348 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 12, 1861. 
of tlie borders, as be and bis innocent allies among our¬ 
selves would have us do. And, believe me, if but one place 
in a parish, or a corner of county, would take it up in 
earnest, the whole country would soon be in for it deep 
as in ribbon-borders, and no wonder; for any one who 
bad seen Calockortus splendens and venustus in 1829 
and 1830, just before they disappeared from our garden- 
for lack of knowledge of their ways, and the hosts o ! 
equally beautiful things which were in fashion at that 
time, and for the twenty years preceding that period—I 
say no one who had seen such sights, and would know 
how to command them now, could resist the force o 
temptation which geothermal cultivation would place 
within his own garden. 
But, now that pot room and pots are among the luxu 
ries of almost all gardeners, be they on their own hooks 
or cooking for others, it is just the time you see and feel 
the necessity nf turning one of our best rules upside down. 
Never pot a seedling of a bedding plant in March in a 
single pot; always put four or six seedlings round the 
sides of one pot as the smallest number, and the number 
of the pot must be 48, even if you want forty thousand of 
them. Then, instead of six little 60-pots, you have one to 
water, and find room for, and in six days it will not re¬ 
quire more water than the six small ones would need six 
times. Just think of that! 
In nineteen times out of twenty, and for nineteen kinds 
of plants out of twenty, cuttings from a cutting-pot do 
better by being put, like seedlings, into 48-3ized pots, 
and so many in a pot. When a cutting-pot is once well- 
rooted, as the phrase goes, it should not stand idle 
another day, but be shaken out at once, and the cuttings 
dealt with on the makeshift principle, and be held as 
close and nearly as warm as they were in the cutting-bed 
for the next two, or three, or more days, according to 
the weather. The reason is, that not a single day is to 
be lost during the propagating season in such a season as 
this, when so much is to be done for what the winter has 
undone. If you happen not to need to be in the express, 
the cuttings will take no harm in the cutting-pots for a 
whole week or ten days after they are rooted, if you 
bring them out of the bed and put them in a place a little 
cooler, but not just as cold as a cold frame, which must 
have a large portion of air from this time onwards. . A 
hand-light in the end of a cold pit is the next .lowest 
shift on my scale, as the hand-glass will be cloge; and 
the light of the cold pit, or two of them, nearest to where 
the hand-glasses are in, need not be tilted for some days ; 
and a newspaper over the hand-glasses insidb a cold pit 
is a ten times better way of shading cuttings just struck 
than a mat or canvass over the lights of the pit—and the 
reason is this: If you put a mat on the outside glass 
you make the inside colder than is lawful for a cold pit 
under the shiftmaking principle ; while at the same time 
your cutting-pots under the hand-glass want all the extra 
heat a cold pit can have from March sun. The newspaper 
is a light covering, and keeps the cuttings from the direct 
rays of the sun, while it allows the glass of the frame to 
heat the air of the pit round and round the hand-lights. 
The next upward rise is this A three-light box, or 
one of one or two lights only, quite empty, and placed 
over some dry and sifted coal ashes. Two or three hand¬ 
glasses inside such a frame would keep a great number 
of cutting-pots, and the rest with older cuttings just 
newly potted; the hand-glasses to be shaded with paper, j 
and the newly-potted with a mat or piece of tiffany on 
the outside glass. The next step warms my heart to 
think of it. It is a temporary hotbed, made of odds and 
ends from leaves and stable-litter. From ten days to 
three weeks in a temporary bed of this kind, and plunged 
m it, would set all the bedding plants on their legs in 
any one stage of their lives. The old, hard, horny 
bottom of a favourite scarlet Geranium, just fresh potted i 
and thus plunged, would soon bud and blossom like a 
Nosegay; and the tiniest seedling of a speciosa Lobelia ! 
