PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS. 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
285 
By the middle of August remove them 
to the open air; but here they must not 
be submitted to the direct action of the 
sun; they should be placed on the north 
side of a tall hedge or trees, where they 
will not receive more than its morning 
and evening rays. Syringe them while 
here in the evenings during bright weather. 
Before they are thus turned out they must 
have sufficient sticks put to them so as to 
properly secure the branches, otherwise 
they will be liable to break with the wind. 
Do not let the plants remain out later than 
the middle of September, or they might be 
injured by frost, and it is unnecessary to 
risk them, for the month’s exposure will 
have sufficiently ripened their growth to 
induce their flowering freely. Winter as 
before, keeping them well up to the light. 
Tie them into the required shape, and as 
early in the season as there is danger of 
their suffering through the effects of the 
sun, either shade slightly or remove them 
to where they will not be exposed to its 
mid-day influence. 
In respect to flowering, there is no 
particular time through the summer that 
it can be exactly calculated upon, as in the 
case of some other plants—much will de- 
pend upon the situation where it has 
been wintered. It is not a plant that can 
be hurried on ; if any excitement were at- 
tempted by heat it would run into growth, 
and not flower at all. We have had it in 
by the beginning of June, and on other 
occasions not until the end of August. 
When in flower the plants can be removed 
to the conservatory, where they will be 
very effective. Place them where they 
will not be too much crowded. They will 
last here for a month, after which they 
should be removea to the growing-house, 
and have any shoots that are unduly taking 
the lead shortened back. If they have 
flowered early in the season they will have 
sufficient time before winter to make 
growth for the next year’s bloom, in 
which case they ought to be moved into 
pots 3 inches larger, and in the autumn 
turned out for a few weeks, and then tied 
and wintered as before—but so treated 
they never bloom so profusely as if 
allowed a season’s rest. More commonly 
they are only flowered every other year, 
in which case the plants should be 
shortened back somewhat freely after 
blooming, then placed in a house where 
they can be enabled to make some growth 
without any attempt at pushing, as they 
will have time sufficient the ensuing sum- 
mer to grow into a large size. When so 
treated they had better not be potted until 
the spring; give them as heretofore a 
3-inch shift, and subject them through the 
summer to the same treatment as advised 
in their early stages, as to shade and water, 
and also as to exposure out-of-doors ; but 
this season they may be placed out by the 
end of July, at which time, if all has gone 
well, they will be large enough for any 
purpose for which they may be required, 
even to exhibit in the company of the best 
and most select collection of plants, among 
which there are few more telling subjects. 
After this flowering they should be cut 
to within a foot or 15 inches of the base, 
placed in a growing temperature, and 
syringed overhead every afternoon until 
the end of August, when they should have 
plenty of air, and the syringe should be 
withheld ; it will not be necessary to place 
them in this state out-of-doors, for under 
any circumstances they cannot be expected 
to flower much, if any, the ensuing season. 
In the spring turn them out, reduce the 
balls, and replace in the same pots with 
new soil ; encourage growth through the 
summer, and put them out in the open air 
as before advised to ripen; train soas to keep 
enough young shoots to furnish the base 
of the plant with green healthy growth. 
This will be facilitated by the production 
of a number of shoots from the crowns of 
the plants, which the cutting back will 
have caused them to make. After flower- 
ing this time it is as well to discard them 
for younger stock, which should be brought 
on to succeed the old plants—this is the 
more advisable with this Pleroma as it is 
a free grower, making as much progress in 
a single season as many things do in two ; 
besides younger plants always have a fresher 
appearance. All that is necessary is, each 
year, to provide a few young ones to replace 
those that are made away with, for it is 
naturally such a good grower that unless 
very badly treated it rarely goes off or gets 
out of health. On this account it is fitting 
for beginners in the cultivation of hard- 
wooded plants, while as a subject for general 
decorative purposes it cannot fail to give 
satisfaction. 
Insects.—This Pleroma is seldom at- 
tacked by insects; sometimes red spider 
will make its appearance, but this will not 
occur if the syringe is employed as advised. 
Scale, either brown or white, will live upon 
it, but in case the plants become infested 
with either of these insects it is better to 
destroy them, as the leaves are too soft 
to bear dressing with any solution strong 
enough to kill the pests. 
PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS. 
This is a Cape plant, introduced more 
