214 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



leaves for the table, as it is not very dear, thrifty plants being obtain- 

 able for half a guinea or so. Latania horboinca and Livistonia 

 rotundifolia are two cheap and pretty palms, vrith fan-shaped leaves, 

 but they are not equal to the two species immediately preceding. 



The beautiful Aralia Veitclii stands high amongst miscellaneous 

 plants for the dinner table ; tlie elegant digitate leaves are of a bronzy 

 purple hue, and contrast well with the snowy table-cloth, burnished 

 plate, and sparkling glass. It is very expensive, and, owing to its 

 popiilarity and the difficulty in propagating it, is likely to continue 

 so. Aralia leptophylla is not equal to the preceding, but it is very 

 elegant, and a good substitute for it. Tlie leaves are digitate, and 

 the leaflets narrow. The best of the crotons are, in my opinion, 

 Croton an gust i folium, C. Johannis, C. undulatum, C. Youngi, and C. 

 Weismanni. The first is cheap, but the other four are rare as yet, 

 and command higher prices. The Madagascar sedge, Cijperus 

 alternifoUus, is pretty and easily grown, but, with so many beautiful 

 palms available, hardly wanted. Curculigo recurvata has broad, 

 spreading leaves, and by way of contrast is exceedingly valuable. It 

 is also of free growth, and readily propagated. It is specially 

 adapted for using on occasions when it may not be considered desir- 

 able to remove the choicest subjects from the stove. The dracjenas 

 furnish several most useful subjects, as the colours of the leaves are 

 such as to present a most effective appearance when under the 

 influence of artificial light. The most elegant of the green-leaved 

 kinds are Draccena congesta and D. gracilis. The leaves of the 

 former are about an inch in width and fifteen inches in length, and 

 as they droop at the points the effect produced by a plant well 

 furnished with healthy foliage is exceedingly good. The leaves of 

 the latter are not more than half an inch in width, and range from 

 six to eight inches in length, and stand out horizontally ; the blade 

 of the leaf is of a peculiar shade of silvery green, with reddish 

 margin. Of the coloured-leaved forms, the undermentioned may be 

 considered the most distinct and beautiful : — D. Cooperi, an eff"ective 

 species, the leaves broad and drooping, and richly variegated with 

 rosy lake on a bronzy ground ; D. fcrrea grandis, known also as 

 D. stridci, leaves broad and upright, and beautifully variegated with 

 bright red. These and the slender-growing D. indcherrima, one of 

 the new kinds, will suffice for any one collection. More could be 

 named, but a greater number is not desirable, iiloreover, a con- 

 siderable number of the finest dracsenas soon attain too large a size 

 for the dinner table unless kept in small pots. 



The lovely Cupania Jiliclfolia, and its near allies, Jacaranda 

 Clausseniana and /. miinoscefolia, are exquisitely beautiful, the leaves 

 being as finely cut as the fronds of a maiden-hair fern, and even 

 more handsome, as they stand out horizontally. They are, however, 

 expensive to purchase, and very difficult to propagate ; so difficult, 

 in fact, that the most experienced propagators frequently fail in 

 striking the cuttings. I am, therefore, afraid to recommend them 

 strongly. I have only to add that all the subjects enumerated, with 

 one exception, require a stove temperature. 



