THE 
LADIES’ COMPANION 
TO 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Oe eee? 
A. 
ABUTILON. 
A’srus. — Leguminose. — The 
Wild Liquorice (A. precatorius) isa 
pretty climbing stove plant, which 
requires a strong heat to throw it 
into fower. The seeds, which are 
poisonous, are scarlet and black, and 
are sometimes made into necklaces 
for children. 
Asu\tiLon. — Malvdacee. — The 
herbaceous plants belonging to this 
genus are scarcely worth cultiva- 
ting, but there is a very beautiful 
greenhouse plant called Abwutilon 
stridtum, or Sida picta, that de- 
serves a place in every collection. 
It is a native of Brazil, and half- 
shrubby, with vine-like leaves and 
bell-shaped flowers of a bright yel- 
low, strongly veined with scarlet, 
which hang down on long slender 
stalks. The plant should be grown 
in a pot, a quarter filled with broken 
potsherds, to ensure perfect drainage, 
in a light sandy loam ; and it should 
be trained to a slight frame: or it 
may be planted in the open air, and 
trained against a wall or trellis, as 
it is nearly hardy, and only requires 
protection from frost. It is some- 
times also grown in a stove, where 
it flowers abundantly, if allowed 
plenty of moisture, though the whole 
ACACIA 
Aca‘cia. — Leguminose.— Most 
persons understand by the word 
Acacia, tall trees with pea-flowers, 
which are natives of North Ame- 
rica, and quite hardy in the open 
-airin England. These trees, how- 
ever, are the Locust trees, or false 
Acacias, and belong to the genus 
Robinia. The true Acacias are 
what are called Wattle trees in 
Australia, with flowers like balls or 
spikes of down ; and as they require 
protection from the frost in England, 
they are generally treated in this 
country as greenhouse shrubs. Above 
three hundred species have been 
introduced ; but only about thirty 
are in Cultivation in’ British nurse- 
ries, and nearly all these have been 
figured in the botanical periodicals. 
By far the greater part of the Aca- 
cias grown in England are natives 
of New Holland, and most of these 
are nearly hardy; but some are 
'from the East Indies and Arabia, 
and most of these require a stove. — 
Nearly all the kinds are evergreen ; 
and the Australian species are very 
valuable in greenhouses, because 
they are in flower during winter. 
In the open ground they flower in 
March, April, May, and June. The 
plant is much weaker than when | following kinds are the most com- 
grown in a cooler temperature. 
Ox 
j}mon of the Australian Acacias in 
