The almost perfection of symmetry, and great brilliancy and purity of colour, to which the Chinese Azalea has been advanced, by patient breeding and high culture both in this country and on the Continent, have long secured for it a foremost position among decorative plants. Among the tribes of plants deserving to be described as gorgeous on account of glowing brilliancy and massive outline, the Azalea cannot be omitted from such a category. Their exceeding effectiveness is not their only recommendation, they are most desirable on account of their pliant submission to a course of treatment which can easily insure their always desirable presence in full bloom in the conservatory or greenhouse for at least eight months of the year. We have for years in succession bloomed our earliest plants by the end of October, and kept up the succession till the end of June. Like Camellias they are acceptable at all times, but like Camellias they always appeared to us to be more delicate in colouring, sweeter, if the term may be applied, in late autumn, winter, and early spring than further on in the summer; and the time that individual plants last in these cool months may be multiplied by three as compared to those that bloom after March. We know of no other plant that charms so much from October to, say Christmas, either as a vase or dinner-table plant, as a well-bloomed small plant of Azalea.

We purpose detailing somewhat minutely our own practice in securing a succession of blooming Azaleas extending over the time above referred to.

Propagation

Although the great majority of the finest and most useful varieties do not do so well on their own roots as when grafted on a few robust varieties which practice has proved best for stocks, it is necessary to raise these stock varieties from cuttings, and the method of striking them shall be briefly described. The old Phoeonicea, Fielders White, and the old White are generally considered excellent stocks. To prepare stocks for grafting, select about the middle of July or any time before that, the required number from plants that have made an early growth, taking them about 2 inches long, and the wood of which is just beginning to change to a brownish hue, and become a little firm. After preparing these cuttings just in the same way as you would a verbena cutting, take a new or clean 8-inch pot, and fill it nearly half full of crocks, over the crocks place a thin layer of the most fibry part of peat or of sphagnum, then fill the pot to within an inch of the rim with equal parts peat and silver-sand, over this place nearly an inch of pure clean silver-sand, and the pot is then ready for the cuttings. Do not insert the cuttings too thickly; from thirty to forty in an 8-inch pot is quite sufficient. Plunge the pots to the rim in a mild bottom-heat and water them through a fine rose.

If the propagating-house is a well-appointed one, it will not be necessary to cover the cuttings with a second casing, such as a bell-glass or hand-glass; but if circumstances are such that they cannot be placed in a house sufficiently close, let a few pots be put together under a glass case, hand-glass, or large bell-glass, as circumstances dictate. In about three weeks, with the ordinary attention of shading and watering, in a temperature of 70° to 75° at night and a gentle bottom-heat, each cutting should be furnished with a whorl of roots. When these roots grow to about an inch in length, the cutting pots should be raised out of the bottom-heat to stand for a week or ten days before they are potted off singly into small pots. Pots from 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter are sufficiently large for potting them off. The soil should consist of two-thirds peat and one-third silver-sand in rather a fine condition. When potted, place them near the glass where they can have a brisk temperature for a time, till their roots reach the sides of the pots, when they should be gradually hardened off to stand the winter in an intermediate house.

Azaleas struck thus from cuttings grow very freely, but many of the choicest varieties never bloom so freely in their early days when grown on their own roots, and often when they attain a considerable size, many of the varieties are very subject to go off limb by limb, and much time and labour is consequently lost, whereas the same sorts grafted on the stocks named bloom more freely and preserve their symmetry and health to a good old age; consequently we do not advise the propagation of such varieties by the method just described. By the 1st of February, place the young stocks in a night temperature of 60°, keeping them near the glass. Increase the temperature 10° by sun-heat, and dew them over with a fine rose every fine afternoon. They will grow freely under such conditions, and will be 6 to 8 inches high by the 1st of April, which, unless in the case of those intended for standards, is a good height to graft at for general purposes. When two or three varieties are desired on one plant stop them when 6 inches high, and allow them to come away with three or more shoots. It will be a few more weeks before those stopped thus are ready for grafting.

When the stocks have attained the desired height, take the grafts from plants that have been in heat sufficiently long to have fresh growing shoots from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long. Cut the top off the stock with a sharp thin-bladed knife at a point where it is about the same thickness and consistency in growth as the graft. Cut a "cleft;" or, in other words, split the top of the stock downwards about half an inch; round this cleft put loosely for the present a single band of soft matting; then cut the base of the tender graft into a wedge to fit the cleft in the top of the stock; fit the one nicely into the other, then draw the matting sufficiently tight to keep the graft firmly in its place, and the operation is complete. Place the plants at once in a moist warm propagating-pit, or corner of a stove, or any structure where there is a temperature of 65°, cover them with a propagating-case or common garden hand-light, and, if kept steadily moist at the root and shaded from the sun, in a month the union will be sufficiently complete for the tie to be removed, and the plants exposed by degrees to more light and air.