316 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 21, 1860. 
treatment and management, between this and the common Indian 
Pink. It will come from seeds sown in the open ground in April, 
and bloom the next autumn, or may be sown in autumn, secured 
from frost, to bo planted out at the end of spring, and to bloom 
early in July. 
Maladore is a provincial foreign name for that kind of Ranun¬ 
culus. Those you possess, are so called on the Erer.ch side of the 
Pyrennees. 
The Lobelia specios a cuttings may be planted out of the pots in 
April, under a slight frame or cradle, and they will keep there till 
June or July, and remove from there then without losing a leaf or 
feather, if properly handled. Calceolarias the same; but Ver¬ 
benas and Geraniums ought to be in pots, unless it is quite certain 
that they can be transplanted before the 20th or 25th of May. If 
they stay longer they will so root and grow as to injure them 
very much for one month after making up the beds. 
It will not hurt any hard-coated seed to be steeped in warm 
water for ten or twelve hours before sowing—Sweet Pea for 
instance. And some seeds as those of the whole t ribes of Mimosa¬ 
looking plants and trees. Acacias and the like, unless they are 
sown as soon as they are ripe, will do better to be soaked by 
pouring boiling hot water over them out of a teakettle; and 
after that, to keep the dish or basin so near the fire, that the 
water may not cool below 120° for ten or twelve hours, and some 
for twenty-four hours. To guess the heat of the v'ater, 110° 
are as hot as any mortal finger can bear for half a minute, and 
120 q would scald a thatcher’s fingers in half that time, or on the 
instant. But a thousand kinds of seeds will stand that heat for 
twenty hours in succession with impunity, and some hundreds 
will not vegetate after drying, on a long voyage, without that 
necessary scalding.] 
CENTRADENIA ROSEA AND GESNERA 
ELONGATA CULTURE. 
The bit of plant sent by “ A Young Gardener,” is Duranta 
argentea. Chiefly interesting for its foliage. 
In answer to the same correspondent, as soon as the Centra- 
denia has done flowering, you may cut it in pretty freely, if you 
wish the plant to remain small; if not, merely shorten the points 
of the shoots, and repot when the fresh growth is breaking freely, 
using peat and loam, with little bits of charcoal and silver sand 
to keep the soil open. The plants will grow freely in the stove, 
and may be shaded a little in bright sun until the end of August; 
but, after that, they must be gradually inured to all the sun they 
can stand, and, ere long, the plants wiil be covered with their 
pretty little blossoms. By this mode, and by cutting also well 
back, the plants will bloom chiefly at one period. If little or no 
pruning is given, the plants will be almost constantly in bloom ; 
but they will not bloom so densely as by the above mode. 
The Gesnera elongata blooms best in the autumn and winter 
months. This known, the plant should be freely cut back when 
the flowering is over ; kept rather dry and cool—say, from 45° 
to 55° for a couple of months, when the fresh shoots will begin 
to show; then it should be fresh potted, either in a larger or a 
similar-sized pot, and encouraged to grow on during the summer. 
Towards August and September, expose as freely to the sun, and 
give it a good deal of air, and, ere long, the scarlet flowers will 
appear. If you wanted a large specimen, prune back less, and 
tie out the old shoots, merely nipping out their points, and grow 
on instead of resting. The first mode is the best for neat small 
specimens. 
SEEDLING SEA-KALE. 
Will/Mr. Weaver say if the Sea-kale, which is sown in the 
month of March, will be fit to cover up in November of the 
same year for cutting at Christmas ? If so, I shall destroy my 
present, bed, which is very bad with canker. Is there more than 
one sort of Sea-kale ?—A Subscriber from tiie First. 
