SCO THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



dation for a nice stock of plants, and, with an ordinary amount of 

 trouble, a capital display of flowers may be had throughout the 

 winter. In a house of the dimensions given it will, when an 

 abundance of winter flowers are required, be needful to economize 

 the space as much as possible. Ic will not do to crowd the house 

 with so-called ornamental-leaved plants of a weedy character, or 

 with summer flowering plants. It is true some of the very finest stove 

 plants bloom during the summer season, but as there is then an 

 abundance of flowers out-of-doors and in the greenhouse and con- 

 servatory, it would not be prudent to occupy the stove with summer 

 flowering plants, to the exclusion of those required for winter 

 flowering. The stove will also be found of extreme value for pushing 

 on hyaciuths, astilbes, lilacs, and other hardy subjects required for 

 early flowering; for the growth of the most beautiful of the fine 

 foliage plants adapted for the decoration of the dinner-table ; and 

 ferns and palms. It will also be useful in other -ways, such, for 

 example, as raising cucumber plants for early planting, pushing 

 into growth bedding plants, from which a supply of cuttings is 

 required for early propagation,and with the aid of a hand-glass or close 

 frame a large number of cuttings of bedders may be struck without 

 interfering materially with the general stock. The house must be 

 heated with a boiler and a service of hot-water pipes, as any attempt 

 to maintain the proper temperature with portable contrivances will 

 only end in vexation, and gas will be too expensive for burning 

 regularly. Ventilators at the apex, with a few openings at the 

 sides near the pipes, for the air to pass over them and become 

 warmed before it reaches the plants, will suflfice for the admission of 

 air. The interior can be fitted up according to taste, but for houses 

 not exceeding ten feet in width it will be found most convenient to 

 have a pathway down the middle, and a flat stage on each side. 



In a house of this description a very large number of plants 

 may be [had in bloom during the winter season, and of those 

 especially adapted to the requirements of amateurs, the following 

 are deserving of especial notice : — JEclimea fulgens, a beautiful 

 plant, with bright crimson flowers ; AntJinrimn ScJier::erianum, a 

 most attractive and free growing plant, which blooms freely during 

 the winter, and its bright vermilion banner-like spathes remain in 

 perfection for about two months. Aphelandra aurantiaca Soezli, 

 A. nitens, and the splendid A- fmcinator, a coloured illustration of 

 which recently appeared in the Floeal Wokld, are simply mag- 

 nificent for winter flowering, producing, as they do, fine spikes of 

 orange scarlet flowers. Ardisia crenulata is exceedingly ornamental 

 when loaded with its large crimson berries, but it is frequently met with 

 in an unhealthy state, through proper means not being taken to 

 keep the foliage free from red spider. The yellow berried form 

 found in catalogues under the name of A. frucfo luteo, is a miserable 

 thing, and certainly not worth growing, although there appears to 

 be a sufficient demand to induce the nurserymen to retain it in 

 their catalogues. The winter-flowering Begonias are most valuable, 

 as they are of free growth, and nice little bushes can be produced in 

 the course of the season by striking the cuttings early in March, in 



