1'ebkuary ]7. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
383 
cost. The great advantages of keeping such plants 
in a house, rather than in a pit, are comparative 
lieedom from damp, and the ability to clean, ])ick, 
and attend to the plants in all weathei'S. 8uch 
I plants would rarely recpiire an artificial temperature 
j above 40°, while I have already stated that no undue 
impulse would he given to the Vines, if the average 
night temperatui’e did not exceed 45°. We do not mean 
here to enter into the question of exposing vines to the 
open air' or, if under glass, allowing them to get a good 
nip of frost. We are sure that our friends with only 
one house will find none of these things at all essential 
to success, though ideas on these matters have prevented 
many from making that use of their glass which they 
might have done. When a selection is to be made, 
such soft-wooded plants as Senecio, Anagallis, Petunias, 
and Pelargoniums, should have a place in the house, 
while Calceolarias and scarlet Geraniums may remain 
in the pit. Verbenas, if potted or in boxes, will be 
better in such a house, though 1 have never preserved 
them better than by pricking out young plants in 
autumn, in a prepared bed, in a cold pit, taking care 
that the plants were not more than nine inches from the 
glass, and scattering among them some dry earth and 
charred rubbish during the winter. Planting out in 
light sandy soil saved the plants from many vicissitudes 
they would have been exposed to in pots. Even in the 
viuery house they will keep better in small wooden 
boxes than in pots. When a great number are required, 
everything may be kept in cutting pots or boxes, and be 
thinned about the middle of March, the hardiest re¬ 
ceiving shelter out-of-doors, or in a pit. 
As example is often a better monitor than precept, I 
mention the following;—Not so long ago, I was invited 
to see a vinery thus filled with stubby, healthy, bedding 
plants. In a pit near it were Endive and Cauliflower, 
as salads, grapes, and flowers were deemed essentials. 
Some years previously, advice was asked under circum¬ 
stances very difl'erent. The vinery was empty, with the 
exception of a little Endive on its floor. The first jiart 
of the winter had been mild, which had encouraged 
weak growth among a mass of bedding plants, ])otted, 
! and placed in a cold pit. Many of the things had been 
; obtained in the autumn, and were expensive. The pit 
i was extra damp from being sunk beneath the ground 
level. After the middle of January, the weather had 
been changeable, cold, and frosty, requiring frequent, 
deep, and long continued covering. When 1 saw them, 
a fungus damp had crawled over almost every pot, and 
wherever it touched a stem of a plant it became quite 
rotten. The theory had been dunned into our friend’s 
ears, that though he only wished grapes in the end of 
September, he must grow nothing but Vines in his 
vinery. He made resolutions for the future, hut what 
was to be done for the present? Singular enough, the 
weather being dull, the tops of the plants were yet 
sound, though gone below. In a day or two more, all 
■ might have gone to the rubbish heap. In a twinkling, 
' every plant was cut over above the damped part, and 
' laid down in a warm damp place just sprinkled with 
I water. Then two or three lights were cleared; a hot- 
! bed, consisting of a couple of feet of warm dung, made 
in the pit, covered with six inches of rotten leaf-mould, 
i and four inches of sandy soil, covered again with a 
I half-inch of silver sand. In this the erstwhile plants 
were inserted, after having been made into cuttings, and 
when growing, were topped and struck again; and from 
what our friend called this lucluj hit he had a fine supply 
I of plants during the season. Since then he strikes his 
plants out-of-doors, and in his pits in autumn; keeps 
them there until his grapes are cut; then cleans his 
liouse, and brings his young plants in, and allows them 
to remain until the buds of his Vines are breaking, when 
i they are thinned by removing the hardiest first. When 
the pits are cleared of the plants, they are filled with 
vegetables, and when these are gone part of the space is 
wanted for plants from the vinery, and part for cucum¬ 
bers, &c., and when these again are over, or a supply is 
obt.aiuable from the hand-light ridge, a space will be 
wanted under glass for cuttings. The house, too, is 
made somewhat ornamental during summer, so that it 
would be a rare thing indeed to find, at any one period, 
a yard of glass for a couple of days unoccupied, i have 
lately shown how to keep plants in cold pits «Zo«e; it 
will now be perceived that there is less difficulty when 
they can have standing room in a vinery unforced for 
three or more months in winter; but in the latter case 
the expense of a fire to keep out frost, and to keep the 
air in motion in dull weather, will be necessary. The 
above fact of striking cuttings from the tops of plants 
after they had gone at the collar, is of importance in the 
case of valuable plants, decaying or sickly, as, if not too 
far gone, the kind may thus be perpetuated, when other¬ 
wise destruction is inevitable. 
2nd. Having Fines up the rafters, hut making them a 
secondarg coiisideration. —In such a case, the Vines 
would only give the shade, which creepers or twiners 
would do. In such circumstances, every plant we have 
treated on for the Greenhouse would be suitable, pro¬ 
vided the Vines are not allowed to shade too much. In 
such a case you will obtain fine-flavoured, well-coloured 
fruit, but in general the berries will not be so fine as if 
you could have managed with less air, when the Vines 
were in bloom and swelling freely. In a single house 
I would always prefer Vinos, even in such circumstances, 
to creepers, as some of the finest of these could be 
trained round a trellis or a bush, while, independently 
of the pleasure of eating the grapes, there would be a 
great advantage to the pot plants in having no shade 
above them in winter after the Vines were pinned. In 
such a house, avoiding too much shade in summer 
being kept in view, different tribes of plants would 
require the identical treatment we have hitherto de¬ 
scribed, so far as growing, resting, training, potting, 
watering, and placing either in the open air or in a cold 
pit, are concerned. The very shade of the Vines will, 
therefore, be of importance to plants beginning to grow 
and making tbeir buds. But this will better appear 
under a third division, where Plants and Vines are to 
receive an equal amount of attention, and where there 
are the means of a hotbed, if not also of a cold-pit. 
R. Fish. 
THE PELARGONIUxM. 
{Continued from page 005.) 
Propagation by Seed. —Perhajis in all the events of 
a florist’s life there is none so interesting as that of 
being the successful raiser of an improved flower. It 
is no wonder that there are so many new ones annually 
raised; for, independent of the profit, there is an ex¬ 
quisite enjoyment from the time of the seed being 
sown to the period of blooming the seedlings. Like 
all other pursuits of life where there is an uncertainty 
in the issue, the fruition is waited for with an anxious, 
pleasing anticipation. 
In Pelargonium raising there is a greater uncertaintj' 
than in most other florists’ flowers, for the foliage is 
no guide whatever in judging whether the bloom will 
be improved or not, and there are thousands of seed¬ 
lings raised annually that, instead of improvement, 
are found to be worse than the parents. In this point 
I think the raisers are as much to blame as nature; 
they are not sufficiently careful in selecting the varieties 
to seed from. High-bred varieties are very difficult to 
seed at all, hence it is saved from such (probably infe¬ 
rior varieties) as produce it freely This seed, as might 
