STATICE. 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
319 
can boast of ; hence their increased popu- 
larity. The varieties under consideration 
bear flowers of a dry paper-like texture, 
and may almost come under the descrip- 
tion of Everlastings. The leaves are large 
—in some of the varieties from 8 to 12 in. 
in length by 4 or 5 in breadth. The wood 
is somewhat soft for a considerable period 
after it is formed and until the time when 
it becomes bare of leaves—which the 
bottom parts of the branches do as the 
points of the shoots extend—after which 
it gets very hard. The flowers of the dif- 
ferent varieties here treated of are pro- 
duced in large bunches, on stout woody 
stems, and have a calyx varying in colour 
from blue to pale lilac (which gives a lively 
and novel appearance) and a white corolla ; 
this latter soon perishes, while the calyx is 
long enduring. 
The time of flowering varies consider- 
ably, according to the treatment the plants 
receive, but most of the kinds under notice 
throw up their principal blooming stems 
early in the spring, and continue through 
the season as they grow to push additional 
flowers, which keep on until autumn. 
The individual blooms, if they are not 
allowed to get wet, and the plants are not 
placed in a moist atmosphere, last good for 
two or three months ; if cut when newly 
opened, and dried quickly, they lose little 
of their colour, and may be used in vases 
for room decoration many months, or even 
years, if kept under a glass shade free 
from damp.  Statices enjoy a_ little 
closer atmosphere than most greenhouse 
plants, and do not like full exposure to the 
sun, their broad, leathery leaves offering 
a considerable evaporating surface ; if too 
much exposed to its influence they assume 
a bronze-like, sickly appearance, and _ be- 
come a prey to red spider, but, on the 
other hand, they must by no means be 
kept too confined, with little air, or far 
from the glass, or they will not succeed. 
In winter they require more warmth 
than most greenhouse plants, and should 
be kept in a night temperature of about 
45°. It is scarcely necessary to say that 
they must never be placed out in the open 
air, as it is needful to do with many things 
in the summer in order to ensure that their 
growth should be fully matured, as the 
flowers are produced from the young shoots 
as they are formed. In selecting plants 
choose such as have several breaks not 
more than 3 or 4 inches above the surface 
of the soil, for if they have run up high 
there is no means of getting the lower 
branches down to keep the base of the 
plant well furnished, for the shoots are 
stiff, and until they have extended con- 
siderably—which it takes years for them 
to do—there is difficulty in bending them. 
Reject any that have been too long con- 
fined in small pots, for the plants are 
remarkably free rooters, and unless moved 
on as the roots require space they get into 
a stunted condition, in which case a newly- 
struck cutting would be better, and with 
liberal treatment progress at such a rate as 
to leave a pot-bound plant behind. 
They root readily from cuttings made of 
the shoots in spring ; select such as are of 
moderate strength, and not too hard to 
make roots, and remove the lower leaves. 
Cuttings should be inserted singly in 
small pots three-parts filled with a mixture 
of sand and loam in equal parts, the rest 
all sand ; cover with a bell-glass, keep moist, 
shaded, and moderately close in a genial 
heat, such as that of an intermediate house. 
Here they will soon strike, after which re- 
move the glass and keep in a growing tem- 
perature through the summer, a little closer 
than that of a greenhouse, with shade, 
syringing overhead in the afternoon. About 
the end of July move into pots 2 inches 
larger, now using soil with less sand in it ; 
in autumn give more air, and cease shading 
and syringing: keep them through the 
winter in a temperature of about 45°. If 
they can be accommodated with a shelf near 
the roof all the better, as the more light 
they receive in such a situation the stouter 
and stronger will they grow. So treated 
the roots will be fully active through the 
winter, the heads of the plants also making 
growth—a condition essential to the well- 
being of all the varieties in every stage of 
their existence. 
If Statices are treated in the winter so as 
to induce a total cessation of growth, or 
rest as it is generally termed, by being 
kept in a low temperature, not only is 
there loss of time in getting them up to a 
useful size, but they are much injured, 
such usage inducing a stunted condi- 
tion, and the growth for the ensuing year’s 
flower is not made by the time it should be. 
This will be looked upon as the opposite 
of sound practice by those who act on the 
principle of resting all plants through the 
winter in something like a uniform manner, 
but it is this indiscriminate treatment of 
things collectively that is the cause of 
many growers not succeeding with quan- 
tities of subjects that they attempt to 
cultivate. There are many plants, and 
these Statices are among the number, that 
do not need rest in the ordinary acceptance 
of the term; it must not be understood 
that it would be advisable or possible, with 
a view to health in either these or other 
things of similar nature, to keep them on 
