228 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
the glass as possible, so that they may not he drawn up. When they get about 
two or three inches high, they should be removed into a frame, and air should 
be given them every fine day. If the weather is favourable, they should, about 
the beginning of May, be planted out in the bed or border where they are to be 
flowered : and here it would be necessary to cover them with glasses as long as 
there is any danger of frost. When this danger is over, the glass should be 
removed during t]re day ; and, by the end of May, it may be dispensed with 
altogether. With this treatment, there is no fear of obtaining flowers in the 
utmost perfection. 
After the flowering is over, and the growth of the year is entirely ceased, the 
bulbs should be taken up, dried, and put by, until they are again wanted for 
potting in the spring. They should be placed in a cool and dry situation, 
and left naked ; for if sand or any other dry substance is put about them, it is 
apt to shrivel the bulbs, and thus weaken their vegetating energy, or destroy it 
altogether. If they are put away in a dry, cool, and clean place, and kept free 
of all extraneous matter, they will remain firm and fleshy, and grow more vigo¬ 
rously, and flower to greater perfection. 
Lechenaultia Formosa. —This plant should be struck in pure white sand. 
The cuttings should be taken off in the early part of the season ; and the wood 
should neither be over ripe nor under ripe. The utmost attention is necessary 
to the proper watering of the cuttings ; they must never be allowed to be abso¬ 
lutely dry, neither should they be over wet. The sand in which they are to be 
struck should be pressed down as firmly as possible, and watered before they 
are inserted ; they should also be covered with a bell-glass, and put into a 
little bottom heat; the bell-glass should be carefully wiped dry, at least once 
every day, and the best time of doing this is in the morning. If our corre¬ 
spondent, or any of our readers, wish to propagate this flower, there is scarcely 
a doubt of success if these simple directions are followed. 
Crassula coccinea. —W T e are asked, “ How do you account for the young 
shoots of the Crassula coccinea, which proceed from the stalk of the plant four 
inches from the ground, sending forth roots toward the ground ? Is this from 
a want of nourishment in the parent plant, the leaves of which had died after 
flowering very nearly to the top, presenting a naked stem until the shoots were 
produced ?” The answer to this query is as plain and evident as any answer 
can be ; and the fact of the query being put, shows of how much more import¬ 
ance it is that the florist should be put in possession of the general principles 
of his art, than that he should con by rote the empirical treatment of individual 
species of plants, though sanctioned by the authority of all the first-rate growers 
under the canopy of heaven. If the plant had not belonged to a tribe strongly 
embued with the principle of vegetable life, his fancied kindness would have 
killed it outright; and, in the case which he cites, this kindness gave the 
energy an unnatural and unseemly direction. When the plant was in flower, 
it had got, with the “best intentions,” no doubt,—which intentions, unless 
guided by principle, ought always to be sent to that pavement of which they 
are the appropriate materials,—far too much water; and as the self-vegetation 
is partially suspended, and the roots languid, during the process of flowering, 
the roots in the pot had been rotted, or so much macerated in the superfluous 
and injurious moisture, that they were no longer able to perform their func- 
