February 19. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
319 
growth now must be encouraged. A hothouse, a plant- 
stove, a hotbed, anywhere affording a temperature of 
from 55° to 65° at night, and 70° to 80° during the day, 
with plenty of moisture at the roots, and moisture in 
the atmosphere, and closeness and a little shade in 
bright sunshine. By August the treatment must 
gradually change, by giving more air and full exposure 
to sunshine. 
Maturing the growth. — For this purpose we place 
them in a sunny spot out of doors, against a wall or 
paling, in the end of August, and allow them to remain 
there, protected only from heavy rains, until g the middle 
of October. At first they will want good waterings, 
and a few syringings over head, to lessen evaporation, 
but all this is gradually curtailed, until finally the 
leaves can just manage to stand the sun without flag¬ 
ging. Then they are rested, or put to bed in a cool 
greenhouse, or outhouse, where the temperature is 
seldom below 35°, and as seldom above 45°, unless 
from sunshine. Here they are kept in a medium state, 
neither wet nor dry, until it is desirable to start them 
into bloom the following year. 
Then two modes present themselves, according as the 
plants are to have the advantage of a forcing-house, or 
to be grown in the greenhouse, and yet every shoot ex¬ 
pected to flower. First, in a forcing-house, ranging 
from 50° to 60°, and the plants, duly prepared, will stand 
forcing well. At first they are removed into the coolest 
part of the house, in a few days to # a position where, 
near the glass, they can obtain every ray of light, and 
where shortly a rise of 10° in February and March will 
do them no harm if well supplied with water at the 
roots. In a few weeks, less or more, the flower-buds 
will show, then to prevent the chance of a check, the 
pots are placed in pans of water, and manure water is 
freely given to them. By-and-by, young shoots will 
issue from the base of the flower-stalks, some stop 
these, I prefer picking them out at once with the point 
of a knife, when two inches or so in length, only re¬ 
moving one at a time, the strongest first, leaving a 
space of a day or so between them. The strength is 
thus thrown into the flower-stem. When the blossom 
expands, the plants are removed to the conservatory; as 
soon as the blooming is finished, they are brought 
back again, cut back to within a few buds of the 
base of the shoots, fresh potted when the young shoots, 
after being thinned to the desired number, are several 
inches in length, and then the same course of rapid 
growth, &c., gone through as in the first season. 
In a greenhouse this mode wilf not answer. You 
| will not have heat enough to bloom the plants freely 
until April and May, and July will often come and go, 
until the blooming is all over, and as to getting strong- 
young shoots for next season, that is impossible in the 
time. One season, therefore, must be appropriated to 
growing, and another to flowering, and we have done 
this by two modes, and could not say which was the 
best. By one, as soon as done flowering, we have set 
the plants out-of-doors, and given them rough treatment 
j in autumn and winter. Cut the plants down in spring, 
I put them in heat, and give the young shoots the before- 
mentioned treatment. By the other mode, we cut down 
the shoots shortly after flowering; top-dressed or shifted 
after the young shoots broke, keeping the plants in the 
greenhouse all the autumn and winter, and just slowly 
! moving. They then got a good place near the glass in 
spring, were grown as quickly as the heat of the green¬ 
house would permit, and set out to mature in August, 
! &c. 
I think the matter will be pretty well exhausted if 1 
mention, in conclusion, how the same plant may flower 
year after year in a greenhouse by having always two 
crops of shoots,—one to bloom this year, the other to 
bloom the next This is the mode most likely to be 
acceptable to those with limited room, and that under 
which I have witnessed the most gorgeous specimens. 
There is not the slightest difficulty after the second year. 
I had this mode in view, when I stated that in one case 
it was not desirable that all the shoots should be equal 
in size. Now, for clearness, I shall suppose a case. 
There, towards the end of March, we are looking at a 
nice young plant with five shoots; two, eighteen inches 
in height, we expect to bloom; two, six inches, we do 
not expect to do so; and one of twelve inches, of which 
we are doubtful. We cut the doubt at once, by severing 
the shoot a few inches from its base, believing it will 
yield us one, if not two, young shoots that will be as 
strong as those now six inches in length. Whatever we 
do to encourage the blooming shoots, will also encou¬ 
rage these future-prospect ones. They will receive more 
light and air after the two blooming ones are cut down 
to two or three buds from their base. And young 
shoots from these again will have sprung several inches 
before the plants are put to rest for the winter, and be 
ready to take the place of future-prospect ones for the 
succeeding year, whether the plants have their maturing- 
process given to them in a very light and airy part in 
the greenhouse, or out-of-doors in the autumn, though 
the latter will generally be found the best. Regulating 
the number of shoots before blooming; pruning back 
and regulating afterwards; shifting, when necessary, 
when the young shoots have broken; plenty of rich 
nourishment when blooming and growing, and maturing 
in autumn, are all that is necessary. 
Insects. —A nasty scale is sure to annoy them. Many 
things will kill it, but will kill the plants too in un¬ 
skilful hands; warm soap water, and a hard brush or 
sponge is the safest. R. Fish. 
BROWNEAS AND THEIR CULTURE. 
This is a genus of stove shrubs, or rather little trees, 
rising to the height of from six to eight feet even in our 
stoves. They have large pinnate leaves, and heads of 
scarlet flowers, and make, when in flower, a truly mag¬ 
nificent appearance. Being natives of the West Indies 
they require the heat of the stove constantly, and would 
thrive much better if the pots were plunged in a warm 
bed of tanner’s bark, at an average heat of 80°. 
The Browneas belong to the natural order Legumi¬ 
nous Plants, one of the largest and most useful of the 
natural orders of plants; to prove this, we need only 
mention that it contains the pea and the bean. The 
following are the species of Brownea at present known 
and cultivated in our hothouses:— 
B. ariza (orange-scarlet-flowered B.); S. America. 
B. coccinea (scarlet B.) ; West Indies. 
B. grandiceps (large-headed B.); Caraccas. 
B. latifolia (broad-leaved B.); Trinidad. 
B. racemosa (clustered B.); Caraccas. 
B. rosea (roseate B.); Trinidad. 
Culture. — Propagation. —In striking cuttings of stove 
plants it is generally found that the young, newly-made 
shoots form roots the quickest, yet there are some ex¬ 
ceptions, and experience has proved that the genus 
Brownea is one. If young shoots of this are made use 
of as cuttings they quickly damp off; it therefore becomes 
necessary to try shoots that are more ripened, or have 
become more matured. These shoots will succeed and 
produce roots, and in the following way the propagator 
must proceed:—Take off the top shoots in early spring, 
just before they begin to grow ; cut them off just at the 
junction, where the preceding year’s wood terminates, 
choosing such shoots as would not be inconveniently 
long for the purpose; trim off the lower leaves, and 
insert them into a pot of a convenient size to allow a 
bell-glass to fit within the pot, and the glass should be 
large enough to allow the leaves to stand clear within it 
