
wood. First prepare as many four-inch 
pots as you may require, taking care that 
they are well drained, and the compost of a 
sharp open nature—coarse river sand inter¬ 
mixed with leaf-mold will be found to 
answer very well, with about one inch of 
silver sand on the top to induce the cuttings 
to root freely. Water gently with .a fine 
rosed pot, then plunge the pots in a "propa¬ 
gating pit, where there is a gentle moist bot¬ 
tom-heat, where in the course of three weeks 
they will have made roots enough to stand 
potting off. You may ppt off singly into 
three-inch pots in a light open sifted compost 
of rich loam, leaf-soil, and sand, equal parts, 
and it you have any bottom-heat to spare 
they will be the better to be plunged in it for 
a day or two, to give the young roots a start. 
They may now be removed to a warm pit or 
vinery, or whatever you find most conven¬ 
ient, where the atmosphere is kept moist, 
which will insure a strong, healthy and vig¬ 
orous growth. When you find the pots full 
of roots repot them into six-inch pots, using 
for this shift a good rich compost of turfy 
loam two parts, one of old rotton cow-drop¬ 
pings, leaf soil and sand. As this will be 
their last shift this season, care must be 
taken to provide good drainage ; this can be 
secured by putting in plenty of potsherds, 
with two or three bits of open turf or moss 
over all. As the plants will now be pushed 
strongly, they must be tied to a neat stake, 
as they will be sending out laterals or side 
shoots. As the making of these side 
branches secures the formation of the plant, 
a little weak sheep dung liquid manure will 
be found very beneficial at this period of 
their growth. As the first tier of laterals 
lias made their first joint, pinch it at that ; 
this will not only enable you to have two 
shoots from each lateral, but will cause the 
leader to push away, and furnish you with 
plenty of side wood. The four first tiers of 
laterals will be enough to pinch this season, 
the rest may be allowed to grow on. They 
will be forming nice little plants now, so 
they may as well be taken to the greenhouse 
or conservatory, where, with a gay profusion 
of flowers, they will assist in keeping the 
house “ dressy ” for a short time. By the 
middle of November water should be with¬ 
held gradually, in order to ripen the wood, 
and they may be placed in a dry cold pit, or 
any out-of-the-way place, such as under the 
greenhouse stage for instance, where they 
must remain all winter, as they will require 
no more attention till the end of February, 
when a little water may be applied sparingly 
to induce them to start; the knife must now 
be applied to cut back the side shoots that 
were pinched last year, to the second joint 
on the wood they made after they were 
pinched, and a couple of tiers of single 
shoots to the second joint, the rest to the 
first, and the leader to within four inches ; 
thus you will have a pyramidal basis to tvork 
on. Place them now in a warm vinery, and 
they will soon show indications of rapid 
growth. After they are fairly started turn 
them out of their pots, and shake off all 
loose soil, and examine the roots; repot 
them now in ten-inch pots, using strong fibery 
loam of a rich texture, old cow dung, leaf 
soil and sand, equal parts, well mixed. As 
stated for last season, attend well to drain¬ 
age, as they will require no more pot room 
this season ; replace them again in heat, and 
pinch in according to the directions laid down 
for last season, always aiming at having the 
plant broad and full at the pot, and tapering 
to the top. Pinching, should, however, be 
stopped after the first of June, for by the 
middle of the month they should get a prom¬ 
inent place in the conservatory, where, by 
July, they will be the objects of greatest ad¬ 
miration in the house ; liquid manure must 
not be omitted upon any account, at least 
three times a week, as this is now the only 
thing the plant will derive its nourishment 
from, and will cause it to bloom right on till 
October, when it will be getting unsightly, 
and may be removed out of doors to make 
room for some other favorite. When cold 
nights set in remove them as before to a 
cold pit, &c. No more attention will be ne¬ 
cessary till spring, when they maybe pruned 
and started according to the time they are 
wanted in bloom. They can be had in bloom 
by putting a few into heat by the beginning 
of January, about the middle of May : oth¬ 
ers, started accordingly, will enable you to 
have them in flower all the summer. Mr. 
Bousie’s plants, to be so fine, were doubtless 
struck in autumn ; mine are chiefly for dis¬ 
play late in summer.—W. F., in Gardener's 
Chronicle. 
SAERACENIA DRUMMONDI. 
Visitors to Chatsworth, in the summer 
and autumn of 1849, were scarcely more 
surprised at the glorious aspect of the Vic¬ 
toria Lily, than at the exquisite beauty of 
this plant, many large specimens of which 
decorated a neighboring stove among rare 
Orchids of the richest hues and the most in¬ 
teresting forms. 
