DECEMBER. 
265 
it was several years before it bore fruit, and became properly a tree.” If 
botanical knowledge should have weight in the discussion, it is" very probable 
that the opinions of Mr. Barnes are of little value comparatively. 
E. W. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 
FROM CUTTINGS TAKEN IN JUNE. 
When the summer, with its golden sunshine, its carolling of birds, its 
gentle winds, its delicate flowers, with their beauty of bloom and fragrance, 
has passed away; when the chill winds of winter have begun their work, and 
the strong Oak, unable to resist their influence, has shed its foliage— 
“ There is a beautiful Spirit, breathing now 
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees.” 
In the darkest November there are some days of sunshine to remind us 
that all is not dull and dreary; and so in the florist’s world, when other gems 
of the garden are gone, then, alone in its splendour, appears autumn’s queen, 
the bright*Chrysanthemum, to fill the place that must otherwise be void and 
desolate. My method of procuring a supply of this beautiful autumn flower is 
as follows:— 
In June I take the tops from the old plants of each variety, and place them 
in 48-sized pots well drained, the soil being made up of a mixture of equal 
parts of loam, leaf mould, and silver sand. I generally insert in each pot 
about a dozen cuttings, and then place them in a frame, slightly water them 
every morning, and shade them from the sun. I soon find them rooted, and 
when well established I shift each plant into a 60-sized pot, and place them in 
a cold frame, still watering gently as before. I stop their growth at about the 
third or fourth eye, and let them remain till the end of July, when I repot 
them into 32-sized pots, using for soil half loam, rotten dung, and a little sand. 
When potted, I plunge them in an open border, well covered with ashes or 
sawdust, to prevent the worms getting into the pots. I continue stopping till 
the end of August, and then repot into 24 and 16-sized pots, and, discontinuing 
stopping, place them back in the border. I am now careful to allow plenty of 
room for a free circulation of air amongst them. About the middle of October 
I remove them to the orchard-house, giving air freely to prevent their being 
drawn ; I now also give them a liberal supply of liquid manure twice a-week; 
the earliest in flower I remove to the conservatory, and thus secure a good 
supply of bloom for six or seven weeks. 
By the above treatment I have plants about 18 inches high, bushy, with 
fine foliage from top to bottom, and well covered with splendid trusses of 
bloom. 
Crabivood , near Southampton. J. C. Higgs. 
GREAT CROPS OF APRICOTS. 
I see in the last “ Proceedings ” of the Royal Horticultural Society, that 
Mr. Rivers gives his method of growing Apricots in pots, and that he ascribes 
his success to the chalky loamy soil in which he grows them, and to ramming 
it hard in the pots. This corroborates my experience in growing Apricots on 
a wall when I used a quantity of old lime mixed with the soil of the border, 
and had a layer of the roughest lime and brick rubbish laid 6 inches thick in 
the bottom of the border for drainage. I was told the trees would not thrive 
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