STEPHANOTIS. 
young and pliable should be regularly tied 
out, so as to form neat, shapely heads. 
S. brassicefolix. Is a large-leaved kind 
of erect habit. It is a good useful decora- 
tive plant. From the Canaries. 
S. Butcher. <A fine, deep-coloured 
variety, of stout erect habit of growth. 
This we consider the next best variety to 
S. profusa. 
S. Holford. Also a large-leaved variety, 
and an upright grower. The flower-stems 
are not produced in such profusion as in 
some of the others, but are bigger and more 
branching. 
S. unbricata. A strong-growing, free- 
flowering sort, with a somewhat upright 
habit. Teneriffe. 
S. profusa. For general purposes this is 
the best variety ; it is a branching, dense- 
habited sort, a very free flowerer and a 
good grower. A garden variety. 
Insrcts.—Most of those that infest pot 
plants will live on these Statices, especially 
aphides, thrips, and red spider, all of which 
soon do serious mischief if allowed to re- 
main undisturbed ; the two former can be 
destroyed by fumigation, the last is best 
kept down by a liberal use of the syringe, 
and if much affected give a good washing 
with insecticide, not too strong. 
STAUNTONIA LATIFOLIA. 
This is the only species of the genus known 
in this country. It is a free-growing ever- 
green greenhouse climber of secondary 
merit, succeeding with treatment like 
that advised for the strong-growing kinds 
of Kennedya, which see. 
The flowers are a mixture of lilac and 
green. It comes from China, and usually 
blooms in spring. 
STENOSPERMATIUM WALLISII. 
In this we have a stove Aroid, which ap- 
peared as Spathiphyllum Wallisii, and is 
still sometimes met with under that name. 
Like many others of the order to which it 
belongs it is more curious than handsome ; 
the spathes are white. 
It will grow in material such as is recom- 
mended for Anthurium Scherzerianum, 
which see; similar to the Anthurium it 
likes plenty of water when growing, and a 
free use of the syringe daily overhead. 
When at rest it must be kept drier at the 
roots, but not so much as to cause the 
leaves to become flabby. It comes from 
Colombia. 
STEPHANOPHYSUM BAIKTEI. 
This is a useful winter - flowering 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
321 
Acanthad, and although it can only be 
accounted as holding a secondary place to 
some of our best winter-blooming plants, 
still, on account of its free-flowering dis- 
position and its coming in during the dull 
season, it deserves to be more generally 
grown than it is at present. The flowers 
are tube-shaped, red in colour, and pro- 
duced in sufficient quantity to make the 
plant effective. 
It will succeed under treatment such as 
advised for Eranthemums, which see. 
Insecrs.—Aphides sometimes attack the 
young shoots, and should be met by fumiga- 
tion ; the plant does not seem to be much 
subject to other insect pests. 
STEPHANOTIS FLORIBUNDA. 
There are few plants that have so many 
good properties as this well-known fragrant 
favourite—easily grown, a profuse bloomer, 
the flowers opening in succession over a con- 
siderable period, and lasting well indi- 
vidually. From the time it first became 
sufficiently known it has always been ad- 
mitted as one of the best of all bouquet 
flowers, its pure white, long, tubular 
blooms arranging admirably with any- 
thing else. Those who grow flowers for 
the London market treat it so as to have 
a long succession of bloom. Even a single 
plant, when it has attained a considerable 
size, will keep on flowering for several 
months. It will grow in either peat or 
loam, but as it does not like to be shaken 
out or to have its roots disturbed often, it 
is better to grow it in loam, as this will 
last longer than peat. It strikes freely 
from cuttings made of the preceding 
season’s shoots, using portions that have 
not got too hard. If cuttings consisting of 
a couple of joints of these are, during the 
winter, put in thickly in 5 or 6 inch pots 
and stood in a temperature of 60°, they 
will callus over in a few weeks, when they 
may have 10° more warmth, which will 
enable them to root freely, or young shoots 
such as break from the old stems in spring 
may be taken off when 8 or 9 inches long 
with a heel of the old wood. These, if 
kept a little close, and in a temperature 
similar to that mentioned for cuttings of 
the mature wood, will root directly. When 
well rooted put them singly in 4-inch pots 
in good fibrous loam, with sand added, ac- 
cording to the nature of the soil. hey 
will grow away if kept in a temperature of 
60° or 65° in the night with a rise by day. 
It is of twining habit, and as soon as the 
plants begin to grow they will require a 
stick to each to support them. When the 
shoots have reached a couple of feet in 
21 
