54 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDEJS/ER. 
[ Janoary 21, 1886. 
do well in a compost of fibry loam and about one-third of peat, leaf 
mould, and coarse sand. Plants that baTe been in rooms and similar 
positions may, if they have been kept dry for a few weeks, have the root 
portion of the stem cut into lengths and placed in pans in a compost of 
light sandy soil. If these are given the temperature indicated above they 
will quickly start into growth. Dracaena rutilans is invaluable for deco¬ 
ration in rooms, and a good number of young plants may be raised at 
once and grown in a moderately warm temperature, so that they can be 
topped and re-rooted later in the season, for with large bold leaves at the 
base they are more handsome for decoration in single vases than when 
raised from portions of stem. Plants raised by the latter means have 
always small leaves towards the bottom. Any plants of D. gracilis or 
D. Goldieana that have grown too tall for use may now be cut down and 
the heads rooted. These should be cut off where the wood is moderately 
soft, and they will root in much less time than if cut where the wood is 
firm. The heads may be placed in 4 or 5-inch pots with a little sand at 
the base. These may be well watered and plunged in the bottom heat 
advised above ; if covered with a handglass and kept close they will root 
without losing a single leaf. If an increase in the stock of these is 
desired they should be kept in heat until they break into growth, when- 
the shoots can be taken off and rooted. 
Plumbago rosea .—This and P. coccinea as they cease flowering can 
be cut back and thoroughly cleaned before placing them in heat. While 
in flower they are very liable to become infested on the under side of the 
leaves with thrips, and the plants must he dipped in tobacco water. If 
this is done and the stools are placed in brisk heat they will produce 
clean cuttings that with ordinary care will become useful p’ants for 
another year. 
Linurn trigynum .—Plants of this useful Linum that have flowered 
should be cut back and introduced into brisk moist heat to induce them 
to start fresh growth. They are very liable to be attacked by red spider, 
and if this be once established on the plants in their early stages it will 
prove a source of annoyance the whole season. Frequently the cuttings 
are attacked before they are rooted, but this need not be the case if every 
old leaf is removed when the plants are pruned. If this is done and the 
stems of the plants dipped into a strong solution of some insecticide the 
cuttings can be taken, rooted, and grown for a time in a moist inter¬ 
mediate temperature. 
Poinsettias and Euphorbias .—Keep those that have flowered in a 
temperature that will not fall below 50°, where they will rest completely. 
While there the Poinsettias must be dry at their roots, and the Euphorbias 
only have sufficient water to keep the wood from shrivelling. Many 
Euphorbias after flowering are lost by being kept too wet at their roots. 
Clerodendron fallax .—Seed ripened in autumn may be sown in 
moderately light sandy soil in 6-inch pots. Plants co raised will be useful 
for flowering in 5 and 6-inch pots for conservatory decoration. Those 
who rely upon old plants may prune back a few that have had a good 
rest and place them in brisk moist heat. As soon as signs of growth are 
observed they may be turned out of their pots, the roots partially reduced, 
and repotted in a compost of loam, one-seventh of decayed manure, and 
sand. Water must be carefully applied for a time after potting until the 
roots are active. 
Begonias— Such varieties as B. nitida, B. n. rosea, B. semperflorens, 
B. s. rosea, B. s. carminea, B. Ingrami, and others that have been kept in 
small pots during the winter, may now be placed into 5-mch pots. 
Employ a compost of loam, one-third of leaf mould, manure, and sand, 
and grow them in a temperature of about 604 If allowed to come into 
flower they will prove invaluable for the stove or intermediate stiuctures 
during the spring months when those have become tall that have been 
flowering during the autumn and winter. A little seed of B. semper¬ 
florens may be sown on fine soil in a pan. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Hotbeds for Propagating Purposes .—Hotbeds are by no means indis¬ 
pensable to propagators, but on the whole are preferable to any more dry 
heat, especially for raising plants from seeds. The best materials for 
forming into hotbeds are well-prepared stable manure and leaves in equal 
proportions, spent tan, or this and leaves, and spent hops. The first-men¬ 
tioned must not be used fresh from the stables, but ought to be first thrown 
into a large heap, being turned inside out before the centre is heated dry, 
and again allowed to ferment for at least one week, when, if found to be 
only moderately hot, it may at once he mixed with the leaves and made 
into a hotbed, preferably in a forcing house of some kind. When stable 
manure only is used, it will sometimes be advisable to turn it a third 
time, and also before heated dry in the centre, as when the bed is formed 
too quickly a violent sour heat is generated, this being most injurious to 
plant life, and, besides, the centre of the bed soon becomes perfectly dry, 
and consequently gives off no heat. The manure from a cow yard is 
slow in heating, and is very apt to become suddenly violently hot. When 
well prepared a bed formed wholly or principally of this material is very 
sweet and lasting. Tan is also slow in heating, but this may be quickened 
by the addition of quicklime, say about six bushels to a waggon-load of 
tan, and this when well mixed with the tan also appears to check the 
spread of the fungus that usually renders tan so objectionable for heating 
purposes. Spent hops are apt to become excessively hot, and this must be 
prevented as much as possible, or much mischief may quickly he worked. 
Rather shallow beds should be formed, and a little fresh material added 
eccasionally. When frames are stood on hotbeds these should not be kept 
closed till the heat has subsided somewhat and has become perfectly 
sweet, or otherwise cuttings may be destroyed wholesale, and seedlings 
damp off by hundreds. 
