January 10. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
299 
as the plant is inured to it by degrees. In October it 
will require to be housed, and the water gradually 
lessened as the days get shorter and darker. 
The training has been already alluded to. I believe, that 
in a warmish greenhouse, trained along a wire, it would 
yield as sweet a perfume, though by no means present 
such a dense mass of beauty, as the Manilevilla at Stock- 
wood. In keeping the plant to a trellis, one of a round 
form is. best, as tho bending the shoots round has a 
tendency to curtail extra luxurianoe in growth, and thus 
so far promote their thorough ripening. Mr. Appleby 
lias lately mentioned a nice substitute for the rather 
extra methodical wire and wooden trellises in common 
use. At one time, I used such trellises largely for 
summer-blooming climbers and creepers for the green¬ 
house; but I never could get them altogether to please 
me until the trellis was completely concealed, and the 
creeper and twiner dangled carelessly from them. As a 
change, I used often to adopt a plan similar to that 
recommended by Mr. Appleby, and which he saw prac¬ 
tised by Mr. Ivison, at Sion House. A plantation of 
young Larches, or Spruce-trees, was looked over, and a 
young tree, thick set with branches, was obtained, or 
the top of an older tree where thinning was required, or 
even some branches well set with branchlets and twigs 
were cut just when the sap was freely in motion. A few 
minutes served to divest every twig of its bark, and 
in this state the young trees were allowed to re¬ 
main until they had hardened by exposure, and got a 
greyish-brown appearance, when the young tree, or two 
or three branches, were fixed in the pot, and the shoots 
taught to mount negligently from twig to twig. There 
could be quite as much of the artistic shown by this 
mode as was necessary, while there was less obtrusion of 
art than when the neat wire trellis was used. 
With respect to position. Tf the plant is to be kept 
in a common greenhouse, it will be as well to keep it 
there during the season, unless giving it more direct 
sunlight in the autumn months ; but, if it is desirable 
to have plants that will flower early in spring by 
giving them extra heat, then it will be desirable to give 
the plants a help on the previous spriug or summer, by 
placing the plants in a low-temperatured forcing-house ; 
or moving them from the greenhouse, as soon as they 
have flowered, into a pit which can be kept close, to 
encourage growth before exposing the plant to more air 
and sunlight in autumn. 
What pruning the plant will require should be given 
immediately after the flowering is over,—all the little 
flowering shoots, and what older branches that can be 
spared, being removed, the flowers of the following 
year being produced from the well-ripened buds of this 
season. 
JASMINUM GRACILE. 
This, I think, has previously been referred to. So 
far as beauty is concerned, it has even less to recom¬ 
mend it than the ffliyncospermuvi, the flowers being 
small and of a dullish white; and yet they are so 
pleasingly sweet, and produced in such numbers, as to 
make it a most desirable greenhouse plant. I have not 
tried it out-of-doors, but it is, seemingly, much more 
hardy than tho Bhyncospermum; and though it will 
force pretty well, it will not stand so much heat by five 
or ten degrees. It is, therefore, a very-easily-managed 
greenhouse plant, that blooms very freely for several 
months in summer. Good fibry loam and a little peat 
grows it well. Every well-ripened bud on the wood of 
this year will produce a short shoot, terminated with 
bloom on the next. I have tried spurring and long 
shoots, and I prefer the latter when pruning the plant. 
The plant is gone over after blooming, the blooming- 
shoots cut out, as far as convenient, and the young, 
growing shoots laid in their places. In August and 
September all the air and light possible are given, and, 
by the end of October, the plant should be housed, where 
it will be kept rather dry and free from frost during the 
winter. 
BEGONIA FUSCHIOIDES. 
“ This has never flowered properly, and for the last 
three years has never flowered at all. I should feel 
obliged by any information how I could make it to 
flower.” 1 have seen plants of the ago you mention, 
some seven feet in height, five feet in diameter, and 
almost always well covered with bloom, summer and i 
winter. The system consisted in always keeping the 
plant slowly growing, with the frequent check of a;iot 
superabundance of water, and a full exposure to sun- j 
light, and a temperature, at night, ranging from 55° to | 
00°. By such a mode, there was a firmness given to the j 
side-shoots as they advanced in size, and flower-buds 
were formed in consequence ; the want of bloom has, 
generally, been owing to the too free growth, produced 
in a high temperature, with a considerable amount of 
shade, with a deficiency of sunlight and air, to give the I 
maturing, as well as the growing, processes a fair chance, i 
This is what you must do with your old plant, if 1 
you mean to keep it, but after taking some cuttings ; 
from it, by the end of February,—I would recommend ; 
adding what remains to the rubbish heap. These 
cuttings should be some of the firmest side-shoots you 
can obtain, about two or three inches long; place these 
in sandy soil in a pot, and plunge it in a brisk bottom- 
heat, in a hotbed, where the bottom-heat will be from 
80° to 90°, and the top-heat about 00°. You will perceive 
I recommend loam and sand, because if all sand, the 
surface, when kept wot, becomes so dense that no air 
can easily enter, and the shoots being rather succulent 
there is danger of damping if the air is wholly excluded. 
In a month these cuttings will be plants, and should 
have a small pot each, and be placed in a similar 
position, with only a little reduction in the bottom heat. 
The plants may be shifted on the succession system 
twice before July, a rather closish atmosphere being 
kept until then to encourage growth. By August tho 
plants should have no shade, if it can be avoided— 
should have every ray of sun under the glass that they 
can stand; the pots should also stand above or free from 
any plunging material, and if come-at-able, a pit where 
they could secure a temperature not much below, and 
never above 50° at night, unless the night was naturally 
warm, would be the best position. In October, remove 
such plants to a plant-house, give them there no more 
water than will keep them from flagging, full ex¬ 
posure to sunlight under the glass, and a temperature 
5° to 10° higher. By the month of November, and 
onwards, flowers will be pretty freely produced, and 
nice little plants, in a cone shape, and two or three 
feet high, during the winter, are a great ornament to a 
plant-stove. A continuous though rather thin flowering, 
may be secured by the mode already indicated; but for 
great masses of bloom, there must be a growing period 
of a month or two, and then a comparative resting and 
maturing period. Young plants are much more easily 
managed in this respect than old ones, and, therefore, | 
unless there is the ambition to have a monster plant, I 
young ones rising two years old are quite old enough. 
As has been seen, cuttings inserted in February or 
March, and grown rapidly, will bloom the iollowing 
year. Tho same plants, slightly pruned in spring, re¬ 
potted and encouraged to grow, would bloom more early. 
The plant grows naturally so gracefully that little train¬ 
ing is required. I think they look best in a pyramidal 
shape, with one stalk in the centre. 
This plant is not particular as to soil; a mixture of 
loam and peat, enriched with leaf-mould, or cow-dung, 
will grow it admirably. R. Fish. 
