THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, AruiL 3, 1860. 
11 
cavity. Flesh greenish, firm, rather coarse, not very 
juicy, and briskly flavoured, and separating from the 
stone. Shoots smooth. 
A culinary plum, Ripe in the beginning and middle 
bf September. 
(To be continued.) 
BED IN A CLAY SOIL FOE AMERICAN 
PLANTS. 
What will bo my best plan to adopt in making a border for 
American plants in a garden where the soil is a determined clay ? 
Must the roots of the plants be kept from the clay by brick 
nibble at bottom and stone sides ? Will or will not bog earth on 
stich a bottom bet too dry for the welfare of the plants r 1 —E. 
[Where tin artificial soil, or bed, is to be made for American 
plants, Clay is the very best bottom, and the stiffer the better. 
The reason is, that it will not suck the moisture out of the peat, 
Hs gravelly, chalky, or very sandy bottoms will always do ; but 
there must be a fall to allow of draining such beds made in clay, 
as too much water is just as bad iot the plants as too little of it. 
The bottom of such beds need not be drained, as it were, but 
only a dram carried from the lowest end or side of the bed, without 
putting anything between the clay and peat, as we drain pots. 
Therefore, when peat beds are to be on a perfectly level ground, 
and no means of getting rid of water, the beds must be made 
on the natural surface, and banks of clay all round them, and 
then turved. We have made them that way with great success ; 
and we have made them in sheer gravelly places, by first digging 
out a trench two feet deep, the same shape as the bed, and 
tilling it with puddled clay, then digging out the gravel inside the 
trench, then putting a foot thick of the same clay in the bottom— 
but six inches would have been better—and at each end we left a 
clear space of six inches across the bottom without the clay, and 
in long beds, a similar open space across the centro. These 
open spaces of each of six inches were to let off the drainage 
water. That plan would do in chalk also with moss mulching.] 
THE EHODODENDEON. 
(Continued from page 397, Vol. XXIII.) 
Propagation. — This shrub is increased by — 1st. Seeds 
2nd. Layers. 3rd. Grafting. 
By Seeds .—Where mere increase is only desired, then save the 
seed indiscriminately from any kinds that produce it most freely ; 
but where improved varieties are wished, then take sonic care, 
and hybridise them when in flower. Two or three points are 
desirable to attend to for this purpose : one is, to obtain such as 
are perfectly hardy; and the next, to obtain such as bloom late, 
so that the blossoms will not be injured by late spring frosts ; a 
third point is, to improve the form, colour, and habit of existing 
Varieties. Tt has been found that the mother, or seed-producing 
Variety, should always have the first property—namely, hardi¬ 
hood.' The male parent, or the variety used to fertilise with, 
may have the other properties—namely, late blooming, good 
form and colour; and the raiser of new varieties should take care 
to choose such for the purpose of improving the kinds already in 
existence. To make sure work he should clip off all the stamens 
of the species fixed upon to bear seed, and then, when the others 
to be used for impregnating the mother with are in bloom, he 
should apply the pollen with a camel-hair pencil, and dust with 
it the stigmas. If the seed-producing variety blooms before 
the male parent, then the latter should be forced by a gentle 
heat under glass into bloom, so as to be in that state at the same 
time. Apply the pollen on a dry day in the morning, and observe 
that the pollen adheres to the stigma. 
When the seed is ripe gather it instantly the seed-vessels begin 
to open, or the best seed will be wasted. Common seed may be 
sown in May on a bed of sandy peat (shaded from hot day sun) 
in the open air. Cover it as thinly ns possible, and water with 
the finest-rosed pot. Protect from heavy rains by hoops and 
oiled canvass. I have seen thousands of seedlings raised success¬ 
fully in that way.' 
