2’4 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEll. 
December So. 
light, rich soil; sow shallow, and cover slightly with 
: very fine sifted soil, giving very gentle waterings when 
I the soil is dry. The young seedlings are very succulent, 
and soon damp off if too freely watered, or in too damp 
heat. The best place for them is on a shelf close to the 
glass of a good greenhouse. Pi’ick out the seedlings, as 
soon as they can bo taken hold of, into the same sort of 
shallow pot, and when they have made a still further 
growth, pot tliem singly into threo-inch pots, and after¬ 
wards treat them as you would cuttings. Some may 
flower the first year, but they will all certainly bloom 
the second. This is the only way to iirocurc now and 
improved varieties. 
To cultivate the Chnjsanthcmum with a view to 
exhibit it, some extra care must bo devoted to it. 
During the time of growth, the plants should be fully 
e.xposed to sun, light, and air. They should by no 
means be crowded together, or amongst other plants. 
The best situation 1 ever found for them was in a single 
row, on the side of an open walk. In this situation, from 
i\Iay to August, they will grow bushy, be furnished with 
broad, healthy foliage to the pot edge—that is, if rightly 
managed in three particulars, namely, repotting in very 
rich soil; freely watering at the root (occasionally with 
liquid manure), and frequently syringing over the leaves 
and branches; and, lastly, frequently stopping. At the 
end of August they should bo in nine-inch pots, and 
then should be stout, bushy jilants, with the flower buds 
in abeyance, or dormant. The buds should just make 
their appearance in September, and grow on slowly till 
October. The plants will then be really handsome 
objects, independent of bloom, and will require no 
sticks, nor any kind of support. 
In order to have a greater show of bloom, some 
growers place three or four plants in a pot, but 1 cannot 
commend that practice. A greater number of flowers is 
obtained, it is true; but it is at the cost of a sacrifice in 
the size. The largest and finest flowers are always 
produced on single jjlants, and no censor will give a 
plant a prize in preference because it has a greater 
number of inferior blooms upon it. If not intended 
for exhibition, the placing a number of plants in a pot 
or tub may be a praiseworthy practice. I saw, very 
lately, in the conservatory in the Itoyal JJotanical 
Society’s Garden, in Regent’s Park, a box, more than 
two feet across, closely filled with many plants of a 
tasselled-flowered Chrysanthemum, and a fine object as i 
a mass of bloom it certainly was ; but when the flowers 
wore examined individually they were very common-jdace 
indeed, i have, in my greenhouse, several pots, with 
three or four plants in each, which, viewed at a distance, 
arc very passable—nay, even showy ; but they arc not 
fit for an exhibition. “ Cato,” and every grower for 
I exhibition, then, will he wise if they adopt the single- 
! plant-in-a-pot system, if they wish to have really large, 
good flowers, either to be exhibited in pots or cut 
\ blooms. T. Appleby. 
{To he continued.) 
CONSERVATIVE WALLS. 
{Continued from pugc 1H4.) 
Wn.vr is the use of a Conservative Wall ? Previously 
to putting up any building, the first consideration is, 
of what use is it? 'that is the question. To the strict 
utilitarian, wliose ideas arc confined to the profit and 
loss on any undertaking, the conservative wall will 
a])pear a perfectly useless building; the objects to be 
grown against it are useful neither ibr food nor clothing. 
To a mind so narrowed, I cannot jiroduce any argument 
to prove that a wall to be covered with ornamental and 
flowering shrubs is of any use. He could easily under¬ 
stand that a pinery, a vinery, or a peach-house would 
bo of some use. The fruit would bo fit to eat! and 
would bo a pleasing enjoyment after dinner, accom¬ 
panied by a glass of good wine. I do not deny this, by 
any means; and, iu addition to the mere eating of such 
delicious fruit, there is, to a more elevated mind, quite 
as much enjoyment in seeing stich fruits bloom, grow, 
and come to ])erfection. To a mind still more refined, 
there is a still higher enjoyment in cultivating and 
bringing to a high state of perfection ])lants cultivated 
only for their fine foliage, or highly-perfumed beautiful 
Bowers, tbe gems of the earth. Shakspero says, “the 
man that delights notin music is not to be trusted;” 
and I may venture to say, that the mind that delights 
not in flowers cannot bo very amiable ! 
Now, the use of a conservative wall is to grow plants 
against it to a highoi’ slate of perfection than they can 
be grown in j)ots, more especially such plants as will 
i not quite bear the vicissitudes of our climate. T'or 
} such ])urposcs it is admmibly adapted; and this is no 
' theory only, it has been borne out in practice in various 
places—-private gardens. 1 mentioned some in my last 
paper on this subject, and now 1 need only refer to 
the conservative walls at Row and Chiswick, as in¬ 
stances of public gardens, where they may bo seen 
clothed with beautiful specimens of jilants in the 
greatest luxuriance. Rut there is another use of plants 
grown in this manner, and that is, the proving their 
capability of bearing our climate. j\lany jdauts are 
imported from warmer climates, of whose power to resist 
or boar our frosts wo have no knowledge. 1 remember 
the day when the Aucuha Japonica was cultivated in 
the greenhouse only, and now every tyro in gardening 
knows that it has proved one of the hardiest of our 
evergreens. Had conservative walls been iu existence 
then, this plant would have been planted against it, and 
its perfect hardihood proved at once. Again; if there 
is any truth in the doctrine of acclimatation, or the art 
of hardening, this wall is a proper school for the plants; 
and it would be a very interesting pursuit to endeavour 
to acclimatize plants by placing them first against and 
under the sheltering iullueuce of such a wall previously 
to planting them out in the open border, when they 
had acquired a woody texture; for it is a well-known 
fact, that old hard-woody plants will bear a greater 
degree of cold than the same plants Avhen young 
and soft-wooded. And, thirdly, jdants against such a 
wall arc ]nore certain to bear seed than such as are 
grown in pots, or oven in the borders of a con¬ 
servatory, for this reason—in such a situation they 
are more likely, nay, certain, to 2 M'oducc seeds, I’rom 
the fact that they have more of the stimulants (air 
and light, combined with protectiou) to cause such 
a natural eil'ect. The production of seed is a step 
gained in the art of hardening plants, because it is 
supposed that plants raised from seed saved in a colder 
climate than their native habitat will have a more 
robust constitution, and thus, by a natural process from 
generation to generation, the great grand-children of 
plants brought originally from Japan or IMcxico will bo 
as hardy as our oak or hazel. 1 do not say positively 
this will be so, because I do not forget that the Dahlia, 
the Potato, the Cucumher, and the Melon, are probably 
as tender now as they were the first year of their intro¬ 
duction ; but it is plants with a more woody texture that 
would probably be acclimatised, if the art of hardening 
by a conservative-wall were systematically and judi¬ 
ciously carried on for several generations. 
Such is my answer to the question. What is the use 
of a conservative wall ? and 1 think the reasons given 
are quite sufficient to bear out the idea, that it is a useful 
as well as a beautiful object; and then follows the 
second query. How is it to be built ? The answer to 
this will include the aspect, material, and the mode. 
'The aspect of that model of a conservative wall at 
