I _ 
Vol. XXXIX. No. 43, 
Wholes No. 1604. 
Rnrivl New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Cotlbtb« 8 at Waeblntrton.] 
[Entered accor ding to Act of Conyreea, tn the year 1**. by the 
considerably in growth and flower, bnt proba¬ 
bly there will be nothing better than the parent 
_ plant, and possibly nothing so good. In some 
“ : instances I have seen all the seedlings come 
exactly like the parent with scarcely a varia¬ 
tion even in the habit of growth. A case in 
point waB the variety called Stella, which is 
a good sort yet, and when sent out new, proba¬ 
bly 35 years ago, was a graud improvement on 
the then existing sorts. A friend raised seve¬ 
ral hundred seedlings from it, and I saw 
them all in flower the first time, and every 
plant could have been sold for the original 
parent. The only way to get new varieties 
from seed is by careful crosB-fertilization, 
when, if nothing new or superior to present 
kinds is obtained, there are sure to be many 
distinct and desirable sorts forborne cultivation. 
There have been several fine batches of seed¬ 
lings raised in this country and brought before 
the Floral Committee of the New York Horti¬ 
cultural Society, which, if well grown would 
compare favorably with many of the European 
of the plants. But to propagate by grafts re¬ 
quires a hot-bed and more care than many have 
time to devote to the job. and a number of cut¬ 
tings or seedlings must be prepared for stocks 
the previous year. As regards soil, any soil 
free from lime will grow them more or less 
satisfactorily, clay and bog peat being the 
worst, and a good upland peat, and a good, 
friable loam in about equal parts, the best. If 
the soil contains little sand, some clean sand 
should be added, but as the soil, even in two 
parts of a small garden, is seldom alike, a 
novice can try the most likely to be found in 
his district. I have a loam here which will 
grow azaleas equally as well as it does roses, 
but that is not often the case. I may add that 
it is necessary to make the soil very firm in 
the pots at all times in potting azaleas, and 
also to see that the drainage is perfect, for the 
plants detest stagnant water. When the plants 
are large and in vigorous growth with pots 
very full of roots, and it is not desirable to in¬ 
crease the size of the pots an occasional water¬ 
ing with weak, clean liquid manure is of great 
service. 
If plants are kept in good health and fre¬ 
quently syringed over-head while growing, in¬ 
sects are not troublesome, bnt occasionally 
a plant will become infested with thrip or red 
spider; then a dip in a mixture of tobacco wa¬ 
ter, soap and sulphur will clean it. 1 usually 
give about two dippings during the Win¬ 
ter when plants are not growloer, and sel¬ 
dom see an insect during the Summer. I 
prefer keeping plants indoors during Sum¬ 
mer, but there is no objection to placing 
them outside if necessary, if precau¬ 
tions are taken to prevent worms from 
entering the pots, and if the same attention 
is giveu them as inside. Tbe main objec¬ 
tion to keeping them outside is that the 
plants are often expected to look alter 
themselves, for which reason I have seen 
many fine plants spoiled past recovery. 
Young plants whieh are expected to make 
more than one growth mu3t be kept inside, 
whether grown in pots or planted out. 
f Among the many sorts at present in cul¬ 
tivation it is difficult to name a list from 
so many good kind9, bnt I will give a 
few of the most popular aud distinct 
whieh are all very fine: Barouue de Yri- 
ere, pure white, one of the largest flowers 
I have seen; Bernhard Andreas, deep rose, 
very double, one of the finest; Bernhard 
pr Andreas alba, one of the best, If not the 
^ best double white known, when true; but 
out of a dozen 1 once received but two, the 
remainder being another white not nearly 
so good. It does not make so much wood 
as many others; Bijot de Paris, pure 
white striped with rosy carmine; Borsig, 
k one of the most popular double whites; 
• Charmer, bright amaranth; Daphne, pure 
white stripped with pink; Due de Nassau, 
rosy purple; Extranei, violet rose, a fine 
shade, an old but very fine sort; Juliette, 
fine-shaped rose; La Victoirea, fine orange 
flower, with dark blotch: Madame C. Van 
Langenhove, white striped with crimson, 
very fine, Flag of Truce, double white, 
one of the best trade plants, but late im¬ 
portations have been much diseased; 
Madame C. d’ Hamall, pure white; 
Madame Vaudercryseen, rose, fine; Ma¬ 
dame Marie Le Febvre. very large white; 
Mrs. Merritt, violet-rose, semi-double ; Mrs. 
