THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Match 1, 1859. 
336 
doubtful if the plant would succeed equally well in a cool 
greenhouse in a pot all the year round. If the plant be 
proved hardy enough for the open air, or even for a cool 
greenhouse, no one will be more glad than the writer, as 
I have long felt a great interest in its golden orange- 
yellow spikes, or racemes of bloom, produced at the 
points of the shoots. The following is the hardiest treat¬ 
ment I have succeeded with when the plant was grown 
in a pot: — 
Soil, chiefly fibry loam ; plant put into a forcing-house 
in March or April. "When the young sucker-shoots 
appeared, plenty of water given. As they get from one 
to two feet in length, shorten first, and then cut away to 
the base the old shoots, giving all the strength to the 
young ones. Give them all the light possible by June or 
July; or earlier, if strong. When the flower begins to 
show at the point of the shoot, bring it still more into 
light and air; and as the florets begin to open, remove to 
the greenhouse, where the air admitted will not strike at 
once on the plant. Keep in this cool place as long as in 
bloom; full in the sun afterwards; and decrease the 
water as the autumn approaches. Any place where the 
temperature is not greatly below 45°, and comparative 
dryness at the roots, will do in winter ; and that will just 
keep the leaves on the shoots alive, so as to keep up a 
languid action at the roots. These shoots bloom no 
more, or rarely ; and therefore, after the young shoots or 
suckers appear, they must be sacrificed to give strength 
to this new growth. As your shoots are now four to five 
feet high, we cannot tell whether or not they might bloom 
this coming summer; but we arc rather inclined to think 
they will not, and that you must wait for the young .ones. 
There is no harm in giving them the encouragement of 
trying. 
gi.\'ge it boots (.Zingiber officinale). 
“ Can I manage this at all, by means of a greenhouse, 
so as to have fresh roots for preserving ? ”—Decidedly 
not. I introduce this here, as belonging to the same 
natural group as Hedychiums, though the question comes 
from another correspondent. The roots, in winter, may 
be kept anywhere dry, where they will be free from frost. 
When started in spring, by the roots being divided into as 
many small pieces as they have buds, they must be excited 
into growth by heat; water freely giicnas the shoots 
lengthen and flourish ; and the heat of a hotbed, or a plant 
stove, given until towards autumn; when, as the shoots 
begin to change from green, less and less water must be 
given until the shoots ripen; and shortly after, the roots 
will be fit for preserving, or for keeping dry over the 
winter, where no frost will reach them. 
CELOSIA AUBE A. 
“Will this succeed under the same treatment as the 
common Cockscomb ? ”—Yes, and even with much less 
care. The crimson and the yellow Cockscomb, and other 
colours of the true Cockscomb, go generally under the 
common specific name of cristatft. Florists throw away 
all Cockscombs that have not the true compact character. 
However beautiful are massive crimson or yellow Cocks¬ 
combs, they are just too compact to be elegant. Almost 
every grower has thrown away hundreds, just because 
they assumed,—instead of the lumpy compact Cockscomb 
character,—the more spiry, airy, feathery appearance of a 
Prince’s Feather. A yellow variety of these runaways, 
is, what I believe to be, what has lately been advertised 
as Cclosia a urea. Mr. Thompson, when at Dyrham Park, 
used to grow them for summer and autumn greenhouse 
decoration. They took away the impression of sameness 
from flat-headed plants. Tastes arc continually changing. 
To me there is something more elegant in a drooping 
Love-lies-bleeding, or a fine-branched Prince’s Feather, 
than in a Cockscomb ; but the lovers of fine-formed large 
Combs, would look upon me with feelings either of 
disdain or pity. Such spiry plants do not require such an 
amount of heat in their earlier stages as the flat-headed 
Cockscombs. Light, rich, fibry soil will answer well. 
SEEDS AND PLANTS EEOM FLOEIDA. 
“ A friend sent me, what he considered fine things, last 
season. The plants are, I fear, dead. The seedlings 
were raised in a Cucumber-frame, hardened off gradually, 
were placed in the summer in a cold pit, have since been 
kept in a greenhouse, from 40° to 45°; but they are nearly 
all dead, or looking ill. What has been wrong P ’’—Unless 
I know more, I shall be forced to lay the blame on not 
giving the plants heat enough, especially for the first year. 
I find, from a great many facts, that our enthusiastic 
friends are rather too anxious to get plants acclimated, 
without taking into consideration the circumstances in 
which the plants and seeds were placed before they re¬ 
ceived them. How, so far as known to us, Florida is a 
rather low, moist country, not far removed from the 
tropics; and, from its peninsular position, exposed to nearly 
similar heats. Kain is plentiful, and almost continuous 
from June to October; and, at other times, the weather 
is rather open, and the sun powerful—so much so, that a 
Britainer finds its rays warm enough in winter. It is 
seldom that even the slightest frost is perceptible in winter. 
Supposing, then, that seedlings from such a place were 
raised in a hotbed, in March, I would have potted them 
off, and kept them in a hotbed, at least until July, giving 
plenty of heat and moisture. I would continue this, if I 
could, until August, and then give more air and direct 
sunshine. If I must place them in a cold pit in July, I 
would keep it like a hotbed, by keeping it close, with 
plenty of atmospheric moisture. By September, I would 
give more air, and free sunshine; and house them by the 
middle of October ; and let them have an average night 
temperature, during winter, of from 45° to 50°, or a few 
degrees more. The second season, after a growing period 
in the spring, they might be hardened oil' earlier in the 
autumn ; and then, very likely, they, would stand a few 
degrees lower temperature in winter, uninjured. 
SIEDINILLA MAGNIEICA. 
“ One hundred seedlings, fifteen months old, grown in 
loam, sand, and bog, each in six-inch pots, about nine 
inches high, with six or seven shoots to each, fresh and 
green, kept from October in temperature ranging from 
45° to 55°. "When should they flower? Should I cut 
them down, and strike as recommended for old plants P ” 
—I have had no experience with such seedlings. I should 
imagine that some of the strongest w'ould bloom this sum¬ 
mer, if much encouraged; and all would do so the follow¬ 
ing year, if encouraged to grow well this season, and well 
ripened in autumn, and pruned back in winter and spring. 
I should like to know how many of these bushy plants 
would blow this season. 
CLIMBEES IN POTS. 
“ To cover two partitions that separate two vineries 
from a plant stove. Pots to stand on top of flue in 
winter. Temperature in winter, about 4£rP” —If the 
partition is glass, the covering it thickly with creepers 
will nullify to a great extent the use of the glass division. 
In such a case, creepers might be placed on the stove 
ends; and of these Comlrcium purpurcum might be 
! placed at the warmest end, and iSlephanotis jloribunda 
i at the coolest. Supposing, however, that it is indispen- 
I sable that the creepers should be on the vinery side— 
whether thej divisions are of glas3, or opaque as brick, 
■ these divisions will obtain a certain amount of heat from 
i the stove, and thus be warmer than the general tempera¬ 
ture of the vinery in winter. Many plants might be 
chosen for such a place ; but looking to free growth, free 
blooming, and standing the heat of the vinery in summer, 
| I should prefer Passijlora quadrant]ulavis, or JBuona- 
\partca, for the vinery forced earlier; and Passijlora 
! kennesina, for the one forced later. To cover the space 
