286 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 7, 1860. 
rich sandy loam. In winter old plants will be kept safely at from 
35° and upwards, and young-struck plants from that to 40° and 
higher; hut so accommodating are they, that, provided you give 
heat and light in proportion, they will not find fault with the 
temperature that would suit a Pino Apple. Old plants generally 
bloom most freely; and the same plant, if well supplied with 
manure water, will bloom during most of the summer. These may 
be pruned a little in autumn, and rested in winter by giving no 
more water than will keep the stems from shrivelling. These, 
repotted or top-dressed in spring, will bloom brilliantly in summer. 
Wc have had large plants seven years in the same pots : the 
surface soil was sc-raped off in spring, rich top-dressing given, and 
manure waterings after the buds began to come, and nothing 
could be more gay. Young plants potted in spring, kept first in 
a cold pit, potted again and placed out of doors in summer, all 
flowers nipped oil', and housed in September, will bloom nicely 
during the end of autumn and the first months of winter in a 
temperature of from 45° to 50°, and an atmosphere dryish rather 
than otherwise. Another lot put into a forcing-house, with from 
5° to 10° more heat, and plenty of air given, will succeed these, and 
keep on until the arrival of the spring and summer bloomers. 
With moderate forcing the blooms will not be at all injured. When 
grown out of doors it is only in bright warm weather that these 
scarlets put on their best livery. Propagation may go on by 
cuttings in the open border from June to September; before and 
after that they are best under glass. All Pink varieties may be 
treated the same. The Compactums , to be kept compact, like 
the soil more loamy for largo plants. The whole section of 
Nosegays, with their elegant, open, large trusses of airy blossoms, 
may be treated tho same when in a young state, but when placed 
in blooming-pots, owing to the distance between the joints, in 
such kinds as the old Fothergillii, pink Nosegay, and the reddish- 
purple Mrs. Vernon, the chief portion of the compost should 
be poorish loam, with just a little pure sand. The poverty of the 
soil helps to keep the plant compact; and extra strength to 
bloom is easily communicated by manure waterings. The Stel- 
lates, and miniraums, as Dandy, we would treat with more leaf 
mould and sand; but the latter we consider more at home in 
geometrical flower gardens than in pots as ornaments in a house. 
We would substitute for them nice plants of variegated Scarlets, 
as Alma, Perfection, Flower of the Day, Bijou, &c., and the 
yellow Golden Chain. To all these we would add a little peat 
and a portion of rotten cowdung to the compost. 
Al l the Ivy-leaved will thrive in rich sandy loam ; and if kept 
in a temperature from 45° to 55° in winter, they will bloom 
almost continuously. All tho free trailing kinds look best, with 
their shoots suspended over vases or hanging from a basket. 
Such sweet kinds as Citriodora and Prince of Orange, and almost- 
continuous bloomers like Rouge et Noir and the varieties of 
Rollissons’ Unique, are best raised by cuttings in tho spring and 
in a slight hotbed ; otherwise the general treatment will suit 
them. White-Scarlets, as Ilendersonii, Boule de Niege, Mrs. 
Turner, &c., may bo treated much the same as Nosegays—in fact, 
Ilendersonii is a Nosegay. R. Fish. 
CUTTING DOWN DELPHINIUM EORMOSUM. 
Hating many plants, I cut some down when about nine or 
ten inches high, to make a later bloom, and they are at the 
present time in full bloom, and about eighteen inches high. They 
were sown in May last year in the open ground, and pricked out 
in a bed about six inches asunder. Having taken the plants I 
wanted this spring, what were left I cut down as stated. Some 
of the plants not cut down have grown about four feet high, and 
a few with the main spike about twelve inches long, and many 
branches down the stem.— Edwabd Wells, Sheffield. 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
{Continued from page 272.) 
Cross-breeding, aided by cultivation, gives birth to those 
splendid objects of the gai'dcner’s care, generally designated 
double flowers, which are such beauteous ornaments of our 
borders and parterres. To the uninitiated it seems incredible 
that the double Moss Rose should be a legitimate descendant 
from the Briar; neither do the flowers of the Fair Maid of 
France appear less impossible derivatives from those of the 
Ranunculus platanifolius; nor Bachelor’s Buttons from the 
common Buttercup, yet so they are. Double flowers, as they 
are popularly called, are more correctly discriminated as the full 
flower, the multiplicate flower, and the proliferous flower. 
