March 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
475 
plant into the greenhouse. Place it on an airy part of 
the stage, well exposed to the light, and give very 
moderate supplies of water. If kept wet the roots will 
perish. Keep the thermometer just above the freezing 
point; that heat will be sufficient for it. Two or three 
times during the winter remove all moss from the 
surlace ol the soil, and, if the pot will hold it, givo a 
top-dressing of fresh compost. Should the pot become 
green lot it be carefully washed oif. The season of 
flowering is early, but by keeping it cool through winter 
and spring it may be kept to bloom for the first show in 
May. By attending to these points in culture, this 
elegant plant will repay all the cultivator’s pains, with 
its curious, pinkish-red blossoms and pretty leaves. 
Propagation : By Seed. —This plant often produces 
seeds. Gather them as soon as they are ripe, and sow 
them immediately. Sow them in the compost in well- 
drained shallow pans, cover slightly, and water with a 
vory fine-rosed pot, so as not to wash the soil off the 
seeds. Place the pan in a heat of 00°, and as soon as 
the seedlings are an inch or two high, place the pan on 
a shelf in the greenhouse. Pot them off when a little 
hardeued, shade for a few days, and then expose them 
fully, and repot as they require it. 
By Cuttings. — When propagated by cuttings these 
plants flower sooner than by seed. Choose a nice, clean 
pot, with bell-glass to fit; fill it half full of drainage, 
then to within an inch of the top with the compost, and 
that inch with clear, bright, silver sand. Take off the 
cuttings, as many as may be required; make them an 
inch long, and trim off the lower leaves. The young 
tops of the side-shoots form the best cuttings. Water 
the sand to make it firm, and then insert the cuttings 
neatly in rows across the pot within the bell-glass. Give 
another gentle watering to settle the sand close to each 
cutting, fix on the glass, and place them on a cool shelf 
in the greenhouse tor a month, then lift one up, and if 
the bottom is healed over, place the pot in a gentle heat 
to cause the emission of roots. As soon as a fair 
quantity is made to each cutting, pot them off into a 
thumb-pot, shade for a week or two, and then put them 
on a shelf near the glass, and treat them the spring 
following as established plants. T. Appleby. 
THE SEASON, AND THE SOWING OE SEEDS. 
After a period of vory severe weather, we may, 
perhaps, be favoured with a dry spring, or, at least, 
as much dry weather as is necessary to enable tho 
customary work of spring to be got on with ; the most 
important of out-door operations being the sowing of 
seeds ; but before entering on that duty, let us tako a 
retrospective view of tho past, and see in what condition 
the ground has been loft by the late frost; and by 
way of making my meaning clear, I will give somo 
particulars of tho winter, as felt at the place I write from, 
about thirty-five miles from the sea. 
In tho first place, I may say, that winter, in a certain 
sense, set in rather early, for we had a fall of snow on 
the 27th of November, which continued on the ground 
two days or more. Subsequently, however, it became 
unusually mild, and continued so until the middle of 
January; somo of the nights about the new year ranging 
as high as 44° ; but it became much colder towards tho 
middle of the month, a heavy fall of snow taking place 
on the 17th, which afterwards drifted into such heaps 
that a part of it remains on the ground yot, and will 
most likely do so until the middle of March. But other 
accumulations of snow followed, not certainly so heavy 
as has been seen in some years, but so much drifted, 
hat tho south and eastern sides of hedges, and other 
places, were loaded with this beautiful clement, assuming, 
in many instances, a highly ornamental aspect. I need 
say that frost accompanied it; but what is somewhat 
singular, its intensity has varied very considerably in 
districts only a few miles apart, in some instances, as 
much as 10° in four miles. The lowest point we had was 
0°, on the 10th of February, at no other night was it 
under 12° ; but it was somewhat remarkable, that from 
the 9th of January to the 20th of February inclusive, the 
thermometer always registered more or less of frost, while 
the lengthened severity of it at the beginning and up to 
the middle of February has told with a vengeance on 
many things that usually escape; the ice on ponds 
being upwards of ten inches thick, and the wasting of 
the snow, except where drifted to, exposed the surface 
of tho ground to it likewise; but I do not apprehend 
any more harm than we now and then meet with in a 
severe winter. Tho air was vory dry the greater part of 
the time; so much so, that even wet clothes were speedily 
dried with it; and though the foliage of evergreens 
looked very bad, I am in hopes that all will escape any 
serious damage, exceptthoso which are scarcely considered 
hardy; but smaller things in the flower-gardoning way, 
which now and then escape in the mild winters, have 
been all killed; and I fear somo of the half-hardy shrubs 
and Pines aro injured ; however, we shall sec better by 
and by. The tender Roses have suffered vory much, 
I see ; and in the kitchen-garden, Brocoli has been cut 
up very severely, the tall kinds especially; while Lettuce, 
Celery, Turnips, and other things, are all more or less 
hurt; Peas being, perhaps, least injured of anything; 
owing to the cold weather at the end of November, they 
did not make their appearance in time to get an undue 
length before the main winter sot in, consequently, they 
look as well as usual, being, at the time I write, the 1st 
of March, not more than an inch or so above ground. 
But it is to tho vacant ground that wo must now direct 
our attention, the frost having benefited that to an 
extent far beyond that of a dressing of manure, and 
where the ground was turned up in time in tho 
autumn, the top part must be as fine as could be wished 
for any purpose, and fit to receive tho various seeds 
which it is now time to sow, and which we shall 
enumerate below. 
SOWING. 
Brussels Sprouts, Savoy, and the whole section of j 
winter greens, of which Chou de Milan, Scotch Kale, , 
and somo others, may be mentioned as the most useful; 
but as they all require treatment alike, a series of 
beds may be prepared on a good, sunny border, and J 
each kind sown in proportion to the wants or tastes of j 
the family. In a usual way, it will bo found good 1 
practice to sow, or rather plant, more Brussels Sprouts 
than anything else; because, they being in use a longer 
period than any other, and suffering less from severe 
weather, aro moro worthy of attention than anything 
else. They may be all sown in broadcast beds, and 
labelled accordingly, covering the seed lightly, and not 
raking the top much, if it is on heavy, stiff'ground, as 
hoavy rains cako it so much. 
Celery for the main crop may also bo sown now. This 
ought to be done on a spent hotbed, or some other 
sheltered place, and on very fine soil, as the seed is 
small, and, like most of its family, remains in tho ground 
a long time before it germinates. 11 is needless mention¬ 
ing kinds; but I may observe, that Coles’s Red and the 
old Silver White are the best kinds I have grown ; tho 
last-named having passed under several names. But it is 
well to sow more varieties than two, unless they can bo 
depended upon with a certainty, for it sometimes happens 
that a kind strongly recommended turns out a very 
indiflerent article, even when the vendor had every reason 
