How often do we meet with this splendid plant in a wretched state, where it neither does credit to the grower, nor gratifies the taste of any one accustomed to behold it in a thriving condition ! Pitiable, unhealthy-looking objects, flowering wonderfully well it may be, but not as the reward of good, kindly, and judicious treatment. Such miserable subjects never become the glorious specimens they would under different and more favourable conditions. As I have been somewhat successful in the culture of this most useful decorative flowering-plant, I will endeavour as concisely as possible to detail my mode of treatment. There are two general principles that I would put prominently forward at the commencement, which if acted upon will lead to success with this plant. 1st, It is a gross feeder; 2d, It must be kept constantly growing - there must be no sudden checks, otherwise the effects we too often see will be produced.

After the plants have begun to grow in spring is the proper time for taking cuttings, which I insert singly in thumb-pots, and plunge in bottom-heat up to the rims of the pots. I shade during sunshine, and maintain a close moist atmosphere, which must be given until they show signs of being rooted. So soon as the roots appear at the sides of the pots I at once shift them into 4-inch pots, using a compost of two parts good fibry loam, one partcow-du ng well decomposed, and one part leaf-mould, with a little silver sand added, placing a few pieces of dry cow-dung (which I gather in summer) over the crocks at the bottom of the pot. I put them again into their old quarters (bottom-heat), and give them a good shower overhead through a rose watering-pot. I shade for a few days until the roots have begun to run in the pots, up to which time they get no more water than a slight shower through the rose as before; but after the roots begin to fully occupy the pots I give them plenty of water, adding a little sheep-dung and guano-water every alternate time or so moisture is given.

They are thus treated until they have fully occupied their pots, and before they have become pot-bound, when they will require shifting into 7-inch pots; but a few days previous to this I take them out of their quarters wherein they have been plunged, in order to harden them a little. They are then placed in a spare corner in the vinery; and, as before, I give them a little water overhead with the rose, doing this morning and evening until they show signs of being established in their pots, after which they are liberally treated every way, all bad leaves picked off, and flower-shoots nipped, until about August, when they may be introduced to the conservatory. Water must be sparingly given all winter. About February they may be introduced into a vinery just started, and after they have begun to grow a little, may be shifted into 12-inch pots, in which I grow them freely all the season, keeping clean and nipping off flower-shoots until July, when they are taken to the conservatory again to be the admiration of all, attending to them regularly with copious manure-waterings. In shifting from a 7-inch to a 12-inch pot care must be taken not to sour the soil by over-watering; to prevent this I give the soil no water except what falls down through the leaves when they are watered with the rose, until the pots are pretty well occupied.

From subjects so treated I can now (September) boast of plants, struck between seventeen and eighteen months ago, and treated as detailed above, that have made specimens 30 inches in diameter of foliage, with no less than thirty-one spikes of bloom, and more continually appearing. J. F.

[Statice "Rattrayana" is not known at Kew; what is our correspondent growing under this name? - Eds.