200 glenny's handbook 



greenhouse. Soil, turfv peat and loam. Increased by division 

 or by the scattered spores. N. molle, greenhouse evergreen 

 fern. N. wiitum, greenhouse evergreen feni, sometimes called 

 N. lucens. 



NEPHROLEPIS. [Polypodiaceee.] Ornamental ever- 

 green ferns, one or two of which succeed in a greenhouse. 

 Peat and loam. Division. N. exaltata, stove. N. tuherosa, 

 stove. 



NERINE. [Amaryllidaceoe.] Pretty greenhouse bulbs, 

 which require the same ti'eatment as Amaryllis. Soil, strong 

 rich loam. Division of offsets. They must be kept dry when 

 at rest. N. Sarniensis is the Guernsey Lily, of which large 

 quantities of tiowering bulbs are annually imported. 



XERIUM. Oleander. [Apocynaceae.] A remarkably 

 showy, though virulent genus of greenhouse evergi'een shrubs, 

 forming noble objects in the conservatory. Although they 

 flower freely when scarcely a foot high from cuttings, they 

 will grow ten or fifteen feet high, forming splendid trees, 

 covered with rose-coloured, or white, or variegated flowers, 

 which come in bunches at the ends of all the branches ; and 

 the individual flowers of the double-blossomed varieties come 

 as large as a middling sized Rose, and ten or more in a bunch. 

 The Oleander may be set down as a neglected plant. Young 

 slioots three inches long, with a bell-glass over them, strike 

 freely in sandy compost, a little bottom-heat hastening the 

 rooting. They should, when rooted, be potted singly in five- 

 inch pots, and not removed till they have filled the pots with 

 roots, but nevertheless kept growing : they will then bloom 

 the first season, almost before they are a foot high, and the 

 plants will continue to flower every season as they advance in 

 size. They grow best in a compost of loam and peat, with 

 about a fourth part well-decayed manure ; and if this is too 

 adhesive, from the nature of the loam used, about a si.xth part 

 of sand should be mixed with it. They require to be placed 

 in the stove to bring out the blooms well, although they have 

 been set down as greenhouse plants ; as such they have been 

 ill-treated in almost all establishments, where they may be 

 seen condemned to associate with a few rusty Orange and 

 Lemon trees, equallv ill-used. 



NEW ZEALAND FLAX. See Phormium. 



