252 
THE ELOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
then he dibbled into the pots. Water well with a fine rose, and cover with a 
bell-glass, then plunge in a bottom heat of about 70°. The more free-growing 
sorts will be rooted in a few weeks, when the glass must be taken off. After 
they have grown a little, the tops will require to be pinched out; and when they 
have started again, remove to a cool house. They had better be left in the 
cutting-pot during the winter, and potted into thumb pots in spring. The 
hard-wooded varieties will take longer to strike, but they may be treated in the 
same manner. 
I might mention several other systems of propagating Heaths, such as putting 
the plants in heat in January, taking the cuttings in February, striking, and 
having them established in thumb pots by autumn, or taking cuttings of wood 
nearly ripened, and keeping in bottom heat during winter ; but I think the 
system I have detailed is the best suited for gardeners, as the second gene¬ 
rally incurs the loss of the parent plant, and the third is very troublesome, 
owing to the glasses requiring to be wiped every day.—(G. M. W. in West of 
Scotland Horticultural Magazine.') 
GENTIANA ACAULIS. 
As long as 1 can remember the garden in which I used to sport when 
sprouting into a schoolboy, I have the liveliest recollection of the beautiful 
blue Gentian. Its name was the first botanical nomen I ever mastered. The 
colour of this flower is the most beautiful and intense blue that can be imagined, 
when the plant is grown in a good position—open, clear, and airy. “ The name 
of Gentiana, and its English form Gentian, was bestowed by Dioscorides on 
some species of medicinal plant—the virtues of which were believed to have 
been discovered by Gentius, King of Illyria. Linnmus adopted it as a generic 
name; but it is doubtful whether his genus includes the Gentiana of Dios¬ 
corides and Pliny.” Let tradition—if it is nothing more reliable —say what it 
will about the origin of its name, it is one of those lovely little unobtrusive 
flowers that are the property of all. “ On the verge of the snow-line in our 
frozen Arctic regions ” it brightly smiles, but it is doubtful if this variety is the 
“ glorious azure-tipped Gentianella (Gentiana acaulis),” so well known in our 
gardens, although its “ claims to be indigenous rest on a somewhat dubious 
footing.” 
The Blue Gentian is frequently used as an edging for beds, as the flowers 
are large, and, the stems being very short, it blooms close to the ground. I 
think it does better in the moister climate of the midland districts of England, 
than in the drier and hotter south. I have seen it employed very much in some 
parts of Yorkshire as an edging for beds, and when the plants are covered, as 
they sometimes are, with a number of the striking blue fiow r crs, it is very 
handsome. Sometimes two or three beautiful blossoms can be seen issuing 
from a very small root, too small apparently to produce flowers. It should be 
grown in a soil of which sand or peat forms a portion, and can be propagated, 
like many other herbaceous perennials, by dividing the plants in the spring. 
I have known seed of it imported from France and Germany, but I am not 
aware if it seeds in England. It deserves a place in all gardens, and is one of 
those “ old-fashioned ” plants, as they are termed, that some of the present 
generation of gardeners think they can willingly spare ; and so a word or two 
in favour of a deserving old friend and schoolboy companion in the great 
academy of nature has been written by— 
Auld Lang Syne. 
