TKE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 143 



plants being put in the frame in February, removed to tbe green- 

 house when in bloom, then pruned and rejjotted and placed in heat again, 

 and after gradually hardening put in a cool pit till the middle of Septem- 

 ber, when it must be housed for the winter. 



Fortuni, native of China, makes a superb specimen ; the flowers are 

 three inches across and the plant grows to a height of six feet, with a 

 naturally pyramidal form and bushy habit, so as scarcely to require any 

 pruning. This will not comply with ordinary hot-bed management, and 

 when grown in the greenhouse a bed should be made for it the warmest 

 end of the house, either by putting tan over a tank or pipes, or by intro- 

 ducing well- worked fermenting dung. In foliage, flower, and fragrance 

 it is one of the most beautiful shrubs we possess. It may be readily 

 propagated from cuttings of the half-ripe wood when grown by the 

 method already described. Unless this can have the warmest place and 

 the help of bottom-heat in a good greenhouse it must not be admitted at 

 all. In a moist stove it attains perfection, and it ought to be found in 

 every stove where caladiums and begonias have a place, as the atmosphere 

 which those plants require will suit this admirably. 



Citriodora is exquisitely fragrant, and the most prized of all as a 

 substitute for orange blossoms. AVhen treated in the same way as 

 described above for Florida and radicans it blooms profusely, and in a 

 damp stove it is invaluable. 



SCOLOPEj^DEIUMS. 



If a lover of ferns were to ask for any particular family which would 

 best pay to grow in quantity and variety, I should certainly say select 

 Scolopendriums, because of their hardiness, their numerous beautiful and 

 curious forms, and their generally evergreen habit. The common hart's- 

 tongue, Scolopcndrium vulgare, is one of the most beautiful of all ferns, and 

 especially valuable on banks and rockeries, to give relief, by its bi'oad, 

 shining, and verdant fronds, to the finely-cut outlines of Lady ferns, 

 Lastreas, and Aspleniums ; and when aged and strong, it has a true 

 grandeur about it peculiar to itself. "What a pretty sight it is one gets 

 by peeping underneath its leathery tufts in autumn, when the fronds are 

 barred with spores in rich brown oblique lines ; and how charming it ^ is 

 to see the fronds arise in spring like productions in waxwork, while 

 the growth of the previous year is perhaps still green, as it is generally if 

 ■we have had a mild winter. Scolopendrium vulgare, the common hart's- 

 tongue, is the most distinct of all the British ferns, as Lastrea f. m. is the 

 most elegant. It has this peculiar adaptability to garden uses that it will 

 grow in any soil and any position, that if neglected it is always beautiful, 

 and if treated with skill it always makes a liberal return ; and, by the 

 way, it is astonishing to what a degree of luxuriance the common hart's- 

 tongue will attain if really cultivated and made a pet of. 



When planted on a sloping bank of turfy loam or loamy clay in full 

 shade, and regularly sprinkled all through the growing season, the fronds 

 will attain a height of three feet and a breadth proportionate, and the 

 huge crowns will have quite a .bird's-nest appearance in the midst of the 

 surrounding fronds, as if inclosed in a basket. It is one of the ferns 

 least able to endure the pernicious effects of town smoke, but it may 



