March 13. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 455 
buds .before they are potted off. A good specimen, with 
its large laurel-like leaves, and large trumpet-shaped 
llowers, is one of the most beautiful of 6tove-plants. If 
the P. coccinea has such large flowors, it must bo a still 
more splendid plant. It is in the country, for Lord 
Wharncliff, of Wortlcy Hall, near Sheffield, being in a 
bad state of health, three years ago, his physicians 
advised a sojourn in the West India Islands; he visited 
Jamaica, and his lady accompanied him. Her ladyship 
is an enthusiastic lover of flowers, and whilst in Jamaica 
collected seeds of all the beautiful flowers so abundant in 
that exuberant soil, and amongst them brought home a 
packet of this Portlandia coccinea. I saw, when I was 
at Wortley Hall, several plants of this fine exotic raised 
from those seeds, and hope, if I am spared, to see them 
bloom. It is a remarkable fact, that the human body, 
in the state of incipient consumption, should, in such 
hot climates, be able to throw off the disease. Lord 
Wharncliff' returned homo quite reinvigorated, or, as the 
saying is, a new man; and this is by no means a solitary 
case, even within my knowledge. A very young man, 
a nephew of Mr. John Andrew Henderson, was in the 
last stage of what is called a galloping consumption, 
and was quite given up; but, as a last resource, was 
advised to try a trip to the West Indies. I saw him a 
few days before he sailed, and he looked the picture of 
death ; so pale, thin, sickly, and debilitated. He arrived 
at Trinidad alive, and began to recover, gained strength, 
and, finally, robust health, and came back quite stout 
and good-looking, and, for ought I know, continues so 
to this day. 
I trust my readers will excuse this digression; it came 
into my mind when thinking of the plants of that 
region, and almost flowed mechanically from my pen. 
Perhaps it may be of some use in directing consumptive 
patients to think whether such a journey might have 
the same good effects upon them. 
To return to my favourite plant, P. jilatantha ; a 
tidy, healthy plant may be purchased for live shillings, 
and the time to buy it is May or Juno. It would travel 
safely then. As soon as it arrives at its destination, 
place it in the stove in the state it is in, I moan in the 
same pot and soil, for a week or two, to recover the 
effects of the journey; and whilst that is taking place, 
bo on the look-out for a compost to repot it in. 
Soil■ —It thrives well in the following: sandy peat 
two parts, fibry loam one part, leaf-mould one part, and 
half-a-part of well-decomposed cow-dung. Mix them 
well together, but do not sift them. If the mixture is 
not sandy, make it so by adding silver sand liberally. 
Then place the compost in a dry, warm place for a day 
or two, and select a nice, clean pot, two sizes larger than 
the one it is in, drain it well, and then repot the plant. 
Place it in a warm stove, and give a gentle watering 
to settle the soil. 
Culture. —At that season of tho year thero will bo 
many young stove plants repotted and preparing for 
specimens. A close pit, heated with hot-water pipes, 
and a bed, either tanners’ bark or leaves, to plunge the 
pots in, is the very best place for such plants. Here 
they can havo a high moist atmosphere, which will 
encourage free growth and fine, healthy foliage, with 
abundance of healthy roots. The plants will flourish 
amazingly, and yet, with being close to the glass, the 
growth will be robust. All that they will require, will 
be due supplies of water, shading from mid-day sun, 
plenty of air in the mindle of the day, syringing over 
head just.before shutting up, and, if the nights are cold, 
a covering of mats, or frigi dorno, to protect them from 
the cold. When the plants have made a fair growth, 
then stop them by nipping off the tops, to cause them to 
send out side-branches. These side-shoots, when ad¬ 
vanced enough, should be tied out, that is, spread out 
equally on every side, by means of short, neat sticks, to 
which tho different shoots should be tied with small 
matting. The plants growing so rapidly will require a 
second potting in July, and then to be replaced in tho pit. 
Towards the end of September, remove them out of the 
pit, and put them in the stove. They should then havo 
loss water and heat, to give them a gentle rest through 
the winter. In the spring, if all has gone on well, 
flower-buds will be visible on the branches. To en¬ 
courage these to unfold themselves, a small increase of 
peat, and some weak, wanned manure-water should bo 
given. After the bloom is over, the repotting, placing 
in the pit, stopping, &c., should be repeated, and the 
plants will then be attaining a good size, and will be 
respectable specimens. 
Propagation. —This is effected by cuttings. Prepare 
a cutting-pot in the usual way, that is, well drained, 
with soil on the top, and an inch of pure sand upon 
that, fit a bell-glass on the pot, give a gentle watering to 
to settle the sand, and then make the cuttings. The 
young tops, such as are taken off’ to cause the plant to 
branch, are the best; four leaves form the right length. 
Dress off tho lowest pair, and finish by a clean cut just 
under the second joint. When the cuttings are all 
made, insert them in the sand, so turning the leaves 
inwards as not to touch the glass. Give a second 
watering sufficiently strong to cause the sand to fill up 
the holes mado by the stick in putting in tho cuttings. 
Then plunge the pot, with the glass upon it, in bottom- 
heat, and shade from sunshine. In a month or six 
weeks they will have made roots, and as soon as that 
takes place pot them off directly, placing the plants 
under a hand-light in heat, shading again till fresh 
roots are emitted, then give a small portion of air and 
less shade, gradually increasing it till the young plants 
are able to bear the full light. They are then established 
plants, and may be treated accordingly. 
T. Appleby. 
GARDENING FOR THE MANY. 
We have been labouring under the impression, from 
the very first appearance of our pages until the present 
hour, that we supplied what is needed by overy class of 
delighters in gardening. We have been startled, there¬ 
fore, by receiving a letter from a friendly correspondent, 
which wo shall presently add, telling us that we do not 
act in accordance with our title, and that we do not give 
a preference to Cottage Gardening. Now, we deny 
this charge, and appeal to every one of our published 
volumes for a refutation. It is quite true, we write 
about “ Rosaries,” and growing “Roses for Exhibition,” 
yet every paragraph in these papers is available to him 
who has only six Roses in bis borders, and three in his 
window; and so of a majority of our other Essays. 
We deny, also, that wo have given up our second title 
of “ The Country Gentleman’s Companion." It is in 
the title-page to our last volume, and will appear simi¬ 
larly in that of the present. It only is omitted from 
our weekly first page, because there every line is valu¬ 
able for advertisements. But let us proceed to publish 
our correspondent’s letter. It is as follows:— 
“ Living in a cottage, and being fond of gardening, I 
began, some time ago, to take in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, and purchased some volumes of back numbers. 
I find, however, that it takes a much higher flight than 
its name indicates (for though I see, in several columns, 
it claims also to bo a ‘ Country Gentleman’s Companion,’ 
that name is at present— vide title-page—abandoned) 
Now, I do not complain of your having articles for 
country gentlemen, directions for greenhouses, or even 
hothouses, and disquisitions upon articles quite out of 
the cottager’s reach; but 1 do think that vve, who have 
