KALOSAISTHUS CULTURE. 



SHALL not write a long introduction apologizing for 

 bringing this subject forward ; an apology for doiug so 

 would be equivalent to my confessing that these plants 

 have not sufficient merits of their own to entitle them 

 to be generally grown, and that I only brought them 

 forward because I had a particular fancy for them. I confess to a 

 certain amount of partiality for them, but that is founded on their 

 great beauty and general usefulness. We have nothing to compare with 

 them for July work, excepting the zonal pelargoniums, and to say 

 there's nothing to decorate the conservatory with after the spring 

 flowers are gone, excepting a few annuals and fuchsias, is nothing 

 less than humbug. With the range of about twenty varieties of 

 Kalosanthus, the conservatory can be made as brilliant at this 

 moment as it was in May, when the pelargoniums were at their best, 

 provided sufficient time could be spared to attend to them, and space 

 to grow them in. I grant readily that it is not desirable to till a 

 house with them, to the exclusion of everything else. They are too 

 stiff and formal in their habit, and the colours are too much alike 

 for that. But two or three dozen large, well-grown plants would be 

 grand for lighting up| a house full of ferns and other ornamental 

 foli.'ige plants. These plants ought to be grown by scores, where 

 they can only be numbered by units now. I confess that to grow 

 them requires time and space, but that's no argument against growing 

 them. Everything requires that, and to get over the difficulty, the 

 simplest way to manage is to grow a few less of something else, say 

 half a dozen pelargoniums, half a dozen fuchsias, and the same num- 

 ber of a few other subjects, and space is provided at once for a few 

 dozens of these without increasing the labour, as there is no more 

 time or trouble attendant upon their culture than there is of those 

 subjects I have named. 



The Kalosanthus, or Crassula, as it was formerly called, belongs 

 to the houseleek family, and is therefore a succulent, and requires a 

 somewhat different treatment to ordinary soft-wooded plants, though 

 it is by no means difficult to grow well. In the first place the pro- 

 pagation is effected by taking off the tops of the shoots that have 

 not flowered as soon as the beauty of the flowers are past ; this is the 

 best time of the whole year, for the wood is by then tolerably ripe 

 and firm, and not likely to decay, which is the case if the tops are 

 taken off early in the spring, when the plant is in full growth, and 

 the shoots soft and sappy. Any light sandy soil will do for filling 

 the pots, in which the cuttings are to be inserted, and a layer of dry 

 silver sand on the surface. This runs down into the hole made for 

 the reception of the cutting, and forms a base for the cuttings to 

 rest upon. The cuttings root with greater freedom this way than 

 they would do if they were surrounded by soil only. After the 

 cuttings are inserted, I place the pots in a position where they are 

 exposed to the full light and air, for no close coddling must be 

 attempted, or the cuttings will very soon go off, especially if accom- 



