THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



231 



what active state, and needing to be arti- 

 ficially rested. 



Mignonette sown now in pots of rich 

 light soil, started with a little bottom- 

 heat, as on a bed of leaves or nearly worn- 

 out dung, and kept in a pit all winter, 

 will bloom early next spring, and a few 

 may be forced. It requires but little skill, 

 indeed, to flower mignonette at any period 

 of the year ; but at this season one im- 

 portant caution must be given, and that is, 

 to grow the winter stock in pots extra well 

 drained, and never to wet the leaves of the 

 plants. 



Mushroom Beds to bo spawned now 

 according to directions recently given. It 

 wiLl be loss of time to hurry the operation 

 by inserting the spawn while the heat is 

 too high. The safe temperature is 50 1 ; if 

 the bed is a few degrees above that, wait a 

 few days without disturbing it, for any 

 disturbance will give a fresh start to the 

 fermentation, and rue ". up again to a 

 high pitch ; and, besides, the more solid 

 the bed the better, so long as jit is not quite 

 as hard as a brick. It is a pity this de- 

 licious esculent is not more commonly 

 grown. Every amateur should have a 

 mushroom bed ; the whole culture is 

 nearly as simple and certain as growing 

 mustard and cress, and it is a very pleasant 

 way of getting manure for nothing, for 

 the dung is useful afterwards, and will 

 more than pay for its small cost. 



Pines to have less moisture both to 

 fruiting and growing plants. Give air 

 every day, if possible, and keep the beds in 

 a sweet and sound condition. Fruits ripen- 

 ing require a temperature never less than 

 60' at night ; the day temperature to de- 

 pend on the amount of light ; on dull 

 days, 70", bright days, 80'. 



Gbeenhouse Plants in Flower. — 

 Adesmia viscosa. — A pea-flowered green- 

 house climber, with yellow flowers, now 

 going out of bloom. It is not of much 

 value. 



Billbergia purpurea. — One of a most 

 useful tribe of stove plants, allied to Bro- 

 melia. Propagate by suckers and di- 

 visions, and grow in loam and peat, with a 

 little cow-dung. 



Billbergia purpurea rosea. — A beauti- 

 ful bromeliaceous stove plant, now in full 

 bloom, and will continue so for some time 

 in a moderate temperature. There are 

 many fine species, all worth cultivating in 

 the stove. The soil should be peat, sandy 

 loam, and old cow-dung ; one-fourth of 

 the latter to the bulk of the other two 

 ingredients. 



Blandfordia intermedia. — One of the 

 latest blooming species of this charming 



family of Ixia-like bulbs. Grow in loam 

 and peat. It requires the temperature of 

 a warm greenhouse all winter, and to be 

 kept growing after having bloomed till it 

 shows a tendency to die down ; then let 

 them rest in the pots. 



Browallia speciosa. — A very showy 

 greenhouse annual, with purple flowers. 

 Sow in mild heat in March, and grow in 

 pots under glass all the summer. The best 

 of the other species are Jamesonii, gran- 

 diflora, and demissa. 



Chironia linoides. — A charming gen- 

 tian-wort from the Cape. The red flowers 

 are produced from the middle of August to 

 the middle of November. It is an old- 

 fashioned plant, and almost forgotten, but 

 with others of the genus, such as serpyli- 

 folia, tretragona, and floribunda, worth a 

 place in any greenhouse. 



Datura lutea. — A late-blooming species, 

 with fine yellow flowers. It is strictly an 

 evergreen, though it becomes deciduous 

 when kept in too cold a house all winter. 

 This is a race among which gardeners may 

 find species as worthy of introduction 

 amongst conservatory plants as any in the 

 whole vegetable kingdom. What shall we 

 say of D. suaveolens, with its immense 

 trumpet-shaped snow-white blooms, emit- 

 ting a most delicious fragrance, or of 

 bicolor or Candida, or this late-blooming 

 lutea? To do justice to their beauties 

 would require pages of eulogy. It must 

 suffice, therefore, to state that lutea will 

 run upwards of twenty feet, and produce 

 myriads of blossoms when its season 

 comes, with scarcely any management at 

 all. 



Disporum flavum. — A greenhouse 

 melanth, nearly hardy, which may be kept 

 in a pit or frame when not in flower, pro- 

 pagated by division in spring, or by seeds 

 sown in peat or leaf-mould. Soil, leaf- 

 mould only, or fibry peat and loam. 



Drimia altissima and lanceolata.— 

 Pretty greenhouse bulbous plants from the 

 Cape ; treat the same as Ixias ; well worth 

 attention. 



Dmnasia pubescens. — A fine evergreen 

 twiner, from Nepaul, requiring greenhouse 

 treatment, but not to be exposed to a lower 

 temperature than 45" in winter ; better at 

 an average of 55°. May be grown from 

 seeds sown in a hotbed in March, or from 

 cuttings of young side-shoot3 at the end of 

 April. It seldom attains to a greater 

 height than seven or eight feet. Would 

 probably go farther and fare worse in the 

 stove. 



Dychia altissima. — A pretty green- 

 house succulent of very striking character, 

 and now bearing its orange flowers. 



