280 gf.enny's handbook 



will make excellent cuttings. The Pansies. which are of all 

 sorts of colours, should be had in Uoom all the year, except 

 in winter, a succession of young plants being raised for this 

 purpose. 



VIRGINIAN STOCK. See Malcomia. 



VIRGIN'S BOWER. See Clematis. 



Vise ARIA. [Caryophyllacege.] A small genus allied 

 to Lychnis, containing some neat small-growing perennials, 

 as F. vulgaris. V. neglecta, V, alpina, and V. Helvetica, form- 

 ing pretty rock plants. These perennials are increased by 

 carefully dividing the dense tufts of branches which they 

 form, retaining a share of roots to each slip if possible, and 

 treating the divisions rather as cuttings than as plants, by 

 keeping them in a close frame until they begin to grow. 

 These like a very open soil, containing pounded bricks or old 

 mortar, or any substance of similar texture. The genus also 

 contains two very showy hardy annuals, V. cosU-rosa and 

 F. oculata. These may be sown in the open borders with 

 other hardv annuals in March and April. 



VITTA'DENIA. [Composite.] Half-hardv sub-shrubs. 

 Light loamy soil. Cuttings or seeds. F. triloba, flowers 

 pinkish. 



VRIESIA. [Bromeliacese.] Showy stove perennials, with 

 the habit of ^Echmea, and requiring to be cultivated in a 

 similar manner. F. speciosa, the handsomest of the species 

 in cultivation, has the leaves marked with transverse black 

 bands, and bears its flowers in an upright spike, which ter- 

 minates in a two-ranked head of scarlet bracts, each of which 

 supports one white flower ; the beauty of the plant, as is the 

 case in this genus, lies in the richly-coloured bracts. 



WACHENDORFIA. [Lihacefe.j Fine greenhouse bulbs, 

 requiring the treatment of Watsonias. Loam and peat. 

 Offsets. 



WALFENIA. [Scrophulariaceae.] Hardy herbaceous 

 plants, requiring a dryish soil. Seeds and division. The 

 only one to grow is IF. Amherst iancE. 



WALL CRESS See Arabis. 



WALLFLOWER. See Cheiranthus. 



WALNUT. See Juglans. 



WARRATAH. See Telopea. 