William Bull, white, large and fine; Nep- 
tune, orange, shaded with violet; Rubens, 
bright scarlet, fine; Souvenir du Prince 
Albert, rose and white, very double, one of 
!8t I the best. 
THE INDIAN AZALEA 
.TAMES TAPLIN 
Readers of the Rural must not confound 
these plants, which are evergreen, with the 
hardv American and hybrids of the same, 
which are deciduous and stand our severest 
Winters unprotected ; for with the exception 
of the old A. Indicaalba and amcena. which will 
stand unprotected at least as far north as 
New York, most of the varieties are injured 
by a very little frost, and many of the newer 
varieties appear to be more tender than older 
sorts. This may be from growing tbe plants 
for a great portion of the year in hot, moist, 
shady houses to increaso the stock aud obtain 
large plants in as short a time as possible, as 
it Is nothing unusual for many of the best 
growers to obtain two and sometimes three 
growths in one Beason, although the plants 
flower only once. 
The Belgian growers make a specialty of 
these plants and send a large number to this 
country, besides sending them to all the markets 
of Europe. They also send out a number of 
new seedlings each year, including many fine 
varieties. They turn their attention to a great 
extent to doubles and semi doubles, aDd 
also to an increase of size in the single 
sorts, paying less attention to the shape 
and substance of the flower than the En¬ 
glish raisers of seedlings, a fact which 
may be confirmed by comparing any half 
dozen varieties raised in the two coun¬ 
tries. Bnt the double and half-double 
sorts last much longer in flower and are 
also of more service if required for cut 
flowers, for which they are very useful, 
especially in the Winter and early Spring ; 
for by selecting the early-flowering varie¬ 
ties and growing them early in heat, and 
then keeping them as cool as possible 
through tbe Summer, and afterwards giv¬ 
ing the plants a warm, moist house, it is 
easy to have them in flower at Christmas, 
although they are usually of roost value 
at Easter. 
Many people have complained to me 
that they have little success with these 
plants when grown as window plauts. 
This is caused by baking them in the Win¬ 
ter in hot, dry rooms and allowing the 
plants to get very dry sometimes. If an 
azalea, the ball of soil of which is, and 
should be, full of its fine, hair-like roots, 
once gets thoroughly dry, no amount of 
watering short of soaking in a tub of 
water, will moisten it, and many of the 
roots are sure to perish. In a room heated 
to 70 degrees in Winter the delicate roots 
round the inside of the pot are undergoing 
a bakiug process all the time ; but if grown 
in a room from which the frost is only ex¬ 
cluded, it might be grown with success by 
placing it out-of-doors in the Summer. 
Azaleas may be propagated from seeds 
and cuttings and by grafting; the seeds, 
being very fine, must be either sown on the 
surface of pots in fine, sandy soil, or, if 
covered at all, with only a dusting of fine 
at the proper season, and, of course, will have 
m 3 ny more shoots than if not pinched. It is 
well to allow the plant to grow about a foot 
high without pinching ; the plants then will 
have nice clean stems, in fact, they are minia¬ 
ture standards while small, and can he trained 
to any shape as they become larger, tbe pyra¬ 
mid being the most popular, and by jndluons 
pinching that or any other shape may be ob¬ 
tained without ranch trying. The Belgian 
growers plant all these young plants out, bnt 
they use decayed leaves for the purpose, 
which combined with abundance of water in¬ 
duce a quick and very fine-looking growth, 
hut the plants do not generally grow so well 
afterwards, and if that soil becomes thoroughly 
dry it is almost impossible to moisten it again. 
I have put such plants in a tub of water for a 
night, and found only the outside wet in the 
morning. I have also found the light kind of 
soil employed for potting azaleas in Europe 
not so satisfactory in this dry climate, as the 
four inches in length; remove a few of the 
lower leaves and cut to a joint; place them 
thickly near the edges of the pot; give a good 
watering, and place the pots in a close frame; 
shade from sun, and water when necessary; 
keep closed until they commence to root, and 
then give air and light until all are rooted, 
when they may be potted singly in small pots 
CHINESE AZALEAS AS WINDOW PLANTS 
The Chinese or Indian Azalea—Azalea Si¬ 
nensis, or Indica—is one of the chief plants 
employed at the present day in most well-fur- 
