isn.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



295 



are sufficient for each. After potting, plunge 

 the pots over their rims in sand under the 

 greenhouse stage, letting them remain there 

 until the pots have become well filled with rQots, 

 before bringing them on to the shelves to force. 



AMARYLLIS FORMOSISSIMA. 



The taste for cut flowers is considerably in- 

 creasing, and one of the greatest demands on a 

 greenhouse in Whiter, is from the better half of 

 the head of the household for room and table 

 decorations. Beautiful specimen plants are not 

 so highly valued as those which will afford 

 plenty of bloom for cutting. The various kinds 

 of Zonale Geraniums are very good for this pur- 

 pose. The following also comprise very useful 

 plants for this purpose : Bouvardia leiantha, 

 Calla Ethiopica, Oestrum aurantiacum, Habro- 

 thamnus elegans, Chorozema varium, Chinese 

 Primroses, especially the double white, Daphne 

 Indica, Poinsetta pulcherrima, Euphorbia splen- 

 dens. Heliotrope, Mignonette, Sweet allyssum, 

 Catalonian Jasmine, Yellow Jasmine, Mahernia 

 odorata, Stevia serrata, Violets, Roses, Cinerarias, 

 and Brompton stocks. Tuberoses that flower 

 late may be carefully taken up and potted, and 

 will last till over Christmas ; and many things 

 may be taken out of the ground and slightly 

 forced. The common white Lily is good for this 

 purpose; also Deutzias, Philadelphuses, and 

 Tamarix. The common green Euonymus ja- 

 ponicus, is also worth potting to make a lively 

 green for mixing with other things. 



There are but few things in the greenhouse 

 that will require special treatment at this time. 

 Camellias and Azaleas, as they cease to grow, 

 will require less water; but it is now so well 

 known that moisture is favorable to growth, and 

 comparative dryness favorable to flowering, that 

 we need do no more than refer to the fact. 



The various kinds of Begonias have either 

 been of late years added to by importations of 

 new species, or improved by hybridization, that 

 they make excellent winter-flnwering green- 

 house plants. The new tuberous rooted ones, 

 however, of which the old Evansiana is a well- 

 known type, are Summer flowerers, and will 

 come in wonderfully for bedding, we believe. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



GYMNOSTACHYUM VERSCHAFFELTI. 



BY MANSFIELD MILTON, CLEVELAND, OHIO. 



A South American Acanthad with leaves of 

 great beauty. The stems and leaf-stalks are of 

 a reddish color ; the leaves opposite, about four 

 inches long and two in breadth. The upper 

 surface of the leaves is smooth, of a fine soft 

 green ; the midrib and veinlets of a deep crim- 

 son, giving it a beautiful and attractive appear- 

 ance. The plant is of a dwarf trailing habit, 

 of easy culture, requiring a good strong heat 

 to produce its true colorings. A light, leafy soil 

 is the most suitable, and is best shown when 

 grown in flat pans or baskets ; it requires abun- 

 dance of moisture when growing. During 

 Summer, it should have an airy place to grow 

 where a high temperature cannot be aff'orded it 

 during Winter, by making it hardier and better 

 able to endure the cool temperature. It is well 

 adapted for culture in fern cases, and looks well 

 associated with such plants as ferns. It is often 

 seen under the name of Fittonia Verschaffelti, 



MEDINILLA MAGNIFICA. 



BY MR. W^M. FALCONER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



This is a candidate with the Bougainvillaeas 

 for being the most gorgeous of our cultivated 

 tropical plants. It has very large shining deep 

 green opposite leaves that, of themselves, are 

 quite ornamental, and a wealth of pendulous 

 racemes of showy pink inflorescence, these 

 racemes often being thirty inches long. It likes 

 heat, moisture, a little shade, and a place near 

 the glass. It blooms from the previous year's 

 wood, every joint and end of shoot yielding a 

 raceme. We have a plant here some six feet 

 through, that had forty-two racemes this year, 

 twenty-three of which were in full bloom at 

 once, last March. It commenced blooming in 



