394 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 30, 1858. 
the bud is merely inserted between the bark and the wood, 
and tied with cotton or worsted thread, without claying, or 
mossing the graft. Camellias are grafted just in the same 
way in August and September, but on small young stocks. 
The winter is before them to get well established, and in the 
' spring they start, and make as good a shoot as if the bud 
were on its own branch all the while. But when an old plant 
! of Camellia is cut down, to be grafted with another kind, the 
work is better to be done in the spring, from the middle of 
! February to the middle of April. I saw an old stock of 
Camellia, nearly as thick as my wrist, and it must have been 
twenty or thirty years old ; it was cut, or headed down, last 
spring just like an old Apple tree, and grafted in the same 
i way with an Italian seedling. It made a strong branching 
j head in one season, and they are now taking off buds of it, 
i with heels to them, to be grafted in the same way as Roses. 
Here is a wonderful process, by which any one can change the 
kind of Camellia, be it ever so old, or so thick in the stem. 
! If the oldest Camellia in England is well at the roots, all you 
have to do is to buy a young plant of any favourite kind, saw 
off the head of the old plant at one foot or ten feet from the 
ground, and put one, two, or three grafts in, like crown graft¬ 
ing, and in two more years you have a full bloom of your new 
kind; or you may saw off so many branches, and put in a 
graft of a different kind on each of them. The Chinese do 
them that way, and they work them from a single eye, as we 
do. Indeed, there does not seem to be the smallest difference 
between the operations in a London propagating house and 
those carried on in China; and their way of packing is just 
as good as ours. 
Bouvardia longifiora beds out as well as Tom Thumb , and 
blooms as freely, and as long out of doors. It is as white as 
the driven snow, and much like a white Jasmine in a bed, and 
strikes as freely as Verbenas. It was tried out, and proved, 
in 1856, in one of the best flower gardens in England—that 
at Enville Hall, belonging to the Earl of Stamford and War¬ 
rington, one of the best patrons, and the best critic of flower 
gardening we have amongst us. Then a most lucky hit was 
made recently by Mr. Parsons, of Brighton, who crossed this 
s white Bouvardia with the scarlet Leianthus, and obtained four 
| distinct kinds of crosses; and the whole are in this nursery 
J now on sale, and there is no doubt about their making fine 
i bedders, with flowers somewhat like the Crassulas, and the 
! two old Bouvardia splendens and angustifolia , both scarlet, 
would make capital edgings for such beds. But I shall have 
! to return to them also after awhile, and shall only say now, 
I from our own Experimental, that Bouvardia leianthea ought 
* to be grown like Fuchsia serratifolia out of doors in the 
! borders, and to be potted about the middle of September, to 
bloom all the winter. 
Gaillardia coronata nana , quite a new kind, is said to be 
the best bedder of that family. Heliotropium aucubcefolium 
is as variegated, in a pot, as Flower of the Dag. Tropceolum 
elegans , the Nasturtium bedder at the Crystal Palace, is here 
on sale, and no one need be without it for fear of the price. 
(To be continued.) 
