IU 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
well charged with humidity, and an average temperature of 60° to 75°. 
They require little or no shading. This, an average stove temperature 
about April, at which time they are forming fresh shoots, is quite sufficient 
to perfect their growth. This accomplished, which in a general way will 
carry them on to about the middle of May or the beginning of June, the cus¬ 
tomary aridity of their native habitats must be artificially imitated. When 
it is desired to make specimen plants produce all the flowers possible, place 
them in the most exposed, the hottest, and the driest position in the stove, 
and withhold water from them entirely. In this way their vital energies 
are to be taxed for a month or six weeks, or, indeed, until they show obvious 
symptoms of suffering, and this will be found to induce them to form embryo 
flower-buds at the bottom of their cup-like growths. When this check has 
induced them to assume a state preparatory to flowering, treatment exactly 
the reverse of that last described, must be suddenly entered upon. Abun¬ 
dance of water must be given to the roots, and the leaves must be syringed 
frequently; but water should not be allowed at this stage to stand in the 
cup-like formations previously alluded to, as it not unfrequently causes the 
embryo flower-spikes to rot away where young. 
I have long practised another very simple method of flowering these 
plants in small pots, and in a form most suitable for in-door decoration, 
whether for the drawing-room or dinner table, for either of which they are 
well adapted. About the middle of May, or between that and the second 
or third week in June, young shoots of the current season’s growth are to be 
taken from the parent plant by cutting them off at the base, and after¬ 
wards laying them on their sides in any convenient position in the stove, 
Cucumber-house, or frame, for a fortnight or three weeks, after which they 
are to be potted singly and firmly into 48-sized pots, in a compost formed 
of peat, potsherds, and silver sand. They are to be treated subsequently in 
every respect like established plants. They come into flower from November 
to January, at a time when good plants suitable for in-door decoration are 
scarce. It should be well understood that the object in thus laying them 
upon their sides for a time, is to induce the formation of the embryo flowers, 
and that the check thus given tends to secure this desideratum'. By treating 
Bilbergias and Tillandsias in a similar manner a like success may be realised. 
Dig-swell. William Earley. 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS versus CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
i 
A little leisure has now permitted me to thank Mr. Higgs for his 
friendly criticism. I beg to assure him that I have given his objections 
due consideration ; but his arguments have failed to convince me that I 
have in the slightest degree been guilty of misrepresentation. The facts 
which I have stated are probably too revolutionary to satisfy those who 
cling to the past, and stand in the gap with outstretched arms to prevent 
the onward march of improvement. Neither, perhaps, is it any part of 
wisdom to attempt to change the current of thought that overpowers the 
mind in such cases, for before a truth is admitted, it must have undergone 
a course of probation. To accomplish this, time and reflection are neces¬ 
sary ; and judging from the moderate and candid tone of Mr. Higgs’s com¬ 
munication, I doubt not that light enough will yet be given him to swim 
with the stream, which has by its innate force cut out a new channel, and 
by its momentum is breaking down obstructions, rooting out feeble objec¬ 
tions, and expanding its power on all sides. 
