1879.] ABUTILON BOULE DE NEIGE. 427 



ABUTILOU BOULE DE NEIGE. 



This is a most valuable free-flowering plant, producing its beautiful 

 white flowers in great profusion the whole year through. It is a 

 most useful plant for florists, &c, who have a demand for white 

 flowers for making wreaths, &c, although some dislike the shape of 

 the flower, and find fault with the yellow centre for such a purpose ; 

 but this can be partly remedied by carefully replacing the petals with 

 the finger and thumb, or giving them a gentle blow with the mouth, 

 and then cutting out the yellow centre with a pair of sharp scissors. 

 This alters the look of the flower entirely. 



To have it in flower the whole year through, it is better to have 

 two sets of plants ; and June is a good time to strike a few cuttings 

 to be grown on for winter blooming. Take the growing points and 

 dress them in the usual way, and insert them in the propagating-pit 

 or in pots, and plunge them in a gentle hotbed, watering them with 

 tepid water, and shading them from bright sun until they are rooted, 

 when they should be potted off singly into 3 and 4 inch pots in light 

 loamy soil, with a little thoroughly-decayed cow-dung, sand, and 

 charcoal-dust, well mixed together. When potting, give them a firm 

 hold of the soil, and water them gently with tepid water ; after which 

 plunge them in a warm pit, and keep close and shaded for a few days 

 till they take a hold of the new soil. When they have filled these 

 pots with roots, shift them into 5 or 6 inch ones, using the same com- 

 post in a rougher state, after which they will grow away vigorously, 

 and require to be pinched and have the growths nicely regulated, and 

 occasionally syringed overhead on fine days after noon, to keep up a 

 moist growing atmosphere. 



The next shift will be into 8 or 9 inch pots, which is quite large 

 enough to flower them in during the winter ; and they produce their 

 flowers in great abundance when a little pot-bound, and gently stim- 

 ulated with manure-water. The points must not be pinched too 

 late in the autumn. They will throw out abundance of flowers at 

 the axils of the leaves if grown in a light airy position, and have a 

 temperature ranging from 50° to 55°. They will luxuriate in a Melon- 

 house along with Primulas, and should be treated much the same, or 

 in a warm greenhouse near the glass. 



We have it thriving admirably planted out on the back wall of a 

 vinery, where it is not too much shaded, and the quantity of flowers 

 it produces in such a position is something marvellous. 



The plants must be liberally supplied with liquid manure when 

 making their growth, and occasionally throughout the winter months. 

 It also " tells " well as an exhibition flowering-plant when grown on 



