NOVEMBER. 253 



PIKENOCOMA PROLIFERUM. 



This beautiful, hard -wooded, and almost continuous-blooming green- 

 house plant is well worthy of all the attention which can be bestowed 

 upon its growth ; for when it attains the size of a nice specimen, few 

 plants make more display in a collection, as it will bloom in perfec- 

 tion five or six months at a time ; and even after the flowers are 

 removed from the plant, being what are termed Everlastings, they 

 will remain in beauty for a number of years, provided they are kept 

 dry. 



In commencing its culture, procure at first a nice dwarf bushy 

 plant, and keep it in the greenhouse on a dry airy shelf until March, 

 when it should be examined at the roots ; and if they are found 

 healthy, and the pot full of them, prepare some light fibrous peat, to 

 be used in a rough state, and mix with it half the quantity of sharp 

 gritty sand, and a liberal portion of small pieces of charcoal for shift- 

 ing material ; if the latter cannot be conveniently obtained, some 

 potsherds broken small will do as a substitute, but the former I pre- 

 fer. Mix these well together, and prepare a nice, clean, well-drained 

 pot to receive the plant. When potting, press the soil down with the 

 hand moderately firm, bearing in mind not to bury the collar of the 

 plant ; on the contrary, rather elevate it than sink it too low in the 

 pot. When the potting is finished, place some small sticks round the 

 pot for the purpose of drawing the branches out, with a view to allow 

 the air to penetrate into the middle of the plant ; when the sticks 

 are introduced, your young specimen can be brought to whatever 

 shape may be considered best by the grower. It may be trained either 

 pyramidal or flat ; the former by selecting the longest shoot for the 

 middle, tying it up to the stick, and then equalising the others around 

 it, so that a proportionable plant may be obtained to start with. 

 When tied up, it may placed either in a quiet part of the greenhouse 

 or in a cold pit, not exposing it to cold currents of air for some few 

 weeks after potting. 



When the plant begins to show that it is established in its new 

 pot, perform the operation of topping, which should be done in a 

 regular manner — first, by topping the shoot selected for the middle ; 

 not merely pinching out the top, but cutting it well down to where 

 you can be certain it will furnish itself with other wood. Then take 

 the outside shoots, cutting off their tops also the length you can 

 see will leave your plant, when finished, well formed and regular all 

 round, leaving the middle shoot rather longer than the outside ones, 

 so as to construct a pyramid, bearing in mind, as it advances in size, 

 always to keep your middle the highest. It will soon be perceived, 

 after the upright shoots are removed, that the small side branches 

 gain strength auuizingly, and soon furnish the centre of the plant 

 with abundance of fine wood. If the plant does well after it has been 

 fresh potted, it will require another shift about the middle of June, 



