302 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
nearest ailinity of Echites is llie now well known Man- 
| devilla, and both belong to tbo first order of the fifth 
class of the Limuean system, b-Pentandria l-Monogynia, 
and to the natural group called Contort® by the illus¬ 
trious Swede. 
Most gardeners appreciate the system of grafting 
tender or delicate plants on others that are more hardy 
in then - constitution, either in the stove or in the 
orchard—and here is a case in point for immediate 
experiments. The roots of Mandevilla are acknow¬ 
ledged to be all but hardy with us in dry soils, and in 
the consecutive arrangements of the most scientific 
botanists, the Mandevilla itself is the next genus to 
Echites; therefore, without the test of actual experience, 
we cannot imagine any natural difficulty that forbids the 
union of members of the two families, by grafting or 
inarching; consequently, our more practical brethren 
will look on the suggestions of the biographer with the 
more confidence; and whether they succeed or not in 
this instance before us, sure wo are that the Editor will 
gladly accept of their accounts for tho use and guidance 
of his readers. Experience has, long since, silenced all 
disputes and cavils about the feasibility and advantages 
of such experiments. Some years ago we were engaged 
in experiments of this nature, with the view of getting a 
more satisfactory answer of tho question—has a grafted 
plant any influence over the stock on which it is made 
to grow ? We selected a number of variegated plants 
both for grafts and also for stocks. The issue remains 
yet undecided. Our line of reasoning took the following 
directions:—After tho lapse of a few years, the grafted 
parts were to he suddenly cut off a short time before the 
growth of the season was completed, when the stock 
might reasonably he expected to make an effort to fur¬ 
ther growth, but yet too languid for the display of its 
natural strength. Thus wo have often imagined that a 
weakness, or disease, or whatever else may have caused 
plants originally to become variegated, might be induced 
[February 13. i 
by this process to continue to do so artificially; and j 
that a young growth from a green stock, under this ex- ^ 
periment, might show a disposition to variegation, from 
the sap of the variegated plant just removed. Here also 
is a new field for the ingenuity of amateurs and gar¬ 
deners, for or against which science does not offer any 
encouragement or opposition. Wo have been less ioi- 
tunatc than gardeners, in so far as that wc have not been 
able to cause a union to be effected between a plain I 
green Pelargonium and a variegated one; and yet we 
made more than half a dozen attempts both at inarching j 
and grafting, without being in the least degree success- j 
ful. We would, therefore, be much indebted to any \ 
reader of this work who shall give a minute description j 
of a successful plan for grafting the Pelargonium, stating i 
more particularly the proper season, or the right stage 
of growth, necessary for the plants to be in at the time j 
of trying the experiment, as we more than suspect that 
we made choice of the wrong time in the growth of the 
plants operated upon. Returning to the subject of our | 
present biography, let us observe that it may be neces- j 
sary to use some caution in thus operating with the j 
Echites, as the milky juice of the whole order is to be 
suspected as very acrid, if not altogether poisonous to 
some constitutions; a drop of it falling on a recent 
wound by tho budding knife would be most dangerous. 
The present variety of Echites Franciscea was sent, in 
1840, to Kew, from the Garden of Plants at Paris, and 
described as a native of Brazil. It is a stove twiner, 
and easily cultivated cither in a trellised pot or planted , 
in the border of the house, and trained up a wall or I 
pillar. 
Chaffy-flowered Prickly Thrift (Acantholimon 
glumaccum).—Gardeners Magazine of Botany, ii. 161.— 
This is a name of recent manufacture by Bossier, in 
DecandoUe’s Prodromus; we need not trace it farther. 
However, wo place it at once as a synonym, or alias, of 
Statice, or Thrift, and a very pretty little Thrift it is, 
with a rosy pink blossom. We saw the plant in flower 
