230 THE COTTAGE GARDENER, August 
was thought good management; hut in our day the 
weather determines those points, and we must be in 
readiness to act on a few hours’ notice. Then, the 
.. sooner we begin the more safe we shall be at the end 
of the season. 
Now for plants to fill these houses and bloom 
in the autumn. Here I must congratulate myself 
on being placed between two such good friends as 
Mr. Appleby and Mr. Fish, who lend me a help¬ 
ing hand occasionally to fill the greenhouse and 
the window sill. I was much puzzled early in 
the season what to do about the achimeneses; they 
are so pretty and so very useful for my department 
that it seemed hard to be obliged to pass them over 
in silence because they are strictly stove plants early 
in the season—not more so, however, than cocks¬ 
combs. Now, this is an instance out of several 
others that came before us the first season, proving, 
without much doubt, that it was desirable to have a 
department of these pages devoted to stove and forc¬ 
ing purposes. It is very gratifying to all of us en¬ 
gaged on The Cottage Gardener, that the extensive 
demand for the work has enabled the proprietors to 
increase its size at the original price, and thus enable 
the writers “ to work into each other’s hands,”—to 
use a cottage phrase—as in this instance of the achi- 
menes, a name given to this beautiful family by Mr. 
P. Browne, in his “History of Jamaica,” without 
explaining its meaning; and, I believe, I read some¬ 
where, or heard it said, that no one knows the 
meaning of the term, or its true jnonunciation. lly 
common consent, however, the accent is put on the 
penultimate—that is, the last vowel but one, thus, 
Achimenes. 
I hope Mr. Fish will help me out with other stove 
or half stove plants for autumn in the greenhouse, 
such as justicias, eranthemums, a/phelandras, and so 
on. After the geraniums and fuchsias have done 
flowering, and till the chrysanthemums come in, is 
the worst time in the season for a full display of 
greenhouse flowers, and without the aid of a little 
stove one can hardly make both ends meet at that 
season. 
Chrysanthemums. —I intended to have left the 
summer cultivation of the chrysanthemum to Mr. 
Appleby, along with his other out-door plants, but, as 
he thinks otherwise, I may say that this is just the 
proper time to get window plants of them, not higher 
than 18 inches or so. This is done by layering the 
tops of the strongest shoots into little pots, the same 
way as they do with strawberry runners for forcing, 
ihese shoots are very brittle, and snap almost as 
readily as glass, therefore they must be very cau¬ 
tiously handled in the operation. Make choice of 
strong old plants growing in the open border, and 
single out as many of the centre shoots as you wish 
lor plants of each sort. Have a quantity of small 
sticks, a foot or 18 inches long—for every shoot ought 
to be tied down to a stick previously to layering. Take 
a shoot and bend it down towards the horizontal as 
low as you can get it without breaking; then, about 
the middle of it, push one of the sticks firmly into 
the ground, and tie the shoot to it; now, take a 
three-inch potful of the richest compost within your 
reach and sink it in the border, leaving the rim level 
with the surface, and about four or five inches from 
the point of the horizontal shoot. The most difficult 
part of the process is now to be tried by bending 
down the shoot so that it be half an inch in the pot. 
llie most expert at layering chrysanthemums are 
generally allowed ten per cent, of breakage, and if a 
\ young beginner does not break more than five-and- 
twenty per cent., he need not blush much. These 
layers will root much faster if they are “ tongued,” 
as we say when we make a slit-cut at the bend. This 
tongue-slit is made on the under side of the shoot, 
opposite the centre of the pot, by drawing the knife 
towards the point-end of the shoot, making the cut 
about an inch long; then, by turning up the point 
gently, this tongue separates a little from the bend, 
and in that position is laid in the pot: the point 
above the tongue being four inches long must be tied 
to a small stick thrust down by the side of the pot, 
otherwise the least puff of wind will break it off at 
the tongue. When the whole are thus finished, give 
them a gentle shower, to settle the soil about them ; 
and, if the weather is dry, a handful of moss or some¬ 
thing of the kind, to lessen the evaporation from the 
soil, should be put on the surface. At any rate, the 
soil in the pots should not get dry during the time 
the layers are rooting, and the layers need not be 
removed till the middle or end of September, as, al¬ 
though they ought to be well rooted long before then, 
the nourishment they derive from the mother plant 
will greatly assist them to form strong flower-buds. 
When they are to be removed, first cut the old shoots 
just outside the pots, and immediately give them a 
good watering, but on no account disturb the pots at 
this stage, for the roots are probably out through the 
bottom, and over the top of the pot also if it was 
covered with moss, and if they were disturbed the 
same day as the youngsters were weaned from the 
parent, the check both ways might prove fatal to the 
whole experiment. Leave them as they are one 
whole week, then, with a spade, loosen up the pots, 
and the roots, if out in the free soil, will thus be pre¬ 
served. Pot them as soon as they are up, using pots 
of a size to take in all the roots comfortably, and as 
rich a compost as you can make—say half rotten 
dung and half loam. Place them in the shade for 
another week, and, if the weather is dry, sprinkle 
them over with water twice or even three times a day. 
The whole secret in getting good dwarf plants from 
layers is that no check whatever be allowed to their 
onward course. The moment you can see flower- 
buds on the chrysanthemum, whether as dwarfs or 
tall bushes—but not before—use rich liquid-manure 
freely. Whatever the state of the weather may be, 
they should have manure water at least every other 
day, but none before they show for flower, for that 
would cause them to grow on still taller than is na¬ 
tural to them. I would much recommend this prac¬ 
tice of layering large numbers of them, and, if they 
are not all wanted in that way, three or four might 
be put into one pot when they are taken up, and thus 
form large specimens of less height than can be bad 
any other way. They will come in useful where tall 
plants could not stand, and where small dwarf ones 
would make little show. 
Cuttings, or divided portions of the old plants, 
turned out into a free border last May, if well attended 
to according to previous directions, will make the 
best dowering plants with the least trouble; and, 
from this time, these should be checked at the roots 
once in ten days. This is done by pushing down a 
spade about six or eight inches from the side of the 
plant, and half round it, so that one-lialf of the 
roots are cut; the other half of the circle may be cut 
in a similar way ten days afterwards. Each time 
pour down a quantity of water in the opening left by 
the spade, and the cut roots will suck it till new ones 
are formed; for every root that is cut at this season 
will immediately form two or three more, and thus 
abundance of feeding roots will be formed in a small 
