~ THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 2, 1856. 307 
use of so many new mothers, on which to dust the 
pollen of the Experimental stock; and if that is not an 
enormous temptation and a vast responsibility, just tell 
me what is the meaning of such terms. But having 
told you the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
as far as I know, and without being asked, I shall 
hold myself, in future, as perfectly free from all 
responsibility on this part of the subject; and now 
we shall, if you please, enter the lists on equal 
terms. I am a cross-breeder to the back of the back¬ 
bone, and you may, or may not, look very cross when 
you learn that it is my settled determination to cast 
nine-tenths of the present stock of bedding Geraniums, 
of all sorts and kinds, into the River Thames above 
Kingston Bridge, and that it is my resolve to fill up 
half their places with other kinds half as good again, 
leaving it to more fortunate, or, it may be, less fortunate 
breeders to offer you kinds twice as good. Meantime, ! 
and for a very long time, indeed, others, without the 1 
bump of responsibility on their foreheads, have been ! 
sending.my cast-off seedlings into the world without 
my name, on the easy weight of my authority or appro¬ 
bation ; and like cast-off clothes, or shooting-boots, and 
old hats, they—the seedlings—did not fit or give satis¬ 
faction to all the world. 
About eight or nine years back a young Belgian or 
German gardener, who was doing the Geraniums at the 
Pine-Apple Place Nursery, showed me how he did his 
cuttings of them—that was in the month of June ; but 
I never saw or heard of such a curious way from that 
day to this. Mr. Appleby ought to have seen it, for he 
was among the Orchids at the time. The kinds were 
the most tender in the place; the cuttings were in the 
usual way, but were only let into a half-inch thick com¬ 
post of sandy peat and loam, mostly sand, in six-inch 
wide flower-pot saucers, in a row all round; the cuttings 
leaning against the sides of the saucer, without any 
support from the compost; the saucers were placed on a 
shelf over the path, and only nine or ten inches from 
the glass roof; but, if I recollect, there was a slight 
canvass shade outside. 
A few years previously, I knew a dealer, not far from 
that nursery, Syred by name, who grew abundantly for 
the streets and market, and once I called on him in 
August. I found 500 cutting-pots of Geraniums up ' 
against the glass, on shelves running along his house 
on purpose—48-sized pots, and ten or twelve cuttiugs in j 
each pot. He, too, said that that was the best way ; that 
he never shaded them, nor shut the doors or ventilators. 
I am satisfied I saw some of his cuttings touching the 
glass. Now, after the end of August, I propagate all 
my Geraniums on this very plan, but with different 
sized pots, from thumb-pots, and one cutting in them, to ’ 
No. 32-pots, with ten strong cuttings, to remain in the 
same pot till late next March. Eor the first week I do 
not place the pots up so near the glass as they did; after 
that the leaves get firm. I give more moisture than is 
usual, and keep them up very near the glass, not more 
than six or seven inches from it, and there is a thorough 
draught day and night. Constant moisture ; great, dry 
heat; and a full blaze of light, and being close to the 
glass, seem to be all the secret. But if I understood 
Mr. Syred, the plan is as old as the time of his grand¬ 
father. D. Beaton. 
[This is one of the most interesting and most useful 
announcements ever made to floriculturists; and the 
best Geranium of the season ought to bo named Donald 
Beaton, as a mark of honour and gratitude.—E d. C. G.J 
PLANTS THAT MAY BE IN BLOOM IN 
AUGUST. 
The greater part of those mentioned at page 327 will 
still be in bloom where there is room for them. A 
moderate-sized stove plant house will now be very gay 
with Achimenes, Begonias, Gesneras, Passion Flowers, 
and such fine-foliaged plants as Maiden-Hair Ferns, 
Cissus discolor, Coleus Blumei; and a few Orchids, as 
Cattleya Loddigesii; and a small greenhouse will be 
very gay with Fuchsias, Balsams, Gerauiums, and 
Begonias, Clerodendrous, and tender annuals, such as 
Thunbergia, brought from the stove or forcing-house. 