Pelargonium and Propagating Boxes .—During Dad weather the 
stock of these ought to be overhauled and repaired where necessary. The 
bottoms are the first to fail, and these would last much longer if each 
were provided with two narrow and fairly stout crosspieces, these keeping 
the bottoms off the ground, therefore more dry. When the bottoms are 
badly decayed it sometimes pays to completely reverse them, the top 
edges being strong enough to have the boards to form the bottoms nailed 
to them. A certain number of new cnes are required every season, and 
these also < ught to be made now. Large clumsy boxes are neither 
durable or at all handy ; neither as a rule do plants thrive so well in them 
as they do in boxes about 4 inches deep. Most of ours are 24 inches long, 
15 inches wide and 4 inches deep, hut for Alternantheras we prefer to 
have them 3 inches deep. Nearly all plants transplant most readily from 
shallow boxes, in which little or no drainage beyond rough leaf soil or old 
Mushroom bed refuse is used. Where large numbers of eoftwooded bedding 
plants, such as Heliotropes, Verbenas, Ageratums, Iresines, Lobelia 3 , 
Konigas, Fuchsias, Petunias, and Marguerites are required, small or 
ordinary propagating frames are of little avail, and large deep boxes 
covered with squares of glass are far more expeditious. Ours are 24 inches 
long, 15 inches wide, and 6 inches deep, about half the depth being filled 
with drainage and fine sandy compost, and this leaves sufficient depth 
for the cuttings without touching the glass, two squares of the latter 
covering each box. When these are filled and stood on a moist hotbed it 
is usually necessary to tu n or else dry the glasses every morning, or too 
much moisture accumulates and damping commences. When the boxes 
are stood on dry beds, staging, or walks, the squares may well have all 
their edges covered with strips of paper previously pasted over, and these 
being fixed to both the glass and boxes render the cuttings nearly or 
quite airtight, and if shaded carefully they strike in a few days. 
Stock Plants .—In order to secure a good supply of cuttings it may be 
necessary to at once place the stock plants of Ageratums, Heliotropes, 
Petunias, Fuchsias, and Zonal Pelargoniums, more especially Golden, 
Silver, and Bronze varieties, into a brisk growing temperature, main¬ 
tained, say, from 60° to 65° by day, and rather less at night, and this 
should encourage them to break strongly. If the tops are not very hard 
these may be taken off and struck, but as a rule the young growth 
strikes most quickly, and continues to make the best progress A dry 
atmosphere—that is to say, an overdose of fire heat, is most injurious to 
the stock plants, this encouraging spindly growth as well as the spread of 
insect pests, and it is almost needless to add that unless the cuttings are 
clean they will never become healthy plants. The cuttings being 
healthy and strong they strike quickly, and in their turn afford first one 
cutting or top, and several later on. Dwarf Lobelias are frequently 
propagated from cuttings, but it is a mistake to place the stock plants in 
a strong heat, as this induces the formation of puny shoots, and which 
are very apt to flower instead of rooting. When the plants are kept in a 
greenhouse temperature the cuttings are strong, ani these strike readily 
in heat and soon grow into good plants. Where a good number of stocky 
old plants have been wintered in boxes as we have previously advised, 
these, if properly attended to and not forced, emit roots from the growths 
above the soil, and before these roots perish the plants should be pulled 
to pieces, every little division, when dibbled off thickly in boxes of good 
fine soil and placed in a gentle heat, soon rooting freely, and before 
hedding-out time attain a large size. As a rule Coleuses, Iresines, and 
Alternantheras can be propagated in sufficient quantities after the bulk 
of hardier kinds, including those above enumerated, are cleared out from 
the forcing and propagating houses or places. Where, however, the 
stock plants are few in number, striking must be commenced at once in 
order that the old plants should produce more cuttings as soon as possible, 
the newly struck plants also yielding their quota. Tops of Zonal Pelar¬ 
goniums of all sorts when taken from plants growing in cold houses or 
pits do not strike satisfactorily, but after the old plants have been placed 
in an early vinery or other warm bouse foi a few weeks, say from a month 
to six weeks, the tops can be safely propagated. These strike better in 
pots than in boxes. 
^ A —. ; | T | . i - i . i r.-'i . i . i . i . i . - i - i - i -"i . i . r - 
5 ) 
14 
III 
IE BEE-KEEPER. 
. D-Tw W'. •' • * * - 1 . -.1 - i - 1 - i • . - I r. ‘ - ' -i=L=J=J i 1 - ' - 
DRONES AND DRONE COMB. 
While I fully recognise the usefulness of drones under 
various circumstances and states of the hive, it is not because 
I consider them to he absolutely necessary for other purposes 
unless to fertilise the young queens ; on the other hand 
many hives are ruined by having an excess of drones and 
drone comb. It is therefore an important matter for the 
bee-keeper to know the number of drones necessary to a hive, 
but it is still more important to know how to regulate that 
number. In one case a hive may be rendered unprofitable- 
by having 5000 drones, while another would not be affected 
by double that number: ergo a hive with less than from 
65.000 to 70,000 worker cells to be occupied by brood only 
i@ too small if a portion of that he drone comb. Therefore 
a hive to he profitable must have that number of worker 
