THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
179 
December 19.] 
I 
plant, and the chief point of pruning here would consist [ 
in the removing of the older branches. Pruning may be 
performed in autumn or spring; strong watery shoots 
should be stopped whenever they appear, unless a leader j 
for a particular purpose is wanted. 
Thinning Flowers and Fruit.— The former may be J 
done for bouquets, for orange-water, and to cause the fruit 1 
to set better. To have the latter fine, only one fruit 
should remain from a bunch of flowers. 
Propagation: by Seed. —For raising new varieties, and 
for stocks for grafting; for the latter purpose, citron, 
lemon, and Seville oranges are to be preferred ; but any 
will do. If the fruit is decaying all the better, because 
the seed will be plumper and riper. Sow any time after 
Christmas in a hotbed. Pot off singly when several 
inches in length, and keep reshiftiug during the summer, 
and growing rapidly in a high moist temperature, if tall 
stocks are the object; allow them to rest during the 
winter ; start them again the following spring in a hot¬ 
bed, and then bud or graft by almost any method. Where I 
the stocks are too tail to be placed in a hotbed, they 
should be set in the shady part of a house, and the scion 
after being secured, covered for a time with thin glazed 
gauze or tissue paper. Where nice little bushy flowering 
plants are wanted, the seeds may be sown any time in a 
hotbed in spring, potted off, &c., as above, and grafted 
about midsummer. As the stock is small, side or cleft 
grafting are here the best. By the first—it is merely 
necessary to cut a piece off the side of the scion, and an 
equal piece off the side of the stock, bind them together, 
and clay over, allowing part of the head of the stock to 
remain until the scion has fairly taken. By the second— j 
cut the stock down to within au inch or two of the soil; 
split it in the middle, prepare the scion like a wedge; 
insert it so that at least on one side the inner bark of 
the stock joins the inner bark of the scion. Or, if the 
bark rises freely, a longitudinal cut may be made in the j 
side of the stock thus cut down, as if for a bud, the scion 
being made thin and inserted accordingly. Tying in all 
cases must be carefully attended to, and the air excluded 
by clay or grafting wax, and the plants must be kept close 
until the union is fairly effected. If placed under a hand- 
light in the interior of the hotbed, this will be the sooner 
accomplished. They must then be hardened by degrees, i 
By Cuttings. —This is the best plan of all where neat 
small flowering plants are wanted, and may be prose¬ 
cuted at any time, unless when the plants are growing 
freely. Early autumn and early spring are, therefore, 
the best times. Young well-ripened shoots are the best, 
but such shoots also do well with a portion of the older 
wood attached, though the latter require a little more 
time. Cut them over to a joint, insert in pots filled 
with sandy loam and pure sand at the top—the base of 
the cutting resting on the draining crocks; water, allow 
the foliage to get dry, keep under a hand light in one of 
the houses for two or three weeks, and then plunge the 
pots in a sweet bottom heat. According to circum¬ 
stances, it will require from six to twelve weeks before 
the plants are fit to be potted. 
Insects. —The orange tribe has its enemies, the most 
prominent of which are the aphis, when the shoots are 
young ; and the red spider and brown scale (Coccus). 
When in winter and spring the syringe can be less freely 
used the first is easily set adrift by fumigating with 
tobacco ; the second with sulphur vapour, placing it on 
hot-water pipes, and syringings with clear soot water. The 
latter operations are destructive to the third, but a few 
will generally escape, and give employment in whiter by 
hunting for and dislodging them,—washing the plants 
with a solution composed of an ounce of soft soap and 
an ounce of flowers of sulphur to two quarts of water, 
setting the plants in a shady place, and syringing them 
lustily with clean water two or three days afterwards. 
R. Fish. 
HOTHOUSE DEPARTMENT. 
STOVE PLANTS. 
Bignonia : a genus of plants, the type of the Natural 
Order of Bignoniads (Bignoniaceae). This natural order 
consists chiefly of fine ornamental creepers, mostly from 
the warmest parts of the world, very few being found in 
more temperate regions. They are remarkable for 
broad pinnated leaves and handsome trumpet-shaped 
flowers, rendering them interesting objects to cultivators. 
We propose on this occasion to select a few of the finest 
species that are desirable to cultivate—confining, of 
course, our remarks to such as require the heat of the 
stove. 
Bignoxta Chamberlaynii (Chamberhiync’s) ; from 
Brazil.—A lofty climber with yellow flowers, suitable to 
cover the rafters of a large conservatory. 3s. 6d. 
B. cherere (Cherere, native name); red and green; 
Guiana.—A beautiful moderate-growing creeper, very 
full of leaves, which appear ternate—that is, in threes, 
with a tendril on the odd one. The flowers are very 
pretty. 3s. lid. 
B. venusta (Lovely B.); 8. America.—A splendid 
creeper, with large bunches of bright orange flowers. 
Very lately we had the pleasure of seeing a very fine 
specimen of it in the Royal Gardens at Frogmore. 
There it is planted in a narrow border at the back of 
the stove, and is trained irregularly over the wall, which 
it nearly covers. In some parts it has reached the top 
of the house, and is trained down the rafter a consider¬ 
able way. There were scores of bunches of flowers upon 
it, and hundreds of buds yet to expand. This and 
other examples teach, that in order to have this and 
other free-growing creepers in the greatest perfection it 
is necessary to allow them plenty of room to extend 
their branches and their roots. No pot culture could 
possibly bring them into such a state of beauty as this 
plant exhibited. 
There are many other species of Bignonia that would, 
no doubt, by the same mode of culture exhibit their 
fine flowers to as great perfection ; but they would 
require a large stove conservatory like those at Chats- 
worth, or the Royal Gardens at Kew. Should the 
“ powers that be ” think fit to form “ the chrystal palace ” 
of Mr. Paxton, in Hyde Park (after the Exhibition of 
the Industry of all Nations is over) into a winter garden 
for the recreation and instruction of the inhabitants 
of our great metropolis—“ a consummation devoutly 
to be wished,"—there would then be an opportunity of 
cultivating these magnificent creepers to the greatest 
perfection in that lofty building. The bananas and 
palms of India might be grown to something like the 
grandeur they attain in their native climes, whilst the 
creepers of such countries would hang down in graceful 
festoons, and delight the senses of the beholder without 
the serious drawbacks upon the enjoyment of their 
beauties to which he is subject when viewiug them in 
their wild luxuriance in their native wilds. We think 
this most desirable; and we hope to see the day when 
every one will have a free opportunity of seeing the 
plants of foreign climes growing in such structures as 
the chrystal palace. 
Culture. —The best situation for the growth of Big- 
nonias, we have said, is to plant them in a border in the 
stove. They may either be trained to cover the back 
wall, as at Frogmore, or be planted in a border in front, 
and trained up the rafters in a similar way that the vine 
is usually cultivated. In summer, allow all the shoots 
to grow, excepting very weak ones, which are not likely 
to flower. The strong shoots should be trained so as to 
have as much light as possible without entirely shutting 
it out from the plants below. 
Soil. —The borders should be well drained; and if so 
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