BOUVARDIA, 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
79 
will push up more growth, to assist which 
manure-water should be liberally given 
every other time they are watered ; when 
again showing flower the plants can be 
placed in a cooler situation, and so prepared 
to stand a lower temperature when in 
bloom, as during the previous summer. 
Afterwards they can again be hardened 
off and wintered as before. If large speci- 
mens are wanted, they should at the spring 
potting, instead of being placed in the 
smaller pots as advised, have more root- 
room, pots 18-in. diameter, with larger 
trellises to train them on, and in other re- 
spects be treated as recommended for the 
smaller plants. They will last for several 
years so managed ; each spring about half 
the old soil should be removed, the roots 
cut back proportionately at the time of 
re-potting, and the plants supplied liberally 
with manure-water during the season of 
active growth ; at this time they will bear 
its application every other day. 
B. glabra. Equally suitable for planting 
outin eithera warmstoveor an intermediate 
house. When so used it should be grown 
in a pot the first season, and the shoots not 
stopped until they have attained a length 
proportionate to the place they are to 
occupy. The border itis planted in should 
be well prepared by being properly drained, 
and should consist of 12 inches deep of 
good soil, similar in character to that ad- 
vised for pot-culture. The plant, on 
account of its free-growing disposition, 
quickly exhausts the soil, and consequently 
it will need as much removed each spring 
before growth commences as can be got 
away without too much interference with 
the roots ; replace it with new, at the 
same time cutting back the head of the 
plant as it may require, but in the growing 
season do not keep the branches too closely 
tied in—a loose, free disposition of them 
being the most effective. When planted 
out 1t should not have much water in 
the winter. 
B. speciosa and B. spectabilis. Are both 
more suitable for planting out than pot 
culture, being stronger growers than the 
preceding. B. spectabilis is a grand plant 
for this purpose, succeeding better in the 
temperature of an intermediate house than 
when grown hotter. The treatment it 
requires is similar to that of B. glabra, and 
it especially needs a free use of the knife 
each spring after flowering—not before 
it blooms, as in the case of B. glabra; the 
same observation applies to B. speciosa. 
When it has got large enough to fill the 
space allotted to it, remove the weakest 
wood. The room allowed for the roots 
should in all cases be proportionate to the 
space the heads of the plants are intended 
to occupy ; never give too much soil, other- 
wise, being naturally such free-growing 
subjects, it becomes difficult to keep them 
within bounds. 
Insects.—Bougainvilleas are subject to 
the attacks of aphides, thrips, and red 
spider. The two first can be destroyed by 
fumigation with tobacco smoke ; the last 
can be kept under by a free use of the 
syringe. If scale or mealy bug affect them, 
diligent use of the sponge and copious 
syringing must be resorted to, washing the 
plants, when cut back in the spring, with 
insecticide. 
BOUVARDIA. 
These rank among the freest-flowering 
evergreen plants that we possess, and in 
all but continuous habit of blooming they 
have few equals. The flowers are alike 
effective on the plants, or when used ina 
cut state, for which purpose their simple 
form and the purity of their colours befit 
them. Another property which they possess 
istheir ability to bloom in the smallest state, 
when not more than a few inches high. 
They are natives of Mexico, and, like a 
good many others that hail from the same 
country, they will live under a consider- 
able range of temperature, varying from 
that of a greenhouse, or even of the open 
air in the summer, to a warm stove in 
winter. To the latter, with a view to get 
them to produce the largest quantity of 
flowers of which well-prepared plants are 
capable, it is necessary to subject them, as 
under such conditions they keep on mak- 
ing new shoots that yield flowers in a way 
not possible when the plants are kept in a 
temperature only sufficient to induce the 
flowers to open. Bouvardias have been 
long known to some extent by plant 
growers in this country, but it is only 
within comparatively recent years that 
their merits have been understood. So 
indispensable are they where enduring 
flowers are required continuously through 
the winter, that no garden where there is 
the requisite means for blooming them 
should be without them. In the United 
States much improvement has been effected 
by raising new varieties, which have all 
but superseded the kinds first known to us. 
At one time much difficulty existed in 
propagating them in the ordinary way 
from cuttings made of the shoots, and their 
increase was generally effected by cuttings 
of the roots. But a method of preparing 
the plants to produce cuttings that root 
without difficulty has been hit upon. To 
have the plants in a condition strong 
