August 11. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
pleased their sires. Leaving, therefore, the full-tide 
progress men to get the novelties as they come out, 
the following list will be useful to those who desire to 
have something really beautiful, and who are under the 
necessity of consulting their pocket as well as novelty. 
Plants with more or less of the habit of the original 
Coccinka. —Abundant bloomers, twiggy in their growth, 
reflexed sepals, and dark purple corollas. In point of 
suitability they will stand as they are named— Volti- 
geur, Dr. Smith, Scarletina refiexa elegantissima, Ne 
plus ultra, Vivid, Diadem, and Black Prince. 
Plants of robust habit; free blooming; flowers pink, 
crimson, or rose, but no striking difference between 
sepals and petals, and the former not reflexed. Ex¬ 
quisite, Rose d'Amour, Shylock, Confidence, Crimson 
King, Goldfinch, Eliza, Miellez, and Orion, but the 
latter must not be over potted. 
Plants with white reflexed sepals; corolla rosy-pinkish- 
crimson— Prince Arthur, Matilda (Henderson’s). 
Plant with light, reflexed sepals; beautiful light violet 
blossoms— Gem, of the West. Tube and sepals a pure 
white, and approaching to it; the sepals not reflexed, 
but standing boldly; the corolla rose and crimson. 
Pearl of England, One in the Ring, Purity, Snoivdrop, 
Dr. Jephson, and, as a neat little thing, though without 
white sepals, the Venus Victrix. If, in addition, any of 
our readers should covet such stronger-growing kinds as 
Don Giovanni, Alpha, Lord Nelson, Duke of Cambridge, 
&c., they will do well to grow them in poor soil, and 
under pot, and then use manure-water when the flower- 
buds begin to swell. 
2. Compost. —Two parts rough loam, and one of peat, 
will grow the whole tribe admirably; but so will the 
soil obtained from nineteen-twentieths of the roadsides 
in the country. If, however, you could get the turf 
instead of the soil, and keep it until next March or 
April, it will be better than the under soil. In se¬ 
lecting a spot, do not choose it where the grass is soft 
and fine, but stiff and hard, the blades resembling so 
many needles. You will find, in the latter case, the 
turf is full of fibres. Choose it where the soil beneath 
is of a hazel-brown colour, instead of dark or black. 
Take off the turf from one to one-and-a-half inch in 
thickness; and whether you get a barrow-load, or a cart¬ 
load, take it up when dry, build it, one turf on another, 
grass side downwards, either in a shed, where it can be 
kept dry, or out-of-doors, where you can keep out wet. 
It will contain a sufficiency of moisture to cause the 
grass to decompose, and the air will sweeten the fibre 
without wasting it. But this soil may be a too strong 
loam for some plants, or you may wish some means of 
lightening it, and rendering it more porous, without 
going to the expense of having silver sand sent to you 
for fifty or an hundred miles. Well, the old road will 
stand your friend again. If made or mended with 
stone or flint, after each heavy rain a quantity of these 
pounded flints will be washed into the hollows in the 
shape of rough sand, and that as it is will be capital 
stuff for lightening heavy soil intended for Fuchsias 
and Geraniums; and if well-washed several times in a 
tub, and passed through a fine sieve, the finer particles 
would be admirably suited as a casing when propagating 
from cuttings; the middlemost, for roughness, would do 
for mixing with soil to keep it open; and the rough 
bits of pebble would do well over the drainage. A 
basket or barrow-load of this sand is, therefore, very 
valuable, and should always be kept dry. But the soil 
may be naturally poor, or may be rendered too much so, 
by an addition of a sixth or seventh part in bulk of 
this sand, and you want a safe, enriching agent, without 
undergoing any risk from artificial manures. Well, let 
us to the old road again; ten to one but there are trees 
in its vicinity, the leaves from these will fall in autumn, 
and, if collected in a heap, and turned several times the 
36(1 
ensuing season, they will be a safe enricher of the soil 
some twelve or eighteen months after they are gathered, 
and constituting then about one-sixth of the compost. 
But there is something better than these. By the side 
of that road, most likely cows and oxen will now and 
then be driven, or if such a thing, for a wonder, should 
never take place, you will not be far from an obliging 
neighbour, and somehow, very queer, selfish people, will 
oblige a flower grower sooner than any body else ; and 
that neighbour would not object to your having a 
basket full, or even a barrow full, of dried cakes of cow- 
dung from bis meadow. Now these, put in a heap, and 
kept dry during the winter, might be broken into small 
pieces, the size of a field-bean, and incorporated with 
the compost in about the proportion of one-twelfth, or, 
better still, rubbed through a rough sieve, may be used 
with great advantage as surface mulchings, as soon as 
the flower-buds appear; and if there you did not like its 
appearance, you could scatter over it a little sandy soil. 
A little charcoal, broken into little bits, to keep the soil 
open, or used above the main draining tile, will also be 
an advantage. Its very lightness gives it a superiority, 
for the latter purpose, over everything else. Even town 
growers should try and get the turfy soil, and then, with 
sand, a little charcoal and artificial manures, they will 
be able, even without cakes of cow dung and old leaves, 
to get on very well. The best of these manures that we 
have used for the Fuchsia, either scattered on the 
surface of the pot, or used in solution, i3 the super¬ 
phosphate of lime; but see what was lately said on 
using it weak enough 
3. Propagation. —This is best done in the spring, 
when the young shoots are from two to three inches in 
length; but, as even for a window it will be desirable to 
have two, if not three, sets of plants for the season, it 
will be advisable to propagate, even in this month of 
August, though June or July would have been better, 
and April or May better still. We speak not now of 
the best mode of doing so, but the most successful in a 
window. Prepare some small pots, from three to four 
inches in diameter; fill them half-full of drainage,three- 
parts of the remainder with light sandy soil, and the 
one part next the top with the purest sand. Go over 
your plants even now, and you will find some little 
stubby pieces, from two to three inches in length; slip 
them off close to the stem with a sharp knife, dress 
away any bit of bark, remove a couple or so of the 
lower leaves, shortennne or two of the others, if long, 
and insert three or four of these cuttings round the sides 
of the small pot, and then water them, and when dry 
cover with a bell-glass. Previously to all this, however, 
the small pot should be inserted inside of a larger one, 
and the space between the sides stuffed with moss, or 
filled with earth and sand on the surface. If the glass 
will stand between the rims of the two pots, so much 
the better, as the drip will go there instead of on the 
plants if a conical glass is used. If this intermediate 
space is kept moist, the pot containing the cuttings will 
want little watering until they are struck. The ad¬ 
vantage of this double pot in a window is, that extremes 
of moisture and dryness, and even of heat and cold, are 
avoided. Shade with a piece of paper when the sun 
shines upon them, but no more than is necessary to 
prevent flagging. After a few days, give a little air at 
night, and press down the glass firm in the morning. 
As soon as the rooting process is fairly commenced, leave 
a little air on, except in the heat of the day, and by-and- 
by leave it on constantly a few days before removing the 
glass. But you say, you have no bell-glass. Well, go to 
the cupboard, and borrow some ale-glasses or tumblers. 
“ Oh! there will be such grumbling.” Do, then, as 1 
did with some of my first propagating. Get a stout 
hazel or willow wand, or any other piece of wood that 
will bend in a circle for a base; take two other smaller 
