1S70. ] 
THE amateur’s PAGE. 
39 
cl sort of hood over the column. The two inferior sepals, as if intended by Nature 
to correct the outline, are arched backwards and upwards, and at first look as if they 
were the ordinary petals. The labellum is spathulate, rolled up in a retrorse man¬ 
ner, and set in an angular direction from the centre; the column takes the pecu¬ 
liarity of being in the opposite angular direction from the line of the labellum. It 
might almost, looking at cognate species, be considered a morphological curiosity, 
with these parts arranged in almost mathematical precision. As it is, all the 
parts of the fiower seem to be, to use a popular phrase, at sixes and sevens with 
one another. It is sure to become even more popular than it now is.— James 
Anderson, Meadow Bank. 
THE AMATEUR’S PAGE. 
ESUMING my remarks on the Chi'ysanthemum (see p. 21), I advise that 
when the young plants are pretty well rooted, and a short time before they 
are shifted into larger pots, they should have their first stopping, because 
upon attention to this operation depends the chance of obtaining dwarf 
plants with healthy foliage down to the pots. The reason is, that if left 
unstopped they will run up with long naked stems, having a bunch of foliage 
and flowers at the top,—^beautiful enough in themselves certainly, but ill calcu¬ 
lated for use as decorative plants for the amateur’s purposes. Pinching-back 
or stopping becomes then an imperative necessity. The amateur, therefore, on 
receiving his cutting plants, should ascertain if they have had their first stopping, 
and if not, it should be done ^at once, in order to induce the lower buds to 
break. When these buds are to be perceived, and the roots are well forward, 
the plants will be in the best possible condition for shifting into larger pots. To 
make this operation of pinching-back still plainer to the tyro, I would observe, 
that supposing the plants to be from 5 in. to 6 in. long, with good foliage, it will 
be safe to reduce them one-half, or so as to leave a short stem with four good 
leaves upon it, as near the surface of the pot as possible. That will be a good 
start. It is here that we find the advantage of soft-wooded spring cuttings, in 
preference to the harder wood of the autumn, for if the latter were headed back 
so closely there would be no foliage ; and they would be longer in breaking, 
which, if their use is unavoidable, implies the necessity for commencing with 
them earlier in the season. 
The pots required will be those of 5-in., 6-in., and 8-in. diameter; these are 
quite large enough for any amateur’s purposes. The first shift from the cutting 
pot should be into a 5-in. pot. The operation of shifting is very simple ; let the 
new pot be well drained by placing a hollow-sided crock over the drainage-hole, 
then a little handful of smaller broken crocks over it, and over that a little 
moss; turn the plant out of the pot by inverting it on the left hand as before 
described, and after carefully removing the crocks, calculate how deep it will go 
into the new pot, into which place suflScient soil, so that when the ball is placed 
