TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 95 



balls of earth, to the places where they are to flower ; the 

 summer-sown crop are better transplanted early in autumn. 

 If the object is to improve the common or any other 

 sorts, sow in beds, and thin out the plants as before, but 

 leave the rest to bloom. When they come into flower pull 

 up and destroy everything commonplace, and mark the best 

 for seed. 



DILLWYNTA. [Leguminosse, § Papilionacess.] Orna- 

 mental evergreen greenhouse shrubs. Their cultivation assi- 

 milates exactly with that of Chorozemas. Soil, sandy peat, 

 with one-third light loam. Increased by seeds, or by cuttings 

 in sand under a bell-glass. D. ericifoUa, yellow ; D. flori- 

 hunda, yellow ; D. glycinifolia, yellow and red ; D. jmngens, 

 yellow ; D. speciosa, yellow, crimson. 



DION. [Cycadaceae.] Handsome palm-like evergreens. 

 Soil, rough sandy loam. Propagated by suckers or seeds 

 when obtainable. D. eclide. 



DIONjEA. Venus's Fly-trap. [Droseraceae.] This is a 

 vegetable curiosity. Its leaves have a movable and excitable 

 appendage, which closes up like a gin-trap when certain hairs 

 on its surface are touched, and imprisons whatever may have 

 caused it to collapse : small insects are often caught, and 

 hence its trivial name. It requires much the same treatment 

 as Cephalotus ; that is, to be potted in chopped sphagnum, 

 with a very little peat and plenty of pure sand intermixed. 

 It requires to be constantly moist. D. muscipula, flowers 

 greenish yellow, in July. 



DIOSMA. [Rutacese.] Greenhouse evergreen shrubs, 

 remarkable for their strongly-scented foliage, agreeable to 

 some persons. Some of the species have been removed to 

 Adenandra, Agathosma, Banjosma, &c. They are propagated 

 by cuttings of the short tips of the young shoots, from which 

 the foliage must be taken ofl" about three-quarters of an inch 

 up, and the stem cut through very clean close up to a joint. 

 The cuttings are to be inserted in pots filled with turfy peat 

 below, and sandy peat above, the top half-inch being pure 

 sand ; then covered with a bell-glass, watered moderately, and 

 placed in the greenhouse. They will very soon strike, and 

 may be potted into thumb-pots first, and when they have 

 filled these with roots changed to three-inch pots, then to 



