182 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ December, 
Besides tliis covering-up and air-giving, 
nothing further will be necessary to be done, 
until about the early part of February, by 
which time they will begin to fill the pots 
with roots. The whole of the plants should 
then be potted into 24-sized pots, using a nice 
loamy soil, with plenty of rotten dung in it. 
When they are all potted, they should be put 
into a vinery just started, where they will have 
a little heat, just sufficient to start them into 
growthj 
About the first week in March they will be 
good plants, and should be removed to a cold 
frame or pit, to be hardened off, previous to 
planting them out. After being in the frames 
a few days, advantage should be taken of 
favourable weather to plant them out on a 
sheltered border, in rows two feet apart, and 
the plants two feet apart in the rows. Some 
of the best plants may be planted at the foot 
of a south wall; these will come into use 
some days before the others. After they are 
planted out, they should have a good watering, 
if the soil be dry, and occasionally afterwards, 
if the weather be dry ; beyond this, no further 
attention will be necessary. Towards the end 
of May, those by the foot of the south wall will 
begin to form their heads, and in the early 
part of June those in the sheltered border will 
begin to turn into use. 
This mode of culture is not so generally 
adopted as it deserves. I have followed it for 
several years, and I find it requires less care 
and attention, and gives more satisfactory re¬ 
sults, than any other plan I have seen or 
adopted. There is one point of some con¬ 
sequence to be attended to, and that is, to have 
a good strain of Cauliflower. Much of what is 
sold as London Cauliflower is very disappoint¬ 
ing.—M. Saul, Stourton. 
OSMUNDA REGALIS 
PROLIFEROUS. 
GpjOS it generally known that Osmunda regalis 
®1 p var. cristata is proliferous ? I bought a 
smallish plant in July last year, with 
fronds from G in. to 9 in. long, and I observed 
that each one had a slight bend in the middle 
of the rachis, and having in the bend a slight 
pointed protuberance, when the frond was 
young. As it got older, it assumed more the 
appearance of a crown. I took one of these 
bulbils off (with about an inch of rachis on 
each side), and put it with a few seedlings 
under a bell-glass; and though the part of the 
rachis that was with it decayed, it remained 
green all through the winter, and in spring 
showed symptoms of sending up fronds. I 
pinned all the others down to the pot, cc la 
Polystichum angulare proliferum ; but they all 
seemed to die down with the frond ; so I think 
that the best plan is to cut them off while the 
parent-frond is still in its full vigour. Are the 
larger plants proliferous ? 
I have what I think to be two separate and 
distinct forms of Osmunda regalis. In one of 
them, the frond seems to come from the very 
centre of the root-stock ; while in the other 
there seems to be a winged arrangement, formed 
by the bottoms of old fronds, from which one 
can see the fronds come up. The little cris¬ 
tata is of this latter form. 
I divided the crown of the Osmunda regalis 
var. cristata (it was a double one) in the early 
spring, and so the growth has been delayed a 
little. One plant is only just showing, and I 
can, as yet, form no opinion on it; the other 
has sent up four fronds, only one of which ex¬ 
hibits the characteristics above described, but 
I have li opes that the future fronds will do so, 
as last year the four first fronds had nothing 
of the sort, while all the other nine had the 
little bulbs. Last autumn I pinned down all 
the fronds but one in the pot in the usual way, 
and the buds all died with the fronds. The one 
I cut off about a quarter of an inch above and 
below the bulb, and pinned down under a 
bell glass, has sent up three miniature fronds. 
— 0. Firth, Langley Bank , Baildon , near 
Shipley. 
P.S.'—I have but just returned from abroad, 
and find only one of the divided plants re¬ 
maining. It has twelve fronds, still green ; and 
of these, three exhibit proliferous symptoms. 
One has a bulb nearly at the base of the stipes, 
which is sending off three small fronds ; one has 
a very small bulb, just above the first pair of 
pinnae, and the third has it, in what I take to 
be the ordinary position, about the middle of 
the stipes.—>0. F. 
