1873.] THE GLOBE AMAEANTHUS. SALVIA SPLENDENS. 61 



give it support, and when gently swayed by tlie summer breeze these leafy 

 streamers have a peculiar lightness which no other similar tree possesses. Those 

 who value picturesque and characteristic trees would do well to secure some of 

 the few good-sized specimens which are yet procurable. — T. Mooee. 



THE GLOBE AMARANTHUS. 



jN these days, when Church decoration has become so much in vogue, and 

 when the so-called sub-tropical garden is thirsting after features of novelty, 

 one wonders that the Globe Amaranth (Gomjihrena globosa)^ a most valu- 

 able old plant, is not more extensively grown. There is much to recom- 

 mend it to the favour of cultivators, not only for the sake of the flowers when 

 dried for decorative purposes, but as a beautiful pot plant, in which form it is 

 most effective when plunged out into small beds during the summer months. 

 For this latter purpose it should be well hardened off, and not put out before the 

 month of July. This plant being annual, can only be propagated by seeds, which 

 should be sown in well-drained pots, about the end of March, and plunged into 

 bottom-heat. The seeds should be well cleaned from their chaffy covering, and 

 if placed in a little tepid water for a few hours previous to sowing this will greatly 

 facilitate their germinating. If fine specimens are required, sow singly in thumb- 

 pots, and shift into larger pots as the plants progress ; but if a display of bloom 

 only is required, place three plants into a 32-size pot, when sufficiently large 

 to handle, and shade them for a few days that they may not be checked in growth. 

 When required for drying, the flowers should be gathered before they are too 

 far advanced. They should be dried in the shade, and will then retain their 

 beauty for years, especially if they are not exposed to the air. — Edwaed Bennett, 

 Hatfield Park, Herts. 



SALVIA SPLENDENS. 



MO we not, in the search after novelty, forget some of our best old friends ? 

 I have known Salvia splendens from boyhood, having been presented with a 

 cutting soon after I mounted the first step of the horticultural ladder ; it 

 was then considered rare, having been introduced from Mexico about six 

 years previously. I believe it was for a long time treated as a stove plant, but I 

 had then only a warm greenhouse, and I managed to preserve my plant through 

 the winter, and was delighted to find that by giving it successive shifts through 

 the summer, and the best places, it became a splendid plant, and flowered magni- 

 ficently in the autumn, creating quite a sensation in our little world, and obtain- 

 ing for me more praise than I deserved — because, after all, it was only a blunder- 

 ing hit, for I found afterwards that my trouble had been thrown away, and that the 

 plants would make the summer growth just as well in the open air, without any 

 attention whatever, until the first week in September, when they should be taken 

 up and potted, kept close, shaded for a few days, and then placed in the open air 

 again until frost comes. After this, they must be placed in the lightest part of 



