160 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
ERANTHEMUM, 
an adhesive character, that will hold too 
much moisture, they cannot bear. Grow 
them on in an ordinary stove temperature 
without shade during summer, and pinch 
the points out of any shoots that too much 
outgrow the others. A temperature of 50° 
in winter will be sufficient for them, 
and they should be kept drier at the root 
than when in active growth. In spring 
increase the pot-room according to the 
progress which the roots have made, and 
grow them on until the end of July, as in 
the preceding season ; then turn them out 
for a month under a south wall, where 
they will be exposed to the full influence 
of the sun. In cold parts of the country, 
where this cannot be done, instead of 
turning them out-of-doors let them occupy 
a dry shelf in a greenhouse, or an equally 
airy light position in a pit or frame, # 
they should have less water given to the 
roots than while in active growth. Epi- 
phyllums of the truncatum class, being 
orginally from Brazil, will bear a high 
temperature, and their progress, other 
cultural details being equal, will usually 
be more or less in keeping with the 
amount of heat to which they are sub- 
jected. They are generally grown as 
standards, so as to form either a drooping 
pyramidal head, or as spreading umbrella- 
shaped plants. Their cultural requirements 
when grafted on the Pereskia stock are 
similar to those under which they succeed 
on their own roots ; but on this stock they 
will frequently bear a little rougher 
treatment. The Pereskia stocks on which 
to grow them are easily struck from 
cuttings put in in spring, and subsequently 
treated in a similar way to the generality 
of the Cactus family, with the exception 
that they do not like such a continuous 
dry condition of the roots as some succu- 
lents will bear. The grafting may be 
effected any time either in the spring or 
early in summer. All that is required is 
to remove the top of the Pereskia, shorten- 
ing its stem according to the length of leg 
wanted, then cleave it at the top in a way 
similar to that practised in ordinary cleft 
grafting ; pare down the Epiphyllum scion 
at the bottom into the form of a wedge, 
slip it into the cleft in the stock, and bind 
it moderately firm, so as to hold it in its 
place, and nothing else is needed. Plants 
thus treated and placed in the temperature 
of an ordinary stove, will unite in a short 
time, after which the management ought 
to be the same as that for plants propagated 
from cuttings. 
The following are good varieties :— 
E. truncatum albo-violaceum. 
E. truncatum bicolor. 
Li. truncatum Bridgesit. 
E. truncatum Ruckerit. 
E. truncatum salmoneum. 
E. truncatum salmoneum marginatum. 
EE. truncatum splendens. 
E. truncatum violaceum grandiflorum. 
E. truncatum violaceum Snowit. 
E. truncatum violaceum superbum. 
The stronger and more erect-growing 
Epiphyllums now generally known under 
the name of Phyllocactus, are easily pro- 
pagated by means of cuttings treated in 
accordance with the directions given for 
striking the truncatum section ; their after 
management, both as to growth and pre- 
paration for flowering, is also similar. 
The undermentioned are handsome and 
desirable kinds :— 
E. Ackermannii. A medium-growing 
Mexican sort, with scarlet flowers. 
E. alatum. <A fine North American 
white-flowered species, distinct and hand- 
some. 
FE. crenatum. 
with conspicuous 
Honduras. 
E. latifrons. A South American kind, 
that differs in appearance from most of the 
others ; its flowers are creamy yellow. - 
E. speciosum. A strong-growing Brazilian 
kind, bearing large highly-coloured red 
flowers. 
E. speciosum Jenkinsonii. A very free- 
flowering handsome hybrid, with crimson 
flowers. 
Insects.—Epiphyllums are little trou- 
bled with insects except greenfly, which 
often establishes itself on the flower-buds, 
A distinct-habited sort, 
white flowers, from 
and is best destroyed by means of 
fumigation. 
K ERANTHEMUM. 
Amongst the freest growing and most 
easily managed occupants of the stove are 
certainly the Eranthemums. They are 
alike suitable for large or small houses, as 
they bloom in a very small state, or they 
may be grown to a considerable size. They 
propagate easily from cuttings put in at any 
time of the year when half-ripened shoots can 
be had, but spring, about the end of March, 
is the best time to strike them ; they will 
root in two or three weeks in sand, kept 
close, warm, and moist. After they are 
well rooted move them singly into 6-inch 
pots in ordinary loam with a little rotten 
manure, leaf-mould, and sand, pinching 
out the points. They will thrive under 
such conditions of heat, atmospheric mois- 
ture, and air as the generality of stove 
plants that are grown annually for winter 
flowering succeed with—that is, plenty of 
