THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
373 
February 13. 
evergreen foliage, and strong, fleshy roots; the plant 
being easily propagated by divisions. The Bulbine is 
propagated by offset bulbs and by seeds. The seeds 
(if there is such a convenience) should be sown in a 
gentle hotbed in March; or in the greenhouse in April; 
or as soon as ripe in autumn. If the seedlings can be 
kept growing 6lowly in a cold pit, or frame, or green¬ 
house, or window, for the first twelvemonth, they will 
be all the better for it. After that, the bulbs should be 
allowed to get dried in winter, and enjoy a rest, either 
in a cold pit, or in a warm border, that may be protected 
from frost and much wet in winter. 
PROTEA MELLIFERA. 
The honey that distils from the flowers of this plant 
is preserved iu South Africa as a good remedy for colds, 
&c. There is nothing, however, remarkably taking 
about the plant as an ornamental one, though the whole 
group is distinguished for their singular rather dull- 
lookiug flowers, and the very peculiar, leathery, tough 
foliage nearly common to them all. As soon as you can 
get the convenience of a mild hotbed sow the seeds. 
Sometimes they are long iu germinating; but as soon as 
they do move them to a cooler place under glass, such 
as iu a window, or greenhouse, and when the seedlings 
are several inches high pot and repot when necessary. 
The soil required is a good loam, with a mixture of a 
little broken freestone, silver-sand, and bits of charcoal. 
After the first year or two the plants will stand out-of- 
doors from June to the middle of October; but being a 
native of South Africa, it has not, that I am aware of, 
stood the open air winters of this country. The treat¬ 
ment of the genus from cuttings was, I think, previously 
given. 
MELIANTHUS MAJOR. 
The meaning of the family name is Honey Flower. 
So fully is this produced in the South of Africa, that it is 
collected in vessels and cloths by shaking the bush. 
The flowers are produced in large bunches, but are 
individually small, and of a brownish colour. I he 
plant has bloomed out-of-doors in the south of England, 
and against conservative walls iu the latitude of London, 
and even further north. The great beauty of the plant 
consists iu the milky-green, large, deeply - notched, 
and serrated foliage. As far as I recollect, the foliage, 
when pressed, leaves on the hand a strong scent re¬ 
sembling ground Peas. The seeds should be sown in a 
sweet hotbed, and the plants potted singly when two or 
three inches in height. If no hotbed is procurable, it 
will be time enough to sow in April, under glass. The 
soil most suitable is turfy-loam, but the fresh pottings 
should have a little peat or leaf-mould. It would not be 
worth while trying the plant out-of-doors until it was, at 
least, two years old, unless there were a number of them. 
Against a conservative wall, or in a cool conservatory, it 
will always present a striking appearance. It cannot 
get fair justice in a pot, unless the pot be of large di¬ 
mensions, and proportionate space is given to it It is 
easily propagated by cuttings of half-ripened wood, and 
by suckers, which are apt to come from the roots. 
PROTEA LONGIFLORA, COCCINEA, AND PLUMOSA. 
See what is said of Protea mellifera. If you have 
many seeds, it would be advisable to sow some as they 
are, and soak the others for a day in water about 90°, 
before sowing them. Then, if you succeed in getting 
plenty of plants, you might try some against a wall the 
following yoar, giving them a protection of moss over 
the roots, and evergreen boughs over the branches in 
winter. 
LEUCADENDRON ARGENTEUM. 
This is a beautiful plant, belonging to the same 
Protead group, having handsome, silvery, silky foliage, 
and bunches of yellow flowers at the points ol the 
shoots. No good can be done with it without the help 
of a greenhouse or conservatory. For its foliage alone 
it is worthy of a place by-side the striking Melianthus. 
Treatment, the same as for the Proteus. If placed out- 
of-doors iu summer, the pots should be protected from 
the sun’s rays. They who visited the Botanical Gardens, 
at Kew, last season, would observe various contrivances 
for effecting that object. Plants in wooden boxes do 
not need such care, as the wood does not get heated like 
earthenware, cement, or iron, or slate. 
POLYGALA SPECIOSA. 
This is the neatest pot-greenhouse-flowering plant iu 
the list presented. The foliage is small and sharp-pointed, 
and the flowers are large tor the genus, and for the most 
part of a beautiful purple colour. The structure of the 
flower is very peculiar, and worth examining. In sowing 
| seed, a hotbed must be procured, if possible, in March or 
April. The seed-pot should be half filled with drainage, 
then the half remaining with turfy peat and charcoal 
in a lumpy state, and then finer peat, or rather heath- 
mould on the surface, watering the pot well, and allowing 
it to drain before the seeds are sown ; and then covering 
merely the thickness of the seeds, and after plunging 
the pot iu the warm bed, covering the top of it with a 
bell-glass, or a square of glass. Much of the success in 
rajsing such comparatively tender exotic seeds as these 
depends upon the fact of not having to water the soil 
often alter sowing. Provided the soil has been watered 
previously and allowed to drain, the seeds, it at all 
suspected to bo old, should be covered with dryish soil, 
and moisture communicated more by the surrounding 
medium in which the pot is placed than by pouring 
water over them. Many an old, unripened seed has been 
rotted and destroyed by the latter process, that might 
have vegetated with the attention ot the former. As 
soon as the seeds are up they should be hardened off 
gradually, by more air being given, aud the pot moved 
out of the plunging material to the surface of the bed. 
As soon as the seedlings are one iuch in height they 
should be singled out, and four or five of them placed 
at equal distances round a four or five-inch pot, aud in 
soil nearly all heath-mould, with small bits ot sand-stone 
and charcoal. In these pots the plants had better 
remain the first winter, and towards April the next year 
each may receive a four-inch pot, and when growing 
freely be topped back to make them bushy; when they 
may afterwards be treated like young, dwarf, bushy 
plants received from a nursery. The chief points in 
their culture will be these; a temperature from 38 to 
45° in winter: fresh air on all favourable opportunities; 
pruning back a little after blooming; keeping close to 
encourage fresh growth, such as a cold pit; potting 
when that growth is proceeding, if uecessary; more air and 
light to ripen the wood towards autumn; aud housing 
in the greenhouse by the middle of October. 
Plants are generally furnished by cuttiugs; and small 
side-sboots, a little firm at the base, taken off about 
April, and inserted in sand over sandy-peat, and covered 
with a bell-glass, strike the readiest. As the plants 
increase in size, a little rough, very libry loam may be 
added to the heath-soil with advantage. Though well 
calculated for a heated conservative wall covered with 
glass, I am not aware that the plant has stood the 
winters of this country anywhere against an open wall. 
ARCTOTIS GRANDIFLORA. 
This is a short-lived Cape of Good Hope Asterwort, 
having large yellow flowers,not far removed inappearance 
from Calendula and other genera of this large compo¬ 
site order. It requires to be propagated often, either 
from cuttings or seeds, as it seems to be quite as much 
biennial as perennial in its character. Seeds sown in a 
slight hotbed, oarly in March, and the plants pricked off 
when fairly up, will bloom either in the greenhouse or in 
