August 15 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
877 
appendages all the way up, and keep topping these as 
they push again. When a sufficient height is gained, 
pick out the terminal bud, and give what sun and air 
you can command to ripen the upper part of the shoot. 
As that progresses, remove a few of the lower stubbed-in 
branches, cutting them clean off to the stem. Before 
frost injures the softer parts lift the plants, divest the 
roots of all extraneous stubs and long naked rootlets, 
and either pot, or pack the roots in soil neither wet nor 
dry, and in either case, pack or place roots and tops in 
any place such as a dry shed, so covered that frost will 
not reach them. Leave them there, with scarce more 
attention, until the advancing heat of spring causes the 
buds to break; then you must give a little light and 
air, and yet save them from injury by frost. If 
destined to go out-ofdoors, such plants will be better 
never to receive any coddling under glass; as the shoots 
grow, the side-shoots should be again stopped-in, to 
give more strength to the head, and as that extends and 
widens, all the lower shoots on the stem should be 
gradually but wholly removed, so that the end of the 
season may obliterate most, if not all, the scar marks 
which otherwise would show where they had been. The 
same process of keeping must be repeated every winter. 
I have seen large plants used for this purpose, taken up 
somewhat carefully, and their roots all packed in a ridge, 
in a cold house, and the heads protected with hay and 
mats in cold weather, the house thrown open early in 
spring, and the plants transferred out-of-doors as soon 
as the spring frosts were over. 
Another mode of getting standard Fuchsias is fre¬ 
quently resorted to. You have been growingyour plants 
on the conical system, and fine, tall plants you have got. 
You prune back these plants in autumn or spring, re¬ 
solving to have them more large and beautiful, and 
similar in shape, the present year; but by some means 
or other, the lower buds do not break so well as you 
wish, and your dreams of symmetry turn out to be 
nothing but airy visions for the present. Now, pruning 
up these plants gives you a fine occasion for making 
nice standards in no time, though that time will be les 
sened than otherwise by not pruning quite up to the 
terminal point at once, but leaving a few tiers of upper 
branches shortened-in, and to be finally removed as the 
head gains size, and thus of itself maintain a relative 
and correlative action with the roots. Were I to make 
standard Fuchsias with the least trouble, and yet derive 
the greatest amount of floral pleasure in the process of 
preparation, I would grow young Fuchsias in the conical 
shape one season, not, however, having a wide base for 
the cone, but narrower, so as to secure smaller branch- 
lets there, and thus encourage the plant to mount; 
and then, the second season, I would prune these up 
gradually, and give them the tree-standard character. 
As something out of the common, a few of these will 
always create attention; and the best of it is, that, as 
shown above, a comparative failure in one form may 
thus be made to assume an attractive aspect iu another. 
But a third tells me, he has no such resources to fall 
back upon ; that he can command a small hotbed; and 
wishes to obtain standards as soon as possible from the 
cuttings he is ready to insert. Well, in that case, you 
may insert cuttings now, and have all the bother of 
looking after little plants during the winter; but I 
should rather advise you to husband your resources 
until the end of February or the beginning of March. 
You may easily procure cuttings then from one to two 
inches in length, slipped off with a heel close to the older 
stems. These inserted firmly round the sides of small 
pots in light sandy soil, and plunged in a mild, sweet hot¬ 
bed, watered when requisite, and shaded from bright sun¬ 
shine, will be ready for potting in small pots in a few 
weeks. These should be replaced again in the bed, and 
by-and-by will need a second potting, and after a week 
or two of growth will need hardening off by more air, 
so that the plants may be transferred to a rich piece of 
sheltered ground out-of-doors by the end of May, shad¬ 
ing them a little at first. These would require to stand 
fully a yard apart, and if well mulched with rotten-dung, 
and watered with manure-water, they will grow with 
groat rapidity—the standard character being kept in 
view from the first by the shortening and ultimate 
removal of all competitors with the leading shoot. 
These should be raised and packed away by the end of 
October. Though all Fuchsias, as standards, will, less 
or more, assume the pendulous habit, those are the best 
fitted that are of a twiggy habit of growth. R. Fish. 
GREENHOUSE FERNS. 
It is one of the mysteries of Nature, that one plant 
will bear the extreme heat of the tropics, and another, 
of apparently similar form, and as delicate a structure, 
will flourish only in the opposite extreme of cold, whilst 
a third requires a more temperate clime. Though a 
mystery to us, it is a wise and merciful dispensation by 
the Creator and Disposer of all things, for by this adap¬ 
tation to different climates every part of the earth is 
furnished with plants yielding food, when cultivated, for 
the use of man, as well as flowers to gladden his eyes, 
and gratify the love of the beautiful in his heart. Not 
only are these useful and lovely products of the soil 
given to man, but also the light of knowledge to collect 
them together, improve them, choosing some, and re¬ 
jecting others, according to his w'ants or desires. 
This knowledge leads men to endeavour to bring to¬ 
gether plants that may be useful or ornamental from all 
parts of the globe, and this is the highest effort of a 
civilised mind. The mere savage contents himself with 
the fruits only that yield him food, without culture, 
growing around the place where he was born, and that 
careless or improvident state of mind constitutes, in a 
great degree, the difference between the savage and the 
civilised man. The one lives and feeds like a mere 
animal, whilst the other labours with his mind and hand, 
and lays up stores to supply his wants at all times and 
seasons. In the highest state of civilisation, man not 
only grows food, but also cultivates some plants merely 
for their perfume, or for their beauty. Such as produce 
showy, sweet flowers, are the first that he esteems. Hence, 
we see cottagers, men without book learning or science, 
cultivate as flowers such things as the Stock and the 
Wallflower, whilst others possessing a knowledge of the 
beautiful flowers and fruits of foreign lands, and having 
wealth to carry out the power of cultivating them, collect 
together plants from all parts of the world. Then the 
mystery I spoke of at the beginning of this essay 
appears. The man of thought and science finds that 
some plants are more impatient of cold than others, 
and wonders why it is so; but finding it is so, he under¬ 
stands that he must adopt some means of protecting 
them, or, rather, he must create, as it were, an arti¬ 
ficial temperature and dwelling for them. Hence, we 
have our stoves, our greenhouses, and pits, to suit plants 
of every clime. This provision of suitable habitations 
for plants has made rapid strides of late years. We 
have now not only the stove for tropical plants generally, 
but we have also houses for peculiar tribes of plants; 
such, for instance, as the Orchid - house, the Palm- 
house, &C. Then, again, the greenhouse, which, when I j 
was a boy, contained every plant requiring its pro¬ 
tection, crowded together in it. Now, as the science of 
culture has advanced, it is found necessary to have 
separate greenhouses for single families of plants; such 
as Heaths, Pelargoniums, Camellias, Azaleas, and that 
largo assemblage termed New Holland plants. 
Then, again, it is found desirable to grow the tribe of 
