280 
give increased room each succeeding spring 
to maintain healthy growth ; when too 
large the specimens may be divided in two 
or more parts at discretion. 
The plant is a native of New Zealand ; 
its flowers are white, but they possess little 
beauty. Besides the green-leaved species 
there are several variegated forms much 
more attractive in appearance. 
P. tenaz Colensow. Has prettily-varie- 
gated leaves. 
P. tenax variegatum. The leaves of this 
kind are half creamy white. 
The treatment required by these is in 
no way different from that which meets 
the wants of the green kind. 
Insects.—The hard texture of the plants 
is such that few insects molest them. 
Syringe freely during the summer to keep 
down red spider. Should scale become 
troublesome sponge with insecticide. 
PHYLLOGATHIS ROTUNDIFOLIA. 
A handsome-leaved stove Melastomad, 
the chief attraction of which is its distinct 
foliage. The leaves are large, heart-shaped, 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
general appearance. 
have not been so much grown as in times 
past, neither does their cultivation appear 
PIMELEA. 
soil, and assisted through the growing 
season with manure-water. 
P. albens. A white-flowered species ; 
blooms in summer. From Buenos Ayres. 
P. auricomus. Has white and yellow 
flowers, produced in autumn. From 
Brazil. 
Insects.—Aphides and red spider are 
often troublesome in the summer on these 
plants ; fumigate for the former and 
syringe freely with clean water to remove 
the spider. Brown scale will also live on 
them ; for these cut in the shoots freely 
after blooming, and syringe with insecti- 
cide. 
PIMELEA. 
These well-known evergreen greenhouse 
plants are from New Holland, and have 
long been favourites for pot culture. They 
differ very considerably, not only in the 
size and colour of the flowers, but also in 
Of late years they 
so well understood by the plant-growers of 
the present day as by those who some 
years ago used to produce them in such 
fine condition. This may be accounted for 
in this way: they are plants that are 
naturally suited by their general habit for 
exhibition purposes, and the exhibitions of 
the present day are not held so early as 
they were in years past when the London 
shows used to commence in the beginning of 
and toothed on the margin ; glossy green 
above, reddish-brown beneath. It requires 
similar treament to Spheerogynes, which 
see. A native of Sumatra. 
PHYLLOTANIUM LINDENII. 
A stove Aroid that used to be known 
under the name of Xanthosoma Lindenii. 
It is nearly allied to the Caladiums ; the 
leaves are sagitate, with white ribs which 
stand out in bold relief from the bright 
green ground colour of the leaf-blade. It 
requires treatment similar to the Alocasias, 
which see. Introduced from New Grenada. 
PHYSIANTHUS. 
Evergreen climbers that will succeed in 
a greenhouse temperature, and are occa- 
sionally met with trained to the rafters, or 
on the walls of a cool house. 
They are propagated by cuttings struck 
in spring in the ordinary way, in a mode- 
rate stove heat ; when rooted pot singly in 
peat with some sand added; keep in an 
intermediate temperature until well esta- 
blished, after which greenhouse warmth 
will suffice through the autumn and 
winter. In spring plant out in a bed of 
peat to which add a little rotten manure 
and some sand, and train the shoots as 
they extend to the wires intended to sup- 
port them. The plants will last for many 
years if top-dressed in spring with new 
May ; now there is rarely anything of the 
sort attempted until later in the month. 
This necessitates the whole of the green- 
house hardwooded stock being kept several 
degrees cooler all through the winter than 
would have been necessary under the old 
time of commencing the exhibitions, and 
these plants do not well bear this lower 
temperature, not liking to be kept under 
40° to 45° in the night. 
The different varieties of Pimelea require 
more water than many plants from the 
same country, to some extent at the root 
and in the atmosphere, but more particu- 
larly directly overhead, in the shape of 
daily syringings during their season of 
growth ; without these they become a prey 
to red spider, which soon does irreparable 
injury, damaging the foliage, and quickly 
inducing a hardened condition of the wood, 
which prevents free growth, a state from 
which they rarely, or never, fully recover. 
The above remarks apply in general to the 
different species, but as in other matters 
relative to their culture they differ con- 
siderably, it will be necessary to treat of 
them in some measure individually. 
