THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 363 



Some years ago, I dare say you grew, as I did, the rice paper 

 plant (Aralia papyrifera) in the stove. It was just sent home by 

 Fortune from the island of Formosa; what further proof did we 

 need that it required a high temperature ? The plant grew well, 

 made magnificent leaves, and flowered ; but it was terribly subject 

 to the mealy-bug — what a job it was to keep it clean ! You may 

 generally paraphrase the expression — " This plant is infested by the 

 mealy-bug," by " This plant wants a cooler place ;" or else it has 

 been pot-bound, or ill-used in some known or unknown way. We 

 had to learn by experience, but it is dangerous work to experiment 

 upon a plant worth four or five giiineas, as that Aralia was then. 

 It flowered as I said, and next season we had scores of seedlings. 

 One or two found their way into the bed out of doors reserved for 

 odds and ends. They grew splendidly, and we saw no more of the 

 mealy-bug. If you want to see how it succeeds out of doors, go to 

 Battersea Park in the autumn and enjoy an astonishment. I fully 

 expect that it ia quite hardy ; that the roots, at least, will escape 

 injury, even if left unprotected. At any rate, under cool treatment, 

 and not allowed to be starved in its pot, it will make a glorious 

 foliage plant. There are several other species of Aralia, introduced 

 by M. Linden from New Caledonia, which may help to make up a 

 cool collection of foliage plants. 



That beautiful plant Cordyline indivisa, introduced by Messrs. 

 Lee from New Zealand, requires of course nothing but the accom- 

 modation a greenhouse may afiord ; and the same may be said of 

 many other allied species. When we come to look the list over, we 

 find that the foliage plants which may, with the help of a hotbed in 

 spring, be exhibited ia competition with the truly stove plants, the 

 advantage will not be all on the side of the latter. Let us see how 

 our list would stand : Caladiums, Begonias, Cordyline, Aralia, 

 Cannas Ricinus, Dractena (several New Zealand species), Cycas 

 revoluta, Dasylirion, and a good many others in the Aloe, Agave, 

 and Bonapartea line. 



Though there is much which we hope and expect may be done 

 under " cool treatment," yet there are some plants which we may 

 expect will hardly put up with this. Among these we must class 

 Cissus discolor, which cannot be grown in too hot or too moist a 

 house, nor can it be shaded too much. If you want to see the velvet 

 leaves of this plant in perfection, you cannot overdo either of the 

 three things mentioned — shade, heat, and atmospheric moisture. I 

 should have said the same thing of Alocasia metallica and its allies, 

 but I am almost afraid to speak about this plant, for I was on good 

 authority told the other day of a plant which had done duty in a 

 seedsman's shop for six weeks, and then stood out of doors for ten 

 days without being injured or looking the worse for it. We have 

 much to learn upon this subject, and every gardener who can help 

 us to a fact he has himself proved, will help on the good time coming 

 which will produce another great change in the fashions of the 

 garden world. C. W. C. 



Kew. 



