18G9. ] NEGRO LARGO FIG. 



placed in 6-in. pots, keeping them in heat until about the middle of June, when 

 they should be transferred to the greenhouse, gradually hardened off, and 

 finally fully exposed to the air, under which circumstances they should remain 

 until the beginning of September, when they must be again removed into the 

 stove, and by about the middle of November their magnificent whorls of scarlet 

 floral leaves will appear, and will remain for six weeks or two months in great 

 perfection. They will now bear warm conservatory treatment, if due care be 

 taken in gradually hardening them off. 



Plants grown in the way just indicated will only produce one flower-head. 

 When larger plants are required, they should be kept growing in the stove 

 after flowering up to the middle of June of the following year, when they 

 should be partially dried off (i.e., water withheld from them for a week or two), 

 previous to cutting them down. This drying-off is necessary to prevent their 

 bleeding. Cut down the plants about the beginning of July, and as soon as the 

 young shoots commence to grow they should be turned out of their pots, the 

 balls reduced, and placed again in pots of the same size as before. They 

 require to be kept in a nice growing temperature, until they receive their final 

 shift, which should not be later than the middle of August ; and if they 

 have progressed well, they might then be put in 9-in. pots. The after-treat- 

 ment will be exactly the same as recommended for the small plants. 



These plants are excellent for drawing-room decoration, and the dwarf ones 

 more especially for furnishing plant-cases. 



South Kensington. Geo. Eyles. 



NEGRO LARGO FIG. 



JLTHOUGH the Fig is one of the most extensively cultivated, most nutri- 

 tious, and highly prized of fruits, the comparative indifference with which 

 ^fBf* its cultivation has been treated, in all except the most extensive gardens, 

 o is such as to excite the amazement of those who know the facility with 

 which it may be grown. There are exceptions to this statement, but they 

 are so few as only to prove the rule. This indifference to their culture, is 

 the reason why there has been till lately, a very limited knowledge among us as 

 to the superior excellence of some of those splendid Figs that are to be met with 

 scattered about in various parts of the South of Europe, and on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, where the Fig forms so important a feature in agriculture, and so 

 valuable an article of commerce. The taste, however, for Figs as dessert 

 fruit is rapidly on the increase among us, and as the knowledge of their culture 

 extends, and the successful management of the fruit while ripening is better 

 known, we shall hear no more of the repellent disgust with which people have 

 been accustomed to regard what they call "green Figs." We have eaten "green 

 Figs " in what would be considered first-rate establishments, which we could 

 compare to nothing but an insipid herbaceous poultice ; and we have also eaten 



