196 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
FUCHSIA FULGENS. 
How seldom one now-a-days meets with this fine old Fuchsia in gar¬ 
dens ! And yet it is by no means unworthy of cultivation. Either as a pot 
plant, or for vases, or for bedding, it is very ornamental. Large plants in 
large vases are really grand objects; but they must be old plants with 
plenty of old wood. The foliage is then smaller, and the racemes of flowers 
larger and more numerous than when young plants are grown. When 
young plants have plenty of pot room they make free growth, and large fine 
foliage, but do not produce the quantity of flowers that old woody plants 
do. When grown out of doors the plants should be housed early in the 
autumn before the wood gets injured by the frost. They will do in any 
position where they can be kept dry and torpid until the following spring. 
They seed freely, and young plants can be raised from seed to any extent; 
but young plants give but a very imperfect idea of the beauty of the species. 
It is only when they have been grown for three or four years, and have 
got to be good-sized plants, that their real merits are seen. 
Stour ton. M. Saul. 
HINTS ON LETTUCE CULTURE. 
In most families of taste it has become of late years quite a desideratum 
to have a good salad on the table, almost, if not quite, all the year round. 
With proper conveniences even this is not difficult of attainment; but under 
ordinary circumstances nine or ten months’ supply may be kept up, with 
only the ordinary amount of care and management. The components of 
salads are various; but as Lettuces and Endive form the principal bulk, I 
shall confine myself in this paper to a few remarks on the culture of the 
former, which I trust may be useful to beginners by way of reminder, as 
I very much fear that many of them do not pay that attention to the routine 
of kitchen garden management, which they will find to be an absolute 
necessity when the responsibility of garden management falls upon their 
own shoulders. 
There is probably no crop under culture which requires more attention 
to be paid to the keeping up a regular succession of sowings than that of 
Lettuces. To begin at the beginning. I usually commence sowing at the 
end of January, or early in February, according to the state of the weather, 
by throwing up a moderate hotbed, on which a one-light box is placed, and 
the seed sown in a light and rather dry sandy soil. Air may be given at 
once to let off steam, and the quantity increased as soon as the seed is up, 
if the weather will permit. The tendency to damp off may be corrected by 
sprinkling over the surface a mixture of sand and ashes, well dried, and 
applied warm. Early in March the plants will be ready to prick out, and 
for a large supply a two-light frame may be put upon a slight hotbed, using- 
light sandy soil as before, and pricking the seedlings out thereon at 8 inches 
apart. The remainder from the seed-bed may be pricked out on a warm 
border in the natural soil, and covered with hand-lights or curate’s vineries. 
The whole must be kept well ventilated, and gradually hardened so as to 
bear free exposure; and as soon as they have attained a good size, they 
should be transferred to the open quarters. 
It is as well to remark here, that for summer Lettuces the ground can 
scarcely be too good. When planted in deeply trenched well-manured soil 
they will grow larger, and remain much longer without running to seed, 
