THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 13, 1857. 
SHORT CULTURAL NOTES EOR WINDOW 
GARDENERS. 
(Continued frontpage 4.) 
Verbena. —Varieties of these fashionable flowers are easily 
obtained from seeds. Esteemed hinds are easily secured by 
cuttings, which strike freely, if kept close under a bellglass 
or square of glass, at all times except the winter months. 
Tor flower garden and verandah the great proportion may be 
struck in spring from plants saved over the winter. Tor that 
purpose, and also for early plants to bloom in the window, 
stiff little side-shoots from one inch and a half to two inches 
long should be slipped off close to the older stem in August. 
When a good portion of the leaves are removed hold a 
number of cuttings by their base in your hand, and pull 
them several times through some tobacco water, in case there 
should be any insects upon them. Place them then about one 
inch apart in well-drained pots, supplied with sandy soil, 
and sand on the surface, and to be covered with a bellglass 
if you have no frame. As soon as rooted give air, gently at 
first, and then freely. If the window in which they are 
placed is cool, give a little air at night by tilting the glass, 
and shut down in the morning. Where this operation would 
be considered too nice lay the points of your growing plants 
in small pots, keeping them down with a small stone until 
well rooted, when, to save room, you may put several of 
these small plants into a six-inch pot. These will be far 
superior for standing the winter than any old plants, how¬ 
ever fine. Do not let them get chilled by keeping them out 
too long in October. Now, if you liaye a spare room, such as 
a lumber-room with a window and a fireplace, that you 
might use in extreme cases, you may keep your Verbenas as 
nicely as the best gardener in the country, because you can 
give plenty of fresh air, and keep frost from entering. They 
keep very unsatisfactorily in a general living room, because 
there are great alternations of temperature; and they suffer 
greatly from the dried, heated, unwholesome air which some 
people will insist upon in cold, cloudy 'weather. In the 
month of Tebruary, some years ago, I saw about a score of 
store cutting pots on a table near the window in such a spare 
room, and even a nurseryman might have envied them. In 
frosty nights the table was moved to the middle of the room. 
In several severe nights two bottles, holding a gallon each, 
and filled with hot water, were placed near the table. Only 
on one occasion had a fire been ppt in the rusty grate: the 
owner was well satisfied if the thermometer on the table was 
above 32°. Many other bedding plants were preserved in 
the same manner. 
Violets. —The double Russian f)lue, the tree Violet, and 
the Neapolitan, I consider the best for the window and 
balcony. I have never met a lady who would not repay you 
with her best smile for a bunch of Violets at any time, and 
especially in the winter and early spring months. The 
Neapolitan is my greatest favourite, and if you manage it 
well you will have no difficulty with the others. The fol¬ 
lowing is as good and simple a plan as any :—In May, or as 
soon as the plants are past their best, turn them out of their 
pots, and break each plant into as many as you can get a 
fine, plump, little head and roots to it. Plant these sepa¬ 
rately into a well-dug, aerated, and enriched border, and from 
six to twelve inches apart, choosing an eastern site in prefer¬ 
ence to a southern or western, and a western is the second 
best. Water, and repot when necessary. If anything like red 
spider appears, syringe, and use dustings of sulphur until 
they are gone. As they grow many runners will appear, 
hut every one must be nipped off as it comes, and the 
whole strength of the roots thrown to the increasing the 
size of the head of the plant that is to produce the bloom. 
