April 8. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
31 
uia, and oxygen, by means of lime-water, diluted muria¬ 
tic acid, and a solution of the protosulphate of iron 
saturated with nitric oxide gas, when indications of the 
presence of carbonic oxide were readily obtained; the 
fumes, after agitation with the solution of chloride of 
copper, no longer induced narcotism ; whilst those, on 
the contrary, which had been treated with the other 
solvents, were more than ordinarily powerful, and ren¬ 
dered an insect insensible much more quickly than be¬ 
fore ; they also burnt with a blue flame, and possessed 
alL the well-known characters of the oxide of carbon. 
, The correctness of this conclusion was, moreover, con- 
j firmed by experimenting with carbonic oxide prepared 
by acting on oxalic acid with oil of vitriol, and passing 
i the gas evolved through caustic soda-ley. Even when 
largely diluted with air, it still continued to produce in- 
; sensibility in insects, and acted in every way like the 
j purified fumes of the Lycoperdon. It is not difficult 
i to understand how carbonic oxide is formed by the ig¬ 
nition of the fungus, as this gas is invariably produced 
in larger or smaller quantity when certain organic sub¬ 
stances are decomposed by heat, though some yield it in 
I greater proportion than others; consequently, as might 
have been anticipated, I find that the fumes of several 
other fungi act in the same manner towards animals as 
those of the Ly coper don proteus. The principal of those 
to which I allude are the common Lycoperdon of the 
druggist, L. giganteum, and the mushroom, Agaricus 
campestris."—(Year Booh of Facts.) 
A FEW SOFT-WOODED PLANTS THAT BLOOM 
IN THE WINTER AND THE SPRING. 
(Continued from Voh XV., page 401.) 
These I shall chiefly select from the list of plants in 
flower, given in Vol. XV., p. 461, to meet the wishes of 
several inquirers, who find no fault with short notices of 
tropical plants, or greenhouse hard-wooded plants, but 
i say they can make but little use of such information in 
their small single houses, filled chiefly with Geraniums, 
Cinerarias, Primulas, &c.; and for this purpose I will 
notice a few well-known and easily-grown plants that 
yield a profusion of bloom. 
1 . Ageratum Mexicanum. —This is a well-known bed¬ 
ding-plant for the flower-garden. If kept from frost, it 
is almost a constant bloomer. When grown in pots, for 
winter and spring, the dwarf variety is the best. It will 
bloom pretty well in the greenhouse at an avergo tem¬ 
perature of 4.5°, but when the sun gains power, in Fe¬ 
bruary and March, the flowers will open more freely, 
and be of a brighter lilac-blue colour. A well-grown 
plant has a fine appearance when thus studded with 
bloom. The easiest way to secure good plants for this 
purpose is the following:—Insert cuttings under a hand- 
' light, in sandy soil, at the end of May or the beginning 
of June, and shade from bright sunshine. They will be 
rooted in a short time. Then harden off gradually, by 
removing all shade, and giving more and more air, by 
degrees, until, on a dull day, the glass is removed alto¬ 
gether. Then, a few days afterwards, plant out the 
rooted cuttings on a border of rich, sandy soil, or, if 
naturally of a stiff nature, put a handful of such soil 
round each plant. Place them eighteen inches or two 
feet apart, water, and place an evergreen branch to 
shade for a few days. All the attention they will re- 
' quire will be topping the shoots to prevent flowering, 
and to make the plants bushy, and watering when they 
require it, wfliich last will be seldom if a sprinkling of 
rotten dung is placed on the ground as a mulching. 
About the second week in September, insert a fork half 
way round the plant, so as to cut or crack, by a gentle 
I raising, the extreme roots on that side; press the ball of 
the plant down again with your foot, and water if the 
weather is dry. In a week do the same with the other 
side, and by the end of the month lift and pot, and place 
in a shady place ; water the soil thoroughly, and give 
no more until the soil gets dryish, but slightly syringe 
over the leaves several times a day to prevent them 
transpiring too much. In a fortnight the plants will 
stand in an open exposure, and should be housed before 
injured by frost. Better plants are thus secured, and at 1 
a minimum of the trouble required when grown in pots 
for this purpose. They might, indeed, be taken out of j 
a flower-bed, but the plants are so far exhausted by < 
flowering, and not likely to be so compact in habit. A j 
variety is being advertised, but I do not know if it be 
different from the August (folium or Strictum, either of 
which may be treated in the same way. There is a 
variegated-leaved variety of Mexicanum, which looks 
nice when grown in a little heat, the white of the leaf 
being blotched with a rich purple ; but in a cool green¬ 
house, in winter, and even early in summer, out ot-doors, j 
this purple does not appear, and the leaf has a stunted, i 
dull, diseased appearance. After July, out-of-doors, and i 
after March, in doors, this stunted appearance goes off. 
It is more erect in habit, and does not bloom so early 
nor so freely as the common variety. In February it 
forms a good companion to the variegated-leaved. 
2. Salvia fulgens will bloom freely all the winter, 
if treated in the same manner as the Ageratum. 
3. Fuchsia serratifoi.ia treat in the same way, with 
the exception of getting the cuttings struck in April, 
in-doors, so as to receive one potting before being 
planted out in June. 
4. Salvia splendens, treat as the Fuchsia; take up 
earlier than the Ageratum. If kept in pots, and placed 
out-of-doors, protect the pots from the sun, and syringe 
the foliage unmercifully in the afternoon. Unless in a 
warm greenhouse, this will not open its bloom well after 
the end of October, unless November be very bright. 
5. Salvia gesner/efi.ora. —This bright scarlet Sage- 
wort is a perfect gem in March and April. The mode 
recommended for the other Salvias is the easiest, though 
it can be grown very well in pots all the summer. But 
if neglected in w-atering it will lose a batch of its lower 
leaves each time, and thus look leggy and bare. Small 
plants in bloom now, well cut back, and, when broken 
afresh, either repotted or planted out, will make fine 
plants for next year. Youug plants from cuttings will 
require a good deal of stopping, but it will not be safe 
to stop the shoots after the end of August, or even the 
middle of that month. If kept in pots, out-of-doors, after 
June, the plants should stand in the sun after they are 
growing freely; be well syringed after hot days, and the 
pots be protected by a mulching. It is the comparative 
safety from extremes of dryness and moisture, and a 
full exposure of the foliage to sun light, that give the 
planting-out and repotting system such an advantage 
over coddling them all the while in pots, that coddling 
involving also an extra amount of labour. In the one 
case, the plant can nearly cater for itself; in the other, it 
is dependant on us for nearly every bit and sup it 
can get. 
0. Chrysanthemum annuum, double yellow. From 
this Chrysanthemum, sown in borders, or treated as a I 
half hardy annual, I picked out, some years ago, a plant j 
with flowers as fine as a double Ranunculus. Any body I 
that liked had cuttings of it, and I have found it in 
many places under a great variety of names. Kept 
from frost, it is almost a constant bloomer. It does not 
always come quite true, having a tendency to come 
semidouble if grown in very rich soil. When kept 
young from cuttings, and in poor soil, the good form of 
the flower and the bright orange colour are preserved. 
When planted in a bed out-of-doors, the first flowers are 
frequently inferior, and, as the plants exhaust them- 
