I873-] AGAPANTHUS UMBELLATUS. 319 



AGAPANTHUS UMBELLATUS. 



The African Lily, or, as its generic name implies, Love Plower, 

 sent to this country from the Cape of Good Hope about 1690, is 

 one of these fine old-fashioned plants so much prized by gardeners of 

 the last century that it formed one of the principal features in the 

 midsummer or early autumn decoration of their greenhouses and 

 conservatories. 



Like many another really valuable species, however, it seems to 

 have fallen into the shade — novelties, many of them of questionable 

 superiority, having taken its place ; and it may now be fairly numbered 

 among " neglected plants." This, we are convinced, is not as it should 

 be, seeing that it is one of the easiest managed and most beautiful of 

 flowering plants, combining handsome foliage with flowers at once 

 elegant and distinct in colour from anything else in its way ; so much 

 so, that a well-grown specimen, with its bold flower-stems surmounted 

 with umbels of bright blue florets and grand flag like bright green 

 leaves, is an object worth a considerable amount of trouble to obtain, 

 and worth a long journey to see. Apart from its undoubted value as 

 a conservatory plant, there are a number of purposes to which it may 

 be usefully applied in outdoor gardening. Planted on the margins of 

 artificial lakes or ponds, on terraces and lawns, or in arrangements of 

 subtropical plants, it has a most striking eftect, whether in or out of 

 flower. It is, moreover, in these days when there is such a demand for 

 plant decoration in dwelling-houses, important to add, that no subject 

 is more patient under the severe ordeal of a few days in a hall or stair- 

 case ; and nothing in such a position looks better. 



Though as nearly as possible hardy, and able to stand a few degrees 

 of frost without injury, it requires protection in winter. A late vinery, 

 the back of a greenhouse stage, or any out-of-the-way corner, with 

 just enough of heat to keep out the frost, and where it will be kept 

 moderately dry without being parched, and at the same time sufficiently 

 cool to prevent its being excited into growth, will form admirable 

 winter quarters ; while in summer it should be plunged in a sunny 

 exposure out of doors, and if wanted for the conservatory, taken 

 inside when the flower-shoots appear. During the growing season it 

 must have a regular and abundant supply of water, not only at the 

 roots, but, if the weather is dry and hot, over the leaves. In a rich 

 soil, with plenty of moisture, it grows with great luxuriance, and will 

 soon fill the largest pot or tub with its thick fleshy roots. It flowers, 

 however, most profusely when it is somewhat pot-bound, and should 

 only be shifted when it is desired to increase the size of the specimen, 

 or when the pot is so full of roots that it is impossible to give it the 



