These

two years old may be selected for the purpose. must be pegged down so that the point from which it is desired they should form roots may be two inches below the surface of the soil, which must be of a sandy character. The most suitable seasons for commencing the operation are spring and autumn. This mode of propagation requires much patience on the part of the propagator, since the plants will not be fit to remove for two years. They will then have supplied themselves with a sufficient apparatus of rootlets to maintain their existence independent of the parent shrub.

BY CUTTINGS.-This is a more expeditious mode of propagation than the last. The shoot from which the cutting is taken should be of recent growth, but yet not from the extreme point of it, because that part would be too soft and young, and also so charged with moist juices that it would inevitably rot. On the other hand, if the wood be very hard and dry, then it would neither possess nor be capable of absorbing sufficient moisture to sustain life, much less to emit rootlets. On these accounts, then, half-ripe wood must be chosen, which will be best obtained by selecting that part of the shoot where the old and young wood join. Also the cuttings must invariably be taken below a bud, as it is only from the eyes or buds that a cutting can push out root-fibres. If there be no bud left at the base of the cutting, it is apt to decay. Care is also to be taken to cut the base as smooth as possible, so that it be not jagged, nor yet the bark bruised.

We have elsewhere stated how important it is in striking cuttings to provide ample drainage in the pots, and also how necessary that some degree of heat should be applied as well as moisture. Too much of the latter, however, is dangerous and will destroy the cuttings, while the other applied immediately on placing them in the pots, if not of a low temperature, will kill the cuttings, by exhausting them of moisture. The operation may be performed either in spring or autumn ; some practitioners give a decided preference to the latter season.

PROPER SITUATION FOR THE RHODODENDRON.— The situation in which to plant the Rhododendron is by no means an unimportant matter. Exposure to the full force of the sun in spring and summer, in localities where, or in seasons when, the atmosphere is dry, renders the leaves liable to become sickly, and changes their otherwise vivid green to brown. Sometimes the whole shrub will die from the effects of drought at times when water is daily and abundantly supplied. An artificial supply of water is insufficient to keep plants alive in very dry seasons in situations thus exposed, unless they be growing in a moist clay, which soil is indeed nearly as injurious as drought. It follows that the Rhododendron should be planted where it will be sheltered by a lofty wall or tall hedge; a northern aspect suits them well if they are protected by a wall behind. In such a position they will need little attention; but if they are from necessity planted in an open situation, they will require frequent sup

plies of water in spring should the weather be dry, for if that be withheld the flower-buds will die off, and never display their beauty.

PLANTING.-In performing this operation with the Rhododendron it is best to make a hole of much larger dimensions than the size which the mass of roots seems to require. In depth it should not be less than a foot and a half. Having prepared the hole, fill it with peat-earth, or, as a good substitute, with decayed leafmould and loam, well mixed with sand and rotten dung. In planting the shrub, bestow considerable care and exercise patience in spreading out the rootfibres in every direction. Then, instead of using the common mode of rendering the freshly-planted shrub firm and stable in its new position, by treading down the surface all around with more than the still weight of your own body, give an abundant watering to the loose earth in which it is placed, by which it will become solidified, without injury to the

roots.

SOIL.-It is a general opinion that the Rhododendron will not grow freely in common garden soil. That this is, in the main, true there can be no doubt, and wherever pure peat and heath-mould can be obtained, it is best to use it; yet where heath-mould is not abundant, it will be found sufficient if as much as will fill a hole such as that above described be given to each plant, provided the subsoil be not very dry. If the situation be very dry, then it will render the peat

earth still more suited to the constitution of the Rhododendron if a little loam and a small quantity of cow-dung well rotted are added.

One main permanent condition of peat-earth is freeness and friability, while it possesses the quality, equally permanent, of absorbing and retaining moisture; hence it is remarkably well adapted to plants which cannot long endure dryness, nor yet live where the roots are earth-bound. If, therefore, a compost can be made resembling peat-earth, as to its freeness and retention of moisture, there is no reason why the Rhododendron should not flourish nearly as well in the former as in the latter. This has been successfully made by the mixture of loam and leaf-mould, with the addition of rotten cow-dung and sand, so as to approach as near as possible the texture of peat. Where a compost like this is used, it is well, as the summer following the period of planting the shrub advances, to top-dress the soil around each with cowdung, if to be had, and, for want of this, leaves in a state of decay may be substituted. Cow-dung is to be preferred, but either of them will have the effect of keeping the roots cool, and keeping them in a condition as closely resembling that where planted in peat, as can well be desired.

TO PROMOTE FREE BLOOMING, AND TO PROCURE LARGE FLOWERS.-To secure these objects, care must be taken to remove the seed-vessels as soon as the flowers have faded, while they are just forming. It is well known that the efforts of a shrub or tree to form,

grow, and perfect seed, exhaust the organizable matter produced in the branches by the elaboration of the sap. This matter therefore being thus exhausted, there is a scarcity of the material required in the formation of buds and flowers, and consequently in the succeeding season these will be deficient both in number and magnitude. Hence it follows that the removal of the seed-vessels immediately on the fading of the flowers does away with the exhausting demand upon the matter stored up in the branches, which being, by this means reserved in them, is ready to supply the buds aad blossoms of the ensuing year. Any one may readily prove the truth of this principle by removing the seed-vessels from one shrub, and allowing them to remain on another, when, all other conditions being equal, the result will surely prove the great advantage of the practice.

-In order to grow

STANDARD RHODODENDRONS. these, a number of seedlings are taken from their bed and set in good leaf-mould, at a distance from each other of about eight inches. Here they are allowed to remain until they have grown to the height of four or five feet, which they will ordinarily do in the course of three or four years. They are not thinned during this period, so that they are forced to grow upwards instead of laterally, but when they have attained somewhat near the required height, all the side shoots are pinched off, and this operation is continually repeated until the full vertical growth is gained, when they are allowed to form the head. Grown as standards, Rhododendrons