ALSINE. 
109 
w 
ALSTREMERIA. 
ish-white flowers, and very fragrant | genus Alsine appear a been 
leaves, which fall off in the winter. 
It requires a rich but light soil, well 
drained ; and when grown in pots, | 
it should never have water kept in 
the saucer. In winter, after its 
leaves have dropped, it should be 
kept nearly dry till the buds begin 
to swell, when it should be watered 
frequently and abundanily, but the 
water should never be suffered to 
remain in a stagnant state about 
the roots. It is easily propagated 
by cuttings, and only requires to be 
protected from severe frosts. 
AtprinE Piants.—Dwarf plants, 
natives of high mountains, and usu- 
ally with bmght-coloured flowers ; 
generally employed for ornamental 
rockwork, and which, as they are 
covered with snow during winter in | 
—their native countries, require pro- 
tection from severe frosts. 
Axpi'nta.-—Scitaminee.—-A genus | 
of reed-like plants, natives of the | 
East Indies and South America, 
with large and showy white or pink | 
flowers, of which one or two species | 
merit a place in select collections of 
stove plants. A. nttans is one of | | 
the most common, and when grown | 
in rich sandy soil, in a moist heat, 
with plenty of room, it will flower 
freely. Like most of the other | 
Scitamineous genera, there is a con- | 
siderable degree of sameness in all | 
the species, both in flowers and fruit, | 
and therefore one kind is enough for 
a small collection. 
Ausi'nE.—-Caryophylldacee.-—This 
genus was founded on the Chick- | 
weed (Alsine media), and it con- 
tained four or five weedy-looking 
species. It also gave a name to 
one of the sections of Caryophyl- 
lacee ; the plants belonging to that | 
order which have the sepals of the 
calyx distinct being said to belong 
to Alsinee, and those which have. 
their sepals united into a tube at the | 
base are said to belong to Silénee. | 
The species which composed the | 
10 
|nearly all distributed among other 
genera, and even the Chickweed is 
now called Stellaria media. 
ALsTReME'RIA.—Amarylliddcee. 
— This is a genus of tuberous-rooted 
plants, with beautiful flowers, na. 
tives of South America, and capable 
of being grown to a high degree of 
perfection in British gardens, in the 
stove, greenhouse, or open air, ac- 
cording to the species. The soil 
which suits all the Alstremerias is 
a mixture of sandy loam and leaf- 
mould, or well-rotted dung. Of all 
the stove species, A. Ligtu, with 
white and scarlet flowers, is the 
most difficult to flower ; but by giv- 
ing it abundance of water during 
summer, and a strong heat in De- 
cember, it will flower in February ; 
and one plant will scent a whole 
; house with fragrance like that of 
Mignonette. After flowering, the 
plants ought to be allowed to rest 
for three months, during which time 
very little water ought to be given 
to them. After this they should be 
repotted, and encouraged to grow, 
by giving them plenty of water, 
&c. A. edulis, Jus. is another stove 
species, which climbs to the height 
of ten or twelve feet, and, like all 
other climbers, thrives best when 
turned out into the cpen border. It 
may, however, be grown in a pot, 
commencing with one of small size, 
and shifting it several times, till it 
is at last put into a pot of eight or 
nine inches in diameter, when a 
frame of wire, three feet or four feet 
high, may be fixed to the pot, and 
the stems trained over it. These 
species will live and flower in a 
greenhouse, but not so freely as ina 
stove. The treatment of the green- 
house species of Alstremeria, con 
sists in setting the plants to rest by 
withholding water after they have 
done flowering, which is generally 
about the end of July ; fresh potting 
them about October or November, 
