September 6, 1883. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
215 
is to enable us to prune back the plant as early as possible after the 
beauty of the flowering season is gone. The seeds being obtained 
as early in the summer as possible may be dried and sown as soon 
as ripe, or they may be preserved in a dry cool place until the 
following March. In both cases they will be better for being sown 
in sandy peat, and then plunged in a sweet hotbed, giving more 
coolness and air as soon as vegetation has taken place. If not sown 
until the following spring steeping the seeds in warm water 
of 130° for twenty-four hours will cause them to vegetate sooner. 
As soon as the plants are a couple of inches in height they must 
be pricked off round the sides of a pot in sandy peat with a trifle of 
leaf mould, and kept close for a little time in a mild hotbed, or if 
in the heat of summer merely a close frame until growth has fairly 
-commenced. 
Cuttings .—These should be the points of young shoots getting a 
little firm in April and May, or, better still, some nice stubby side 
shoots about 2 or 3 inches in length cut clean off close to the stem, 
or so near as not to injure it. Cut a cross at the base with a sharp 
knife, and remove merely the leaves there and one or two above— 
success greatly consisting in retaining as many leaves as possible, 
and then taking care that these leaves should act as absorbers quite 
as much as perspirers by keeping them in a close atmosphere, and 
in as much, but not more light than they can bear with impunity. 
For this purpose the cuttings when made should be inserted in 
white sand over sandy peat well drained ; in fact, in all these 
operations more than three parts should always consist of drainage. 
If the cuttings are placed round a pot inverted in the inside of 
a larger one success will be certain, and less trouble will be 
occasioned for drainage than by any other mode. When settled 
and firmed by watering, and allowed to get dry in the shade, clean 
conical-shaped bellglasses should be fixed in the sand around the 
cuttings, and then the plants should stand in a close frame or pit, 
where the heat will only be a very few degrees higher than what 
the plant enjoyed before the cuttings were removed. If during 
the day the heat from the confined air should become too high, and 
thus have a tendency to spindle the cuttings upwards—a tendency 
always increased by dense shading—it is better instead of thus in¬ 
creasing shade to damp that already in and give a little air at the 
back of the pit or frame to allow the heat to escape. From in¬ 
attention to this we have known valuable cuttings so attenuated 
that healthy plants from them afterwards could hardly be expected 
without great future care and trouble. A moist close atmosphere 
is of the first importance in striking cuttings in general, shading 
from bright sunlight is another indispensable ; but both may easily 
be carried to excess, especially if the temperature is allowed to rise 
to a great height. Where quick rooting is an object it is much 
better to remove the cuttting pots after having stood three or four 
weeks in the cold frame to a mild bottom heat, say from 75 ; to 85°; 
but even here the top temperature should seldom average more 
than 50° by night and 75° by day, or in summer should seldom be 
much above what it is in the open air. If conical glasses are used 
wiping them will be more a matter of amusement than necessity, 
and lifting them for watering purposes will be seldom required, 
tilting up one side at night, and increasing the space by degrees, 
will be of more importance, taking care, however, to shut down 
close in the morning before the sun strikes upon them. I have 
several times shown that refracted light is better than shaded light, 
and that by placing cuttings at a certain safe distance from the glass 
shading might be altogether dispensed with—a matter of importance 
to amateur operators, who must sometimes depend for assistance in 
their absence to the not most willing hands. 
Future Management.— If the plants are struck early they 
should be pricked out round the sides, say four of them in a 
4 or 5-inch pot, or singly, if strong, into 3 inch pots. For keeping 
over the winter it is generally the safest and easiest mode to prick 
out such small plants round the sides of middle-sized pots, as the 
moisture, temperature of soil, &c., are more equable than when 
each little plant has a pot to itself, while the trouble of attendance 
is greatly abridged. If the cuttings are not ready to be potted or 
pricked off before the middle of September, provided there is sandy 
peat below the silver sand, they will be kept safer in the cutting 
pots all the winter. In either of these cases the plants should be 
kept on a shelf near the glass, where they can obtain the highest 
medium temperature of the greenhouse in winter and abundance 
of air whenever the external air is not stormy, not loaded with 
moisture nor below 38° or 40°. In either of these cases the amount 
of fresh air (unless heated before entrance into the house) must be 
limited. 
Potting. —This is best done in the spring months in the case of 
young plants. In the case of established ones it may be done any 
time in summer after flowering when fresh growth has commenced. 
