30 glenny's handbook 



cutting, therefore, will reach, but not go into the soil : cover 

 ■with a bell-glass, to be wiped dry inside every morning. 

 When they are struck they must be potted off into small 

 pots, and changed from time to time as they fill. They may 

 be kept in pits in the summer months, but the greenhouse is 

 the place to bloom them in perfection. Seed may be sown in 

 wide-mouthed pots, and kept in the greenhouse. When well 

 up they may be pricked out into pots, the plants not being 

 less than an inch apart ; and when large enough each plant 

 may have a pot to itself. They cannot have too much light 

 and air. When well grown they are a complete mass of 

 bloom in May. They may be grown to almost any size by 

 shifting from one pot to another, and no plants are so gaudy 

 and rich as they are when they are in perfection. Soil, strong 

 rich loam, peat, and dung, made rather sandy for the younger 

 plants. 



AZARA. [Flacourtiaceae.] Greenhouse evergreen shrubs. 

 Soil, sandy loam. Propagated by cuttings in sand in a 

 moderate heat. The two mostly grown are A. dentata and A. 

 integrifolia, yellowish. 



BABIANA. [Iridacese.] Greenhouse bulbs. Soil, sandy 

 loam and peat, equal parts. Propagated by offsets. The 

 treatment is to keep the bulbs quite dry when they are 

 ripened off after growing ; to re-apply moisture when they 

 indicate a disposition to renew their growth ; to supply them 

 liberally with water while growing. 



BABINGTONIA. [Myrtacege.] A pretty greenhouse 

 evergreen shrub, with a heath-like habit. Propagated by 

 cuttings of the young unflowering shoots, put into sand under 

 bell-glasses, and kept in a moderate heat until they have taken 

 root, when they are to be potted singly into small pots, using 

 a compost of equal parts loam and peat, made sandy for them 

 during these earlier stages of their progress. As the small 

 pots fill they must be shifted into larger ones, using less sand 

 in the compost ; but this shifting must not be done after 

 August until February. The established plants should have 

 a good shift about March or April, and should be kept in a 

 light airy greenhouse. The first strong shoots may be topped to 

 moderate their vigour, and to produce a greater profusion of 

 less luxuriant ones, which have a better effect when in bloom. 