would as soon raise its ears with that luxury. Cutting 
of all sorts and sizes just the same. All of them would 
soon tell of the magic influence of a temporary hotbed at 
this season of the year. Then lead on in imagination to 
planting-out time, and think of the influence of this our 
old favourite, and temperate bottom heat, now most 
beautifully termed geothermal, and see what it would do 
for the newly-planted—the roots as warm as they were 
last March in that temporary and temperate hotbed, and 
the tops as free as the air we breathe, and all that 
without ceasing the whole season. Enough to make a 
fellow young again! And to have such a pretty name as 
“geothermal cultivation” is well worthy of the light¬ 
hearted man who gave it, and who, if he had been free 
from the schools of Drumliedock, would have made the 
best gardener in France, and the best possible author for 
naming all nur garden fancies. D. Beaton. 
LILIES IN POTS FOE A CONSEEYATOEY, 
AND FUCHSIAS FOE ITS EAFTEES. 
I am desirous of having some Lilies in a cold conservatory or 
orchard-house. Will you tell me if the under-mentioned bulbs 
will do? I want three bulbs in a pot. What size should the 
pots be ? I require thirty-eight pots, nineteen on each side. I 
propose placing them in pairs—that is, two Liliums of the same 
kind opposite each other, and so on throughout the house on 
each side of the walk. I propose having two pots each of 
L. atro-sanguineum, L. lancifolium (white), ditto (spotted), 
ditto (red), L. longiflorum, L. eximium, L. giganteum, and four 
pots each of Tuberoses; large plants of Scarlet Geraniums, 
Fuchsias, and Gladioluses. I shall have eight rafters for 
climbers. I intend having Clematises, Passifloras, and Fuchsias. 
In the autumn I intend putting Chrysanthemums in the place 
of the Liliums, &c. Do you think this is practicable, and that 
it will give me a fair show of colour with the least trouble, being 
obliged to manage it all myself. I want a few gay flowers free 
from blight or inclination to get it. What Fuchsias should I 
have for the rafters ?— Kate. 
[What are called 16’s or 12’s, or pots of 9 inches or 10£ inches, 
will suit best, and two parts loam, one part leaf mould, and 
one part heath soil, with a little silver sand, will grow the bulbs 
well. If you get good strong bulbs you will have a pretty show, 
and following with Chrysanthemums will answer well, only the 
Lilies will not last all the summer. The best column Fuchsias 
to alternate with Clematises, &c., are the small macrophylla, 
gracilis, Thompsoniana, coralina, and globosa.] 
TOMATOES FEOM CUTTINGS. 
The cuttings to be taken from the tops of the bearing shoots 
(say in September, the same as bedding plants), and planted in 
five-inch pots filled with sandy loam. They should then be 
watered and placed in the shade. The cuttings form roots and 
are ready to pot off in a fortnight or three weeks. On the 
approach of frost they should be stored away with other plants 
intended to be kept over winter, in a pit kept moderately moist 
and free from frost. Plants raised from cuttings are less suc¬ 
culent, and, therefore, do not so readily damp off, or suffer from 
the cold, to which they are liable to be exposed after being planted 
out; and come into hearing sooner.—J AMES Ceaib, Rochester, 
N.Y .—( Genesee Farmer .) 
THE FLOEAL MAGAZINE. 
The “ Floral Magazine,” which has now reached its eleventh 
number, has improved much. The present issue contains four 
very beautiful illustrations—viz., some of the incurved Ever¬ 
lastings ; two of Mr. Salter’s new large-flowered Chrysanthemums, 
which we can speak of as being really great beauties—Little 
Harry especially being quite a model for its habit of growth and 
beauty; a purple standard Lobelia, which introduces a new 
colour into a very showy tribe of perennials; and a gorgeous 
drawing of Comte de Falloux Rose, a most faithful and artistic 
portrait of a charming introduction of Mr. Standish’s, of 
Bagshot. We have seen it in flower, and can bear witness to its 
being what our neighbours call “ tree Jlorifere.” We cannot, 
however, agree with Mr. Moore in thinking it resembles Geant 