Fertilised, or rather hybridised, seed should have a little 
more care bestowed upon it. Make a gentle hotbed in spring, 
and as soon as the heat is moderate cover the dung, or tan, with 
sand, or ashes; then till shallow pans with sandy peat made 
fine and smooth on the surface, and scatter the seed evenly and 
rather thinly on it; then cover the seed about the thickness of 
a sixpence, and water very gently with tho finest-rosed water- 
pot ; then set the pans on the sand in tho hotbed, and give air 
only behind, shading daily from ten to four till the seed sprouts 
and tho seedlings have made their second leaf; then give more 
air and less shade ; and as soon as the seedlings can be handled 
transplant them into similar pans in regular rows, giving each a 
quarter of on inch square to grow in. In those pans they may 
remain through tho winter, sheltered from severe frost in a cold 
pit or frame. The spring following they may be either planted 
out in nursery rows in sandy peat, or be, where space and time 
are plentiful, potted off singly into thumb-pots, and plunged in 
ashes or sand in the pit, repotting them every year till they 
bloom. I have, in order to get them on rapidly, placed them in 
heat and got a first growth ; then repotted, and after a month’s 
rest in a cooler atmosphere, placed them in heat again, and thus 
had two growths in one summer. Where this potting and forcing 
cannot be done, they may be planted out in nursery rows till 
they bloom. In time the foliage will begin to show variety, and 
now the cultivator’s mind will be all anxiety to watch progress 
and receive his reward in the shape of more beautiful and im¬ 
proved varieties. In a batch of several hundreds, if he be for¬ 
tunate to obtain one really superior, he ought to be thankful. 
The most common ones will be valuable to plant in masses in the 
shrubbery". The common seedlings sown in the open air may 
bo allowed to stand in the seed-bed till they are nice little plants, 
then lift them with balls, if possible, and transplant them in 
nursery rows a foot apart, and four inches from plant to plant in 
the row, and there they may remain for two years; then replant 
again in nursery rows, giving more space to each plant, and in 
two years more they will be fit to plant anywhere. 
By Layers .—This method is resorted to, to increase the dwarf 
species—such as ferrugineum, hirsutum, myrtfolium , &c., and 
also for others of large kinds that are common. The way is, to 
choose low, bushy plants, plant them out at a distance from each 
other ; then, in autumn, peg the branches down and cover them 
with peat, and if it can be had, with moss also on the surface. In 
two years those shoots will be covered with roots, and each shoot 
will form a separate good plant. Take them off in autumn, and 
plant them in nursery rows for a year, they will then be fit to 
plant out wherever they are wanted. 
By Grafting .—Nurserymen use this method to increaso new 
and valuable varieties that have been proved to be worthy. It is 
a nice art, and expert hands seldom fail even with one graft. 
The seed-bed will afford the best stocks. Choose such as have 
one stem, take them up in autumn, and pot them in sandy peat, 
placing them in a cold pit. In the spring, make up a good hot¬ 
bed, and cover it with as many frames and lights as may bo 
needed to hold the stocks. Then, when a little growth has com¬ 
menced, take off the scions of the kinds worthy of increase ; graft 
by what is called side-grafting, and use the grafting-wax ; let 
each scion be smaller in diameter than the stock. Replace them 
in the frame as they are grafted and shade closely till the scions 
have taken. Then give air and gradually inure them to bear 
light and exposure, and finally cut off the top of the stocks and 
any shoots there may be below the scions, and then the latter 
will become the plants. In two years time they will be fit to 
place where they are to bloom. 
Standards may be formed by training up seedlings to the 
required height, then pot them, and lay them on one side in a 
warm pit, and graft them in the manner described above, with 
good varieties ; and when tho scions have taken, place them 
upright in a deep pit till they have made some growth. After¬ 
wards plant them out in nursery rows, staking them well till 
they have made good heads, when they may be planted where 
they are to grow and bloom.—T. Appleby. 
CULTURE OF TRICHOMANES RADICANS, OR 
IRISH FERN. 
This is generally considered to be one of the most difficult to 
cultivate of any of our British Ferns. Its requiring somewhat 
peculiar treatment, together with rather more care than the gene¬ 
rality of its class, and being not quite so ready to grow in any 
kind of soil or situation, may account for this supposition, 
and very few persons, comparatively, are able to succeed with 
it, although when properly treated and kept in a favourable 
situation, there are few Ferns that are either more readily estab- 
