1871 . ] 
SALVIA SPLENDENS. 
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as tlie trees, and all will be ready to start together in December or January. 
Thus treated, the Physails will immediately break all over, and produce short- 
jointed flowering wood, which will set fruit in abundance, if the pollen is assisted a 
little with a soft feather, as at that season, before the little busy bee could come 
to one’s aid, would be done in the case of peaches, nectarines, apricots, &c. The 
humble-bee is very fond of the flowers. Thus plenty of ripe fruit would be 
secured in May, a time when such things are sure to be appreciated at table. 
Cultivated in this way, the plants may be kept for many years. The older they 
get, the more short-jointed and prolific they become, and the earlier will the fruit 
be produced. 
The Cape Gooseberry can also be well grown in pots, tubs, or boxes, or in 
troughs to fit any corner or end of a house or pit ; and in this way they can be 
lifted out in the autumn to a shed or other convenient position to rest, pruned in 
due season, and replaced for fruiting when and where required. When once the 
plant has been obtained, the best way to keep up an early fruitful stock, is to 
strike cuttings of the short-jointed shoots. 
The plants will also do well, and fruit freely out-of-doors against any wall or 
fence that would serve for growing the tomato. In order to get them to fruit 
early and abundantly, I always found it advisable to use a poorisli stiff soil, with 
grit and charcoal enough to keep it sufficiently open and porous to secure a free 
circulation of water. No manure should be added to the soil, as their tendency 
will be to grow too luxuriantly, and thus to become unfruitful. When the 
plants get old, and appear poverty-stricken, they may readily be wakened up by 
the judicious application of clear liquid manure, and by top-dressing. 
The scent as well as the flavour of the Phy sails fruit is very delicious, and 
the early fruit is specially valuable for the table. That produced later, in the 
summer and autumn months, when it is most abundant, will be most valuable 
for preserving, for ices, for flavouring confectionery, &c.— James Barnes, Exmouth , 
(late of Bicton). 
SALVIA SPLENDENS. 
S an autumn, winter, and spring decorative plant under glass, this is perhaps 
the most beautiful, as it is one of the most tender, of Salvias. Its 
glossy green leaves, and long brilliant panicles of scarlet flowers and 
c bracts, with its elongated, graceful, and peculiarly curved crimson stem, 
render it one of the brightest and most glowing of all the flowers that we can 
command at the dead season. A dozen or so of fine plants of this Salvia in 
flower creates such a blaze of colour as clears away the thickest grey veil ever 
woven into dreariness by a November fog. Few plants are more easily grown, and 
perhaps none yield a richer return for the labour and time expended upon them. 
To have large plants for the winter, cuttings should be rooted in April, 
potted as soon as rooted, and stopped at every second or third joint as they 
