QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
187 
appear, it is rarely no exaggeration of the case, and I have no doubt 
there are many who have had occasion to observe the unaccountable 
caprice and uncertainty which many half hardy plants display in 
their powers of resisting frost. We have not, for example, any cer¬ 
tainty, that because a plant of a particular species is known to be 
annually killed, when exposed to the winters, in the neighbourhood 
of London, or any other given place; the same species may not 
prove more hardy, and endure the rigours of winter some hundred 
miles further north. Indeed, instances of this kind, though certainly 
exceptions to the general rule, are by no means rare. I have, how¬ 
ever, merely adverted to them/so as the more fully to point out to a 
“Subscriber” and other querists, the difficulty which often occurs in 
giving them the information they wish for. It would, I think, be 
advisable, for those who send queries at all relating to the cultivation 
of plants, to give not only the name of the country, but the name of 
the town in which they reside; this, I conceive to be indispensable 
where half hardy plants are concerned, at least if correct informa¬ 
tion be desirable. 
If by variegated Laurel (or Liger) Laurel, “a Subscriber” means 
the variegated variety of the common Laurel, he will find it may be 
readily increased, either by layers put down in spring, or by cuttings 
of the current year’s shoots, taken of! with a heel of old wood, about 
the end of august, or beginning of September, and planted in a moist 
shady border. The Oleander, may also be propagated by cuttings, 
two or three inches in length, taken off at a joint, and planted in 
sandy soil. If advantage can be taken of placing the pot in a close 
frame, with a little bottom heat, so much the better. The same treat¬ 
ment may be applied with success for both Myrtle and Hydrangea. 
Rhododendron are generally raised from seed, although sometimes 
they are increased by layers, enarching, &c. The latter methods 
are, however, but seldom practised except with particular species and 
varieties, of which seeds cannot be procured. 
Ten or twelve years ago, in various parts of the woods at Cane 
Wood, near Highgate, many young plants of Rhododendron had 
sprung up from self-sown seeds, and at this place there are thousands 
of seedlings rising in different parts of the grounds, from seeds pro¬ 
duced on old plants, and scattered about by the wind, and other na¬ 
tural causes. 
The Oleander will seldom fail to flower freely, if kept in a frame, 
or the coldest part of the greenhouse during winter, and early in 
spring to be removed to a stove, peach house, or vinery. From the 
time the flower buds make their appearance, the roots ought to be 
