THE FLORAL WORLD AND OARDEN aUIDE. 



179 



and wherever tliey were seea they were 

 admired. But now we have dozens of 

 varieties of the begonia, all brilliantly 

 coloured, and variously dotted, blotched, 

 and zoned. Caladiuin bieolor, too, was 

 well known and highly prized in our gar- 

 dens ; but it is completely eclipsed by the 

 splendid kinds which have witiiin the last 

 £e\y seasons been introduced by M. Chan- 

 tin, tlie Parisian nurseryman. He is said 

 to have imported them from the humid 

 forests of Brazil, where they were collected 

 by a French botanist, after whom one of 

 them is named, M. Baraquin. So beauti- 

 fully coloured are these caladiums, and so 

 varied in their tints, that a jfroup of them, 

 relieved by a few long and narrow-leaved 

 plants, produce a most charming effect. 



The cultivation of both the genera we 

 li.ave mentioned is so exti'emely simple that 

 these beautiful productions are rapidly be- 

 coming "plants for the million.'' To a 

 certain extent, they both require the same 

 kind of tre^itment ; they both enjoy a liglit 

 rich soil ; they both require stimulating 

 with a little moist heat in the spring ; and 

 daring winter, when room is always valu- 

 able under glass, they mny both be laid 

 upon their sides under the stage, or any 

 other convenient place where they will he 

 warm and dry. In the latter end of Feb- 

 ruary or beginning of March, all the old 

 soil should be shaken away frona the stems 

 of the one and the tubers of the other, and 

 they should be repotted in a very coarse 

 mixture of peat and leaf-mould, with a 

 little fibrous loam and a plentiful admix- 

 ture of sharp river-sand. We have found 

 the begonias grow more luxuriantly when 

 the soil was sifted (before addhig the sa.ul), 

 and the coarse part only used. "With the 

 caladiums our plan is to spi inkle a little 

 sand below and immediately around tiie 

 tuber, which is potted with its crown about 

 an inch below the surface. After potting, 

 they may be plunged in a good sweet hot- 

 bed ; there is no place equal to this for 

 starting them into growth, though when it 

 cannot be obtained, one must put up v,"ith 

 a tan-bed in a moist stove or pine-pit. 

 Water should be given but sparingly, that 

 is, onlj' in sufficient quantities to keep the 

 soil from becoming dry, until the plants 

 have started into growth freely, v.'hen it 

 may gradually be increased. As soon as 

 the plants have attained a good size, they 

 may be employed in the decoration of the 

 conservatorv, where, if the house be kept 

 a little close, they will retain their -bril- 

 liancy for some time. With reg.ard to the 

 propjguion of the begonia, nothing need 

 be said, for everybody now knows that if 

 a leaf be taken off and laid flat on the sur- 



face of a hot-bed, it will be well rooted in 

 a few days, and if a slight incision be made 

 across the principal veins, ns many young 

 plants may be obtained as can be required ; 

 the leaves of some of them may even be 

 chopped into little pieces, and each piece 

 will make a plant. They want no care or 

 trouble taken with them ; all they require 

 is to be laid flat on the moist surface oi the 

 soil, in a warm close place, even a bell- 

 glass is superfluous, and, unfess there be 

 draughts of dry air, worse than useless. 



The propagation of the caladium is a 

 slower process, but as there are thousands 

 of hands employed in this operation, they 

 are daily becoming more plentiful, and 

 their price decreasing in a like proportion. 

 They all make offsets readily, some of them, 

 C. argyrites for example, increase ver^'- 

 rapidly in this way. But if it is requisite 

 to propagate theni as quickly as possible, a 

 slight cut should bo made in the lower side 

 of the tub?r before potting, and this should 

 be filled with powdered charcoal to prevent 

 its rotting. 



Caladium argyrites is a perfect little 

 gem ; its leaves are not more than two 

 inches long, and about half their surface is 

 of a pure opaque white. C. Ballemeyi is, 

 perhaps, the most delicately coloured ; it 

 is all wliite except the principal veins and 

 the margin of the leaf, which ai# of a 

 bright green ; there is also generally a 

 flush of rose-colour in the centre of the 

 young leaves. C. Chantinii is a general 

 favourite ; it has bright rosy pink along 

 the main ribs of the leaf; the parts between 

 them being white, and tlie edge of the leaf 

 pale green. C, Verschaffeltii has dull red 

 spots sprinkled over its surface irregnlarh-. 

 In C. Neuraannii these spots are of a livid 

 tinge, and each one margined with white. 

 C. Wightii has spots some of which are 

 pure white, others red, irregularly sprinkled. 

 C. Brogniartii is like the old bicolor, but 

 with larger foliage, and the colour of a 

 more intense and brilliant crimson. The 

 main ribs of 0. Houlletii are of a 

 creamy colour, and there are white spots 

 between them. C. Troubetskoi and C. 

 Baraquinii are more like the old C. pic- 

 txiratum in form ; that is, the leaves are 

 longer and narrower than in the other 

 kinds, and both are highly colowred. Mr. 

 Veitch possesses also a new caladium, 

 named after himself, which is of a most 

 peculiar colour — a sort of violet purple — it 

 is \Qvy distinct and striking. Among the 

 older kinds tliere are several wliich are 

 well worthy of cultivation, as C. pictum, 

 with large irregularly-formed blotches of 

 white, C. poecile, Avith livid crimson veins 

 and spots, and 0, marmoratum, witli 



