Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
255 
MYRSIPHYLLUM. 
footing. Thrips and greenfly are thus in 
like manner held in check, but should 
they make their appearance, fumigate or 
dip in tobacco-water. Brown scale and 
mealy bug where present must during the 
growing season be removed by brushing 
and sponging, and when the plants are cut 
in after the second flowering, they should 
be dipped in or well syringed with a 
moderately strong solution of insecticide. 
MUTISIA. 
Pretty evergreen climbing plants suitable 
for training to a supporting pillar or rafter 
of a greenhouse. Being less vigorous in 
growth than some climbing species they 
are adapted for situations where plants of 
rampant habit would not be admissible. 
They strike from cuttings made of the 
young shoots in spring, treated in the 
usual way, inserted in sand, kept close, 
moist, and shaded from the sun in a tem- 
perature of 70°; when rooted move singly 
into 3-inch pots in a mixture of peat and 
loam, to which add some sand. Keep on 
in a growing temperature something like 
that in which the cuttings were struck 
until they have got established, when re- 
duce it to an intermediate heat day and 
night, which maintain through the summer; 
give air in the day, and as soon as they 
begin to grow commence syringing freely 
overhead in the afternoons. About mid- 
summer put the plants into 6 or 7 inch 
pots, and stop the points of the shoots. 
Place a stick for support to each, and keep 
them trained so that they do not get en- 
tangled. Admit more air as the season 
advances, and shade no more than needful 
until the end of August, after which dis- 
continue it altogether, and reduce the 
temperature so as to bring about a state of 
rest. Keep through the winter at about 
45°; we have found these plants to do 
better when kept during the winter a little 
warmer than most occupants of the green- 
house absolutely require. In spring move 
into pots 3 or 4 inches larger, in soil such 
as before, and place the plants so that the 
shoots can be trained over the space they 
are to occupy; attend regularly to this 
matter through the season as they pro- 
gress in growth. If to be planted out, the 
bed they are to occupy should be prepared 
so that they can be turned out of the pots 
into it about midsummer, so as to allow 
time for the roots to make some progress 
before winter. One of the principal things 
to be attended to with these climbers is to 
syringe freely all through the growing 
season to keep down insects—without this 
the leaves get an unhealthy appearance ; 
and to be equally careful that the roots 
receive enough water. Where the plants 
are kept in pots, all that is further re- 
quired is to shift them on to larger ones 
as more root-room becomes needful, and 
when turned out to remove a portion of the 
top soil each spring. Whichever method 
is followed, as the plants get older give 
manure-water in the growing season, and 
each year after the flowering is over reduce 
the growth so far as seems necessary. 
The undermentioned two are best worth 
growing :— 
M. Clematis. Flowers orange and red ; 
blooms in summer. A native of Bogota. 
M. decurrens. Has scarlet and yellow 
flowers that open in summer. South 
America. 
Insects.—The use of the syringe already 
advised will keep down red spider, and 
generally aphides as well, but if these 
are troublesome fumigate. For scale 
and mealy bug sponge and syringe with 
insecticide. 
MYRSIPHYLLUM (MEDEOLA) 
ASPARAGOIDES. 
A slender growing stove twiner with 
small, pretty, bright green leaves. The 
twining shoots, almost as thin as threads, 
grow to a length of many feet during a 
season, and are unequalled for decorative 
use in vases or baskets of cut flowers, or in 
the endless ways in which green drapery 
is now so effectively employed. The shoots 
are so thin as to be almost imperceptible, 
which, combined with their flexibility and 
the smallness of the leaves, adants it for 
use where anything that was not ex- 
tremely light in appearance could not be 
employed. 
It can be struck from”cuttings in spring 
in heat in the usual way, potted on in 
peaty soil, keeping the plants in a mode- 
rate stove heat, with a little shade in very 
bright weather ; 6-inch pots will be large 
enough for the first year, and a tall stick 
should be put to each for the shoots to 
twine round. A winter temperature of 
60° in the night will be high enough. In 
spring give pots 3 or 4 inches larger, and 
treat as before, affording the necessary 
support to the shoots as they extend, and 
managing generally as in the preceding 
summer. Large pots will ultimately be 
required as the plants get bigger, for the 
amount of shoots annually available for 
cutting will necessarily be proportionate 
to the size and strength acquired. It is 
best to turn the plants out in a bed where 
they will spread and yearly make a large 
amount of growth, which can be trained to 
