November 17. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
121 
a slight hotbed heat will assist them, and after stopping 
them to secure the necessary number of shoots, and 
these are getting to the length referred to above, a cool 
pit or greenhouse, with plenty of air and light, is the 
place for them. Of course, when the plants are kept in 
a cool stove in winter, they will preserve a semi¬ 
evergreen character; but for summer, autumn, and early 
winter flowering in greenhouses, they do best when 
allowed to become deciduous in a cool j temperature in 
winter. 
HABROTHAMNUS ELEGANS. 
The treatment of this has already been given. I i 
allude to it here again for the purpose of recommending 
it as a continuous flower. Grown against a pillar, in a 
largish pot, moveable at pleasure, there is scarcely a ! 
time when you could not gather bunches of its pretty 
carmine tubular flowers. Winter, however, is the time i 
when the summer-made shoots bloom most profusely. 1 
Cuttings, either of the young shoots taken off with a 
heel, or piece of the ripened one-year-old shoots, strike 
freely in a little heat. When plotted off, the plants are 
better to be kept close and warm until the shoots are 
about a foot in length, after which, a cold pit and a 
greenhouse will suit them, the plant standing out-ol- 
cloors very well during the summer. A plant, struck in 
spring, will bloom freely the following season, as the 
second winter approaches, more especially if it has re¬ 
ceived plenty of light and air in summer. Being a 
native of Mexico, it is hardier than the Oestrum , retain¬ 
ing its evergreen character in a low temperature, such 
as from 40° to 45°. 
FUCHSIA SERRATIFOLIA. 
Though this pretty Fuchsia, by peculiar treatment, j 
may be made to bloom at various periods, autumn and 
winter are the seasons in which it blooms most freely 
and naturally. “ A Correspondent” may put such a plant 
against the back wall of a conservatory, without heat, 
with great propriety, though the plant be not a climber, 
as in such a position it will bloom all the winter if the 
frost is not too much for it. This species, and such 
allied kinds as eordi.folia (aud, we believe, spectabilis, 
though we have not had equal experience with that), 
may be made to bloom freely in summer, by arresting 
growth in autumn by means of drynoss and coolness, 
and keeping the plant as cool as possible in winter, in 
any out-of-the-way dark place, where the vitality of the 
shoots was merely preserved. But nothing is gained 
by such trouble, as there are plenty of other luchsias 
in bloom at that period. Suppose, then, that such a 
plant is wanted for the winter of 1854-1855—obtain a 
young plant next spring, or strike some cuttings in a 
slight hotbed any time before May. Pot off, when 
struck, into loam and peat, lightened and made porous 
with sand aud charcoal; keep the plant in a green¬ 
house or cold pit until the second week of June, or 
thereabouts, when, with due attention to shiitings, it 
may stand out-of-doors—first, in a sheltered place, and 
then full in the sun. But the best plan, after the plant 
is large enough to fill a five or a six-iuch pot, is, by the 
middle or towards the end of June, to turn it out in an 
open border, attend to it there duly with water, and 
what little training it may require; and then raise it 
carefully by the end of September, or the beginning ol 
October, and place it in an open, but shady place, such 
as on the north side of a wall or hedge. W hen the 
roots are working among the soil in the pot the plant 
will stand more light; and before it is likely to be 
injured by frost it should be moved under protection, 
and will soon be a gay object for many months. On 
potting from the border, even though the plants are a 
little shaded, frequent fine dustings of water over the 
foliage, from the syringe, will be more beneficial in 
preventing an excess of evaporation than deluging at 
the roots. Such plants, or the smallest of them, pruned 
well in, and planted out the following June, will make 
larger specimens for a following year ; but for pot- 
culture, unless standards are desirable, it would be as 
well not to keep them older, but to have a younger 
stock from cuttings. 
BRUGMANSIAS, OR DATURAS. 
If anything like system had been our object, we would 
have introduced these after Oestrum and Habrothamnus, 
as they, also, belong to the Nightshade order; and yet 
how unlike in their proportions. The tube of Oestrum 
would scarcely hold enough of nectar to wet the tooth 
of the tiniest fairy ; while the corolla of suaveolcns 
would be more than large enough as a punch-bowl for 
the good temperance folks; and the tubes of sanguined 
and lutea would hold enough to please, for one draught, 
the admirers of pale bitter ale. These plants are also 
known as Daturas ; and then, again, the species suaveolens, 
is known as arborea, and Candida, and all names are 
appropriate enough, the flowers being very sweet, white, 
and the plant tree-like in the robustness of its growth. 
Sanguined, dark red, is also known as bicolor. These 
plants are all useful for summer decoration in the open 
air, and the large, massive plants never look to advan¬ 
tage unless when they are planted out. In a roomy 
conservatory, well supplied with manure-water, they 
form splendid objects for many months. When used 
for the open air, I never made much headway with 
them; when left out, however, the lower part of the 
stems and the roots were protected. Lifted when the 
cold nights came, part of the softest shoots pruned ofl, 
and kept, after rooting has taken place, rather dry, 
behind a stage, or in a shed, where frost would not get 
at them ; then watered, aud placed in greenhouse treat¬ 
ment in spring, hardened by degrees, and turned out into 
rich soil in June, they will yield abundance ol flowers 
in the later summer and autumn months. To have nice 
manageable plants of these lor the winter months the 
treatment must be slightly altered. We have had them 
do tolerably from cuttings struck in spring, kept under 
glass, stopped several times, so as to be rather stumped, 
and then planting them out-of-doors in a rich border in 
the end of June, and re-potting them in the end of Sep¬ 
tember. But such plants do best the second year, when, 
after they have done flowering, their juicy stems are 
hardened by sun, air, and little water, are then partially 
pruned, removing the softest part of the shoots, and 
daubing the cut ends with lime, and then are placed in 
the coolest dry place, where frost cannot reach, taking 
care that the soil is just not thoroughly dried. By 
April and May they should be stumped, or pruned pretty 
freely in, kept from frost behind a north wall, and then 
turned out into a rich border by the second or third 
week in June. These will be compact, bushy plants, 
with flower-buds peeping thickly by the month of Octo¬ 
ber, and, raised carefully, and potted, will blow in a 
greenhouse for some of the darkest months, if a medium 
of 45° at night is maintained. This last remark, how¬ 
ever, is chiefly confined to the lutea and sanguinea— as 
the large flower of suaveolens will not open freely under 
an average temperature of 50° at night, unless there is 
a bright sun during the day. The plant, altogether, 
would be more difficult to get'into a suitable form for a 
small greenhouse. A plant ol either ol the others is not 
to be sueezed at, even in these days ol novelty-loving 
and advancement. 
Several plants of an herbaceous character—such as 
Chinese Chrysanthemums, Salvia splendens, Salviafulgens, 
and Ouphcas, of sorts, Ageratum, of sorts, especially a 
variegated-leaved oue lately introduced, with some others 
_will all make nice, stubby, compact plants for winter 
blooming, if struck from cuttings in M ay, and planted 
