Maj 27, 1875. 1 



JOURNAL Ojf HORTICDLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



415 



distinct patches. 

 Rctnally at work.- 



Both my gardener and myself saw them 

 -G. S. 



THE FLAMINGO PLANT. 



The collection of the brilliant Anthurinm Scherzeriannm is 

 jnst now one of the " eights " at Messrs. Veitch & Son's nur- 

 sery at Chelsea. Hundreds of fiery spathes are upspringing 

 from the healthy plants, and will continue a blaze of beauty 

 for months to come. The collection of this plant is exceed- 

 ingly large and fine. 



This plant holds the same rank in our stoves in summer 

 that the Poinsettia does in winter, and both are alike indis- 

 pensable in their respective periods. Like the Poinsettia, 

 though a stove plant, the Anthurium is admirably adapted to 

 conservatory decoration. It is much less tender than is sup- 

 posed, and although heat is required to grow it in perfection 

 it is quite safe in a conservatory temperature during its bloom- 

 ing season, and also at the resting period a high temperature 

 is not an absolute necessity. 



It is more than probable that the time will come when col- 

 lections of the Flamingo Plant will be found in every garden 

 where gay-flowering plants are required and where well-heated 

 vineries are provided in which to prepare the plants, for expe- 

 rience is proving that the plant will safely pass the winter in 

 a much lower temperature than was at first imagined, and that 

 a high stove temperature in winter is not essential. It is a 

 plant that should not be grown merely to represent the species 

 or simply to add to a collection, but, like the Poinsettia, should 

 be cultivated by the dozen or hundred, according to the de- 

 mand for decorative plants during the summer months. For 

 associating with Ferns nothing can be more effective for room 

 and corridor decoration, and the plants will not suffer nearly 

 so much under those circumstances as do many stove plants. 



The culture of the plant is very easy. Mistakes have been 

 made by potting it too low and in a compost too close. It is 

 by nature an epiphyte, and is found growing on the trunks 

 of fallen trees where Mosses and other Cryptogams vegetate. 

 It is well to bear that in mind, as it is suggestive of the par- 

 ticular culture required by the plant. A suitable compost is 

 lumpy peat, sphagnum, leaf mould, charcoal, and sand, to be 

 mixed to form an open fluffy mass. For small plants pots 

 must be used, but they should be more than half filled with 

 drainage, to be covered with a flake of moss, and the plant be 

 potted high above the rim of the pot, after the manner of 

 Orchids. For large plants pans are preferable to pots. About 

 four to fix weeks after potting when the roots are showing 

 through the surface cover with green flake moss, into which 

 they will penetrate freely. They should have a high tempera- 

 ture at starting, and be frequently syringed. The plants grow 

 slowly at first, but when once established they are rapid in 

 their movements, especiaUy if stimulated by clear weak ma- 

 nure water. That made from horse droppings has been found 

 to assist the plants considerably ; cow or other cooling manures 

 are, no doubt, equally suitable, but guano is not recommended. 

 An average temperature of about Cu' is suitable, but they are 

 capable of enduring a much lower and will also flourish in a 

 higher temperature. We have seen them luxuriating at 80° 

 to 90°, and looking quite happy in 50° to 60°, and have further 

 known them to be wintered in a house which was commonly 

 down to 45°. There is, therefore, abundant evidence to sup- 

 pose that this plant is not deUcate and tender, and that it may 

 be grown in any garden which has convenience to ripen 

 Muscat Grapes. 



The extended culture of this plant is recommended as one 

 of the finest summer decorative plants ever introduced to our 

 gardens. The white variety, A. Soherzerianum Williamsii, 

 now being distributed by Mr. B. S. Williams, is a fine com- 

 panion plant to the above. Although the spathe is compara- 

 tively small at the present time and in young plants, it is cer- 

 tain to increase in size under cultivation. The scarlet species 

 when it first bloomed at Kew had spathes of only about an 

 inch in length, and they are now commonly seen of three 

 times that size, and, indeed, Mr. Ward has exhibited a plant 

 with spathes 5 inches long. This is mentioned lest disappoint- 

 ment be felt by observing blooms on small plants of either the 

 Boarlet species or its white variety, and which will certainly 

 increase in size as the plants gain strength. 



Anthurium Soherzerianum was discovered in Guatemala by 

 M. Soherzer, and was subsequently found at Costa Eica by 

 Wendland, who sent it to the Eoyal Gardens of Hanover, 

 and from thence to those of Kew, where it flowered in April, 



1862. It is figured in the "Botanical Magazine,' 

 t. 5319.— W. 



Tol.''xviii. 



APPROPEIATE POTTING. 



Never did we see a more forcible illustration of the im- 

 portance of being " well-fitted in the arts " than when we saw 

 plants unsurpassably well grown rendered repulsive by being 

 in vulgar, highly-reddened, common garden pots. They were 

 in the entrance hall of a mansion. That hall was fitly fur- 

 nished, everything around was congruous, neat, yet elegant. 

 Nothing was discordant but the flower pots, they were rude 

 and offensive both in form and colour ; they were unfitting 

 both to the place and to the plants growing in them. 



Common pottery is suitable to the greenhouse and frame, 

 though in the first-named structure, if a place in which visitora 

 are expected to take pleasure, the plants are far more attractive 

 if the shelves to receive them are so made that the pots are 

 concealed, and the surface of the soil in them is covered with 

 moss. 



Fig. 100. 



In the hall or corridors of a mansion the plants should be 

 in porcelain pots. An illustration will enforce what we mean. 

 How deprived of effect, how degraded would this Caladium 

 appear if in a common fiower pot ! 



It quite suffices that the plants be prepared in ordinary pots 

 of a correct size that the pots in which they are grown may 

 be inserted as required into the ornamental pots. No injury 

 is then done to the roots, and it is surprising in what a small 

 pot a plant may be healthily grown if assisted by a full supply 

 of water — liquid manure when suitable to the nature of the 

 plant. Preferable to common clay pots are ornamental lattice- 

 work covers, or elegant designs which are now worked by the 

 fret saw. Some of the latter are very attractive, and are permis- 

 sible as substitutes for the more valuable porcelain receptacUs. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



LoED Henry Lennox, the First Commissioner of Works, 

 in opening to the public the garden adjoining the Bethnal 

 Green Museum on the 19th inst., remarked that the pbeseeva- 

 TioN OF open spaces would form a cardinal point in the policy 

 of any Government in power. His lordship pointed out that 

 the inhabitants of the east end of London had also Victoria 

 Park and Epping Forest as open spaces. Mr. Samuda, Mr, 



