206 glknny's handbook 



but is of looser growth. There is another elegant hardy 

 species, called T. pJicata, not uncommon in gardens ; and ont 

 much rarer, the 2\ peudula, which has long slender drooping 

 twigs, and is a most singular and very ornamental small tree. 

 The commoner sorts grow well in any moderately favourable 

 situation, preferring a somewhat moist but not marshy situ- 

 ation. They are best raised from seeds sown in April in a 

 frame or covered bed. T. pendula should be kept drier, and 

 is increased by grafts or cuttings. 



THUXBERGIA. [Acanthaceae.] Stove evergreen climbers. 

 They thrive best in a mixture of turfy loam, peat, and rotted 

 dung ; but the best of them, T. alata and its varieties, being 

 very liable to attacks of red spider, are best raised from seeds, 

 and treated like tender annuals, only they require a trellis on 

 which to train their branches. T. alata aurantiaca is the 

 best, this having deep orange blossoms, with a black centre. 

 T. alata alba, with white tlowers and a black centre, is also 

 very pretty, and there are several others. The colour of T. 

 alata itself is buff yellow, with a black centre. The varieties all 

 bloom throughout the summer, and at that season are splendid 

 objects in a greenhouse if well managed : they may also be 

 grown out of doors in sheltered places, preferring moist peat 

 soil. This, as well as the other species, strikes freely; and 

 cuttings in sand under a bell-glass with a little bottom-heat 

 are rooted in a short time. Let these be potted off in the 

 smallest-sized pots, and any stray bloom-bads be picked off 

 until the plant has grown so as to acquire some strength. 

 Blooming takes away the strength a good deal, and the plants 

 are better grown quickly than otherwise, which, indeed, 

 appears its natural disposition. As soon as the small roots 

 grow through the hole at the bottom of the pot let them be 

 changed into a size larger, and the end of the main shoot may 

 be taken off to produce lateral branches. ^Vhen they have 

 been shifted into six-inch pots some kind of trellis should be 

 provided for them, and their tender shoots carefully guided to 

 cover it : all this time they are to be in the stove, and near 

 to the light. Let them frequently have the benefit of 

 syringing the foliage, which is a check to the red spider, and 

 continue to pick off the flower-buds till the plant has nearly 

 covered the trellis, when they may be allowed to open. 



