CULTIVATION OF IPOM.EA FICIFOLIA. 61 



stoves, but to none could I point with such certainty of success 

 as to the beautiful and interesting Ipomgea ficifolia, which is 

 usually in flower in the conservatory liere from June to Decem- 

 ber. It has the merit over others of its genus of not being too 

 rampant in growth nor sparing in its flowers : the latter too 

 stand out well from the foliage, and altliough only of a diurnal 

 character are replaced almost witliout interuiission. Tliis species 

 was introduced some eight or nine years since by the Messrs. 

 Salter and Wheeler, of the Victoria Xursery, Batii, and is figured 

 in the ninth volume of Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and de- 

 scribed as being well suited to pot culture in a moderate stove- 

 heat. By tiie system, however, wliich I liave pursued, I have 

 found it a most valuable acquisition to tlie conservatory during 

 the sunmier and autumn months. 



The routine of cultiu'e wliich I Iiave practised for several years 

 is to strike cuttings in the early part of the previous season to 

 that in which tiiey are required to flower ; they are then shifted 

 into a tliree-inch pot and grown in the cutting-frame. When 

 the pots are sufficiently filled with roots the plants are again 

 shifted into six-iucli pots, using liglit sandy mould on both occa- 

 sions ; they are tlien placed on tlic front shelf of a coal-stove, in 

 wliich the thermometer frequently falls as low as 40" during the 

 early part of the winter. About the beginning of February the 

 plants are sliifted into twelve-inch bottomless pots, using rough 

 peat and yellow loam in equal quantities, together with a small 

 quantity of decomposed leaf-mould and silver-sand : they are 

 replaced in their former position in the stove, the heat in which 

 is raised as tlie season advances. A piece of stron;>- cord is 

 attached to tlie pots, and continued up the roof immediately 

 under the glass ; it is then fixed to the back wall, and on this the 

 shoots are trained as they grow. W^hen their period of removal 

 to the conservatory has arrived, wliich is usually early in June, 

 they ai"e readily taken from the roof, and all intertwining with 

 other plants, or on tiie wires, is thus prevented. ' The pots are 

 plunged to the rim in the conservatory border where they are 

 intended to grow, and a brass chain is suspended from the roof 

 immediately over the plants, and to which the coid is readily 

 fixed. The shoots soon intertwine with the chain, and a column 

 of rich purple blossoms, which are ever present, is thus created, 

 forming a striking relief to the mnsses of foliage which exist at 

 this period of the year. 



