154 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
DRACOPHYLLUM. 
lower leaves, and put singly into pots large 
enough to hold them, drained and filled 
with a mixture of half loam and sand, with 
a little sand alone on the top. The cuttings 
are best put in in spring, and should be 
stood where they can have a temperature 
of 60°, where they will soon form roots, 
after which treat in every way as to 
root-room, water, air, and light, as advised 
for the seedlings of D. australis. Cuttings 
made of the old hard stems of any of these 
Dracznas, in lengths of about a couple of 
inches, will strike and make good plants, 
forming straight stems with handsome 
heads, equal in every way to the shoot 
cuttings. The thick fleshy ends of the 
roots, already mentioned, if taken off in 
pieces of about an inch long, and treated 
like the stem cuttings, will succeed equally 
well. 
D. congesta. A slender elegant-growing 
kind, one of the best for using where a 
large grower would be inadmissible. 
D. lineata. Another pretty kind that 
attains a medium size. 
D. rubra. A handsome plant with 
moderately broad leaves; pale green, the 
extreme edges of a reddish shade. 
InsEcrs.—These Draceenas are liable to 
the attacks of red spider, hut by following 
up the use of the syringe through the 
growing season little trouble may be looked 
for from this pest. If greenfly or thrips 
make their appearance fumigate with 
tobacco. For scale and mealy bug syringe 
and sponge the leaves. 
DRACOPHYLLUM GRACILE. 
This is a native of New Holland, and is 
one of the most distinct and useful plants in 
cultivation, either for decorative purposes 
in asmall state, or grown on to a full-sized 
specimen ; its colour, pure white, is not 
common among hardwooded greenhouse 
plants. It is most useful also for cutting, 
either for bouquets or filling vases, its thin 
papery flowers lasting long in water. 
There are few plants, excepting the 
Aphelexis, that retain their flowers in good 
condition so long, for they last well five or 
six weeks from the time they begin to 
open. No collection of hardwooded plants 
can be considered complete without this, 
particularly where they are intended for 
exhibition, for which it is especially 
adapted, both on account of its colour and 
its thoroughly distinct habit of growth. 
But to ensure the plants always being 
forthcoming when required, several should 
be grown, as it is a most delicate-rooted 
subject, and apt, on that account, to go off 
suddenly, without any apparent symptoms 
to indicate disease until the points of the 
shoots begin to flag. This is an all but cer- 
tain precursor of death, except in the case 
of excessive dryness at the root, which never 
ought to be allowed to occur, as, even if it 
does not destroy the plant, it produces a 
rusty condition of the leaves which detracts. 
much from its appearance, even if confined 
to the base of the plant. The leaves, being 
naturally very small, admit of the least 
imperfection in this respect beingseen. It 
must not be understood that the only 
essential to secure success in its cultivation 
is a liberal use of the water-pot—it is one 
of the most impatient plants in respect to 
any excess of moisture at the root. It does 
not last in good condition so long as some, 
consequently it is advisable for those who 
grow it to each year propagate a few, so as 
to be in a position to make up for such as 
die or wear out. 
While in a young state they should 
never be placed upon dry shelves or open 
trellis-work, but should be stood on some 
material that will hold a little moisture, 
such as sand or ashes, or a mixture of both. 
This must not be made too wet, or the pots 
will absorb so much water as to rot the 
roots ; just simply keep the material a 
little moist, so that the atmosphere sur- 
rounding the plants may, as far as possible, 
approach to that which they receive when 
growing naturally in the open air, through 
the attraction of the sun acting upon the 
soil, which never, in the country where 
the plant grows, gets into that unnaturally 
dry condition that plants standing upon 
dry shelves are subject to. 
This Dracophyl!um strikes readily from 
cuttings made of the points of the young 
shoots, such as are to be had in quantity 
about the end of May. Reduce them toa 
length of 3 inches, put them an inch or 
two apart in 6-inch pots in sand, keep at 
an intermediate temperature covered with 
a propagating glass, moist and shaded, and 
they will strike in about two months ; 
when well-rooted move them singly into 
small pots filled with fine sifted peat and 
sand, and continue to keep close until they 
begin to grow. Give just enough moisture 
in the soil to promote growth, and a little 
air in the middle of the day ; shade in 
proportion to the state of the weather, and 
pinch out the points of the shoots as soon 
as the little plants commence to grow away. 
Keep through the autumn and winter at 
an intermediate temperature which will 
enable them to go on moving slowly ; by 
the end of March move into 3-inch pots, 
using soil similar to that in which they 
were first placed, again shading as soon as. 
the weather makes it necessary. Give 
