February 2G. 
THE COTTAGE GAllDENER. 
333 
velope them singly in moss, just as these geraniums 
were done, and their heads I would prune close, then I 
would lay down two of the longest of them, head to 
head, and measure their length, and then make a strong 
wooden case to accomodate the length of this two ; the 
width and depth of the box would be according to the 
number of plants. I would pack them thus—put a row 
of trees, side by side, across the bottom of the box, 
placing the balls against the end, and jam this row or 
layer as close together as I could, then place a strip of 
wood across the middle of the balls, press it down, and 
nail it to the two sides of the box, driving the nails 
from the outside. Then another layer, another cross 
piece over, and so on till that end of the box was full, 
and I would pack the other end the same way; all the 
heads of the trees would thus point to the centre of the 
box, where they would almost meet. As the packing 
went on, I would fill all the empty spaces between the 
heads of the trees, and between the balls, with dry 
shavings from the carpenter’s bench, and when the 
whole was finished, and the lid nailed down, you might 
throw the box from the top of the Monument, without 
disturbing the contents, if the box itself could withstand 
the bounce. D. Beaton. 
MANAGEMENT OF CAPE HEATHS. 
{Continued from page 271.) 
Substitutes for Pots and Potting. —The grouping 
system in our flower-gardens has done much to break in 
upon time-honoured systems and observances in the 
growing of plants. The first turners-out of calceolarias, 
geraniums, verbenas, &c., would never have dreamed of 
doing so before the plants had been nursed and petted 
with pot treatment. Old large plants were, therefore, 
a consideration. It would be seen that not long ago a 
friend and subscriber criticised me for saying anything 
at all as to preserving old plants, when young ones did 
so much better, I feel confident the practice he recom¬ 
mends will succeed perfectly with him. What would 
some of our old worthies say, to see thousands of these 
tender plants struck in autumn, pricked out, trans¬ 
planted again in spring, if too thick, and moved easily 
in May to the flower-beds, without ever seeing a pot at 
all, and yet growing better than if all the labour of pot¬ 
ting and re-shifting had been rigidly adhered to. Yet, 
this practice which saves in material, and saves greatly 
in labour, is, with the help of various contrivances, 
becoming every year more prevalent. 
But why introduce this matter in the middle of a dis¬ 
cussion on the culture of Gape Heaths? For two 
reasons—first, though from various circumstances, such I 
as distance from heath soil, I have not been able to do 
anything in that way myself, I nevertheless believe, that 
the day is not far distant, when we shall find a Heathery 
in our flower-gardens as common as a Rosary. For such 
a department of the garden, we have many hardy, and. 
nearly hardy Heaths, but to enable the heathery to vie 
with the rest of the garden when in its greatest beauty, 
we must rely chiefly on the summer-flowering Cape 
varieties. Secondly, before we can generally use these 
plants for out-door decoration, we must procure service¬ 
able plants more cheaply, and be enabled to preserve 
them with less labour, than the constant attention to 
them in pots, such as I have described would involve. 
Many keep up their gardens with prince-like liberality, 
yet tire prevalent feeling is to have the greatest amount 
of pleasure, at the cost of the least possible outlay. The 
question under such circumstances, is not, what do we 
think? but, what are we to do ? The treatment, so far 
as we have gone, will be the most suitable for small pri¬ 
vate establishments; that to which we shall for a 
moment refer, would, we think, be the most profitable, 
where great numbers, rapidity of growth, either for sale, 
planting out, or placing in pots for the greenhouse, 
combined with the least trouble, were the several con¬ 
siderations. 
Keeping these objects in view, I should proceed, so 
far as the propagating is concerned, exactly as recom¬ 
mended in former papers; but when the pricking-off 
season came, I would have long, narrow, shallow earth¬ 
enware boxes, instead of small pots or shallow round 
pans. Our excellent co-adjutor, Mr. Robson, mentioned 
some circular drain tiles as excellent things for sowing 
peas, &c., in. These I have used many years, not only 
for this purpose, but for propagating all kinds of half- 
hardy and tender plants. Now, I should prefer earthen¬ 
ware boxes about the size of drain tiles, but with a fiat 
base instead of a round one,—say, length, nine to twelve 
inches; width, two-aud-a-half to three inches; depth, 
three inches inside measure, made thin and light, with 
several holes in the bottom. My experience, even with 
drain tiles with their ends filled up, warrants me in 
stating that when once such oblong vessels come into 
use for all sowing and pricking-out purposes, pots and 
round shallow pans would soon be out of date. Now, 
it is necessary that small plants, such as rooted heath 
cuttings, should be first pricked-out in moveable vessels, 
that we may place them where we choose, either to en¬ 
courage growth, or to give them a hardening-off process. 
In placing two rows of young plants, one row close to 
each of the sides of these vessels, the plants have all an 
equal chance. But in what are they superior to small 
pots and largish, round, shallow pans? They are su¬ 
perior in economy to both, in standing close side by 
side, either in a pit, or on shelves, and thus not one 
inch of room is lost, as must be the case with circular 
vessels; and then, again, they are superior to small 
pots, in being not so liable to heats and colds, parchings 
and delugings, while the plants also escape the 
dwindlings and dampings which not unfrequently 
assail those placed in the centre of round pans. 
Rapid growth, economy of space, and a minimum of 
attention, are thus secured. 
As soon as these little plants had well filled their 
space, we should have a bed ready for their reception, 
managing it so that the planting-out, if possible, should 
take place in the early summer or late spring months. 
Here I wish my pen was in the hands of a Beaton or 
an Appleby, for I have not done much in this way with 
heaths, though, from my practice with various and 
allied families, I have not the smallest doubt as to its 
answering. In fact, with only a little more nicety, it is 
just the same plan as is followed by nurserymen in 
growing all the liair-rooted American plants. Those 
who witnessed the splendid exhibition of American 
plants at the Botanic Gardens, and at Chiswick, could 
see nothing insuperable in moving heaths in a similar 
manner, as the mode of rooting is almost identical. 
Well, the bed is to be made, and to be covered with 
glass, at least when deemed necessary, and to be sur¬ 
rounded with walls of some sort; turf, earth water¬ 
proofed with tar, double wooden walls, brick, if hollow 
and double all the better, as it is amazing to those who 
never witnessed it, how cosy and dry plants can be kept 
in winter in such pits. The bottom of this pit should 
be on the same level, rather higher than the external 
surface. This should receive a good dose of salt and 
lime, to destroy everything in the worm way, then 
covered with at least six inches of rough open matter, 
in the way of drainage, and then supplied with twelve 
or fifteen inches of peat; the rough next the bottom, 
and the finer at the top, mixed for several inches with 
silver-sand. The same pit, with slight additions of 
material, would last for many years. In this we would 
plant our young heaths, from five to twelve inches sepa¬ 
rate, according to their size, and their slow or quick 
growing properties. Some very likely would require 
