282 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
PIMELEA, 
the base well furnished, but beyond this, 
and simple support, they will need nothing. 
During the winter they will not want 
nearly so much water, but they must not 
be allowed to get so dry as some occupants 
of the hardwooded house. Ifthe intention 
is to grow them on to a specimen size 
quickly, it will be advisable to remove the 
flowers again in the spring, as advised the 
preceding season, cutting back the shoots 
similarly and treating in every way the 
same. The size of the pots they are moved 
into must be determined by the quantity 
of roots they have ; if very full, they will 
require a 4-inch shift, and the soil should 
be in a little more lumpy state. As the 
plants get larger they will need greater 
care in getting the water with the syringe 
well to the inside leaves, without which 
they are certain to become affected with 
spider, and if once they are injured by this 
pest no after-treatment can set them to 
rights. Shade from the sun as advised for 
the preceding seasons. By the end of this 
summer they will get to a useful size for 
decorative purposes, and as such can be 
used for conservatory work, giving them 
whilst here an open, light place, not crowded 
by other things. After being similarly 
treated during another season, the plants 
will, if all goes on right, have attained the 
size of moderate specimens, and if required 
fer exhibition will, from their distinct 
character, be well adapted for the purpose 
in the early part of the season. Their 
requirements in after years will be similar 
to those prescribed so far, until they get 
into 18 or 20 inch pots, in which size they 
may remain for some time, assisted during 
the growing season with manure-water ; 
afterwards, if they become at all bare of 
leaves or indicate weakness, they may be 
destroyed, to make way for younger ones. 
P. decussata, P. Hendersoni, and P. 
mirabilis are species of comparatively small 
growth, and produce a profusion of hand- 
some pink flowers less than those of P. 
spectabilis ; like it they are compact, neat- 
habited, dwarf bushes, flowering in May 
and June ; they also will do in either peat 
or loam: in the former they grow the 
quickest, in the latter the flowers are 
usually higher coloured ; they all are free 
growers, but do not attain nearly so large 
a size as P. spectabilis. The strongest 
branches require in the early stages of 
their growth to be kept well down in a 
horizontal position so as to lay the founda- 
tion for furnishing the base of the future 
specimens, otherwise in a short time the 
bottom becomes bare and naked, and the 
plants are made unsightly, a condition 
much more common than it might or need 
be. If this matter of training is not 
attended to while the plants are young and 
the shoots pliable, no after attempt at 
bringing the branches down will give them 
the desired appearance, for they do not 
bend well when they have got strong, and 
bringing them down leaves the middle of 
the plant thin. 
The above kinds, as well as those men- 
tioned below, require to be treated gene- 
rally in the way advised for P. spectabilis, ° 
only with less pot-room proportionate to 
their weaker growth. 
P. elegans is a very distinct species, with 
a somewhat looser habit of growth than 
the preceding ; the leaves are ovate-lanceo- 
late and much larger than in any of the 
others named ; the flowers, which are 
produced in spring freely, are compact and 
globular, about the size of large heads of 
red Clover, and are yellowish-white in 
colour. The plant makes stronger wood 
than the three last treated of, and should 
be well cut back each season after flowering 
or it gets into a somewhat straggling con- 
dition. This kind does the best in loam 
to which is added a good amount of sand ; 
potting and general treatment similar to 
the others. 
P. hispida is a somewhat weak-wooded 
subject, of moderate size. If well managed 
it will flower two or three times during 
the season, or its blooming may be retarded 
by stopping the points of the shoots, as 
after it has made a couple of inches of 
growth it will set and at once bloom. The 
flowers are produced in loose bunches 
similar to those of P. spectabilis, but not 
so large as in that kind; they are white, 
tinged with pink. It is very useful, either 
as a summer or autumn exhibition plant, 
or simply as a decorative subject for 
conservatory purposes. It does best in 
peat, and at no time requires the shoots 
reduced further than by removing the 
flowers, as its persistent habit of blooming 
prevents them running to any considerable 
length. Plants in 6-inch pots in the 
spring should be grown on and not allowed 
to flower for a couple of years, as its free- 
blooming disposition prevents it growing. 
The flower-buds should be removed as soon 
as formed until the plants have got to 
something like 15 inches in diameter, after 
which they will bloom twice in the season 
—in spring, and again in the after part of 
the summer. 
P. Neippergiana is a small-growing, 
white-flowered species, that blooms in the 
spring. In cutting back, potting, and 
general summer and winter management, 
it requires to be treated like the others. 
already spoken of ; but being a weaker- 
