June 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
175 
stronger, will do no harm to plants in general. When 
tender, or the young shoots growing, or likely to be 
exposed to a fierce sun early next day, the halt'of that 
■ strength would be sufficient. Even for brushing hot- 
! water pipes, or plates, for sulphur fumes, this decoction, 
I thus reduced, is more economical than sulphur alone— 
I a question likely to he of interest to the cultivator, now 
that sulphur is likely to he so greatly used in a more 
mournful war than the gardener is forced to wage with 
insects. 
Then, as you have no pit, or forcing - house, the 
best thing you can do is to place all your Azaleas at one 
end of the house. Keep that end closer and moister 
than usual, by giving littlo or no air there, and using 
the syringe freely morning and evening, and even at 
mid-day, especially over floor, stage, and shelves. Ere 
, long the young shoots will he pushing. If a few should 
threaten to be so strong as to he robbers of the general 
strength, pinch the point out when between one and 
two inches in length, and this will give you two or three 
shoots that will be of an average strength with the 
general crop of young shoots on the tree. Encourage 
growth by these means until the shoots are from one to 
two inches long; then harden by more air gradually, 
and less water, and full exposure to light, in August, 
the plants would be better out-of-doors, first a little 
shaded, and then with the pots shaded and the tops full 
in the sun. Place all under shelter by the first days in 
October. 
In many of my neighbours’ greenhouse vineries 1 
have seen the forward Azaleas growing nicely. The 
j shade from the Vines, and the closeness and moisture 
as they neared the blooming and setting period, were 
just the conditions in which Azaleas delight when 
commencing fresh growth. Having once been very 
severely caught myself, I feel bound to throw out a beware 
here. If there aro any thrip on your Azaleas, you will 
require to be extremely watchful over them, or you may 
have to regret the day ever they were allowed, at such a 
time, to remain beside your Vines. The thrip likes the 
tender foliage of the Vine the best of the two, and the 
state of the leaves and shoots before autumn may lend 
you to wish the Azaleas had got any where but there. 
Let this be an additional reason for friends possessing 
only one house, and that with Vines in it, for having 
their Azaleas clean. 
CALCEOLARIAS. 
“ The beauty of the most of my forward plants is over; 
they are chiefly herbaceous and semi-shrubby kinds. 
There seems to he no such a thing as a cutting to be got, 
and I wish to save the kinds; and l fear, from the 
appearance of the leaves, that insects are resolved to con¬ 
tend for the mastery.” You say nothing of seeds, and 
most likely the seed-pods, in such circumstances, have 
come to nothing. I have previously recommended that 
where seed, hybridised or otherwise, is to be saved by a 
private grower, one to three pods are enough to save on a 
plant. Discarding, therefore, all attempts at seed, re¬ 
move at once the whole of the flower stems, but leave a 
pod or two, if you like. Collect your plants, then, on a 
north border, and place them under a close frame, or 
under a hoop to he covered with a thick cloth, and there 
give them several fumigatings with tobacco, erring on 
the side of not making it too strong at a time, and allow¬ 
ing a day or two to intervene between the doses of the 
narcotic. Now, as this last season we have had reference 
to frequent instances of the danger of carrying things to 
extremes in the way of fumigatings, &c., 1 will just state 
how I would do, and have done, in such circumstances. 
The plants are collected into a moderate two-light frame, 
in other words, into a space of eight feet by five, averaging 
one foot in depth. I should give such a space about one 
ounce of the strongest shag tobacco, covering the glass 
all over, and damping the covering outside. Howover 
the tobacco was burned, slowness of ignition, and freedom 
from flame, by a covering of damp moss, would be in 
dispensables. Next day, I should give no air; but if 
the sun struck the glass at all I would shade instead. 
The second day air would he given, just to allow the 
fumes to escape; and towards evening f would take out 
and syringe the plants individually, with the clear soot 
and lime water, or the decoction of sulphur and lime, 
mentioned above, setting them back again, after being 
thus syringed. If no insects afterwards appeared, a 
syringing with clear water would finish all this cleansing 
affair. It is more likely, however, that all the insects 
alive were not thoroughly killed, or that a fresh brood 
has been hatched from a plentiful store of eggs sineo- 
then. In that case, the process should be repeated, only 
that the doses should in general he weaker in each suc¬ 
cessive infliction, as the foliage, from want of air, will 
be less robust. It is of great importance to take all 
these preventive measures in time. 
Amateurs, and young gardeners, set to and smoke their 
plants too often as a desperation movement. The time 
to do it is when the first iusect appears. If you wait 
until the energies of the plant are paralyzed by aphis 
and thrip sucking out its heart’s blood, you might save 
your own trouble and the expense of the tobacco, as 
the doom of the plant is already most likely sealed. A 
plant covered with insects before attempts aro made to | 
dislodge them always speaks of inattention; though j 
that inattention, in these days, is not always the result of , 
carelessness; the imposssible to get at them in time j 
entering often into palliating considerations. 
The plants, cleaned by these means, may be moved to 
a shady spot, be turned out of their pots, and planted in 
light, rich soil, and be watered when it is wanted with 
the coolest soft water that can be got, drenching the 
tops frequently with similar water from the syringe; and 
generally, by September, there will he nice healthy cuttings 
to strike off' the semi-shrubby kinds, and good strong 
suckers or fresh root plants to take up and repot from 
the herbaceous kinds. 
CINERARIAS. 
“I have sown seed of these frequently at this season, 
that 1 might get early-flowering plants, and I never get 
any plants.” Well, that is strange; but we know it 
happens sometimes from two causes. First, that chaff 
is sown instead of the seeds ; and, secondly, when good 
seeds are sown they are first buried and then rotted. 
Though the seed is by no means small, when compared 
with other seeds that are really small, it will not stand 
a heavy amount of covering, especially if that is exces¬ 
sively dry at ono time and excessively wet at another, 
ilouce the readiness with which this plant, if it has any 
chance, sows itself; and this fact will, as we shall pre¬ 
sently see, solvo the dilemma of another inquirer. 
“ 1 am extremely anxious to save seed from some fine 
Cinerarias, that proper judges pronounce first-rate; but 
I am not at home during the day, and when 1 try a head, 
I find nothing but floss in it; when l attempt another, 
the seed does not seem ripe; but when I return after a 
breezy sunny day, it has become the sport of the winds, 
having become mature and dispersed during my absence. 
Now, what am I to do to secure seedlings? it is so tire¬ 
some to be beaten! ” Aye, so it is; hut there is no help for 
it, at, times; and, all things considered, it is no doubt well. 
It is questionable if the fashionable dispensing in all 
cases of the schoolmaster’s cane be an unmitigated good. 
Relieve us from mental drubbings, let all he patent 
and smooth, and whatever may become of the charms 
of gardening, it requires no seers mantle to foretell that 
the glory of our country has departed, on the principle that 
what a man gets easily he values but little. I have some 
little doubts of the propriety of telling of an easy w r ay to 
