pecial object of the cultivator. This may be accomplished thus: 
—Select healthy young plants in the spring before growth 
commences; these should not be allowed to flower, but their 
shoots should be topped so as to cause them to develope other 
shoots from their base. The more vigorous of the young shoots 
may be again topped when two or three inches long, and before 
the next growing season any elongated late-formed growths 
should also be shortened in. This process is to be persisted 
in for a season or two until a moderate bulk has been attained, 
when the topping may be somewhat relaxed, the most vigorous 
shoots only, and those which grow out of place being shortened. 
The most perfect form into which an Azalea can be formed is 
that of a low pyramid or cone, and when densely furnished with 
branches, and these covered with blossoms, the effect of such 
plants is very fine. 
This process of formation is of course not consistent with 
the production of flowers, but it is merely resorted to for the 
purpose of producing symmetrical and well-furnished plants. 
Young plants may indeed, by having sufficient root-space and a 
genial atmosphere, be induced to make two or three growths 
in a season by pinching out the terminal buds as soon as the 
shoots are sufficiently elongated ; and in any case strong-growing 
shoots likely to interfere with the form and symmetry of the 
plant should be stopped while young, by which means the use 
of the knife may be altogether avoided, and a waste of the 
energy of the plants prevented. 
We must refer to our remarks under Plate 14, for fur¬ 
ther hints on the culture of the Azalea, at which place will 
be found some instructions furnished by Mr. Kinghorn, a high 
practical authority on the subject. Mr. Kinghorn further re¬ 
marks :—-‘When under glass, if the plants are attacked by 
Thrijjs, they must be fumigated with tobacco or syringed with 
water, in which Gishurst Compound, at the rate of two ounces 
to the gallon, has been dissolved. The plant is to be laid down 
sideways to apply this, and is afterwards to be syringed with 
clear water before the mixture has dried on the foliage/’ This 
washing is very necessary, as the compound, being of a soapy 
nature, would otherwise adhere to and disfigure the plants. 
