June 20, 1667. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



421 



WEEKLY CALENDAR, 



JUNE 20-26, 1867. 



Meeting of Royal and Linnean Societies. 



QOEEN VlCTOEIA PROCLAIMED. 



Royal Horticultural Society. Show and 

 1 Sunday after Trinity. [Prornenado. 

 Meeting of Royal Geographical Society, 

 [S.SO P.M. 

 Society of Arts, Annual General Mooting 



[4 P.M. 



Avcratre Temperature 

 Dear London. 



Dav. 

 72.4 

 74.2 

 7.S.6 

 72.4 

 7^.7 

 72.8 

 7;i.7 



Niuht. 

 48.6 

 SOS 

 49.3 

 47.3 

 40 3 

 49.5 

 49.6 



Mean. 

 60.5 

 62.3 

 CI.6 

 59.9 

 61.5 

 61.1 

 61.6 



Ram in 



laat 

 40 yearB: 



Days. 

 18 

 16 

 16 

 15 

 15 

 20 

 20 



Snn 



Rieea. 



m. h. 

 44 at 3 

 44 3 



Snn 



Sets. 



m. h. 



18af8 



18 8 



19 8 

 19 8 

 19 8 

 19 8 

 19 8 



Woon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. h, m. h. 



lOaflO 53 af 6 



41 10 I 66 7 



9 11 1 58 



84 11 

 69 11 

 morn. 

 2l> 



8 



3 10 

 10 11 

 after. 

 29 1 



Moon's 

 Ane. 



Days. 

 IS 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 22 

 ( 

 24 



Clock 

 before 

 Snn. 



"oT 



Year. 



171 

 172 

 173 

 174 

 175 

 176 

 177 



From obeeryations taken near London during the last forty years, the ayerage dav temperature of the week ia 73.2^^; and its nighl 

 temperature 49.2\ The greatest heat waa 93", on the 22nd, 1846 ; and the lowest cold SO', on the 20th, 1865. The greatest fall of rain was 

 0.72 inch. 



ORNAMENTAL-FOLIAGED TLANTS, AND 

 CULTURE OP THE GLOXINIA. 



WING to the entlmsiasm of 

 the public for thie-i'oliaged 

 plants, some of our old flow- 

 ering favourites are being 

 crowded out of the plant- 

 stove, or, if allowed a place 

 there, are very nearly smothered by some of the recent 

 introductions. 



Now, the few remarks I will make are only intended for 

 those having moderate-sized houses, because it is of such 

 houses that I have had charge, and it is in them that I 

 have picked up the measure of experience that I possess. 

 I do not deny any merit to such plants as Alocasia me- 

 tallica, A. macrorhiza variegata, and others of the same 

 class : and what noble-looking plants we have in Sphas- 

 rogyne latifolia. Cyanophyllura magnificum, and some 

 others, but they are not adapted for small houses, and I 

 harve grieved to sacrifice such plants after growing them 

 into specimens too large for the house. 



Then we have the Caladiums : a selection may be made 

 from them, of which the dwarfest and prettiest I know is 

 C argyrites, and it is suitable for the smallest house. 

 There are, too, the Marantas, of which the best I have 

 seen are M. Veitchii and illustris. The first-named is, I 

 think, the finest " foliage " plant tliat has been as yet intro- 

 duced in the class to which it belongs ; and those who were 

 privileged to see the handsome specimen exhibited by the 

 Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, at the Paris Universal Exhi- 

 bition in the first week in May, may well be excused if 

 they there and then took a fancy for plants with orna- 

 mental foliage. I was sorry to see the pot in which it 

 grew had been smashed during the journey, and the life of 

 the plant consequently endangered. 



I am a grower and admirer of some of the plants referred 

 to, but I always contrive to aiTange a goodly number of 

 Gloxinias and Achimenes amongst them, and give all an 

 equal share of attention. When the Gloxinias are in flower 

 they are the chief attraction in the house. 



Gloxinias are plants of easy culture, and when in flower 

 they will well repay a little extra care bestowed on their 

 cultivation ; I will, therefore, offer a few remarks on their 

 culture. 



I will begin with propagation. Thoy are increased from 

 leaves, which are taken from the parent plant with a short 

 piece of the leafstalk attached, and inserted round the sides 

 of a 48-sized pot in a mixture of equal pai-ts of yellow- 

 loam, turfy peat, and silver sand. A thin layer of sand may 

 be spread over the surface of the soil before inserting the 

 leaves ; the pots are then placed on a shelf where they a.re 

 shaded from the sun, and watered through a fine rose, 

 No. 325— Vol, XII. New Sewes 



affording a temperature of 05° or 70° at night. They must 

 be kept moderately moist, and if the leaves stand erect 

 and remain of a green colour they will soon form tubers. 

 Towards the season of rest, as the foliage acquires a yellow 

 tinge, water must be gradually withheld, and they should 

 then be stored away in a dry place where the temperature 

 is not under 40°. I have kept them in a vinery at rest, 

 also in the plant-stove under the stage, laying the pots 

 on their sides, so that the continued dripping from the 

 plants above will not saturate the soil. 



About the first week in .Tanuary, after watering the pote 

 with tepid water, they are placed on a stage along the 

 back wall of a half-span Pine-house immediately above 

 two rows of four-inch hot-water pipes. There is not much 

 circulation of air there. 



It is a fact worth mentioning that I have tried the 

 plants along the front of the house where they ha^'e more 

 air and light, but I have never found them do so well under 

 tliese circumstances ; so that I now prefer tlie back part of 

 the house where thej' do not receive so much of the direct 

 rays of the sun. 



As soon as they show above ground I shake them out of 

 the pots, and place one tuber in the centre of a 48-sized pot, 

 the compost used being equal parts of loam, turfy peat, 

 and well-rotted cowdung. with the addition of some broken 

 charcoal and silver sand, which is used in larger or smaller 

 quantities according to the nature of the snil. some soils 

 requiring much more sand than others. If they are well 

 treated the pots will soon be filled with roots. The 

 plants must then be shifted into their flowering pots, 

 using six-inch pots for the smallest and seven-inch for 

 the largest. 



As soon as they have done flowering water is gradually 

 withheld, and when the foliage assumes a yellow tinge they 

 are placed in their winter quarters, and treated exactly as 

 recommended for the young plants, using larger-sized pots 

 the second year — namely, six or seven-inch pots to begin 

 with, and shifting into those H or inches in diameter, a.0- 

 cording to the strength of the plants. I never use larger 

 than nine-inch pots, and I have had Gloxinias in pots of 

 that size with from 1.5(J to 200 blooms expanded at one 

 time on a single plant. 



I generally grow named varieties, but it is very in- 

 teresting to save seed from good sorts, I have sowti 

 tlie seed in February, and had the plants in fine flower 

 the same season, numbers of them being as good as the 

 parent, — -J. Douglas. 



VAPJEGATED IVIES. 



Now that so much attention is bestowed on various- 

 coloured foliage, would it not be well to endeavour to 

 increase the number of plants combining with that advan- 

 tage a greater degree of. hardiness tha.n the Pelargoniiun 

 possesses ? Successful as cross-breeders have been in 

 producing Pelargoniums rich in colouring and compact in 

 habit (and no one is disposed to give them more credit 

 than myself), still I think if the same skill and attention 

 had been bestowed on plants of a more hardy nature we 

 No. 977.— Vol. XXSVIL, Old Series. 



