204 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
HEXACENTRIS, 
midrib to the margin, producing a striking 
variegation. South Sea Islands. 
Hf. metallica. A distinct-looking plant 
with ample foliage, the midrib and outer 
edges of which are reddish-brown, offering 
a perfect contrast to the rest of the surface ; 
the under side is red. From the South 
Sea Islands. 
Hi. vinosa. The leaves of this species are 
18 inches long, green above, dull red 
beneath. In general appearance it is like 
a Canna with unusually large foliage. 
New Grenada. 
HELIOTROPIUM. 
Greenhouse plants, well known and so 
generally esteemed for the fragrance of 
their flowers as to be universal favourites. 
Their cultivation is extremely simple. 
Cuttings of the young shoots in a soft 
state, such as can be had almost any time 
through the spring, root in a week or two 
in a temperature of 60° or 65°, kept close, 
moist, and shaded. If put in several to- 
gether in pots filled with sand towards the 
end of March, they will be in a condition 
to pot off singly by the middle of April ; 
give them good turfy loam, with some leaf- 
mould and sand added. Keep them ina 
growing temperature such as afforded by 
a pit with a little fire-heat until the plants 
have got established, standing them near 
the glass, with a little shade in bright 
weather. Stop the points of the shoots, 
and give more air as they begin to grow 
away freely ; in five or six weeks move the 
young plants into 6-inch pots, in soil 
sunilar to that in which they were first 
potted ; again pinch out the shoots. 
Treatment such as given to the general 
occupants of the greenhouse is all that is 
necessary after this. Their free disposition 
to flower is such that they will bloom in a 
very small state, and their receiving more 
root-room depends on the size they are 
required to be grown to; pots 7 or 8 
inches in diameter will be enough to keep 
them blooming through the autumn, 
especially if they are assisted with manure- 
water. If required to bloom in winter they 
must have a little fire-heat so as to keep 
the night temperature from 45° to 50°, 
with a proportionate rise in the day as the 
weather admits of it. Plants kept through 
the winter in a cool greenhouse tempera- 
ture will flower freely in spring with the 
increased sun-heat. If the old plants are 
kept on another season they will need 
more root-room ; the size of the pots being 
increased, they will go on for many years 
until they reach the size of large bushes, 
or standards if prepared by confining them 
to single stems, removing the side shoots 
and then stopping them so as to form 
bushy heads. Heliotropes also answer well 
planted out, and grown bush fashion, or 
trained to a pillar or rafter, or covering a 
wall. 
The following are good varieties :— 
H. Duchess of Edinburgh. Dark purple. 
H, Lady Molesworth. Purple. 
H. President Garfield. A fine, free- 
blooming kind. 
H. Swanley Giant. A rose-coloured 
variety, that bears large heads of flower. 
H. The Queen. Pale lilac; very sweet 
scented. 
Insecrs.—Aphides often are troublesome 
on Heliotropes ; the best remedy is fumi- 
gation. 
HEMIANDRA. 
These are evergreen greenhouse plants 
found in New Holland, and the vicinity of 
the Swan River; they are inferior to many 
of like habit that come from the same 
parts. They succeed with treatment such 
as advised for Eriostemons, which see. 
The following are the most distinct :— 
H. emarginata. Flowers white and 
pink. 
H. pungens. 
H. rupestris. White. 
These are all spring bloomers. 
HEXACENTRIS MYSORENSIS. 
There are few more handsome stove- 
climbing plants, and none more distinct, 
than the Mysore Hexacentris, which when it 
first bloomed produced quite a sensation. 
Its curiously shaped crimson and yellow 
flowers, in long pendulous racemes, are 
seen to best advantage drooping from the 
roof of a moderately cool stove. It is one 
of the freest of free-growers, and will even 
thrive under conditions as regards treat- 
ment which would be fatal to plants of a 
more delicate constitution. Although a 
free grower, however, it is easily kept 
within reasonable bounds, inasmuch as it 
will bear pruning better than most plants. 
It is not very generally cultivated, and the 
reason for this probably is that, being a 
native of Mysore, many have been led to 
suppose that it required more heat than 
has proved conducive to its blooming 
freely. As has frequently occurred in the 
case of other plants, cultivators have been 
left in the unfortunate position of knowing 
nothing about the locality in which it is 
found wild; but as it evidently does better 
with somewhat cooler treatment than many 
things we have from the same country, we 