The full flower is a flower with its petals augmented in number 
by the total transformation into them of its stamens and its 
pistils. One-petallcd flowers rarely undergo this metamorphosis ; 
but it is very common in those having many petals, as in the 
Carnation, Ranunculus, Rose, and Poppy. But this is not the 
only mode in which a flower becomes full; for, in the Columbine 
{Aquilegia), it is effected in three different ways—viz., by the 
multiplication of the petals to the exclusion of the nectaries ; by 
the multiplication of the nectaries to the exclusion of the petals ; 
and by the multiplication of the nectaries whilst the usual petals 
remain. Radiated flowers—such as the Sunflower, Dahlia, An- 
themis, and others—become full by the multiplication of tho 
florets of their rays to the exclusion of the florets of their disks. 
On the contrary, various species of the Daisy, Matricaria, &c., 
become full by the multiplication of the florets of the disks. 
The multiplicate flower has its petals increased by the conver¬ 
sion of a portion of its stamens, or of its calyx, into those forms. 
It occurs most frequently in polypetalous flowers. Linmeus 
gives the only instances we know of the conversion of the calyx 
into petals, and these are to be observed in the Pink ( Dianthus 
caryophyllus), and a few of the Alpine Grasses. 
A proliferous flower has another flower, or a shoot produced 
from it. This is most strikingly exemplified by that variety of 
Daisy popularly known as the Hen-and-chickens. It occurs also 
more rarely in the Kanunculus, Pink, Marigold, and Hawkweed. 
A leafy shoot often appears in the bosom of tho double-blossomed 
Cherry, Anemone, and Rose. 
The influences regulating the production and development of 
leaves and flowers are these :—If an excess of water to the roots, 
or too little light to the superior parts of plants be applied, they 
produce an increased surface of leaf, and few or no flowers; for 
it is a wise power given to them by their Creator that those parts 
shall increase in size, which circumstances render most necessary. 
An excess of moisture requires an increased ti’anspiratory surface, 
as in the case of Solanclra grandiflora before mentioned. 
This knowledge that flower-buds and leaf-buds are mutually 
convertible is no novel discovery, much less a visionary theory, 
for, as long ago as the beginning of 1817, the late Mr. Knight 
thus expressed the results of his experience, when writing to the 
London Horticultural Society relative to the pruning of Peach 
trees:—“The buds of fruit trees which produce blossoms, and 
those which afford leaves only, in the spring, do not at all differ 
from each other, in their first organisation as buds. Each con¬ 
tains the rudiments of leaves only, which are subsequently trans¬ 
formed into the component parts of the blossom, and, in some 
species, as the fruit also.” And he then proceeds to state his 
experience that leaf-buds of the Apple and Pear have been thus 
transformed, and of his having succeeded in obtaining every gra¬ 
dation of monstrous transformation, adding, that “every bunch of 
Grapes commences its formation as a tendril, it being always 
within the power of every cultivator to occasion it to remain a 
tendril,” either by removing a considerable portion of the leaves, 
or reducing the temperature and light to which the Vine is 
exposed. 
Turning to the results obtained by practice in endeavouring 
to obtain double flowers, we leam from Mr. Fish that, making 
allowance for exceptions, the following may be adduced as lead¬ 
ing general propositions :—First. To obtain double flowers from 
seed, dependance must not be placed upon the influence of a stray 
stamen that was not converted into a petal or flower-leaf, but 
means must bo taken to make the seeds possessed of a property 
which otherwise they would not possess, by superinducing a 
highly elaborated, full, plethoric habit in tho seeds. This can 
only be done by stimulating the plant with high cultivation at a 
certain period, after the flower-buds appear, and then by remov¬ 
ing the greater portion of the seeds. If the stimulus is applied 
at an earlier period, the plant will increase greatly in luxuriance; 
by giving it thus later, a greater degree of strength is conveyed 
to the flowers. By thinning these flowers, or the seed-vessels, as 
soon as formed, so as to have only a very few seeds to ripen, 
these, in consequence, acquire a full plethoric habit; and we 
know that in the vegetable and animal world alike this state is 
opposed to productive fruitfulness, while in the deplethoric state 
it is encouraged. From a full double flower, therefore, we expect 
and obtain no seeds. From such plants as Balsams, which, 
though said to be double, yet produce seeds, the rendering them 
more double must be obtained by the high cultivating and seed- 
thinning process. In their case, as well as some others, compact- 
