Plate 418. 

 CALADIUM. MADAME DOMBRAIN. 



The zeal with which the French horticulturists enter into 

 the subject of liybridizing- is not only well known, but is con- 

 tinually being shown in the unlooked-for results which they 

 obtain : recently the double-flowering zonal Geraniums form a 

 case in point, and the same may be said of Caladiums, as tes- 

 tified by the large number of new varieties introduced of late 

 years. 



When in Paris during the past year, we were invited by M. 

 Charles Verdier to visit the collection of Caladiums raised and 

 grown by M. Bleu, an amateur of considerable eminence, who 

 had made these plants his speciaUte, and most interesting it was 

 to see a large house completely filled with the seedlings which 

 he had raised. Many were very fine plants, others in a smaller 

 state, while some very promising seedlings show an entirely 

 new strain ; one especially we noted, in which the marginal 

 colouring was a bright golden-yellow, instead of green, and, 

 should this become fixed, it will no doubt open out an entirely 

 new field. M. Bleu was the first person who succeeded in 

 seedling Caladiums, and ever since he has pursued it with 

 increasing eagerness. 



The Caladiums require, in order to grow them to perfection, 

 stove heat, with abundance of moisture, and loamy soil broken 

 in good-sized pieces ; they are easily propagated by division of 

 the roots. That which we now figure, Iladame Doiiibmin, has 

 very fine and handsome foliage ; the ground colour of the 

 leaves, a deep olive-green, the midrib being bordered with a 

 broad feathery band of rosy pink, which extends also down the 

 veins on either side, while the green ground is broken by 

 irregular silveiy-white spots ; so that altogether the leaf is very 