[Seedling plants may be grown so strong and large as to pi’o- 
duce the very finest crowns to cover up the following No¬ 
vember, to cut from by Christmas. They must be grown in 
good, deep, sandy loam, and attention paid to the early thinning 
out of the plants, and keeping the earth stirred among them to 
encourage their vigorous growth. If any doubt exists, then be 
on the safe side if you have a number of beds, or even one long 
bed. If the weather be fine during the last week of March or 
the first week of April, and you have the ground in capital order, 
plant one-lialf with the best pieces of your old crowns, putting 
in three or four pieces, from four to six inches apart, to form the 
future bunches; and sow the other half with seeds at the same 
time, and well attend to both by earth-stirring during the early 
growth; but be careful not to injure a single leaf during the 
summer growth. If the above be well attended to I will venture 
to say all will be in a fit state for forcing in the following season, 
either by Christmas or afterwards. There is oidy one sort of 
Sea-kale.—T. Weaver.] 
PRUNING CUPRESSUS MACROCARPA. 
I have a Cupressus macrocarpa seven or eight feet high, 
planted in good loam. The lower branches of the tree grow very 
fast, but the upper ones do badly. I shall feel obliged if you 
can tell me whether pruning the lower branches would be likely 
to make the upper part of the tree do better, and how near to 
the trunk may they be pruned, and what time of year would 
you recommend for the operation ?—N. C. 
[No plant bears pruning better than Cupressus macrocarpa , 
and the end of April is about the best time to prune it, and all 
other Cypresses. It was a bad plan to allow any of the bottom 
shoots to contend with the leader. The whole family, and the 
common and Irish Yews are also given to make many leaders, 
and they should be stopped the first year; but, fortunately, they 
can be cut back at any age without risk or damage. The rule 
for cutting them back is to take the average spread of the com¬ 
mon side-shoots, and to cut to the contending leaders to that 
average length, and to cut to a side-branch which grows out¬ 
wards : by doing so there will be no gap in that part of the tree. 
See to them, also, in July, and stop any more attempts of that 
kind ; and in April, when you do this, nip off the very point of 
every side-shoot all over the tree, up to very near the leader, and 
it is astonishing how soon that will tell on the vigour of the 
leader. Some people allow their young Cedars of Lebanon and 
their Deodars to do as your macrocarpa has done, to the scandal 
of the gardening craft. All Cedars bear the knife as well as the 
Yew.] 
SOIL FOR THE MIMULUS. 
Referring to the observations of Mr. Bennett on the Mi- 
mulus, p. 256. It is a plant I have long admired, particularly 
in Caernarvonshire, where it grows in some places as a weed, in 
great variety of colours, and remarkably fine. 
At Port Madoc, it may be seen, self-sown, lining the gravel 
drive to the house of Mr. Humphrey’s, in great brilliancy. On 
the city walls of Caernarvon, and on the garden and four walls 
(rubble) about Ruthin it is very beautiful; and I noticed, last 
summer, in a lady’s garden near the foot of Snowdon, a par- 
ticularly fine specimen. 
In all the above instances its habitat combines a moist climate 
with a pervious bed; and in two of them, old mortar must form 
the staple of its sustenance. I notice this as strikingly illustrat¬ 
ing the value of the mode of treatment of the plant suggested by 
Mr. Bennett.—K. 
CONJURING WITH HENBANE SEED. 
Being at the meeting of a few scientific gentlemen a few days 
ago, where we were doing the best to amuse ourselves and one 
another, one of the gentlemen bet a wager he would draw a 
quantity of small grubs out of any person’s hollow tooth. 
lie procured a stone slab, a pot-funnel, and a few Henbane seeds. 
He then obtained a white-hot piece of coke, placed a few Henbane 
seeds on the top, and inverted the funnel over all. When the 
smoke began to appear, he placed his mouth to the end for a 
few minutes. He then turned the funnel up, and there were seen 
seven or eight small white grubs with black heads. One moved 
to the distance of two inches. 
When I arrived home I tried the experiment myself, but sub¬ 
stituting my thumb instead of my mouth. The result was precisely 
the same. My first thought was, that it might be the hyoscy- 
amine that had volatised by the heat; but a cursory examina¬ 
tion by the microscope showed me that these pseudo-grubs were 
the plumules of the seeds, the little black heads being the radicles, 
the cotyledons splitting open by the heat. The movement of 
some was caused, no doubt, by the temperature of the funnel. 
The seeds employed were those of the common Henbane ( Hyoscy • 
arnus niger). —T. Collier. 
