THYRSACANTHUS. 
keep them in a brisk stove temperature 
where they can receive a pretty full 
amount of light and air during the middle 
of the day and no more shade than is 
requisite to keep the leaves from scorching. 
Syringe freely in the afternoons at the time 
the house is closed, and pinch out the 
points of the shoots when they have at- 
tained the length of 3 feet to cause them 
to break out several branches. 
All the kinds are comparatively quick 
growers and the plants will bear moving 
into 10-inch or 11-inch pots by the end of 
June ; treat them in other matters as be- 
fore, and train the shoots on the rafters, or 
whatever position they are intended to 
occupy ; possibly some flowers may be 
produced towards the end of summer, but 
it is in the following season that the dis- 
play may be looked for. By the middle of 
September cease syringing and shading, 
give more air and less water to the roots, 
so as to discourage growth and gradually 
bring them to a state of rest ; a night tem- 
perature of 60° through the winter will 
answer. About the commencement of the 
year cut out the weak shoots should any 
exist, and later on, when growth has begun, 
move the plants into 16-inch or 18-inch 
pots, or even larger, if a large space has to 
be covered with their branches. As the 
summer advances treat as advised the pre- 
ceding season and keep the shoots loosely 
trained to the position they are intended 
to occupy, allowing their lateral branches 
to hang, in which way the flowers are seen 
to so much better advantage than when 
tied in too closely. As the pots get full of 
roots give manure-water freely. Instead 
of confining their roots to pots they may 
be planted out, but even where a large 
space is available for head-room it is not 
advisable to have the bed in which they 
are turned out too large, or they get almost 
unmanageable. When the flowering is over 
cut back the shoots so far as necessary, and 
in the spring, when growth is about begin- 
ning, turn those that are in pots out, re- 
moving. some of the soil about the upper 
portion of the ball, and replacing it with 
new ; as soon as the roots have fairly begun 
to move manure-water must be freely used, 
without which, unless much larger pots or 
tubs are employed than are necessary for 
most things, they will not, on account of 
their vigorous habit, have enough suste- 
nance to keep them going so as to make 
the requisite growth. Where planted out 
remove a portion of the surface soil in 
spring and repiace it with new. Most of 
these Thunbergias will last longer where 
they have a bed of soil wherein to extend 
moderately, as their rapid formation of 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
333 
roots, even with a liberal application of 
manure-water, quickly exhausts the limited 
quantity of soil a pot holds ; consequently, 
when confined to pots it is necessary to 
propagate sufficiently often to keep up a 
supply of plants to take the place of those 
it becomes necessary to discard. 
The undermentioned kinds are the most 
desirable :— 
T. alata. Has yellow flowers, produced 
in summer or autumn. A native of India. 
T. chrysops. A native of Sierra Leone, 
has flowers of a blue or violet shade, pro- 
duced in summer or autumn. 
T. coccinea. From ‘Trinidad, bears 
scarlet blooms, which, like those already 
named, appear in summer. 
T. fragrans. Is awhite-bloomed species, 
and, as its name implies, fragrant. It comes 
from India, and flowers in the summer. 
T. Harrisi. A pale blue kind, which has 
a yellow eye that sets off the flower very 
well ; it comes from Madras ; a summer 
flowerer. 
T. laurifolia. A pale blue-flowered 
species from Malacca, with handsome 
foliage and a strong, rambling habit of 
growth ; blooms in summer. 
The whole of these are really stove 
species, and it is no use attempting their 
cultivation unless a suitable temperature 
is at command. ' 
Insecrs.—Those that attack most heat- 
requiring plants will live upon Thun- 
bergias, and must be dealt with when they 
make their appearance in the usual way by 
washing, sponging, and syringing. 
THYRSACANTHUS RUTILANS. 
This plant belongs to a limited section 
of Acanthads, and is much the best of the 
Thyrsacanthus. It is not only deserving 
of cultivation on account of its elegant 
habit, but its merits are still further en- 
hanced by the singular, long, drooping 
panicles of red tube-shaped flowers which 
appear in the winter season, when bright 
flowers are doubly acceptable. The Thyrsa- 
canthus are nearly allied to Justicias, and, 
like some of them, this plant possesses an 
upright habit of growth. It is a native of 
South America, from whence it was intro- 
duced about thirty years ago. It is easily 
grown, but requires a moderate stove or 
intermediate temperature. Cuttings made 
of the young shoots, which are produced 
early in the spring after the plants have 
done flowering, if taken off when about 3 
or 4 inches long, will root readily inserted 
in small pots filled with sandy soil, kept 
moist, shaded, and covered with pro- 
pagating glasses in a temperature of 68° 