Where proper attention can be given after the plant is a foot or 
18 inches high, it may be treated on the one-shift system ; in all 
other cases the successive shift system should be adopted, and not 
too large shifts at a time. I need not add that drainage must be 
particularly attended to. To prevent the access of worms, amateurs 
should use caps or bowls of zinc or galvanised iron inverted over 
the hole in the bottom of the pot, with plenty of rough, and then 
finer drainage above, surmounted by a little green moss or chopped 
straw to prevent the earthy matter clogging the drainage. If such 
a plant without some of these precautions is set in the ground, 
even for a short time, a worm or two will try and wriggle them¬ 
selves in, and as the plants neither like much lime water, nor to be 
much disturbed about the roots when growing, there is a difficulty 
in getting the slippery gentlemen dislodged. The cap is one of the 
best means for keeping them out. 
Soil.— For young plants this should be composed almost entirely 
of fibry sandy peat, with a little dried leaf mould ; as the plants 
get larger a little fibry sweet loam may be added. The larger the 
plant and the larger the shift the rougher should the compost be. 
For medium circumstances the compost will answer well of four 
parts fibry peat, one part very fibry sweet loam, one part silver 
sand, and one part of equal proportions of rough charcoal and 
pounded bricks or broken freestone. The largest pieces for a large 
shift should be less than a walnut, and the least, half the size of 
small peas, the very dust being sifted out before the sand is added. 
A slight layer of finer compost should be placed upon the surface. 
Temperature.— After potting, at whatever time, the plants 
should be kept closer and warmer than usual to encourage growth, 
exposing them to sun and air by degrees. The common temperature 
of the greenhouse in spring and early summer suits them well when 
blooming, but when that is nearly over, and the plants have received 
their pruning, any close pit where a moister atmosphere and a 
higher temperature can be given them will encourage fresh growth. 
When that has taken place, the roots, if necessary, may be examined, 
and the plants returned to the same position, taking care, however, 
that they are more exposed by degrees before the end of autumn, 
so that the wood may be weil matured ; on this maturity depends, 
in a great measure, their winter treatment. Those best ripened 
will stand a low temperature and an abundance of air that would 
ruin those more coddled in the autumn. As a general rule the 
plants should seldom be below 45° in winter if it be desirable to 
keep them nice and healthy. A rise of from 10° to 15° may be 
allowed from sunheat. A slight shade will be wanted when growing 
in summer, but full exposure towards autumn. I have seen good 
plants that were never removed from the greenhouse, but I would 
perfer a closer and warmer place when making their wood than 
would suit the generality of greenhouse plants in summer ; but if 
the greenhouse is kept close for the sake of growing Azaleas and 
Camellias, then that alters the case, and it would just be the 
place for the Hoveas when growing. 
Training. —The trellis one-sided system, especially for plants 
that have no liability to twist, twine, or creep, is very properly 
being discarded. Every appearance of twisting, even when done to 
give a bush-like character, detracts from the beauty of the lovely 
Hoveas. The bush system must be given at once, when the plant 
is young, by stopping, and by tying out the side shoots from the 
base of the plant to the side of the pot, fastening them there to 
little sticks, or, better still, by strands of fine matting or worsted 
thread to a ring fixed beneath the rim of the pot outside. This 
training must also be kept in view when pruning the flowering 
shoots somewhat freely previously to setting the plants growing 
for another year. 
Watering. —An essential point ; the plants will neither endure 
the torrent spout system, nor the surface soil the dribbling from a 
fine rose. A medium between the two will be found the best, such 
as placing a large potsherd or a good-sized oyster shell on the 
surface of the pot and pouring the requisite supply slowly on these 
mediums. I have several times lost fine plants, solely, I believe, 
owing to the careless use of the waterpot. In winter the water 
should be pure, and not below the temperature of 50°. If enough 
is given at a time waterings will not often be required in winter. 
As the flower buds begin to swell more will be necessary, and a 
very weak solution of old cowdung will then be advantageous, but 
it must be weak and from old dung. When growing they must 
have abundance of water. During the whole period they stand on 
the shelves in the greenhouse, to prevent sudden extremes from 
sunshine, dry cold air, or brisk fires, the plants will be rendered 
more secure by standing in double pots, the space between them, at 
the top at least, being stuffed with moss or any other more suit 
able substance. When growing, the syringe may be applied 
often, but lightly, morning and evening. In winter and spring, 
before the flowers open, fine dustings may be given in the middle, 
or very early in the afternoons of fine, mild, sunny days. 
Insects. —The most troublesome enemy is a white scale insect. 
Washing first with soap and water and gum water, and afterwards, 
in the course of twenty-four hours, with warm water, at a. tem¬ 
perature not above 100° will be found the most cleanly, if not 
