314 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 16, 1S86. 
Seedling Gloxinias are raised as follows : Prepare a 
light mixture of peat, loam, and sharp sand, with a 
little crushed charcoal-; sift or pick out from this the 
coarser portions, which keep apart from the rest. Sift 
also a little fine well-decayed leaf-mould and saud (in 
about equal portions) very finely. Put a full inch of 
small crocks in a pan or flat box about 3 ins. deep and 
of suitable size ; over this place a layer of the rough 
siftings, then an inch or so of the compost; press this 
down level but gently with a flat piece of wood, dust 
some of the fine leaf-mould and sand over this to the 
depth of nearly a quarter of an inch, bringing the level 
of the soil up to about half or three-quarters of an inch 
below the rim of the pan or box, give a good sprinkling 
with a fine-rosed syringe or watering-pot, and about a 
quarter of an hour afterwards sow the seed, scattering 
it evenly and not too thick. The object of using leaf- 
mould on the surface is to prevent greening, which peat 
is very apt to do. Scatter a mere dusting of the fine 
soil over the seed—barely enough to hide it; lay a 
square of glass over the pan or box, and place in a 
gentle bottom-heat of about 75°, with top-heat at 70°; 
wipe away all condensed moisture from the inside of 
the glass twice daily, shade from sun or strong light, 
and directly the seed germinates, admit a little air by 
tilting the glass for some hours daily, gradually in¬ 
creasing this until it can be removed altogether. When 
the seedlings have made one pair of rough leaves, and 
are showing another—or before this if they are too 
thick—prick them off carefully into other pans or 
boxes similarly prepared, placing them about 1 in. 
apart. 
During the earlier stages guard against damping off 
by letting the foliage become dry in the afternoon, and 
Temain so during the night. When water is required 
give a good soaking, for if the soil beneath the surface 
becomes thoroughly dry the tops will “damp off’’ „ 
wholesale. When the seedlings touch each other trans¬ 
plant every other one into other boxes with soil rather 
coarser than at first, or into 5 in. or 6 in. pots, ten or 
a dozen in each ; these must be half full of drainage, 
and if pots are used for sowing the seed in, as they may 
be, they must be half to two-thirds full of drainage. 
When strong enough, pot the young plants off singly 
in thumb-pots, or a rather larger size—say 3 in. or 
“sixties” if very strong—and encourage a vigorous 
growth by a warm close moist atmosphere. At this 
stage they will revel in a close warm stove at 70° to 80°, 
and on a cocoa-nut fibre or ash bed, kept damp, and 
with a gentle heat beneath it will grow like weeds. 
If these pots are well filled with roots by the end of 
July or earlier, the plants, or the best of them, may be 
shifted on into 4 in., 5 in., or 6 in. pots, according to 
strength, and with good cultivation will nearly all 
bloom the same autumn, but it is not much use shifting 
them after July, certainly, unless they can be kept in 
a warm house until nearly the end of the year. 
If the seed is sown in January, February, or March, 
most of the plants will bloom the same season, com¬ 
mencing to open in July, or even in June if they have 
been pushed on rapidty, and afford a succession of 
handsome flowers throughout the rest of the year. 
Gloxinias will often throw from four to eight nice 
blooms in 3 in. or 4 in. pots ; and, indeed, I think it 
is better to keep them in these small sizes for the first 
year unless they are very forward and vigorous. Those 
that do not bloom the first season, even if they are in 
“stores” with tubers no larger than peas, will all 
flower well next season, and if they are very small 
should be wintered in the soil, and potted off when they 
begin to grow again. If sown in March in a hot bed, 
and grown and potted on here until June or July, they 
will expand very well in an ordinary greenhouse at this 
time, if kept rather close, or in a cucumber house or 
the like. In fact, the moist genial atmosphere of a 
dung-bed frame is as favourable to Gloxinias as any¬ 
thing that can be found ; insects will never attack 
them in such a position, and being dwarf in habit, the 
plants may even be allowed to come into bloom here. 
The only other mode of propagation is by means of 
leaf-cuttings, which are made by gashing the larger 
veins on the underside of fully developed leaves through 
in several places, and pegging them down to the sur¬ 
face of well-drained pans or boxes of sandy soil. If 
placed in heat and shaded a tuber will form at every 
cut, which will make a flowering plant next season. 
