68 
under drying influences, as where much 
air is admitted. If in a position of this 
kind, a propagating glass partially closed 
over them, so as to somewhat confine the 
air and prevent its getting too dry, will be 
an advantage. The plants must always 
be shaded when the sun is at all powerful ; 
they should be stood where a moderate 
amount of light will reach them, and the 
soil must never be allowed to get dry. 
Little root-room will suffice, but, as the 
shoots are of a semi-procumbent habit, 
they must have as much space as will 
allow them to spread. They do well with 
the pots plunged in a shallow pan filled 
with a mixture of chopped sphagnum and 
sand, in which way, if a number of plants 
are so plunged, they are very effective. 
The undermentioned kinds are all 
handsome :— 
B. guttata. From South America ; has 
green ovate leaves, the upper surface 
spotted with rose. There are three forms 
of this plant, differing somewhat in the 
appearance of their leaves, but all hand- 
some. 
B. Houtteana. A Belgian variety, most 
likely of garden origin, with beautiful 
foliage. Its deeply-ribbed, lustrous, 
olive-green leaves are spotted with rose ; 
the ribs are marked with rose-tinted 
hues. 
B. margaritacea. A Brazilian plant; 
has five-nerved ovate leaves, the ground 
colour olive-green, with lines of white 
spots, the under surface reddish-purple. 
B. primuleflora. This is a species from 
Ecuador, with ovate-lanceolate leaves, dark- 
green in colour. It bears very handsome 
rose-coloured flowers. 
B. superbissima. This is also, we believe, 
a garden variety. It has large, broadly- 
ovate leaves, in colour dark-green, with 
large rose-coloured spots within the margin 
and smaller spots on other portions of the 
leaf. 
Insects.—We have found these plants 
little troubled with insects except aphides, 
which sometimes affect them; fumigation 
is the remedy. 
BIGNONIA. 
(Stove. ) 
The different species of these plants that 
require more than a greenhouse tempera- 
ture to grow them are mostly strong- 
growing evergreen twiners, suitable for 
decorating the roofs of large stoves or 
warm conservatories. They belong to a 
somewhat numerous family, but only a 
limited number can be recommended for 
general cultivation, the habit of many 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. - 
BIGNONIA, 
being so rampant as to render them unfit 
for growing along with other plants. Most 
of the species usually cultivated should not 
be planted in a house where a very high 
temperature is kept up, as the heat and 
necessarily accompanying moisture render 
them unmanageable under such conditions, 
and induces growth to an extent that pre- 
cludes a disposition to bloom freely. The 
flowers are produced in panicles, generally 
during the summer season. They are very 
effective, especially when the plants are 
allowed a moderate amount of freedom in 
their growth—not kept too closely tied in, 
but allowed to hang in a wavy, natural 
manner. 
One thing should be especially observed 
in their cultivation, as also in that of other 
subjects of a similar free habit—that what- 
ever cutting-in becomes necessary during 
the growing season, to keep them in bounds, 
should be performed with judgment and 
due regard to their flowering ; this will be 
best effected by a total removal of such 
portion of the-shoots as is found necessary, 
but not by a general shortening of the 
whole. Where the latter is done the effect 
will generally be to stop blooming alto- 
gether, or so far limit the extension of 
growth as to prevent the production of 
anything above a meagre display of flowers. 
So far as possible, it is better to prune after 
the blooming season is over, as then the 
flowering shoots are not so much interfered 
with. 
Bignonias may be propagated in diffe- 
rent ways—by root-cuttings, layering the 
shoots, or by cuttings made of young 
shoots. | When they are increased by 
layers, shoots should be selected that have 
sprung from near the collar of a plant, 
and the operation should be performed at 
a time when the wood has got fairly 
matured. Procure some 6-inch pots, which 
drain and fill with three parts peat to one 
of sand ; press down firmly into the pots, 
and place these on the surface of the 
border in which the plant.is growing. 
Bring the shoots down to the pots, make a 
slit in the wood at the under side of the 
shoot, the knife entering just at the lower 
side of a joint, and passing upwards longi- 
tudinally through it for about an inch. A 
tongue-shaped piece is thus formed, com- 
posed of about half the substance of the 
shoot ; this must be bent down and 
secured by a small hooked stick in the pot 
where the incision has been made, covered 
about an inch deep in the soil, which must 
be kept watered. In this position it must 
remain until well-rooted, after which it 
can be severed immediately below the 
point where rooted. When root-cuttings. 
