298 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 1C. 
grafting on at the end of two years; but I dug them in 
this time, and made a fresli bundle from a lot of plants 
which I had just potted. Perhaps I may graft on 
these roots next summer; perhaps not. This plant 
comes from cuttings as easily as a Verbena; but one 
does not like to cut it while it is in bloom, and it must 
have time after blooming, and be planted out-of-doors, 
before a fresh growth is made from which cuttings can 
be had, and by that time my hotbeds are not hotter 
than the common border, and cuttings of this plant are 
troublesome without a little close heat; but by grafting 
with shoots that are three or four joints long on my 
reserved roots, and by a hand-glass, and no artificial 
heat, I see no reason why 1 should not turn every bit of 
my blind roots into a Dielytra in one month; and as no 
one can get all the fanged roots of a nice plant in the 
border into an ordinary sized pot, and, also, as two- 
thirds of all the plants of it in our private establish¬ 
ments ought to be potted now to come in in succession 
to the end of May, it soems a pity to lose so many 
roots till every cottage garden in the country has enough 
of it. 
Another way to make the best of it would be to pot a 
root or two at once, and to force it on purpose to make 
cuttings while the hotbeds and the bedding-plants are in 
hand for the spring propagation, and every shoot with 
two joints will soon root and make a nice plant for 
turning out into the open borders in May. After that, i 
dividing such plants in January in each year will give I 
one more than enough of it. I cannot suppose such a 
state of society bore in England, even if the Russians 
were to get the better of us, and make us as rude and 
ruthless as their own serfs, that we coidd ever live 
without putting so many roots of Dielytras in January 
as each of us could find room for, and time to admire in 
March, April, and May. To have it in bloom from 
November to May would be better still; and I think 1 
have just discovered how that could be done, and I shall 
tell it in my next. D. Beaion. 
RHYNCOSPERMUM JASM1N01DES CULTURE. 
The above is another plant about which various 
enquiries have been made. There can be no question ; 
as to its being a very desirable acquisition from the 
flowery empire. It lias been represented as a real 
citizen-of-the-world plant, thriving aguinst an open 
wall quite as well as the Jasminum revolution , ami ; 
almost as well as the Jasminum officinale, while in 
greenhouse, intermediate house, and even in a plant- | 
stove or forcing-house, it is equally at homo. My own j 
experience of it as an out door plant has been nothing i 
to boast of; in fact, a failure, but such a failure as 
neither to deter myself nor others from making other 
and repeated trials. Prom my own experience, I should 
say, that its most legitimate home was either a warm 
greenhouse, or an intermediate house, between plant- ; 
stove and greenhouse. In a cool greenhouse it should 
have a good position, have the wood well ripened the 
previous autumn, and be kept just as moist as to pre¬ 
vent anything like flagging. In such a house you may 
expect flowers from the middle of June to August. 
But, provided the wood was tolerably browned in the 
autumn, you may have bloom any time, especially after 
the new year, by merely placing the plant in a nice, 
moist, sweet heat, about 00°, with a rise of from 5° to | 
10° from sunshine. The flowers may be had before ! 
that time, but in the dull months of winter the flowers 
are apt to damp, to become dull in colour, and to lose 
much of their sweet fragrance. The following points 
will give an epitome of its culture:— 
1. Propagation .—Oldish pieces of the wood inserted 
in sand, under a bell-glass, will strike in summer, in 
any cool place, but you must exercise patience in 
waiting for the rooting process. The best mode, at 
least the one that will reward with the earliest success, 
is to select a few short, stubby side-shoots in March, 
April, or May, about two-and-a-lialf inches in length, 
the point being in a growing state, and the base some¬ 
what hard and firmish. Cut these across at the base 
with a sharp knife, in the usual way, remove a couple or 
more of the lower leaves, and then insert them in sand 
round the side of a small pot, that to be packed into one 
a size larger, and the bell-glass placed firmly down in 
the space between the pots, after the cuttings were 
watered, and then the double pot plunged in a sweet 
heat from 75° to 85°. In a few days it will be necessary 
to edge-up the bell-glass at night, to prevent damping. 
This damping is very likely to occur if the shoots are 
young, and not possessing the above-mentioned firmness 
at the base. In a few weeks the cuttings will want, 
each of them, a separate little pot, and should be 
plunged again in a similar place, but with the bottom- 
heat from 5° to 10° lower, which will be sufficient to 
encourage rapid growth, and yet not weaken the con¬ 
stitutional system of the plant. After potting, the 
young plants will require frequent slight syringings, 
and slight shadings in bright sunshine ; but the sooner 
the plant will stand the sun without shading the more 
robust it will be; and after receiving another shifting 
more air should be given, and the plant should be 
stopped if there are not already from three to six 
shoots nearly equal in length, if it is intended to grow 
the plant on a trellis. If to be grown against a column, 
or rafter, one shoot should only be taken until it reaches 
the necessary height, when it may be stopped, and thus 
a number of brancblets secured, according to the room 
it is to be allowed to occupy. The object in view, 
therefore, should form a matter of consideration when 
choosing plants in a nursery ; a low, bushy plant being 
preferable in the one case, and a tallish plant, with few 
side-branches, in the other. 
2. Soil .—In the first pottings, 1 prefer about two- 
thirds of fibry peat, and one of fibry loam, to which add 
nearly one-third of silver sand, and small bits of 
charcoal from which the dust has been excluded. The 
compost should neither be beat to pieces with a mallet, 
nor knocked into smithereens with a spade; but broken 
with the hands, and passed through and mingled by 
them, a good proportion of the compost for the first 
potting, before the sand is added, being of the size of 
large pens; while, for the next shifting, some of the 
pieces of fibry turf aud peat may be as large as field 
beaus. As the plant requires more pot room, increase 
gradually the quantity of the loam, until when the 
plant is settled in an eight, or twelve-inch pot, fully two- 
thirds of the compost may be fibry loam. 
3. Growing, Training, aud Position .—Great things 
cannot be expected from a plant in less than two or 
towards three years from the cutting. A nice, bushy 
plunt, obtained from a nursery this spring, and grown 
rapidly during the summer, and the wood woll-ripened 
in autumn, would yield a fair portion of bloom in the 
spring or summer of 1856, just as extra heat was given 
to it, or it was allowed to bloom more naturally. A nice 
general temperature of about 00° at night, will bo the 
best for encouraging growth in a youug plant, and if 
that can bo given in the early spring months, the plant 
has just the length of nearly two summers, instead of 
one in a common greenhouse. Plenty of water, of 
course, must be givon, and it will not at all decline a 
little weak manure-water once a-week. Erequcnt syring- 
iugs over head will also promote health and keep down 
insects, especially green fly, which attack the young 
shoots when grown in a moist beat with great voracity. 
By August more air should be given, and in September 
a full exposure to the sun, even without glass, as soon 