Small leaves may be cut off with an inch of stem, and 
four or five inserted round the sides of 5 in. pots, when 
each will form a tuber. 
In colour Gloxinias range from pure snowy white, 
some of which are without a spot of colour, others 
delicately feathered and pencilled with rose or lilac, 
through many shades of pink, blush, scarlet, carmine, 
lake, to deep rich crimson, others again being of varying 
shades of purple, with, in some cases, the throat almost 
black. Some are almost perfect seifs, that is, all of one 
colour, others have coloured lips with white or creamy 
throats, others again are coloured in the throat with white 
or delicately shaded lips ; some richly tinted blooms have 
a narrow margin of white which gives a very pretty 
effect, and a large number will be found to be feathered, 
streaked, and shaded in a marvellous variety of different 
ways. A recently introduced class is spotted to a 
greater or less extent with minute dots of various 
colours on a white or pale coloured ground. These are 
extremely elegant, but many of them are wanting in 
substance, and they need careful crossing with a more 
robust type. 
The erect-flowering varieties are more generally 
esteemed as the blooms show to better advantage, but 
some of the drooping kinds are very graceful ; the 
horizontal flowers, of course, come between the two ; 
good bold flowers of this class are very effective. 
Gloxinias are not much esteemed as cut flowers, the 
tissue of the. blooms being so delicate as not to bear 
much handling, and every bruise goes black after a short 
time and shows badly. On this account they do not 
travel at all well, but if they can be used on the spot 
and protected by other flowers placed round them they 
become very useful, and a bouquet composed to a large 
extent of good Gloxinia blooms with plenty of maiden¬ 
hair Fern, is, if well made, an exquisitely beautiful 
object, fit for the hands of a princess. For this purpose 
erect flowers, of course, can only be employed. A good 
sized houseful of well-floweied Gloxinias, is one of the 
finest sights in the whole range of horticulture.— 
B. C. II. 
-- 
The Gardeners’ Calendar. 
THE PLANT HOUSES. 
The earliest batch of Cinerarias should now be coming 
well into flower, and will be most useful for conserva¬ 
tory or greenhouse decoration, although unfortunately 
they are of but little use for cutting, especially if for 
travelling. In the houses they emit a pleasant per¬ 
fume, and, from the great diversity of colour now to be 
obtained from them, they are of the utmost value. 
Keep them well fed with liquid manure ; alternately a 
dose of Clay’s Fertiliser will be of the greatest good to 
them, and will be the means of developing the foliage, 
and also give by far better heads of bloom. The later 
batch must also receive extra attention ; be sure they 
are kept perfectly free from insect pests, such as green 
fly which is their greatest enemy, but can be easily 
removed by light and frequent applications of tobacco 
smoke ; unless they are perfectly clean before the 
heads of bloom become prominent success cannot be 
hoped for. 
Primulas too will now need well feeding to keep the 
trusses of bloom well up, without which no one admires 
them. Calanthes will now well repay a little extra 
attention in the way of placing them where the flowers 
may be kept rather dry, so as to prevent them becoming 
spotted, as they will do if subject to too much mois¬ 
ture. The intermediate house will suit them to a 
nicety, in fact, we find it the most useful structure we 
have, the late batch of Poinsettias will also now help 
to make this structure quite gay if staged in conjunction 
with them and the flowering Begonias, double Bouvar- 
dias, Callas, and kindred subjects. 
THE FORCING DEPARTMENT. 
This will now claim, in many respects, the utmost 
vigilance, so numerous are the subjects requiring imme¬ 
diate attention to bring them forward in their proper 
time. More particularly the first batch of Strawberries 
will need to be placed into warmth without delay. 
We have already put in about 150 Yicomtesse Hericart 
de Thury on the shelves in the intermediate house ; 
these will be supplemented by a batch of President 
placed on shelves in the early Vinery, making an 
allowance for failures. This is none too many for a 
start; the later batches may be more surely relied 
upon. 
