March 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
473 
confusion, and not likely to bloom. In August, give 
more air; more still in September, and little water in 
October, so as the plants do not flag. Do not let the 
plants, even when comparatively dry, get below 45°. 
When put into a temperature higher by 5° or 10°, the 
flowers will soon show, and very likely will have been 
showing before, if the shoots were not stopped after 
the end of June. In a bright, sunny day, in winter, 
the foliage might be gently dusted with the syringe; 
otherwise, the atmosphere about the flowers should be 
dry, and from 45° to 55°. When done flowering, the 
tops of the plant should be pruned off, and the plants 
kept rather dry, in an average temj^rature of 45°. 
In this they will lose the large leaves. In spring, 
prune back freely, leaving one or more buds on each 
spur; the parts cut away, or the young growth to come, 
will do for propagating. Such one-year-old plants 
grown on a second year will inako large plants, if with 
plenty of pot-room. As young plants look nice, it will 
seldom be desirable to keep the plants after two years. 
Green fly are fond of the young shoots, and if kept hot 
and dry together, the red spider will soon spoil the 
beauty of the foliage. 
ARDISEA CRENULATA. 
“I have kept this plant in my greenhouse for several 
years, the temperature averaging, during the winter, 45° 
at night, seldom lower; but this season, the points of 
the leaves look as if they had burned.” This is a 
plant that always commands attention, from its neat, 
trim habit, and the number of red berries it almost 
constantly carries after it has risen two years of age. 
The flowers are small, whitish, and nothing to arrest the 
attention. The plant may bo considered a miniature 
Holly-tree for bouses, having a plentiful supply of red 
fruit without the prickly foliage. I suspect the plant 
alluded to got burned by the frost, in one of the late severe 
nights. I have had this Arclisea for short periods at 
40°; but I never found it would stand much lower than 
that for any lengthened period. From 45° to 50° may 
generally be considered the lowest temperature in which 
this West Indian plant can remain healthy. An 
average of 45° in the winter months, with a consider¬ 
able rise from sunshine, will only maintain the plant 
healthy, and well supplied with its beautiful, persistent, 
red berries; when a close, moist, warm atmosphere is 
used in summer to encourage growth. In a house 
averaging 50° in winter, and not often below it at night, 
there will be less necessity for peculiar summer treatment. 
Few plants are more easily grown, or require less 
trouble in the way of stopping or training. In fact, 
when a plant is raised from a cutting, and the point 
allowed to grow on, or from a seedling whose axis of 
growth is not meddled with, it is the best policy to let 
well alone, and do nothing whatever in the way of 
pruning or training. The young plant, however raised, 
will grow as upright as a line; but as the stem rises, it 
throws out in a season two or three tiers of alternate 
side-branches. It thus naturally, at first, takes the 
conical form. In the second year, if not before, these 
side-branches yield their small sharp-pointed flowers, 
followed first by green and then by red fruit. When 
a plant is four feet high, and, perhaps, five to seven 
years of age, you will liavo a growing point, and some 
very small side-branches ; some side-branches, six inches 
or so in length, carrying flowers; others, farther down, 
very likely with green berries; another layer with 
bright red berries; two or three layers, farther down 
still, with berries, one, two, three, or more years old; 
the last losing their brightness, becoming black, and 
dropping from the symmetrical plant; while, perhaps, 
below all that, you have a clean, naked stem; as after the 
berries hang two or three years, the small side-branches 
that support them fall off of their own accord. The 
longer you keep your plant, therefore, the higher it will 
get, and the greater will be the length of a clean, naked 
stem, as the lower branches will drop off every year. 
The plant will manage all for itself, without troubling 
you to prune, or tie, or bend. The following are the 1 
chief points in its simple management. Few plants 
would bo more ornamental in sitting-rooms in winter, if j 
not kept too long. 
1. Propagation .—Seed sown in a hotbed will give nice 
little plants m two years. Cuttings of the young shoots, 
placed in heat under a hand-light, will strike readily. 
The side-shoots do not make such nice plants as 
seedlings. Pieces of the roots placed in a good, strong 
heat, throw up nice plants, that grow well when treated j 
as rooted cuttings. 
2. Soil .—Peat and loam at first; increasing the j 
loam afterwards, until it forms the greatest portion. 
3. Position and Temperature .—The latter has already 
been alluded to. When intended for a warm green- | 
house, in winter, a close pit, in May, June, and July will 
be of much benefit to it; as merely by curtailing air it 
will be easy to give often a temperature ranging from j 
70° to 80°. In August and September, more air should 
be given. I have never found the plant benefited by ! 
removing it from under glass for any period. 
4. Watering .—As the plant is kept constantly, and, 
except during summer, slowly growing, there is no 
regular rest period, and watering must be regulated 
according to the wants of the plant and the weather. 
A seven or nine-inch pot will grow a nice specimen. 
5. Insects .—I have never seen this plant interfered 
with when it had anything like justice. Bug and scale 
I have seen on a tree, and then it is best to commence j 
with a seedling, and throw the infected plants to the 
rubbish-heap. R. Fish. 
ADVICE TO YOUNG GARDENERS. 
(Continued from page 414.) 
The next head on which I purpose writing is Civility. 
Dr. Johnson explains this word, “ politeness, kindness, 
freedom from barbarity.” In these senses, every man 
ought to possess civility; but especially the head- 
gardener. A man, holding such a situation, has to meet 
and converse with high and low, rich and poor, and ] 
also with what are called the middle ranks of society. J 
It behoves him, then, to study how he ought to address 
himself to each and all of those persons. To the high J 
in rank, and wealthy, there is small fear but ho will be 
civil; his self-interest will teach him the policy of doing 
so; but, on the other hand, let him take care not to j 
exhibit a crouching, servile behaviour. If he possesses ! 
ability in his profession, and is tolerably well read, he 
will have self-respect, and still render honour to whom : 
honour is due; but not to excess. If, for instance, he ! 
is called upon to converse on gardening with a Duke, 
he will, in the first place, make his polite bow, lifting his 
hat, and then answer any question by first saying, “Yes, 
your Grace;” or, “No, your Graco;”and after having 
given the gentleman his due as to title, he will then give i 
his opinion, or advice, without interlarding every 
sentenco with Your Grace, or kly Lord, or My Lady, 
as the case may be. Our nobility are too well bred to 
require such servility, and they would turn away with 
disgust from such nauseating doses of cringing homage; 
such behaviour is not politeness; it is barbarity. 
Then let my friend take equal care not to speak to his J 
inferiors, even to the poorest, with rough language, and 
a domineering manner. The Apostle Paul says—“Bo 
courteous;” and he docs not say be so only to the rich, 
but to all. It is by the language that a master uses to ; 
