THE PIvANT WORI.D 67 



The Home Garden and Greenhouse. 



Conducted by F. H. Knowlton. 



[The editor of this department will be glad to answer questions of a rele- 

 vant nature, and also to receive short articles on any phase of this subject.] 



Farfugium grande. — Having been quite successful for many years 

 with this plant for home decoration, I wonder that it is not oftener found 

 among the collections of plant lovers. It is indeed a handsome plant. 

 As the yellow flowers are not very pretty, the bud stalks should be pinched 

 off so that the strength of the plant will go more towards developing the 

 beautiful foliage. These leaves are nearly round, large, glossy and 

 leathery, of a deep green, variously spotted with white or pale yellow, no 

 two being alike, some having few spots, others thickly covered. 



The Farfugium likes plenty of pot room, a loose, rich soil (I use woods 

 earth, good garden soil and a little sand) and plenty of water, except 

 when it is resting, which mine does in the late summer. Then it is 

 watered sparingly till I repot it in the fall when it soon puts on new life. 



This plant does not like to be moved about, but prefers a place in an 

 east window where it can get the early morning sun and does not want 

 much of that, indeed I have had it do nicely in a north window without 

 any sun. 



It should be frequently washed or showered to keep off the dust, but 

 the leaves are so smooth that is little trouble. A species of aphis seems 

 to be the only pest that troubles this plant and a warm bath of Ivory 

 soap suds soon makes an end of its depredations. A shady spot and 

 plenty of water is all it asks in summer. Ours is kept on a north porch 

 and seems to like that situation. Mrs. ly. W. Ruff, I^aurel, Md. 



A Curious Begonia. — We are so accustomed to seeing Begonias with 

 unequal-sided, but nearly entire, leaves, that an apparently compound- 

 leaved one is a novelty. Such an one is Begonia pahnata, which has 

 leaves nearly circular in outline and composed of ten or twelve long, 

 narrow, finely-toothed leaflets or rather segments. The stems, which 

 grow to a height of two or three feet, are dark red, as are the mid veins 

 of the leaflets below. The flowers are rather small and white and are not 

 especially attractive, the whole plant being odd rather than handsome, 

 although a finely -grown example with leaves down to the pot is well 

 worth growing. 



Starting Seed. — By the time this reaches our readers, or even earlier, 

 the seeds of many of the garden plants and annual flowering plants 

 should have been started. Such things as tomatoes, lettuce, cosmos, 

 scarlet sage, verbenas, castor-oil bean, asters, and the host of annuals, 

 can advantageously be started in flats or boxes in the greenhouse or even 