Bulbs, such as Hyacinths, Tulips, and the like, must 
be introduced according to the demand; but with 
regard to the Hyacinth, I would strongly recommend 
that an inverted thumb-pot be placed over each bulb 
for some days after being placed in heat, as it induces 
the flower-spike to throw up much better than if left 
to itself. Crocuses are much better if kept in the cold 
pits, leaving the sun alone to act upon them, as it is 
almost impossible to force them. A nice batch of 
Eoses in pots must now be brought in—say, for the 
present, in the early Vinery, if no other structure is 
available—and also Lilacs, more particularly the 
Persians, with Forsythia viridissima, Daphne mezereum, 
and other like plants will be found most useful for 
decoration, and also for helping the supply of cut 
flowers. 
The Cucumbers which are now fruiting will require 
the greatest attention, more especially in regard to the 
bottom heat; we always grow our winter set in large 
pots, as we can then insure a regular heat, for without 
this, it is next to useless to make the attempt. Now 
will be time to make another sowing of any good 
reliable kind, such as Telegraph, these will succeed 
those which are now coming into bearing ; a small 
sowing of Melons and Tomatos for very early work may 
also now be made. Look well after the stoking, but 
during this frosty weather do not keep too high a 
temperature, or red spider will certainly follow. Take 
the first opportunity of a break in the weather to lift 
another batch of Ehubarb and Sea Kale, and place in 
the Mushroom-house, so that there may not be any 
break in the supply. _ 
THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
The state of the weather completely stops all ground 
work, with the exception of being able to wheel out 
manure or leaf-soil. Me are now putting the soil into 
the pit ready for the first batch of Potatos. These we 
grow in heated pits, which does away with the neces¬ 
sity of matted coverings which I never care ts use for 
Potatos, as they require all the light that can possibly 
be allowed. If planting is not completed look round 
• and see what trees are needed, and order them, that 
when a change in the weather takes place they may be 
planted without delay ; the same remark applies to the 
Eosary. Me have not yet quite finished our planting 
here, having lifted a good many, but a few hours work 
will put all right in this department. — Walter Child, 
Croorae Court, Worcestershire. 
THE FOREIGN FRUIT TRADE. 
Oranges are classified in the “green ” fruit trade as 
“sweet,” to which the old term “ China” is still ap¬ 
plied, and “sour,” Which is the technical word for 
bitter. Sweet Oranges are for table, and sour are used 
in the manufacture ot marmalade. Last season there 
were brought to London 805,000 cases of eating Oranges, 
and in the year before the numbur was even larger. 
To this total St. Michael, in the Azorc-s, contributed 
SO, 000 ; Spain, 626,000 ; Portugal, 58,000 ; and Sicily 
and other parts 41,000. Portugal and Sicily were 
much below their average. The Orange which is ap¬ 
proved above all others is undoubtedly the St. Michael, 
but the island on which it is produced appears to be 
doomed to the same ruin which has destroyed Orange 
cultivation in St. Mary’s and other islands of the same 
group. Spain, on the other hand, is developing the 
industry. 
Other Oranges besides St. Michael’s now in the mar¬ 
ket are Lisbon and Seville, Malaga, and Denia, the last 
mentioned comprising a large district. The largest 
importations are, however, from Valencia, and these 
are of very fine quality. The Sicily Oranges come 
from Palermo and Messina. Last year a new trade 
was opened up, which promises to be a very large one, 
in Jalfa Oranges from the district of Jerusalem. These 
are transhipped either at Marseilles or Port Said, very 
few coming .direct. They are pale in colour, egg-shaped, 
large, sweet, and of excellent flavour. Boxes of Oranges 
range in weight from J cwt. to 1.) cwt., and their sizes 
differ according to the country from which they are 
derived, An ordinary Valencia case will contain 714 
Oranges, whereas the flat box from Jaffa has but 6S. 
From Malta are obtained blood Oranges, egg Oranges, 
and Mandarins, which are in Spain called Tangierines, 
for there is no real difference between these small-scented 
fruits. None comes from Taugiers. Some few reach 
us from Florida and the Mest Indies, but the fruit 
grown on the Northern African coast is so very 
delicate, that it never arrives in the London market in 
good condition. Large quantities of Lemons are also 
used in this country, particularly in the manufacture 
of candied peel.— Telegraph. 
