198 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
HAMANTHUS. 
Insects.—Aphides must be kept under 
by fumigation ; thrips and red spider will 
sometimes make their appearance, but can 
be destroyed by a free use of the syringe ; 
when attacked by scale the shoots should 
be well cut in during the season of rest, 
and the stem and branches be thoroughly 
washed with insecticide strong enough to 
kill the insect 
HAEMADICTYON NUTANS. 
When handsome-leaved plants first be- 
came fashionable, those usually met with 
possessed beautiful and well-defined mark- 
ings, and were of comparatively small 
growth, such as some of the Anzectochili, 
with the elegant veinings of the leaves of 
which this Hemadictyon may be compared, 
for in some stages of its leaf development 
the nerves, both principal and_ lateral, 
come nearly up to those of Anzctochilus 
setaceus. But in later years, since so many 
plants of larger proportions have been in- 
troduced, many of the most beautiful—and 
this Hemadictyonamongst them-—arerarely 
seen. Hemadictyon or Echites nutans is 
an evergreen twiner from the West Indies, 
and therefore requires a brisk stove heat 
to grow it, so as to bring out its delicate 
leaf markings to the full. Its young, soft, 
quick-growing shoots are not so easily 
rooted as those of some plants, but, as 
is generally found with things that do not 
propagate freely from shoot cuttings, it 
can be readily increased by means of root 
cuttings. 
If a portion of the strongest are removed 
from a healthy plant, cut into bits about 
three-fourths of an inch long and inserted 
in pots filled with sand, so as just to leave 
the tops of the pieces above the sand, placed 
in a house or pit where a night tempera- 
ture of about 65° is kept up, they will soon 
form buds and shoots. About the begin- 
ning of March is as good a time as any for 
putting them in, as then the plant from 
which the cuttings are taken will not have 
made much growth, and consequently will 
not receive much check or injury from the 
removal of a portion of the roots. When 
the shoots are 3 inches or 4 inches long, 
the young plants can be moved singly into 
small-sized pots at first, as this Haema- 
dictyon, like all its congeners, cannot bear 
over-potting ; good peat, seven parts to one 
of sand, will answer for it. After this 
keep them close for a few days until the 
roots have begun to move, giving more 
heat as the weather gets warmer; they 
will bear as much as the hottest stove 
plants, with plenty of moisture in the 
atmosphere and shaded always from the 
sun when it is at all powerful, for if its 
rays when very bright come directly upon 
them, it will impair the beautiful veming 
in the leaves. It requires the ordinary 
amount of air needed by stove plants that 
succeed best with a humid atmosphere, but 
care must be taken never to overwater, as 
if the soil gets too wet it will rot the roots. 
The plant looks best when grown with 
four or five shoots, each allowed to twine 
up a thin stick. When the young stock 
require more room, the best way to 
manage them will be to put four or six in a 
7-inch or 8-inch pot half filled with drain- 
age, the rest sandy peat ; so treated, they 
are much more effective than when grown 
singly. Through the remainder of the 
summer continue to treat them as so far 
advised. Winter ina reduced temperature, 
keeping them drier at the roots than most 
plants, and about the beginning of March 
head them down to within 8 inches or 9 
inches of the pots, giving more warmth to 
induce them to break quickly. As soon as 
they have made new shoots 8 inches or 10 
inches long turn them out of the pots, re- 
move as much of the old potting material 
as can be done without injuring the roots, 
and place them in pots 2 inches or 3 inches 
larger, with fresh open soil. All they will 
now require is routine treatment such as. 
advised for the summer before, giving 
longer sticks, as the plants, being stronger, 
will make much longer shoots. With a plant 
of this description the object will not be to 
crow large specimens, but rather to confine 
them to something lke the size indicated, 
in which way they will better answer the 
purpose they are best adapted for, which is 
to afford contrast and variety among the 
many stronger and coarser-growing fine- 
leaved plants generally met with in stoves. 
They will last for years and can be kept 
within the size required by being headed 
down in the spring annually. 
Insects.—This Heemadictyon is subject 
to most of the insects that will live upon the 
nearly allied Dipladenias ; they must be 
kept under by daily syringing with tepid 
water during the growing season, and 
sponging when required. 
HAMANTHUS. 
These are bulbous plants, most of which 
are indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope, 
though a few are found in warmer parts of 
Africa. The flowers of most of the culti- 
vated species have a singular appearance, 
being composed of a large quantity of 
filaments forming large globular heads 
supported on comparatively short stout 
fleshy stems, which rise from the bulbs in 
