THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 26 . 
240 
lienee they, with the flowers, form a nosegay-like appear¬ 
ance. The leaves are from four to five inches long, and 
rather more than an inch wide in the middle, gradually 
narrowing each way. There is only one species, F. ma- 
vrophylla, or, as it was first named, liydrangeaformis, \ 
that produces its flowers in a similar manner, exactly at 
the ends of the shoots; hut the latter-named species lias 
small flowers, and very large leaves. F. augusta, accumi- 
nata and Pohliana flower in a similar manner; but 
they have frequently small leaves intermingled with the 
! flowers. 
F. confertifiora is a stove-plant that ought to be in 
every collection. It is so very beautiful when in flower, 
i and when out of bloom forms a neat evergreen bush; 
and, moreover, it is not subject to the attacks of the Red 
Spider; is early cultivated, and not difficult,to propagate; 
all good points to recommend a plant to cultivators. 
Culture. —The first thing to do is to procure a plant. 
So readily has it been propagated, that good plants may 
now be purchased for three or four shillings each. The 
best time to obtain one is about April or May. After 
the plant has arrived at its future home, place it in the 
stove for a week or two, to recover the effects of the 
journey. In the meantime, prepare a compost for it of 
the following materials: turfy peat, vegetable-mould, 
anti loam full of fibre—that is, grass roots not much 
; decayed. Mix these in equal proportions, and add some 
; small lumps of charcoal and plenty of silver-sand. 
Place this compost in a dry, warm shed for a week or 
■ so, to bring it into a friable, half-dry state. It is then fit 
for use. Then choose a pot about two inches wider than 
the one the plant is in. If not a clean new one, let it 
bo thoroughly washed quite clean, both inside and out. 
There lias, lately, been a great deal said and written 
about hard-burned and soft pots, the query is, which is 
the best? Mr. Fleming, at Trentham, showed me 
many plants growing in non-porous materials, oven 
glass, which certainly were healthy; and, it appears, 
from Mr. Beaton’s report, that he exhibited some plants 
in such materials at the last Horticultural Society’s 
Meeting in Regent Street, in perfect health. Now, if 
plants will grow well in glass pots, it may be easily 
conceived what a great improvement in appearance a 
stage of well grown plants in elegantly formed glass 
vessels would present. It has always been an object, 
with tasteful gardeners and amateurs, to get rid of the 
unsightly common garden pots, by covering them with 
low, bushy plants in front of them; but if glass or 
porcelain pots will answer to grow plants in, the glass 
manufactories will soon send out elegantly formed 
vessels of every size ; certainly, Mr. Fleming succeeds 
well with them, and I do not see why every careful 
cultivator should not succeed also; but then, every 
gardener can procure, at present, the common pot, 
and, for a time, I suppose, wo must be content with 
what we can get, till fashion, or good sense, renders the 
use of glass pots common. 
To return to the culture of our plant. Having 
chosen the pot, proceed to drain it well; cover the 
hole at the bottom with a large piece of broken pot, 
with a thin piece under one side, for the more free 
egress of the superfluous water; lay upon it a thin 
layer of smaller-sized pieces, and upon them another 
layer of still smaller pieces; cover the whole with some 
rough pieces of fibry peat, compactly laid, to prevent 
the fine particles of the compost from choking up the 
drainage; then, upon that put sufficient compost to 
raise up the ball levol with the rim of the fresh pot; 
placo the plant in it, and work around it the compost 
till the pot is full, pressing it down firmly as the pot 
is filling; when full, shake it down, leaving about 
half-an-inch for the water; when pots are too full of 
earth, it is almost impossible to wet tho ball of earth 
through. This is a great mistake, and must bo avoided. 
Give the plant a gentle watering, and stop the branches 
so as to make them send out more branches, to form a 
bushy plant. If you have a frame or pit to spare, in 
which there is a mild dung heat, that is the best place 
to nurse young stove plants into specimens, and when 
so grown they are woody, and will bear a very moderate 
temperature afterwards. I have kept Franciseeas 
through the winter in a house very little wanner than 
a greenhouse, and they flowered more freely afterwards, 
in consequence of tho rest. 
Propagation. —Young shoots taken off in spring, put 
into sand, and placed in heat under a bell-glass, or even 
a hand-light, strike very freely, but the roots will perish, 
and the plants die, if left too loug in the cutting-pot. 
It is then desirable to pot them off as soon as ever they 
have pushed forth roots, which may be easily known by 
the tops growing. After they are potted off, replace 
them under tho hand-light, shading them for a time till 
fresh roots are emitted, then gradually inure them to 
bear the full light, and they may then be repotted, 
and grown on for that season, and in tho spring follow¬ 
ing be repotted, and treated as the older mother plant. 
T. Appleby. 
WOODS AND FORESTS. 
THE ELM. 
(Continued from page 203 .) 
Propagation by Grafting. — The common English 
Elm, Ulmus campestris, and also the Dutch Elm, Ulmus 
major, are apt to throw up an immense quantity of 
suckers, and, in consequence, aro too often increased by 
them ; a practice very objectionable, especially in hedge¬ 
rows. For, by planting these suckers, the proper hedge 
plants, such as the Thorn and the Holly, are choked 
and destroyed, and the hedge becomes all Elm, one of 
the worst hedge plants we have, it being so easily broken 
through by cattle. To prevent this, these suckering 
Elms should all be grafted on the common Wych Elm. 
They are very easy to graft, almost every scion being 
sure to take. Sometimes tboy produce seed, though not 
as freely as the broad-leaved Ulmus montana; but even 
seedlings will sucker, and, therefore, in all cases, the 
grafted plants are to be preferred. 
The proper season for grafting is in April, just before 
the buds break. Choose strong, one-year-old shoots, 
and put tho scions as near as possible upon stocks of 
the same diameter. Graft about six inches from the 
ground; tie the scions on firmly with good, smooth, 
garden matting; clay tho graft with well-tempered clay, 
thoroughly mixed with cow or liorso-dung; this prevents 
it cracking. After tho grafting is finished, draw tho 
soil between the rows of stocks up to the grafts covering 
the balls of clay entirely, leaving only the two upper¬ 
most buds of the scion above the soil. As during tho 
grafting operations tho soil necessarily is trodden down, 
I always find it necessary to stir it up with a fork (Park's 
five-prong fork is the best for this purpose,) previously 
to earthing-up tho grafts. After the grafts have made 
some progress, and are quite safe, then levol down the 
ridges, and carefully untie the matting. Towards the 
middle of the summer, go over the grafts, and prune oil' 
all tho shoots, excepting one for a leader. They will 
then want no further care, excepting keeping the ground 
well hoed to dostroy tho weeds. In tho autumn, as soon 
as the leaves are all fallen, the ground between the rows 
should be carefully dug over to admit tho rains to sink 
into the earth to encourage the growth of the trees. In 
these nursery rows they may remain two years, when 
they will bo large enough to plant out in the wood, but 
for hedgerows thoy should remain till they are seven or 
eight feet high, in order to be tall enough to be above 
