Juno 10, 18C9. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



385 



PLANTS FOR ROOM VASES OR TABLE 

 DECORATION. 



T places wliere such plants are called for 

 regularly, it would be advisable to change 

 them daily and keep a stock, in order that 

 tliers may be variety, and to ensure diil'erence 

 in appearance, as well as for the benefit of 

 the plants themselves. Many valuable and 

 promising young plants have been utterly 

 ruined through allowing them to remain in 

 vases in dwelling-rooms for some days, ex- 

 posed perhaps to all the draughts of open doors and 

 windows in winter, or where thoy have not sufficient 

 light and moisture in summer. Great care should also 

 be taken to select plants entirely suitable fur the purpose, 

 as some with tender foliage or weak blooms are apt to 

 return to the gardener's care bruised or broken. Some 

 are also easily disfigured by the sudden change of being 

 ti'ansferred from an average temperature of lo' or 80" to a 

 room perhaps as low as in" or 5(i°. 



The following is a selection of plants really worth 

 possessing, as they will be found more or less beautiful 

 objects, as well as hardy when compared with other stove 

 or tender plants. 



Of flowering plants, some Orchids are superior to all 

 for decoration if iu medium-sized pots. The beautiful and 

 fragrant Aerides, Cattleyas, with their varieties, suitable for 

 cool temperatures, and the numerous tribe of Dendrobium, 

 are all excellent for this purpose, being very efl'ective in 

 vases, where they may be singly seen, and without their 

 foliage or bloom iu any way being injured. 



Flowering Gloxinias and other plants of the Gesneracew, 

 such as G. Donckelaarii, cinnabarina, or the new G. exoni- 

 ensis are very desirable, although they will not bear a 

 change of temperatui'e with impunity. 



The Anthurium Scherzerianum stands almost unrivalled, 

 remaining so long in bloom and blooming so profusely. 



Dwarf and well-grown plants of the two varieties of 

 Poinsettia are also very admirable, as the singidarity and 

 richness of the scarlet bracts contrast so well with the 

 bright green leaves. The best plan to obtain good young 

 plants is to strike cuttings in March, allow them to become 

 a little potbound before n-inter, keeping them about •'! or 

 4 inches from the glass, and, when showing their scarlet 

 bracts, to give a liberal supply of manure water. By 

 pursuing this method, these floral leaves may be grown 

 10 or Vi inches long — i.c , 20 or 21 inches across what is 

 usually designated the bloom. 



Euphorbia jacquinia;flora is very free-blooming, hand- 

 some for a vase, and well worthy of cultivation. 



Of handsome-foUaged plants, nothing can supersede a 

 well-coloured Dracrena or Croton, as the change of tempe- 

 rature, if not too low, appears to have no effect upon either. 

 These being easy plants to propagate and manage, are 

 particularly deserving of notice, as keeping them clean by 

 syringing and exposing them fully to light to colour well, are 

 the only attentions which are essential for them. Marantas 

 ajid Alocasias, on the contrary, are easily injured, and will 

 No. 428.— Vol. XVI. t*Ew,teEiEe. 



not bear moving much, requiring always bottom heat and 

 a liigh temperature, as well as a damp atmosphere. 



Plants of Caladiums, when small, will answer well, but 

 as they need plenty of moisture at the roots when growing, 

 do not allow them to suffer from want of it. 



There are some Palms, Ferns, Pandanuses, &c., wliich 

 are very singular and attractive, then- hardiness recom- 

 mending them more especially. The following I consider 

 the best for table or vase use — viz., Areca sapida, Cycas 

 revoluta, Geonoma Scottiana, Corypha australis, Phwnix 

 dactylifera and Chamnnops humilis, Pandanus elegantis- 

 simus, P. graminifolius, P. utilis, and P. javanicus varie- 

 gatus. These when small are highly suitable. There are 

 others, not enumerated hero, very beautiful, but the pre- 

 ceding will continue a supply regularlj', and without much 

 trouble when in their home quarters ; and even if not 

 required for removal into the room, are excellent features 

 to gaze at in the group. — Edwi.n Newman, I'Jdi/e Hill, 

 Liverpool. 



CYCAS REVOLUTA FLOWERING— CLIMATIC 

 REVOLUTIONS. 



A fine plant of this elegant Cycad is at present jnst 

 coming into flower in the gardens at Bargany. the seat of 

 the Duchesse de Coigny, in Ayrshire, where it has occu- 

 pied a corner of the stove for, it is said, upwards of forty 

 years. It has a stem of about 2 feet in height, and its 

 dark green frond like leaves measure about 5 feet. Origi- 

 nally it was grown in a large tub, and would appear for a 

 long time to have been in a not very prosperous condition, 

 but latterly, owing to the better treatment it has received 

 at the hands of Mr. Smith, and to its roots being alloM'ed 

 the run of a raised border in which a few tropical plants. 

 Bananas, Guavas, &c., are planted, it has thriven admir- 

 ably, putting forth annually a whorl of new leaves. 



As a curious illustration of the climatic changes which 

 have occurred in this country. I may mention that a former 

 gardener at Bargany, being fond of dabbling a little in 

 the deep things of geology, had procured a small collection 

 of fossil plants from the neighbouring coal mines, some of 

 which are still lying about the gardens, and I have been 

 informed by one who can read these old-world epitaphs, 

 that of these some are the remains, if not of this, at 

 least of some closely-allied species of Cycad, and that 

 the Cycad family have contributed largely towards the 

 formation of many of our coal fields : so we must infer that 

 only a few trifling thousands of ages ago our glens and 

 valleys were tropical forests crowded with the very plants 

 we are now coddling in stoves and coaxing to grow by 

 artificial heat obtained by burning tlie fossilised bodies 

 of their ancestors. May we not also infer that with 10' of 

 frost in the last week of May. we are still drifting north- 

 pole-wards'.' AvnSHIHE GARIiENni. 



COOL-HOUSE ORCHIDS.— No. 1. 

 The compost most suitable for Orchids is one having for 

 its basis one part of fibrous brown peat, preference being 

 given to that full of particles of white sand, and which 



Ko. 1080.— Vol. XLI., Old Sekles. 