i t ■ ■ • 
CUTTINGS IN SAND AND WATEK, 
Ik The Cottage Gardener (Nos. 490 and 491) our 
worthy friend, Mr. Beaton, gives us Mr. Kidd’s mode of pro¬ 
pagating bedding plants ; a very desirable thing for those who 
are in the habit of bedding out extensively. I cannot exactly 
agree with Mr. Beaton, in what he says respecting Mr. Kidd’s 
system of propagation. I tried the same plan, to the letter, 
as Mr. Beaton proposes; but it did not answer with me, as I 
could wish. As to the striking part of the piece, they struck 
fast and successfully enough; but after I potted them off, I 
found nearly fifty out of every hundred damped off. My 
I impression is, that they do not do so well when struck in the 
j sand and water as they do when they are struck in mould and 
| sand; and you are obliged to put the cuttings in so close 
together, or they would fall overboard ; but I must be careful 
1 how I give my humble opinion on the matter, or I shall have 
i the whole force of the Experimental down on me. When I 
tried the sand and water system, those of them that did sur- 
! vive were so weakly, that half the summer was gone before 
; they made much show^ although I placed them on nice gentle 
hotbeds, and took great care of them : when they were in the 
hardening cradles, they looked like a troop of Grenadier 
Guards, with their weak brushy tops and spindle legs. I 
have a stove, which I use principally for propagating now, as 
I shall want something like 7000 plants for turning out this 
season; it is a span roof, 25 feet long and 9 feet wide, heated 
with a small conical boiler; the path is through the middle of 
the house ; on one side there is a tank three feet six inches 
wide, on the other a flat wooden stage ; there are nine inches 
of water in the tank, and a small two-inch flow and return 
pipe goes through the water. I had some rough slabs of wood 
put a little above the water, over them I put eight inches of 
fine light sifted leaf soil, and in that I plunge my cutting 
pans ; I have had a lot of pans made on purpose, nine inches 
in diameter and two inches deep. Having provided myself 
with some nice mould for cuttings, I place a crock over the 
bottom of the pan; I then put in half an inch of the rough 
siftings of the cutting mould, and fill the pan nearly full with 
mould, taking care to make it firm ; I put a little sand on the 
top, and sprinkle with water through a fine rose. I then take 
my cuttings off, not caring about cutting them off at the joint, i 
as was the old-fashioned way of making them. Mind, I am j 
not speaking of Geraniums, but of Verbenas, Lobelias, Calceo¬ 
larias, &c. 1 then dibble them in with my pencil, sprinkle again 
with fine tepid water to set the sand firmly about the cut¬ 
tings, and in five days they are all struck, not one in a hun¬ 
dred missing. I then place them on shelves, in the same 
house, close to the glass; two days after they have been in 
that position, I pinch the tops of them out; five days from 
that time they will have made four side shoots; I then 
place them at the coldest end of the house, ready for potting, i 
They are by tins time short-stocky plants. I have a cold ; 
pit, where I place them after potting off. I get from the i 
brewery a few loads of hops, fresh from the brewer’s hands ; 
I fill the pit up to about eight inches of the glass ; in these I 
plunge my fresh-potted plants, and there is a nice warmth in 
the hops which lasts until the plants are established, when 
they are shifted out into cold frames and cradles, to make room 
for another batch. 
I have now about 900 Lobelia speciosa and occulata i and ' 
nearly 2000 Verbenas, in good order for potting. Any one i 
trying this method, I think, will be amply repaid for their j 
trouble; as the plants so soon come into bloom after being j 
planted out.—J. W., the Gardens , Woodlands , Middlesex. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
THE DAHLIA. 
Last year, about this time, I gave a long paper on the j 
culture of this fine autumnal flower, to which I refer our j 
readers. According to annual custom, I now give selected 
lists of the best new and older varieties. Persons intending j 
to purchase should give their orders soon, in order to obtain 
good plants early. If they should, however, come in in weak 
condition, let the amateur repot them, and keep them under a j 
cold frame, well protected from late frosts. In that position, | 
if well watered, it is astonishing how much they will improve j 
in strength in a short time. 
Twelve Selected New Varieties. 
1. Alice Doronie (Keynes), clear pure white, without the 
slightest tinge of green in the centre; form good, with a full 
centre ; three feet. 
2. Flizabeth (Barnes), bright rosy pink; a novel colour, 
deeply cupped, symmetrical and full; four feet. 
3. Goldfnder (Turner), golden yellow ; large double. 
4. Imperial (Dodds), light rosy purple, deepening to ma¬ 
roon in the centre, outline even; a good show flower ; three 
feet. 
5. King (Rawlings), fawn, pencilled with purple ; well built 
in form, perfectly round, very stout and smooth; has obtained 
several prizes ; three to four feet. 
6. Lilac Model (Legge), shaded lilac, great depth of petal; 
high centre and constant; four feet. 
7. Marchioness of Aylesbury (Dodd’s), white, edged with j 
pale lilac; a full-sized flower; has obtained several first-class j 
certificates ; three feet. 
8. Mr. Critchett (Rawlings), amber colour, smooth and i 
