THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Makch 13, 1860. 
Calyx with five, ovate, acute teeth, green. Corolla about two 
inches long, widening in the throat, silky on the surface, purplish 
lilac or violet. Anthers large, distinctly two-lobed; lobes equal. 
Capsule roundish oval. 
Jacaranda is a genus of tropical America, composed of a few 
species of handsome trees, averaging in their native forests from 
fifteen to thirty feet high, though in our stoves they rarely attain 
much size. The present species is one of the most beautiful, free- 
flowering and distinct of all the rest. 
They are all reputed difficult to cultivate, and shy-flowering 
plants, which is, perhaps, as much owing to bad treatment and 
their consequent scarcity, as to any inherent peculiarity of the 
plants themselves. It has been recommended by Mr. Knight, 
to take cuttings from the upper parts of old plants, winch when 
rooted, should be encouraged with a generous soil, bottom heat 
(as from tan), a moist atmosphere, plenty of light, and gradually 
a free admission of air, and shifting when necessary ; but when 
the desired size is attained they should be allowed to become 
somewhat pot-bound, when they will bloom profusely. A good 
rest after flowering, pretty hard pruning, and repotting, are 
requisite previously to again exciting the plants into growth. The 
most proper soil is loam about two parts, and partially decayed , 
leaves one part, and a little peat with plenty of sharp sand to 
render the whole perfectly porous. Blooms in autumn and early 
winter. 
Styphelia TUBlPliOKA. Smith. Nat. ord., Ppacridacecc — 
A compact growing evergreen, greenhouse shrub. Leaves 
alternate, nearly sessile, sometimes slightly cordate at the base, 
linear, short, with a longish deflexed mucro, revolute at the 
margin, and scabrous on the upper side. Flowers axillary, borne 
on the shoots of the previous year. Peduncles short, one- 
flowered, drooping. Calyx based by several small green bracts, 
itself divided at the limbs into five very short teeth. Corolla 
tubular, rather elongated; tube furnished with five fascicles of 
villi near the base inside; limb composed of five revolute seg¬ 
ments, each bearded with beautiful crimson hairs. 
A most beautiful and long introduced, but very scarce plant. 
It is found in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, New South 
Wales. It requires a most perfect drainage, and an open, porous, 
sandy-peat compost, and, in other respects, to be treated like the 
genus Epacris, to which it is allied. The greatest bane of this 
charming plant is a sodden soil, and every means possible should 
be taken to prevent such a condition. Cuttings may be taken 
about the same time, and treated in the same way as for those of 
Epacris.—S. G. W. 
THE SCIENCE OE GARDENING. 
(Continued from page 335.) 
Ip the branch of a tree be cut off; or if an incision be made so j 
as to remove entirely, not only a section of its bark, but also the 
alburnum of the wood beneath it, one bud or more, if the tree 
be vigorous, often will be put forth below the incision. Lateral 
vessels are formed from the alburnum, communicating with the 
bud; and having a similar return-communication with those of 
the bark, it speedily enlarges into a perfect branch, with its 
necessary leafy organs. If instead of leaving the portion of the 
branch above the incision exposed to the air, it be covered with j 
moist earth, which is easily effected by the aid of a layering-pot, 
roots will be protruded from the lips of the wound; and as these 
are furnished, like the bud produced from below, with vessels 
from the alburnum and bark, it is evident that such plant has 
the power of producing branches or roots accordingly as the j 
medium, air or earth, renders the production appropriate. This 
may be proved in two ways; for if a Gooseberry bush be 
trimmed, and then its head be buried in the earth with the roots 
exposed to the air, these will put forth leaves whilst the branches 1 
will emit roots. On the other hand, if a root be induced by 
the layering-pot in the mode mentioned, and, subsequently, 
it is gradually introduced to the air, by removing the soil and 
filling the pot with moist moss, and then by removing the moss 
and giving only moisture, it may eventually be left exposed, and ! 
will put forth leaves. The experiment will succeed with the 
Codlin, and, probably, with the Joanneting Apple. 