The following bloom most generally in August 
STOVE PLANTS. 
iEchmea fulgens, iEgipbilaelata, diffusa; iEschynan- 
thus Horsfieldii, maculata, radicans ; Alpinia cardamo- 
mum, mutica; Anchieta pyrifolia; Anisochilus car- 
nosa; Anisomeles Malabaricu, ovata ; Averrhoa bilimbi; 
Barleria lupuliua, longiflora, purpurea ; Basella rubra ; 
Bilbergia cruenta, fasciata; Bromelia cruenta, &c.; 
Centroelinium reflexum ; Centrostemma reflexum, alias 
Cyrtoceras reflexum; Colubrina Asiatica; Crypto- 
phragmium venustutn ; Diastema ocbroleuca ; Dichori- 
sandra gracilis, picta; Eupatorium Berteroianum, 
chamsedrifolium ; Euphorbia Commelini, fulgens, liep- 
tagoua, repauda, verticillata; Euryale ferox; Jacque- 
montia violacea; Jacquinia arborea; Lngerstromia 
Indica, elegans ; Leianthus longifolius ; Lisianthus Rus- 
sellianus, latifolius; Malpighia aquifolium ; Medinilla 
speciosa, &c.; Neptunia plena; Olea Roxburgbii; 
Physianthus albicans; Rhytidophyllum auriculatum ; 
Richardsonia scabra; Vismia Braziliensis ; Xylopiliylla 
longifolia, latifolia, &c. 
GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 
Adamia versicolor; Adesmia viscosa ; Aloe depressa, 
flavispina, nobilis, &c.; Aloysia citriodora; Ammobium 
datum, plantaginoum ; Amphicoma arguta ; Auacamp- 
seros arachnoides, polypbylla, varians; Andromeda 
speciosa, &c.; Anisomeles furcata ; Astelma speciosissi- 
mura; Babiana villosa, &c.; Bseckia diosmsefolia, 
tenuifolia; Beatonia atrata; Billardiera mutabilis, 
scandens; Borbonia cordata; Bossisea prostrata; Bou- 
vardia versicolor; Browallia elata, demissa, speciosa; 
Burcbardia umbellata; Chironia liuoides; Clethra 
arborea; Dactylicapnos thalictrifolia ; Dianella eusi- 
folia, revoluta ; Deplopappus incanus ; Erica formosa, 
gemmifera, Irbyana, Massoniae, obliqua, suaveolens, 
verticillata, vestita rosea, &c. ; Erythrina cristagalli, 
laurifolia; Helichrysum vestitum, affine; Hiudsia 
longiflora; Leschenaultia arcuala ; Liliurn speciosum; 
Phaenocoma prolifera; Polianthes gracilis, tuberosa; 
Roellia decurrens, spicata; Scholia speciosa, tama- 
rindifolia; Struthiola tomentosa; Stylidium fascicula- 
tum ; Tecoma Capensis ; Viminaria laterifolia; Yirgilia 
sylvatica; Westringia triphylla. 
I shall now, according to custom, give a short outline 
of culture of some of those mentioned, confining my 
attention in this paper to stove plants, enumerated 
now aud at page 327. 
jEchjiea, Bilbergia, and Broaielta are propagated 
and cultivated much in the same way as the Pine-Apple. 
The old flowering stems are cut away when the suckers 
have got to a good size, as, before that, the old stems do 
more good in the way of nourishment than harm. The 
plants may then be divided, separated singly, or grown 
in a large pot in a mass. For effect, the latter mode is 
the best. A mass of from six to a dozen stems of 
the richly-coloured iEchmeas has a brilliant effect, and 
so has one stem in a little pot in a small bouse. 1 hey 
grow freely in peat and loam, and relish amazingly 
pieces of decaying, soft, rotten wood mixed with the com- 
