HEDAROMA. 
the same thing happens wherever their 
cultivation is attempted, even with the 
most experienced growers who exercise 
the greatest attention and closest observa- 
tion. Notwithstanding these serious draw- 
backs, they are plants that cannot be 
omitted from any collection that has pre- 
tensions to being at all complete. They are 
among the freest bloomers, producing their 
finely-coloured, singularly-formed flowers 
in profusion. There is no plant that lasts 
longer in bloom when in good health ; the 
crop of flowers for next year is set before 
the current year’s are off ; they keep on 
gradually growing, and six months before 
they expand the plants are very effective. 
They also flower freely, at any size from 6 
inches through to as many feet. If there 
is any cause to which we could ascribe their 
liability to die off so quickly it is to the 
plants having been struck from cuttings 
somewhat soft, produced in heat. Plants 
that we have struck somewhat cool and 
slowly, from the points of well-ripened 
shoots, lived and grew on for years as 
freely as could be desired. They are 
plants that evidently do not require any- 
thing more than the coolest greenhouse 
temperature, as they keep their roots 
always in action during the winter with a 
temperature only just sufficient to keep 
out frost, but at the same time the atmos- 
phere must be dry, or they will suffer 
from mildew, to which they are much 
more subject than most things. The 
parasite must be diligently sought for at 
all seasons of the year, or it is useless to 
attempt their cultivation, as, if left un- 
checked, even for ever so short a time, it 
gets established and does injury that no 
after-treatment can repair. The plants 
require the best place in a thoroughly 
good house, well elevated up to the glass, 
with plenty of air during the season of 
their more active growth. Never use 
shade except in their early stages or after 
potting, when this has been carried out 
far on in summer, which, it never 
should be, for, as already observed, the 
roots when in health are always more or 
less active, which admits of their being 
moved either in the autumn when the 
sun’s power is far declined, or early in 
the season before it has much drying in- 
fluence. 
Those who, in commencing their culture, 
purchase plants should always take care to 
select such as are free and not too large 
for the pots they occupy, for if they are at 
all pot-bound while young the chances are 
that they will die before they take to 
the new soil after potting. All the varieties 
require good fibrous peat, with one-seventh 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
201 
sand added, unless the peat naturally con- 
tains a considerable quantity. Pot firmly, 
and allow a little more space for water for 
these plants than for most hardwooded 
subjects, as when they require water there 
must be no half applications, or they will 
speedily perish. 
Hedaromas strike from cuttings made of 
the points of the shoots either taken off in 
a comparatively soft immature condition in 
the spring or summer, or from the mature 
growth in autumn; the latter although the 
slower process we much prefer, for, as 
already said, we have found plants pro- 
duced from such invariably much less 
lable to die off suddenly. The cuttings, 
consisting of moderately strong shoots 
about 3 inches long, should be taken off 
in September when the wood is getting 
moderately hard, put 2 or 3 inches apart 
in pots or pans in sand, kept close and 
moist, under a propagating glass in a tem- 
perature of 50° or 55° in the night through 
the autumn and winter, with, as a matter 
of course, a little more warmth by day ; so 
managed they will root in spring. About 
the end of May move singly into 3-inch 
pots using fine sandy peat, and stopping 
the points at the same time; keep a little 
close until the roots have begun to move, 
when gradually expose to the full air of 
the house ; always give water as soon as 
required. A little shade may be an as- 
sistance this season in the _ brightest 
weather. Keep a little closer by the ad- 
mission of less air to the house than is 
given to larger greenhouse stock, and 
syringe the material on which they stand 
in the afternoons up to the end of August, 
after which give more air and no shade so 
‘as to get the growth well hardened up 
before winter, through which keep them 
at about 45° in the night. In March if 
the plants are, as they may be expected to 
be, in vigorous health, and have plenty of 
roots, give them 7-inch pots, stopping the 
leading shoots and tying them well out. 
Treat through the summer as ordinary 
young greenhouse stock, with plenty of light 
and a littleshade in very bright weather, and 
give more water than most hardwooded 
plants require. Winter as in the preced- 
ing year, and again in March give them a 
shift ; they should now bear putting into 
pots 4 inches larger. Keep a little closer 
for a month, during which time shade if 
the weather is dry and sunny. The reason 
for giving them a larger shift than would 
be advisable with most greenhouse sub- 
jects is, that there may be no necessity for 
a second potting during the hot season of 
the year, when they are more likely to 
suffer from it. If at the time of potting, 