Keep the runners down and the ground surface stirred, and 
all weeds at bay, and by September you will have nice, 
compact, strong plants, showing their bloom-buds, waiting 
your leisure for placing them carefully in light, loamy, rich 
soil, each in a six-inch pot; and when, by the end of October, 
you place them in your window, you will soon know that 
you have something near you more delightfully fragrant 
. than obtrusively beautiful. They will soon show their dis¬ 
content if you treat them with mistaken kindness, and keep 
them in a hot, dried atmosphere. Give all the air possible 
in winter, and in sunny days moisten and clean their 
foliage. . , , , 
Wallflowers. —Many of our city brethren are glad even 
of the single varieties in their windows and balconies, and 
which, if sown any spring time before Midsummer, will 
bloom early next spring. Most people prefer for windows 
the double varieties, and of these there is a considerable 
number, with yellow, crimson, orange, purple, and somewhat 
mottled flowers, and all exceedingly sweet. They are best 
raised from cuttings in May and June in sandy soil, under 
a handlight, bellglass, or square of glass. Cuttings may be 
taken at an earlier period from the points of shoots that 
have not bloomed. When the flower-stalks are pruned back 
when done flowering, and the plants are well watered, nice 
stubby side-shoots will soon be thrown out, and tbe thinnings 
of these will make excellent cuttings when between two and 
three inches in length. Young plants thus cut back will 
bloom very nicely the following year, alter which they should 
be discarded, and their place taken by those struck this 
summer, and which will bloom a little next year. Such 
plants about two years old produce strong flower-stalks ; 
after that period, though produced freely, they are generally 
inferior taken individually. Rich sandy loam suits them well, 
and, as soon as the flower-buds begin to peep, manure 
waterings will do them great good. They will he sale 
enough in a room during winter if kept rather dry, and not 
much frost admitted, though it would be as well if no frost 
touched them, but the temperature ranged from 33° to 40°. 
Tor rocks and small pot plants out of doors few things are 
more beautiful than ulpinus, yellow, and MarshaUii, orange. 
Wardian Case. —I have already described a propagating 
case for a parlour, and what might be termed a table green¬ 
house. ’Wardian cases are now made of all sizes and 
patterns, from the most artistic and adorned to the simple 
large bellglass that stands upon a plate, and thus covers all 
the plants beneath it. It was supposed that by their aid 
plants might he grown in windows without being subjected 
to dust, smoke, or a dried atmosphere, and without the 
trouble of air-giving or watering, unless very seldom indeed. 
It was contended that the carbonic acid given off at night 
would be absorbed during the day, and that thus the plants 
would alternately pollute and rectify their own atmosphere. 
It was also contended that the water evaporated during the 
day wnuld be condensed apd fall again, and none would be 
lost. Whatever may be said of the theory, it did not stand 
the test of experience; and therefore the possessors of the 
largest as well as the smallest of these have means of water¬ 
ing and air-giving, either by opening a part, or lifting the 
W'hole off from the tray on which the plants and their earth 
are placed. These cases do best when shaded if exposed to 
the midday sun. When the plants are established they 
will stand the morning sun and evening sun uninjured. In 
getting one made it wnuld be important to have a drawer 
below the slate or other tray on which the plants stand, so 
as through holes in the plate to receive the extra moisture. 
That drawer could also easily be supplied with hot water in 
winter, and if too much moisture would ascend the drain- 
holes might be temporarily plugged. The surface even of a 
small case may he made somewiiat romantic, if such a word 
can be applied to such a tiny concern. The soil used should 
be chiefly fibry peat and loam; and the pdants most suited 
for a small case are Lycopodium densum , denticulatum , 
violaccum , stoloniferurn, Willdenovii; and such Terns as 
Adiantum pedatum , amentum, formosum , Asplenium ebeneum , 
and Gi/mnogramma leptophylla and sulphured —the last to go 
in the centre. 
Some of our window gardeners combine the Wardian 
case with an Aquarium below, and manage the latter better 
than I should he likely to do. They have means of giving 
air to both, and can move the plant case from the aquarium 
when necessary. To do anything with the latter in little 
space, the fishes, insects, molluscs, &c., should be small, in 
order that they may be more easily managed; and the plants 
introduced should also be small, as Hottonia palustris, T r u- 
lisneria spiralis, and Aponogcton distachyon, and any other 
small water plants. These may either be planted in soil at 
the bottom of the tank or kept growing in pots, so as to he 
easily changed and rectified. The glass should be slightly 
shaded in bright days. 
The general directions and the list of plants will by many 
