MARCH. 67 



state, with a good proportion of drainage. In filling the pots, I 

 place the rougher soil at the bottom, and fill up with the finer. The 

 plants are then inserted, with their tubers an inch below the surface. 

 They are watered with a little chilled water (using a fine-rosed pot), 

 to settle the soil about their roots. Thus potted, they are again 

 placed in heat (about 60°), with rather a moist atmosphere, and 

 plunged in a gentle bottom-heat. 



Tubers excited in April, and after that, will not require this heat ; 

 and even those first started would do without plunging, but I find 

 them to succeed better with it. Where a stove and plunging mate- 

 rials cannot be had, a dung-bed frame, with a gentle bottom heat, 

 would effect the same purpose ; with this precaution, that a little 

 air must be given at night, increasing the supply by day ; and in 

 bright weather the plants will require shading, or the action of the 

 sun on their leaves, when covered with the vapour from the bed, 

 will blotch them, which would spoil their beauty. Indeed, however 

 well you treat them afterwards, all of them like a little shade, by 

 which the leaves are kept more healthy, and the flowers brighter, 

 and the latter hang longer. A late vinery, or a greenhouse with 

 creepers up the rafters, suits them very well. 



The plants should be stopped back when they have grown four 

 or five inches in height ; this causes them to break freely, and makes 

 them handsome. I allow grandiflora to grow about nine inches high 

 before I stop it ; this prevents it from making shoots, but it has the 

 tendency of producing a greater abundance of flowers, and,, when a 

 pan of it is well tied out, it is a handsome object. I stop-back 

 pedunculata twice, leaving four eyes each time to break from ; and 

 I shift them out of the 6-inch pots when the latter become pretty 

 full of roots into a 9-inch size, as 1 find this is not too large for 

 this variet}\ In this way I have grown pedunculata with fine eflfect ; 

 its flowers being, in my opinion, little inferior to those of picta. This 

 last-named species seems to be better adapted for winter culture ; and 

 when gro\\'n in a moist stove, the foliage puts on that beautiful 

 marbhng which makes it appear very interesting. 



Several of the varieties of Achimenes are subject to mildew. As 

 soon as you see it, attack it with sulphur vivum, which prevents its 

 spreading. On a watchful eye after this, and a few slight fumiga- 

 tions, depends greatly the success of the cultivator. 



I may add, by way of conclusion, that where a supply of flowers 

 is required for decorating the drawing-room, conservatory, or green- 

 house, during the summer months, the Achimenes are most useful 

 plants ; and if persons will attend to the directions I have just given, 

 I have no doubt that the result of their labour will prove satisfactory. 



T. K. 



