December :!7 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Kir 
carefully attended to. Oxylobium, Podolobium, and 
Platylobium, chiefly distinguished by the appearance 
and shape of the seed-pod, require similar treatment. 
Diosma.—A genus of low evergreen shrubs, re¬ 
quiring peat and loam. 
Erica (Heath).—Seeds of many species may be 
obtained. If sown in spring, and potted off late in 
summer, they are apt to go off in winter. It is 
generally deemed advisable to sow in August, and 
keep the young plants in the seed-pans, near the 
glass, and in an airy situation during winter, and 
placing them individually, or by threes, in small pots 
in the spring, re-shifting as they require it; keeping 
them in the pit for a couple of years, encouraging 
growth until September, and then using every means 
for ripening the wood, giving plenty of air, back and 
front, when the thermometer is from 35 to 40° in 
winter, though more sparingly in foggy weather. 
Soil: fibry, sandy peat, with pieces of charcoal. 
Er ac ms.—Similar treatment will be required; the 
plants are hardier, and not so subject to mildew as 
the erica, but most of them would be inclined to 
bloom before they could be set upon the stage. 
Azaleas.— The hardier ones may be treated in a 
similar manner. 
Camellia. —Seeds of the single varieties may 
sometimes he met with, but they require the best 
part of two years to vegetate. A single camellia is 
far from despisable. 
Lechenaultia requires similar treatment to a 
heath, only it likes a mixture of turfy loam with the 
peat, and should he grown fast on the one-shift sys¬ 
tem : unless the flowers are frequently picked off, the 
plants soon become exhausted. 
Pimelea. A beautiful family of low shrubs, flourish¬ 
ing in sandy loam and peat. 
To these may be added the greenhouse and frame 
species of the genera Myoporum, Pittosporum, 
Eugenia, Pultencea, Stylidium, Mahernia , Suain- 
sonia, Goodia, Sutherlandia, Fuchsia, all of which 
will flourish in peat and loam; the Fuchsia liking, 
in addition, as it gets older, a portion of dry manure, 
or copious manure waterings. With the exception 
ot the fuchsia, some of which, and especially the 
beautiful Fulgens, will flower the first season ; none 
other of the plants will be fit for the stage the first 
year, and many of the best not for two years. For 
sowing, a nice sweet liot-bed should be prepared in 
February; pots prepared, well drained, filled with 
suitable soil, in the manner lately recommended for 
calceolarias; plants shifted, as soon as they can be 
handled, into very small pots ; stopped when a few 
inches in length, to make them bushy; encouraged 
by shifting, watering, and keeping rather close, to 
grow freely until autumn, and then ripened by giv¬ 
ing more air; exposure to light, and withholding 
water; admitting plenty of air in favourable iveather 
in winter; lighting a small fire in damp, foggy, or 
frosty weather; and, if that cannot be done, making 
sure of a dry, raised pit, as recommended last week. 
Many, if not all, of the plants referred to would be 
better in a shaded position during summer than 
exposed to the south on a stage, not because the 
plants will not stand the sun, but because the pots 
are apt to get so hot that the roots would be scorched, 
do remedy this, the pots should be set inside of 
larger ones, the space between being stuffed with 
moss, and this, too, will render less watering neces¬ 
sary. Syringing overhead, night and morning, in 
warm weather, will also be of service. The same 
system may be advantageously adopted with all pot 
piantsj in a similar position during summer; and if 
a little water stands in the pans below the pots, pro¬ 
vided not high enough to reach the roots in the 
inner one, there will be no danger of stagnation, nor 
yet so much from dryness either in the soil or at¬ 
mosphere. 
2. Climbers ix Pots for Trellises we can 
barely name. BracJiysema latifolia, we fear, would be 
rather tender. Many Kennedgas would do well. 
These should chiefly be grown in sandy, turfy peat, 
with a little loam as the plants get older. The fol- 
; lowing require fibry loam, with a little peat, and 
pieces of charcoal to keep the soil open:— Convol- 
volus, Tropceolum Canariensis, &c.; Solly a hetero- 
phylla and linearis, Billardiera scandens, Jasminum 
azoricum, odoratissimum and ligustrifolium, Tropceo- 
j lum pentapliyllum and Lohhianum, JUolichos lignosus, 
i Maurandya, Lopliospermum, Eccremocarpus, a,nd Pas- 
si flar a Ccerulea. 
3. Succulents. — Cactus (seeds from speciosus, Jen- 
Jeinsoni, and Speciosissimus, may frequently be ob¬ 
tained), Mesembryanthemum, Sempervivum, Crassula, 
Portulaca, &c. &c. If the atmosphere is moist, the 
seeds will want little water until the plants are up. 
Soil should be light and sandy. In potting and re¬ 
potting, add pieces of lime rubbish, broken bricks, 
and charcoal. The last-named are annuals, and very 
beautiful. Many of the others may be treated as 
annuals. The cactus, when it arrives at the flower¬ 
ing state, should, when done flowering, be transferred 
to the pit, pruned, encouraged to grow with manure 
watering, or surface dressing w'ith manure; placed 
in front of a wall, to harden its wood, early in au¬ 
tumn ; removed to the pit, and, as well as all other 
succulents, kept dry, and from frost, all the winter. 
4. Shrubby Herbaceous Plants. — Calceolaria, Ci¬ 
neraria (see former papers), Geranium, Oxalis Flori- 
bunda, Linum, Salvia, &c., &c., mostly require light 
sandy soil, with a little peat, adding enriching 
matter as the plants get older. If sown in spring, 
in gentle hot-bed, will mostly flower in the end of 
summer and autum. If sown in autumn, will flower 
in spring and summer. The best varieties may be 
selected for cuttings, and seed again be saved. 
5. Herbaceous Plants. — Primula sinensis, &c., 
Commelina, Mimulus, Penstemon, Antirrhinum, Ver¬ 
bena, Tagetes, Anagallis, Trachelium, Petunia, Lo¬ 
belia,, Statice, Alonsoa, Kaulfussia, Agatlicea, &c., &c., 
and most of the half-hardy plants used for bedding- 
out, would answer well for such a position. Most of 
them would flower the first season, if raised in a hot 
bed in spring. The most desirable varieties may 
then be marked, cuttings taken, and young plants 
saved over the winter in the pit. Even with a few 
genera, such as Cytisus, Fuchsia, Calceolaria,, Cinera- 
] ria, Geranium, Penstemon, Verbena, and Lobelia, a 
fine show could be obtained in such a position all 
i the summer, if the plants were well grown. 
Bulbous Plants. — Alstrccmcria (seed should be 
i sown when ripe, as it keeps badly), Ixia, Gladiolus, 
I Anomatheca, Sparaxis, Witsenia, Wacliendorfia, &c., 
! should be sown early in the spring, or, what will suit 
; most of them better, in the beginning of September, 
and the plants kept slowly growing all the winter. 
Use light sandy loam and peat; withhold water as 
soon as the foliage decays, but keep the plants never- 
I theless exposed to the sun, to ripen the bulbs; repot 
in the end of autumn; place them in the pit, but 
give no water until they begin to grow. Do not 
plant the bulbs too shallow; regulate the depth by 
i their size. R. Fish. 
