16 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ January, 
which has the effect of “ starving and bursting.” Moisture is needed to soften the 
soil, and to allow the roots to extract nourishment from it; but when all the 
virtue is out of the earth, and the plant begins to show signs of distress, all the 
watering in the world will not give vigour to the exhausted functions ; but let a 
portion of guano or any well prepared manure be mixed with the water sufficient 
to colour it, and let this be repeated at every watering instead of giving a much 
stronger dose at longer intervals, and the result will be most satisfactory. I 
have tried a number of experiments this season with liquid manure, and all lead 
me to have faith in the application of it, at every watering, in a weakly state. 
A number of Fruit Trees in pots—chiefly plums—which had not been shifted 
for years have produced heavy crops of fine fruit, and though there was little in 
the pots but roots, the frequent doses gave them all they required. 
A number of old Fuchsias were stunted and pot-bound, but pressure of more 
important matters prevented our potting them into fresh stuff ; but to each 
watering a colouring of guano was allowed, and the plants, with their pot-bound 
roots, have not only made vigorous growth, but flowered freely from June onwards 
till November. 
Some Pelargoniums, which were cut down last season and allowed to break 
in the usual way, were shaken out of the pots, and placed in smaller ones, but 
when they should have been shifted they were allowed to remain in the small 
pots, which were crammed with roots ; guano-water was given at all times when 
they required moisture ; the plants grew and made fine foliage, and flowered 
better than others which were favoured with larger pots and fresh soil. 
Many other examples I could give to prove that giving liquid manure 
' frequently, and not till roots are in abundance to consume it, is the proper way 
to deal with this important assistant of the cultivator. Putrid liquid is a 
destroyer of the health of plants ; it should always be used in a fresh and clear 
condition, and rather on the homoeopathic than the allopathic principle. This 
is an old story, well known to practical men, but young beginners and amateurs 
are often led into errors with the advice so often given,—the strong dose “ once 
or twice a week.”—M. T, 
DASYLIRION GLAUCUM. 
« HIS plant, which is also known as Bonapartea glauca^ appears to us, 
observes M. Oarriere in Bevue Horticole (1872,435), to belong to the genus 
f Dasylii'ion, and not to be a Bonapartea^ the latter having nearly all the 
characters of the Agaves* The plant has a solid stem, recalling that of a 
Draccena^ stout and very short, the leaves widened and imbricated at the base, 
and covering at the top of the stem a sort of subspherical projection, from the 
centre of which the inflorescence is developed. The leaves are thick, glaucous, 
furnished on the edges with very short, distant, and regular teeth, 28-32 in. long, 
withering at the tip, which is broad or subtruncate. The termino-central flower- 
stem attains 5 ft, to 6 ft, high, bearing leayes which diminish, so that the upper 