It was, we believe, originally introduced 
by the late Mr. Drummond, who met with it 
in Florida, near the town of Apalachicola. 
It has since been found abundantly, by Dr. 
Chapman, on the western borders of the 
river of the same name, below Ochee- 
see. It, therefore, inhabits the swamps 
of a region which, during summer, expe¬ 
riences a tropical heat, as in some measure 
indicated by the presence of Orchidaceous 
Epiphytes, such as Epidendrutn Magnolia! 
and tampense. 
The pitchers of this plant are from 18 
inches to feet long, perfectly erect and 
straight, with very much the form of a post¬ 
man’s horn. Their color is of the most 
vivid green, except at the upper expanded 
end, where they are brilliantly variegated 
Avith white, red, and green. The rim of the 
orifice of the pitchers is slightly folded back, 
from the front towards the back, where it 
expands into a broad roundish arched cover, 
much undulated and crisped. In the inside 
this cover is clothed with long hairs, which 
partially disappear towards the entrance of 
the pitcher, at which point there is a con¬ 
siderable exudation of sweet viscid matter, 
apparently secreted by the hairs which exist 
there. The flower is of a dingy purple color, 
roundish, about 21 inches in diameter, with 
five blunt acuminate sepals, five obovate in- 
flexed petals, and a pale green diluted five¬ 
angled membraneous stigma, which is nearly 
as long as the flower itself; each angle is di¬ 
vided into two short lobes, beneath which, 
in a fold, lies the real stigmatic surface. 
These flowers have little beauty, and are by 
no means the object of the gardener’s care. 
The so-called pitchers are in reality the 
leaves of this plant, in a very singular con¬ 
dition ; the pitcher itself being the leafstalk, 
and the cover its blade. By what mode of 
development this kind of structure is pro¬ 
duced has never yet been conclusively shown. 
It has been thought that the pitcher is formed 
by the folding together, in its earliest infancy, 
of the two sides of a flat leafstalk, the line 
of which union is indicated by a firm elevat¬ 
ed rib, which proceeds from the base to the 
opening of the pitcher, as if to stiffen and 
sustain it; but this is not certain, and it is 
more probable that the pitcher is the result 
of a hollowing process, coeval with the first 
growth of the pitcher itself, and anologous 
to that which produces the Rose, or the cup 
at the bottom of the calyx of Eschsclioltzia, 
or the cups that appear accidentally upon 
cabbage leaves. 
If the exact nature of the pitcher is thus 
undecided, we are still further from a know¬ 
ledge of the use for which so singular an ap¬ 
paratus is destined. To the common idea, 
that nature intended it to hold water, arise 
these objections : that water is not found in 
the pitcher except after rains or heavy dews, 
and that plants which grow naturally in bogs 
can hardly require any unusual apparatus 
for supplying them with water. Others 
think that the pitcher is a contrivance for 
detaining insects in captivity till they perish 
and decay, the putrefaction of these crea¬ 
tures conducing to the nutrition of the 
plant. But there is no apparent reason why 
the Side-saddle flower should require this 
sort of special nutriment more than its neigh¬ 
bors in the same bogs, which have no pitch¬ 
ers. This, however, is certain, that if the 
pitchers were intended for fly-traps, they 
could hardly have been more ingeniously 
contrived. It is the honey of the mouth 
of the pitcher that tempts the insects to 
their destruction ; and, accordingly, they 
are found in abundance at the bottom. In 
the plant now before us we count, in the 
month of February, about a dozen, two of 
which are wasps ; and Mr. Croom says that 
he found in one of his a large butterfly 
(Papilio Turnus). Reversed hairs keep 
them there without hope of escape. As the 
sides of the pitchers consist of very lax 
cellular tissue, containing large cavities in 
every direction, and as starch grains in 
abundance escape from the sides when 
wounded, it is a question whether this starch, 
converted into sugar by the vital force of the 
pitcher, may not serve to sweeten the water 
in which the imprisoned insects meet a mis¬ 
erable end l 
The manner in which the North American 
Side-saddle flowers are grown at Chatsworth 
is explained in the following memorandum, 
which is applicable to the more common 
species as well as to that which is the imme¬ 
diate object of the present article ; 
“ The stove is decidedly the most suitable 
place for these species making and maturing 
their growth, at which time they require 
much warmth and moisture. A tempera¬ 
ture of from 80° to 100°, with plenty of 
water at the roots, and syringing three times 
a day, from March till September, we have 
found to suit them the best. During their 
