October 2 . 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
0 
of spring and autumn, keep your cuttings under a 
j shower-bath. I would build both my walls from three 
to foilr-and-a-tialf feet in height; on these I would fix a 
ridge and furrow roof, the apex of which should be from 
! seven to eight feet from the bottom of the pit; sunk or 
otherwise, beneath that apex, I should have my entrance 
door, and a path nearly three feet wide; on each side 1 
i would have a pit supplied with fermenting matter, and 
j a pipe round the walls to dry up damp; but, better still, 
I would prefer two tanks, one on each side, with power 
to heat one, or both, at pleasure, made of iron, brick 
; and cement, or wood covered with slate, and sand for 
plunging. 
Cucumber and Melon Pit .—To this we have similar 
objections ; as a low pit, the breadth is too great to be 
j manageable, and tbe slope would only suit summer 
! work. As it is to be on the end of the propagating- 
! house, you might build them both similar, though it 
would not be so convenient for tbe purposes of the 
latter. Havo a short-hipped roof, with a path under it 
along the back, pipes along the front for top-heat, with 
or without a small path to get round there, too, at times; 
a bed in tho centre heated by pipes or tanks, and the 
melons and cucumbers trained 15 inches from the glass. 
If once you thus grew them, and attended so easily to 
their wants, you would never place them in a low pit, 
unless from necessity. Although your propagating-house 
would not be so handy as by the first mode, you would 
have the pleasure of looking at the whole concern in one 
range, and this is the way I follow it out. Sink it as 
you propose, 24 feet below the ground level, raise the 
front wall 2 feet above this, and the back wall 4 feet, 
which will have a passage; along tbe front 2 feet wide, 
though a dwarf must stoop to walk in it, and a path of 
3 feet along the back; over this have a short-hipped 
roof of 3.1 feet, joining the front sashes at an apex of 
7 or 71 feet from tho floor. This will give you a bed 
in both houses of 7 feet in width, which may be slightly 
sloped to resemble the roof, though for many purposes 
I would prefer it level, and not more than 3 feet above 
the base line. The hipped roof at the back might be 
opaque, if you found out anything much cheaper and 
more durable than glass. R. Fish. 
HOTHOUSE DEPARTMENT. 
EXOTIC STOVE PLANTS. 
Siphocampvlus. —A genus of soft-wooded stove plants, 
of a sage-like appearance in foliage, and, in most in¬ 
stances, of a Gesnera-like flower. Many of them are 
very beautiful when in bloom, and the following selected 
list are worthy of general cultivation, wherever there is 
space and convenience to grow them. 
S. bicolor (Two-coloured S.); S. America. A free- 
flowering handsome plant, with egg-shaped, tooth-edged 
leaves, and red and yellow flowers. 2s. Gd. 
S. coccineus (Scarlet S.); S. America. This is a fine 
showy species, when well-grown. The (lowers arc nearly 
1 two inches long, and much inflated, and of a glowing, 
j crimson-scarlet colour. The leaves are broad, egg- 
; shaped, and deeply-toothed. It flowers abundantly 
] through the greater part of the summer. Very de- 
! sirable. 2s. Gd. 
S. glandulosus (Gland-bearing S.); New Grenada. A 
very useful plant, flowering through the autumn and 
part of winter. Fine, sea-green, large foliage, with 
flowers tube-shaped, two-aud-a-half inches long, and of 
a beautiful light-purple colour. Very peculiar and de- 
I sirable. 3s. Gd. 
S. manettuefolius] (Manettia-leaved S.); Brazil. This 
forms the neatest plant of the whole genus. As soon 
as it is rooted from tho cutting, the top should be nipped 
off; and when the branches, in consequence, have 
pushed two inches, stop them also, and tie them out, to 
allow inore central shoots to grow up. This practice 
continued till the plant is a foot or more high, and as 
much through, will render it a neat, dense bush, cover¬ 
ing the pot entirely. The leaves are bright green ; the 
flowers orange-red, with yellow tip, produced freely at 
tbe ends of the shoots. A neat, desirable species. 2s. Gd. 
S. microstoma (Small-tbroated S.) var. rubra (Dark- 
red-flowered variety); New Grenada. The species and 
variety are both very handsome, free-flowering plants. 
The flowers are more tubular than any other species, 
and the opening, or throat, almost closed, hence its spe¬ 
cific name. The blooms are produced in clusters, at the 
end of each shoot. If there is any difference in point of 
merit, perhaps the dark-coloured variety has the advan¬ 
tage. Both are worthy of cultivation. 2s. Gd. 
Mr. Louis Van Houtte has published, in his “Flora,” 
several more species of Siphocampylus from New Gre¬ 
nada, which, from the plates, or figures, appear to be 
desirable; but as the beauty of a plant depends so much 
upon its habit, we do not venture to recommend them 
to our readers till we liavc^ seen more of them. One 
species that he recommends strongly, 8. orbynyanus, we 
grow, but it has reached the height of three feet, and 
has not as yet shown any disposition to flower, though 
we have kept it in various situations, in tho stove, in 
tho greenhouse, and in the open ground. When it does 
flower, we will report its merits as a flowering plant; 
merits we have not yet discovered, except through 
Mr. H.’s plate. 
Culture. — Soil .—This is tho first thing to provide 
after any cultivator has obtained an addition to his 
family of plants. The genus Siphocampylus is not very 
fastidious in respect to soil. The ordinary compost of 
peat, loam, and leaf-mould, with a due proportion of 
sand, will suit every species, except, perhaps, S. manettue¬ 
folius, which wo judge requires more peat, and a more 
liberal addition of silver sand. 
Propagation.-—By Cuttings .—Seeds are rarely pro¬ 
duced, but that is of little consequence, as tho whole 
genus strike root from cuttings as easy as willows. 
The best cuttings are made of tbe young top-sboots, not 
too gross or sappty. Make the cuttings by taking off 
the lower leaves, leaving only two or three at the top. 
Cut the shoots or cuttings even at the bottom, and put 
them in round tbe edge of 5-inch pots filled with tbe 
compost, and a thin layer of silver sand at the top. 
Water gently to settle the sand close to tho cuttings, and 
place them in a gentle hotbed, or under a hand-glass in 
a propagating house upon a heated bed of ashes or sand. 
Shade from the bright sun till they strike root. This 
they do quickly, and as soon as that is perceived pot off 
immediately into 3-inch pots, replace them in the frame 
or under the hand-light, and shade again till fresh roots 
are formed and the plants fairly established. Then 
gradually inure them to bear full exposure to sun and 
air in the stove. 
Summer Culture .—With stove plants this season may 
be fairly assumed to commence about tbe middle of 
March. At this time we will suppose the plants to be 
nice, small, bushy ones, with their pots pretty well filled 
with roots. Let as much compost as may be required, 
or a little more, be placed in a warm shed to bring it to 
a temperature nearly similar to that in which they are 
growing. Have also in readiness the necessary quan¬ 
tity of drainage material, and the proper number of the 
right-sized clean pots. All these being in the proper 
state for using, bring the plants into the potting-shed, 
drain the pots well, and re-pot the plants, giving them a 
rather liberal shift, about three-quarters-of-an-inch be¬ 
tween the old ball and the sides of the new pot. This 
is a proper time to nip off the tops to cause them to 
branch out, and so form bushy plants. Treat them 
