FEljUUAnY J!). 
COUNTilY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
I)cst, ill the long run, if the proper distinction is kept 
up in these two simple composts. As, for instance, the 
Uolden Chain strikes in the compost for Tom Thumb, 
hut the roots cease to tlirive properly soon after tliey 
loucli the loam, and the growth begins to stint in pro- 
])ortion, unless the plants, after rooting, are kept in a 
much liotter place than is requisite for tliem. All.tlie 
Anaijallises, on tlic otlier hand, strike soonest, and make 
longer and more fleshy roots in llic lighter compost; 
but as soon as they are iit to be potted off peat is almost 
i ijoison to tliem, and they require the compost to be one- 
luilf, or rallier more, of strong loam, yellow loam being 
j the best. Indeed, the principal reason why such a 
1 beautiful flower as the blue Anagallis is not more 
I cultivated among amateurs, is the difficulty of keeping 
it alive in the light composts which are in general use. 
Again, the pretty little yellow (Jdnothera prostrata, 
whioli every body admires so much at the Crystal Palace, 
strikes host in the lighter compost; but flowers much 
freer, and rambles about less, the stronger tlio loam in 
the bed is. There was a strange doctrine which went 
in the teeth of these now-well-known facts, which ob¬ 
tained common consent among the gardeners of the last 
generation, and on to the middle of tire present century, 
namely, that all seeds, and most cuttings, ought to be 
raised in the very same kind of compost as best suited 
the adult plant. Put the necessities of the massing, or 
bedding-out system, soon refuted that doctrine. 
The great error of the present day, among amateurs, 
i-s, their fancy for pots, which are three tunes larger 
than they ought to be for seeds and cuttings. I cannot 
discover any plausible reason for this fancy; but the 
next jrrevailing error among them is easily accounted 
for. Their nursing pots are not half big enough ; they 
go to the nurseries where the best [)lantsineu in the 
world are obliged to nurse their young stock in single 
pots so small, that they tax their utmost skill in the 
attendance; but nursery plants must he reared in single 
pots, to meet the trade—not that single pots, or very 
small ])ots, are the best for nursing; very far from it, 
except in special cases, for which we have no matches 
in the flower-garden. There is nothing under the sun 
more perfectly absurd, and out of all reason, than to 
see an amateur potting olf a jiotful of cuttings, of 
benas, for instance, into single little pots called sixties, 
even if ho was as expert at their management as the 
best hands in the nurseries, and had, like them, nothing 
else to take up his attention ; for ho is multiplying his 
own work about fourfold, and is risking the chances 
against the well-being of his plants, in the ratio of six 
or eight to one. if he would plant six or eight of his 
rooted cuttings round the sides of one pot of the 48-size, 
and kec]) them there for another month or five weeks, 
his own time and the room at his command, with the 
benetit to the plants, would all he increased fourfold. 
One day, last week, I potted ofl' about 2o0 C<dceolaria 
seedlings; and see if you can guess into how many pots 
did I put the whole. I may say, however, they were 
potted oil the colonising system ; the best system for 
most of those plants which come from very small seeds. 
They were very small, and the pots are very large, the 
largest kind of the size called 2-ls; they occupy just two 
of these pots, and there are twenty colonies in one pot, 
and eighteen in the other,—the average number in each 
colony is then easily made, out. But, suppose 1 had 
parted each colony, and put it into a separate small pot; 
what with my going to London, and “ gadding about,” I 
should lose more than the one half of them before the 
cud of March ; but now, the chances arc, that I shall 
not lose more tlian one or two per cent of them during 
the whole season, if I had ten thousand seedlings of 
the same stamp, and tho Crystal Palace to grow them 
in, 1 would not pot one of them the first time, from tho 
seed-pots, otherwise than on this colonising system. I 
flbo : 
verily believe, that I could impart some useful hints to 
i the head of our own Colonial Department. ! 
The ivay to colonise seedlings is this—when the pot of 
seedlings is so full that one hardly knows how to deal 
with it, give it plenty of air, that is, Just as much fresh 
air as the seedlings can endure with impunity ; nothing ! 
more nor less than that is ever meant by a gardener, 
when he says, “give plenty of air.” If seedlings, such as 
are meant in this communication, get plenty of air from 
October to March, or from a sowing in Eebruary till 
they are fit for colonising, ten thousand of them will , 
not take much room; a dozen pots might hold as many ; 
I of some of the kinds. But, as I was going to say, when I 
j a pot is so full that it must bo emptied, and its tenants ■ 
j parted, one could do it any day during the winter, or 
! bad weather in the spring with much, or hardly any, j 
risk to the seedlings; and that is a very important point, I 
as few could venture to pot them oft' singly in the dead ! 
of the winter, or under bad weather, without the con¬ 
venience of a hothouse to nurse them in. The w'ay of 
performing the operation is to b.ave a stick with a flat 
end, in the shape of a chissel, but not much more than ' 
a quarter-of-an-inch broad; the flat end of the stick is 
first pushed down a little quite close to the side of the 
i pot, half-an-inch will be deep enough for most of the 
smaller kinds; now “ heave uj)” a square-inch or two, 
; by levering the stick against the pot; now take a better ^ 
: hold of the raised piece by putting in the flat end of I 
j the slick just under tho very centre, carry it so, and put | 
it on a piece of paper by the side of the colonial pot, : 
j and ])art it into four, or five, or more pieces, according 
to the kind of seedling, and plant each piece an inch 
apart all round the side of tho pot, and then all over 
tho centre, if you have many to plant, if not, one row 
round a 48-sized pot is the safest w’ay. After the first 
piece, you have full sway to take tho seedlings up in 
; large flakes or flat patches. After vvatering the colonial 
^ pot, or pots, and the wet has subsided, go over every 
one of the colonies and see that tho soil is up equally 
round them, and make it level as a die between them 
by adding fresh soil to the hollow parts. This is the 
nicest and the very safest way with these kind of things. 
I It is the same to them as the potting six, eight, or ten, 
’ rooted cuttings into one pot is to the principal s])ring 
cuttings. At the next parting, both kinds are easier to | 
I handle and to deal with in other respects. ! 
! D. Beaton. 
HEM AUKS SUGGESTED BY WEEKS'S j 
ONE BOILER SYSTEiM. : 
'TiiEitE have been many inquiries lately as to the '■ 
practicability and economical utility of heating several : 
structures altogether, or separately, as required, by | 
means of one furnace and boiler; or by so dividing a ' 
long structure into several divisions, each of which 
might be heated at w'ill; and the simplest and cheapest 
modes known to us for cfl'ectiug these objects have been ! 
fully detailed. Since the time, however, that Messrs. \ 
Weeks’aroused the horticulturist from his dream of per- j 
fection in his boiler for one or two houses, by not Only | 
heating their village of glass-houses by one boiler instead i 
of six, but at a cost reputedly so small, that made many ! 
of us country wights scratch our ears in suspense and 
w’onder, questions almost innumerable, and of singular 
shape, were propounded, wdiich it was impossible i'or mo 
to solve,^ because knowing personally as little of the 
matters in dispute as the inquirers themselves. Wheihcr 
or not tho Messrs. Weeks’ made a mistake in their ; 
estimate of expenses at Kew, and which, in the lace ot i 
the facts staled by Dr. Hooker and Mr. Smith, left ; 
rather an unfavourable impression as to the general 
economy and efficiency of their one-boiler system alto¬ 
gether; or whether the reputed expense of 3s. for fuel, 
