THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25. 
42 
stem—unavoidably, it is true—where the great side 
branches were lopped off, were most hideous to my 
eyes, and so ungardening-like, that I would as soon 
live in a desert as be surrounded with such ugly and 
haggard-looking objects. Unless a thing can be done 
properly, and more especially experiments on living 
plants, in the name of all that is blue-apron-like, let 
us not scandalise our ancient craft by aping and cari¬ 
caturing. But to return to our suckers, from which 
these very handsome imitation plants are expected, 
as soon as they are from five to seven feet high, nip 
off the points to stop them, and the next half-dozen 
buds below will start into side branches, which are 
to form the foundation of the future standard ; there¬ 
fore, see that they are at proper distances from each 
other. The situation of the buds will determine this 
before any branches are formed, and if the buds are 
too close together, disbud them, so as to allow room 
enough for the future branches. If any side shoots 
are made lower down, either after stopping the 
points or before, they must be nipped before they 
form one joint, and only the leaves from which they 
issue left. All the leaves on the stem from top to 
bottom are left on the first season, but no side 
branches allowed, except the few at the top, to form 
the head. When the young wood gets firm, say 
about August, you may begin to cut out the buds, 
beginning at the bottom and going up progressively 
as the wood ripens; so that, by the end of the first 
growing season, all the buds on what is to form the 
future stem aro entirely got rid of. This is the most 
essential part of the whole process—but the buds 
ought to be extracted—yes, that is the right word— 
extracted without injuring the leaves; for unless the 
buds are taken out with their roots, so to speak, de¬ 
pend on it they will trouble you afterwards by throw¬ 
ing out strong side branches; but once extracted 
from a one season’s growth, no tree, I believe, has 
the power of renewing them a second time. But 
some of these days I shall relate some curious expe¬ 
riments on the subject; meantime, these suckers 
may be safely left attached to the mother stools for 
three years or more, for they will acquire more 
strength and come sooner into use that way than if 
taken off sooner. Anytime during the spring of the 
second season a ring of bark, about two inches wide, 
must be taken off the bottom of these suckers, and 
the lower down the better ; then, when these wounds 
are perfectly dry, and the upper edges of them begin 
to swell by the formation of new wood, and not be¬ 
fore, you may earth up some good soil all over the 
old stool, till it is four or five inches above the ringed 
parts. Roots will immediately issue from the swel¬ 
lings of these rings, and so form you a tree “ on its 
own bottom.” By the help of these roots and the 
connexion with the parent stock, very vigorous 
healthy young trees are formed in less time and more 
handsomely than by any other process known to us; 
and in separating them from the stool, work your 
way to the ringed parts and cut through them with a 
small saw, and this you may do twelve months before 
you finally remove your new standard. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Calceolarias. — Thirty years have not elapsed 
since the first of these beautiful family of menopeta- 
lous (one-petaled) plants was introduced into this 
country from Chili and Peru, but the still more beau¬ 
tiful hybrids that have been raised from them during 
the last eighteen years are numberless. Still, for 
many purposes, such as flower beds, and for pots in 
windows, those originally introduced, and those 
slightly varying from the primitive stock, are truly 
valuable, as they possess the property of continuously 
blooming for six or seven months in the year, and 
with a little care woidd bloom all the season through. 
What, either in a bed or in large pots for vases or 
windows, can be more beautiful than the orange C. 
viscossissima (so named from the clammy nature of 
the leaves), or some of its dwarfer progeny, when con¬ 
trasting with a bright scarlet or deep blue, or a vivid 
purple, or even, if it should happen to be its posses¬ 
sor’s peculiar taste, fitting in with the paler yellow of 
the lately introduced, pretty C. a/mplexicaulis ?■ An¬ 
other advantage of these first introduced shrubby va¬ 
rieties is, that they seem to retain with us the natural 
hardiness they possessed when growing upon the hill 
sides of Chili, where, though in the immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood of the tropics, they yet flourished in a tem¬ 
perate clime, from being elevated far above the level 
plains—protected on the east by the snow-capped 
Andes, and regaled from the w r est by the moist 
breezes wafted from the Pacific; while our more 
large, beautiful herbaceous, improved hybrids par¬ 
take, to a certain extent, of that tenderness and lia¬ 
bility to injury which generally accompanies im¬ 
provement in the form and structure of the animal, 
and civilisation and social progress in the man. To 
counteract this tendency to degenerate, so far as ro¬ 
bustness of constitution is concerned, some men must 
be found strong-minded enough to break through 
the common practice of hybridising with the most 
improved forms, and make use of some of the older 
hardier species as one of the parents, being satisfied 
with the interesting and beautiful results of their 
labours ; their plants being hardier, though, perhaps, 
not quite reaching in size and form the florist’s stan¬ 
dard of perfection. When the proper season arrives 
wo shall again direct attention to the subject, as few 
can have better opportunities for carrying out the 
principles of hybridising than the general readers of 
The Cottage Gardener ; and, in the case before us, 
no easier means could be taken for obtaining a vast 
variety for beds or borders. 
The word calceolaria is derived from calceolus, a 
little shoe, or sandal, and hence the whole family 
have been styled slipper-worts. The first introduced 
species might well have reminded a Chinese mandarin 
of the richly-clad, beautiful dumpy feet of his lady 
love; and strange sensations they might have con¬ 
jured up in the minds of many of our ladies, and 
gentlemen too, who will have their boots made of a 
certain shape and size to please the eye, magnani¬ 
mously resolving that the feet shall be made to fit their 
covering, let corns, bunions, deformities, and illness 
come as they may. But, lack-a-day, gardeners have 
so changed the appearance of these flower slippers— 
have resolved they shall be round as a circle, without 
even a notch in the circumference, and shall be as 
blown out as a bladder—that the only slippers these 
wondrous calceolarias can now-a-days be compared 
to are those which we put upon a horse’s feet when 
we require his services to roll a carriage-road or a 
lawn. To such a quarter we have no notion that the 
devotees of fashion will come for shapes and patterns, 
though, judging from the strange shapes of shoes for 
the last thirty years, there is no saying what the next 
new idea may be. Be that as it may, all honour, say 
we, to those who in any kind of slippers, whether 
leather or vegetable, can see beauty and elegance in 
true utility , though far removed from the shape of 
fashion, and the standard form of florists. And this 
