266 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



sticks, and house them. By being potted while thej have a full 

 month to recover, they will go through the winter well, and furnish 

 shoots to propagate from in spring. 



CULTIYATIOK OF THE YAEIEQATED CYPERUS 

 ALTERNIFOLIUS. 



BY EANSLEY TANTOK, T.E.H.S., 2fTJESEEYMAN, EPSOM, SUEEET. 



EW plants of modern introduction really deserve more 

 attention than the Cyjperus alternifolius. Its graceful 

 beauty justly gives it claim to be considered one of the 

 most conspicuous of fine-foliage plants, and yet we 

 seldom see it either grown as a fine specimen or 

 luxuriating with that degree of vigour which is essential to the 

 development of its peculiarly high and characteristic elegance. An 

 unhappy stunted form of growth, with almost every alternate leaf 

 diverging^ from the true character, is the general aspect of plants 

 one is accustomed to see, both at exhibitions and in private gardens ; 

 and in the hands of manipulators, too, whose other performances 

 would lead us to expect better results. 



There are two reasons to account for this failure : in the one 

 case a better knowledge is required of the peculiar requirements 

 and habits of this charming exotic sedge ; in the other the variety 

 is at fault. As in the case of many other forms of beautiful plants, 

 there have been distributed of this two distinct varieties. One is 

 the true plant as imported, and increased by division ; the other, 

 speaking of the aggregate as one, consists of seedlings which have 

 been raised from the true variety. Young plants, propagated from 

 the former by division, always retain their character, which is 

 typical of tall, slender, vittately- marked footstalks, surmounted with 

 a whorl of leaves about half-an-inch broad and upwards of a foot in 

 length, and bearing the same character as the stems. The regular 

 alternate lines of pure white and green, together with the pendulous 

 habit of the whorl of leaves, give a well-handled plant a most 

 refined and imposing aspect. (Seedlings seldom, if ever, acquire 

 this beauty ; their habit is dwarfed, the leaves generally push up 

 green, are shorter, with the markings inconstant and indefinite, and 

 withal are plants of no beauty in comparison wdth the true variety. 

 I find propagation by division of the root can be done at any 

 season of the year, and if your plants are rooted by the month of 

 March they will make nice plants, bearing from four to six good 

 leaves by the following autumn. In potting, the several materials 

 should be well prepared and incorporated — namely, fibrous peat, 

 leaf-mould one year old, very old brick mortar, wood charcoal 

 reduced to powder, potsherds broken very fine, and very sharp 

 silver sand, in about equal proportions. The pot must be well 

 drained, and a layer of cut sphagnum laid upon the drainage, upon 

 which place the ball of the plant, carefully packing the material 



