152 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
DRACHENA,. 
beautiful and distinct variegated plants 
in cultivation, alike remarkable for the 
charming colouring of their foliage and 
the elegance of their habit; they are 
adapted for the warm conservatory or the 
greenhouse in the summer, or the numerous 
decorative purposes in rooms for which 
plants are now so extensively used. The 
narrow-leaved kinds are the most elegant, 
but. some of those with massive broad foli- 
age are very effective when associated with 
Ferns or flowering plants, and in these 
ways can be employed to the best advan- 
tage. 
All the warmer section will bear a stove 
temperature and are free growers, but do 
not progress so fast as to be of a weedy 
character ; they are easily propagated, but 
not being plants that break out side-shoots,’ 
they do not afford material to make stock 
so quickly as many things do. They 
yield cuttings from the roots differently 
from most plants; the feeding fibres pro- 
ceed from a stout underground stem, thick 
and blunt at the extremity, which extends 
downwards, soon reaching the bottoms of 
the pots. If2 or 3 inches of these stems 
are cut off and put points upwards in small 
pots, they will soon push growth, and, 
forming leaves, make plants similar in 
every way to such as are the result of 
striking the tops of the plants. The latter, 
if taken off with four or five leaves, root in 
a warm close atmosphere in a few weeks, 
but the most expeditious mode of increas- 
ing Draceenas is to take the stems of any 
old plants that have attained a con- 
siderable height, and in such condition 
have generally lost their lower leaves ; if 
these are divested of the roots, the soft 
portion of the top and all the leaves, and 
are laid down in a propagating frame 
where there is a good bottom heat, on a 
bed of open sandy peat, with about half 
an inch of similar soil over them, most of 
the eyes will start into growth and push 
up sucker-like shoots. As soon as these 
have made three or four leaves each they 
should be cut clean off from the old stem 
with the roots attached that the young 
growths will have formed; they should 
be put singly in small pots in sandy peat 
and kept close and shaded for a week or 
two, when they will soon get established, 
and must then be inured to the full air of 
the house. Dracenas are not liable to 
become drawn or weakly, but their leaves 
are handsomer and more enduring when 
they are grown with enough light and 
have a suflicient amount of air every day 
during summer. Plants raised in the 
above way early in spring will, if kept 
growing in a brisk heat, be ready for 
moving into 4-inch pots by the end of 
June, after which continue to treat them 
as before, giving plenty of water so long 
as the season of growth continues. Syringe 
freely overhead in the afternoons at the 
time the house is closed. In the night 
through the winter a temperature of 60° 
is sufficient; in the spring increase the 
warmth day and night, and as soon as 
growth commences move them into pots 3 
inches larger, treating as in the previous 
summer. Additional root-room as wanted 
must be given proportionate to the require- 
ments of the different kinds grown ; such 
large growers as D. Shepherdii and Baptistii 
need much larger pots than the smaller 
sorts. The plants may be kept growing to 
any required height so long as they retain 
their lower leaves; after the loss of these 
they possess little beauty, and should have 
their heads taken off and struck, and 
young stock raised from the stems. Three 
years is generally as long as the plants 
can be kept fairly furnished with bottom 
leaves. Comparatively small examples in 
6 or 8 inch pots are the most useful for 
ordinary decorative purposes. There are 
now an immense number of species and 
varieties, many differing very little from 
each other. 
The following is a selection of the best 
heat requiring kinds :— 
D. albicans. A very distinct and hand- 
some sort ; leaves bright green, variegated 
with white. South Sea Islands. 
D. amboynensis. Handsome in habit, 
the lower portion of the leaves heavily 
edged with bright red. Amboyna. 
D. angusta. A handsome small-growing 
kind ; leaves 1 inch wide, dark clouded 
green, shaded with bronzy-red. South Sea 
Islands. 
D. Baptistii. One of the finest of all the 
species. The leaves are large, and the 
general habit of the plant handsome. 
Ground colour, a peculiar shade of rich 
metallic green, edged with red suffused 
with white. South Sea Islands. 
D. Bausei. A distinct and handsome 
variety of garden origin. It has stout, 
broad leaves, dark bronze, edged with 
erlmson ; the stalks highly coloured. 
D. Claudia. A fine decorative variety 
of small habit ; leaves green, shaded on the 
edge with rosy-carmine. A most useful 
kind. : 
D. Earl of Derby. eaves long and 
broad, ground colour bright green, broadly 
edged with crimson; leaf-stalks highly 
coloured. South Sea Islands. 
D. Fraser. This sort has very stout, 
broad, short leaves ; the ground colour is 
very dark, with red variegation. <A dis- 
