318 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
STATICE, 
them well. They are easily increased and 
are free growers, thriving in either loam 
or peat, the latter to be preferred where it 
can be had of good quality. They can be 
propagated at any time of the year when 
cuttings in a half-ripened condition are 
obtainable; these may consist of the top 
leading shoot taken off with about three 
joints, or of side shoots such as are pro- 
duced by a plant that has had its head 
removed, say in April. By the beginning 
of June it will have pushed out side shoots ; 
if these, when big enough, are taken off at 
a joint and put singly into 3-inch or 4-inch 
pots filled with sandy peat, the surface all 
sand, kept moist, shaded, and close under a 
propagating glass in a temperature of 70° 
or 75°, they will root sufficiently in three 
weeks or a month to bear the glass being 
dispensed with. After this keep them 
where they will get a fair quantity of light 
in a house or pit where the atmosphere is 
moderately humid, giving some air in the 
daytime, and shading always when the 
sun’s rays come on them. They should 
now have heat in the night time, like 
ordinary hot stove plants, with 80° or 85° 
in the day. They are free rooters, and by 
the middle of August will require moving 
into pots 6 inches or 7 inches in diameter ; 
use soil with plenty of vegetable fibre in it, 
and a moderate quantity of sand and some 
rotten manure. They should be syringed 
once daily all through the growing season, 
getting the water well to the undersides 
of the leaves, so as to prevent the lodgment 
of thrips or red spider. Reduce the tem- 
perature in the autumn, leave off shading, 
and regulate the admission of air in accord- 
ance with the state of the weather. The 
night temperature during the winter should 
not be under 60° or 65°, and it ought to 
be gradually increased from the end of 
February through the spring until it 
reaches the point advised for last summer. 
In March move the plants into 12-inch or 
13-inch pots, in soil similar to that used 
for the last potting. Treat as to shading, 
- air, and atmospheric moisture as in the last 
season, and give plenty of water to the roots 
as these fill the soil. If large specimens 
are not required, liquid manure will sustain 
them through the season in the pots they 
now occupy, but if the intention is to grow 
the plants as large as possible, they will by 
midsummer require 15-inch or 16-inch 
pots. After this they will reach a hand- 
some size, and only want a continuance of 
the treatment so far advised. The only 
form of growth which shows these Sphe- 
rogynes to advantage is keeping to a single 
stem, and they are only attractive so long 
as they retain their lower leaves in good 
condition ; consequently when these are 
getting shabby, the plants should be headed 
down, and afterwards kept warm. The 
stools will soon break, when most of the 
soil can be shaken away, and they should 
be put into pots that will admit the roots 
with some new material ; treat afterwards 
as recommended in their younger state. 
It is well to keep a succession of young 
plants to take the place of the old ones, 
which can then be dispensed with as their 
foliage gets into bad condition, but where 
large examples are required the headed- 
down specimens will make the finest, form- 
ing larger leaves near the bottom than 
cuttings will. 
InsEcts.—All the insect pests that affect 
stove plants will live on Spherogynes, 
especially scale and mealy bug, from which 
they should always be kept quite clear, 
as the formation of their leaves gives har- 
bour to the insects, and makes it difficult 
to remove them without injuring the 
foliage, which is impatient of sponging 
unless great care is exercised. 
SPIGELIA SPLENDENS. 
An herbaceous perennial that will live 
in a greenhouse, but is better accommo- 
dated with intermediate heat. Its red, 
tube-shaped flowers, produced in summer 
on a considerable length of the shoots, have 
a pretty effect. 
It can be struck from shoot cuttings put 
in during spring, and treated in the usual 
way, and afterwards grown on under the 
conditions already mentioned of moderate 
heat, with plenty of air and less moisture 
in the atmosphere than most of the stove 
occupants require, otherwise the growth is 
liable to get drawn and weak. It comes 
from Costa Rica. 
InsEects.—Aphides are often trouble- 
some in the summer on this plant ; for 
these fumigate. 
STATICE. 
Among the whole family of greenhouse 
plants there are probably none more useful, 
or worthy of cultivation, than these, 
whether for general decorative purposes or 
for exhibition. There are several points 
required to make up the properties essen- 
tial to a really useful flowering plant. It 
should be moderately easy to grow, and of 
free-blooming habit, if the flowers last long 
all the better ; it should be neither very 
slow in growth, nor so free as to outstrip 
reasonable bounds in a comparatively short 
time. Greenhouse Statices possess these 
qualities to an extent that few other plants 
