August 17, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
805 
Carnation Layering. 
The Carnation and Picotee shows are over, and the 
grower who has been devoting his attention to preparing 
blooms for exhibition, can now turn his thoughts to 
one of the most important of his cultural operations— 
that of layering for young stock. A grower in course 
of time comes to know the varieties well, and this 
knowledge is very important in relation to successful 
culture. Therefore it is that, in layering, a commence¬ 
ment is made with those sorts that are slowest in 
rooting, and also with new sorts. I am a great 
believer in early layering, and I think the middle or 
end of July not a bit too early to commence ; for the 
earlier the work is done, regard being had to the 
condition of the wood, the earlier can rooted plants be 
had in the autumn. The wood should he fairly hard, 
and not too soft and sappy. 
The process of layering is now so well understood, 
that any description is unnecessary. But I may state 
that I think the old-fashioned upward cut is being 
abandoned in favour of one formed by piercing the 
stem just above a joint with a sharp thin blade, and 
then making the cut downwards. Preparatory, 
however, to doing this, some fine sandy compost 
should be prepared, the surface soil removed, the shoot 
to be layered trimmed of all decaying foliage, the 
surface filled in with fresh soil, and then the work can 
go on. In the case of new varieties, or any that it is 
desired to obtain as much stock of as possible, care 
should be taken in bending down the shoots not to tear 
them away from the main stem, so that the stool may 
he preserved, as it frequently throws up young growths 
that give very useful stock another season. When the 
rooted layers are taken off from the plants it is desirable 
to retain for stock, it is a good plan to draw the soil 
away from them, leaving the plants upon a kind of 
mound, so that wet may not gather about the neck. 
They should he placed where they will be sheltered 
from cold cutting winds.— R. D. 
most satisfaction if planted against a wall where it can 
be afforded a slight protection in severe winters when 
necessary. Under natural conditions, it forms a 
densely-branched bush, from 3 ft. to 5 ft. high, and 
when in flower is covered with a profusion of white 
bloom, as if with snow. The individual flower-heads 
measure about j in. across, but they are produced in 
wonderful quantity from the axils of the leaves along 
the shoots, which may be cut in sprays like that repre¬ 
sented by our illustration. The time of flowering varies 
in this country, according to treatment, from May to 
September, and on a wall out of doors would 
be in season during the latter month or in August. 
The leaves are obversely lance shaped, coarsely 
SHRUBS AND WILD FLOWERS 
AT EASTBOURNE. 
The naturalist, botanist, or even an intelligent 
observer cannot fail to find much of an interesting 
character in and around Eastbourne during the summer 
months. The chalky cliffs of Beachy Head, about 
three and a half miles in a westerly direction, rise up 
to a height of 575 ft., and slope in undulating de¬ 
clivities towards the town, while away to the eastward 
stretches the bay of Pevensey, remarkable in history 
as the landing place of William the Conqueror, who 
with his Norman legions was the last foreign foe that 
invaded and conquered England. Both St. Leonards 
Oleaeia Gunniana. 
OLEARIA GUNNIANA. 
The species of Olearia are Composites, and so closely 
allied to Aster that some of them were at one time in¬ 
cluded in that genus, as, for instance, 0. arygyrophylla, 
formerly grown under the name of Aster argyrophyllus. 
Some eighty-five species are known to science, all 
natives of Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, 
from the latter of which 0. Gunniana has been intro¬ 
duced. They are evergreen, and generally with small 
leaves resembling those of an Olive tree, as expressed 
by the generic name ; but there are exceptional species 
with ample leaves, as in the case of the Musk tree 
(0. argyrophylla). The bulk of the species, as might 
he expected, are essentially greenhouse shrubs of con¬ 
siderable beauty when well-grown plants are flowering. 
0. Gunniana, however, proves hardy in the southern 
end more favoured parts of this country, but gives 
toothed, and hoary on the under-surface, as are the 
stems and branches. All of these characters show that 
the plant is adapted for a dry sunny climate, so that 
we can understand its not being quite hardy in the 
moist and changeable climate of our island. In the 
more favoured parts of Britain and Ireland the shrub¬ 
beries might be rendered gay by it, while in winter the 
small evergreen leaves with which the branches are 
clothed would give a warm appearance to the borders 
occupied mainly with deciduous subjects. It might 
well be tried as a maritime plant, seeing that many of 
the shrubby Veronicas from the same part of the world 
succeed so well at many a sea-board town, both in the 
south, east, and west of England. It is a comparatively 
recent introduction, and received a First Class Certifi¬ 
cate from the Floral Committee of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society in May, 1885, after being shown several 
times. 
and Hastings can readily be discerned with the un¬ 
aided eye on a clear day, skirting the far side of the 
wide bay. Between Eastbourne and Hastings stretches 
a broad belt of shingle, constantly being added to by 
the sea, and which remains for ages a heap of rolling 
or moving stones and pebbles, offering no root-hold for 
vegetation of any kind on the more recently laid down 
portions, while the older formations are covered with a 
scanty vegetation in which many beautiful and some 
rare wild plants find a suitable home and seem happy. 
"Wild Plants. 
Amongst the rarer plants that would interest the 
botanist are Bupleurum tenuissimum and Lactuca 
saligna, which are plentiful in patches where they 
occur. In the marshes and pools formed by the 
damming up of the'old water-courses with gravel by 
the sea are Scirpus maritimus and great patches of 
Salicornia herbacea, like miniature trees with fleshy 
or succulent, jointed and much-branched stems, having 
the leaves reduced to mere scales, and appearing leafless. 
The closley-allied Suaeda maritime has glaucous and 
fleshy leaves. To the general observer, however, the 
pretty annual Galeopsis Ladanum would be far more 
interesting. In habit and general appearance it may 
be compared to a Collinsia with large deep rosy purple 
