1&8 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
GLOXINIA, 
mens than if grown singly. When they 
are about a foot or so high, wire trellises 
should be fixed to the pots, and the shoots 
kept regularly trained round them. When 
the soil gets filled with roots they will re- 
quire to be supplied liberally with water, 
and liquid manure, given once or twice a 
week, will assist them considerably. In 
other respects treat as recommended for 
the previous season, and when they begin 
to open their flowers they should be re- 
moved to a cool house, where they will 
last much longer in bloom than if kept in 
heat. 
When the flowering is over, gradually dry 
them off as before, and if the size of the 
pots makes it objectionable to winter the 
bulbs in them, they may, when the tops 
are dead, be taken out and wintered in 
smaller ones filled with thoroughly dry 
earth, with which they must be covered to 
prevent too much shrivelling. If, when 
the bulbs get large, it is found desirable to 
increase them by division in the manner 
stated, it is essential that they should not 
receive any water till growth has com- 
menced and the cut part has had time to 
heal, or they will be liable to rot, for the 
prevention of which mishap surround 
them with an inch of dry sand at the time 
of potting. 
Two species only of Gloriosa are worth 
growing. 
G. Plantii (syn.: G. virescens). Lower 
petals light yellow ; upper portion of the 
flower bright red, tinged with orange. 
From Mozambique. 
G. superba. Has rich orange flowers 
tinged with red, reflexed and crisped on 
the margins. A native of the East Indies. 
InsEcts.—Gloriosas suffer but little from 
the depredations of insects, their juices not 
being relished by them. 
GLOXINIA. 
The members of the present race of these 
lovely stove Gesnerads owe their paren- 
tage to a few species imported from diffe- 
rent parts of South America. The hybrids 
recently raised are, however, superior to 
the imported species both in size and form, 
and their colours are almost unlimited, 
varying, as they do, from the purest white 
through the different shades of pink to 
deep red, and from pale blue to intense 
purple, with endless forms of spotting and 
banding with light and dark colours ; in 
fact, there are few flowers in which there 
is so much variety, and they also possess 
other points equally noteworthy. Gloxinias 
may be increased rapidly either by means 
of seeds or cuttings; they are likewise 
easily grown and most useful for decorating 
not only the stove, but also the intermediate 
house in summer, in which they continue 
to bloom more or less for a considerable 
period. Their flowers, too, are very useful 
when cut, lasting in good condition in 
water for several days, provided the plants 
have made their growth and produced their 
flowers in a thoroughly light situation, 
with the amount of air requisite to impart 
sufficient substance to them—the latter an 
indispensable condition when they are re- 
quired to be used in a cut state. Indeed, 
the flowers of few plants depend so much 
as regards durability upon the way in 
which the plants have been previously 
managed as those of the Gloxinia, the 
whole character of which is much changed 
for better or worse according to the condi- 
tions of cultivation. When well grown 
the leaves are firm and short, borne on 
stout foot-stalks, and the flowers stand 
well above the foliage ; whereas, if grown 
either too moist or too hot, with insufficient 
light, the whole plant has a soft, flabby, 
straggling appearance that effectually de- 
stroys its beauty. By having a sufficient 
number of plants and bringing them on at 
different times, a succession of flowers may 
be kept up from March until the end of 
September or later. 
In raising Gloxinias the seed should be 
sown early in spring—say about the middle 
of February, so as to allow the plants an 
opportunity of attaining sufficient size to 
flower during the summer in a way that 
will exhibit their true character. Sow in 
an ordinary seed pan; put an inch of 
drainage on the bottom, and on that place 
a little sphagnum. The soil ought to con- 
sist of equal parts of loam, peat, and leaf- 
mould, all sifted ; add to it one-sixth its 
bulk of sand, as it is essential that it should 
be loose and open, or in transplanting the 
roots of the young seedlings will be injured; 
fill the pan with soil to within half an inch 
of the rim, press it down moderately firm, 
then water with a fine rose, so as to settle 
the surface, and on this sow the seeds, not 
too closely, or the young plants become 
crowded and consequently drawn up before 
they are large enough to pot off. Cover 
the seeds very lightly, and place them in 
a temperature of 60°. As soon as the young 
plants appear stand them close to the light, 
screen them from the mid-day sun, supply 
them with water, and give a little air 
during the day. When the leaves are an 
inch long move the plants singly into 3-inch 
pots, using soil similar to that in which the 
seeds were sown, and at once replace them 
near the light, raising thetemperature as the 
days increase in length. By the end of June 