Buds contain the rudiments of a plant, and it very early 
suggested itself to the gardener that they might be employed 
advantageously as a means of propagation; and budding has 
now become the most prevalent mode. In performing the 
operation, as the nourishment has to be afforded to the bud 
from the alburnum of the stock with which it is brought in 
contact, this should not be exposed to the air for one minute 
longer than is necessary to insert the previously prepared bud, 
for if the surface of the alburnum becomes dry in tho slightest 
degree, vegetation on that part is permanently destroyed. The 
alburnum of the stock only supplies sap, which is elaborated 
in the bud and its developed leaves ; and through its bark is 
returned the peculiar juice from whence the woody matter is 
formed that unites it to the stock. A confused line marks the 
point of union ; but all the deposit of wood is between that line 
and the bud, and is always the same in character as the tree 
from which the bud is taken. 
A bud, with almost the solitary exception of that of the 
Walnut, succeeds best when inserted on a shoot of the same 
year’s growth, and apparently for the reason that the sap and 
juice it yields are most nearly of the same state of elaboration 
as they were in the parent of the bud ; and because, as in the 
animal frame, repair of injury, the healing of wounds, is always 
advanced most favourably by the vital energy of youth. 
“ There are,” says Mr. Knight, “ at the base of the annual 
shoots of the Walnut and other trees, where those join the 
year-old wood, many minute buds, which are almost concealed 
in the bark; and which rarely, or never vegetate, but in the 
event of the destruction of the large prominent buds which 
occupy the middle and opposite end of the annual wood. By 
inserting in each stock one of these minute buds, and one 
of the large and prominent kind, I had the pleasure to find that 
the minute buds took freely, whilst the large all failed without 
a single exception. This experiment was repeated in the summer 
of 1815 upon two yearling stocks which grew in pots, and had 
been placed during the spring and early part ot the summer 
in a shady situation under a north wall; whence they were 
moved late in July to a forcing-house, which I devote to ex¬ 
periments, and instantly budded. These being suffered to remain 
in the house during the following summer, produced from the 
small buds shoots nearly three feet long, terminating in large 
and perfect female blossoms, which necessarily proved abortive, 
as no male blossoms were procurable at the early period in 
which the female blossoms appeared; but the early formation 
of such blossoms sufficiently proves that the habits of a bearing 
branch of the Walnut tree may be transferred to a young tree by 
budding, as well as grafting by approach. 
“ The most eligible situation for the insertion of buds of this 
species of tree (and probably of others of similar habits), is near 
the summit of the wood of the preceding year, and, of course, 
very near the base of the annual shoot; and if buds of the small 
kind above mentioned; be skilfully inserted in such parts of 
branches of rapid growth, they will be found to succeed with 
nearly as much certainty as those of other fruit trees, pro¬ 
vided such buds be in a more mature state than those of the 
stocks into which they are inserted.”—( Knight's Horticultural 
Papers .) 
The more mature any part of a plant, the less easy is it excit¬ 
able ; a branch from which the leaves have fallen in autumn, 
requires a higher temperature to induce vegetation than does a 
similar branch in the spring. So is it with a bud ; and, as was 
suggested by Mr. Knight, it appears to be occasioned by those 
parts having passed into a state of repose; a decreased degree 
of vital energy occurring preparatory to their winter sleep. Let 
no man scoff at the idea of this vital energy continuing in a bud 
after a separation from the parent, for even the head of a polypus 
may be cut off and grafted, without injury, upon the decapitated 
body of another. The mature bud is, consequently, always 
inserted with more success in a stock, the buds of which are less 
mature ; for it does not commence vegetating until the supply of 
sap is abundant, nor until the union between the bark and 
alburnum has had time to be completed. When Mr. Knight 
reversed this comparative state of the stock and the bud, by insert¬ 
ing immature buds from a wall Peach upon Peach trees in a 
forcing-house which had nearly completed their growth for the 
season, the buds broke soon after their insertion, and necessarily 
perished for want of sufficient nourishment. 
In performing the operation of budding, we have tho follow¬ 
ing directions from Mr. Erring ton:— 
“ Expedition is the principal thing, and this of course pre¬ 
supposes some dexterity and expertness. In summer budding, 
the cutting or shoot from whence the buds or scions are taken is 
not cut from the parent tree until the moment the operation is 
about to commence. The best way is, to provide a pan or can 
with some water in it. The moment the young shoot which is 
