FOLIAGE PLANTS 87 
bush plant and frequently they make very hand- 
some specimens. The topping is performed by mak- 
ing a deep upward slanting cut, with a sharp knife, 
at the point you want in the pot for your new plant. 
In the cut stuff a little sphagnum moss; remove this 
after a few days and wash the cut out with warm 
water, removing the congealed sap. Insert fresh 
moss and with strips of soft cloth tie a good hand- 
ful over the wound. Keep this moist constantly 
until the roots show through the moss, which may 
be several weeks. Then pot in moist earth, not 
wet, and syringe daily, but do not water the pots 
for two or three days. Sometimes pots cut in 
halves and the bottoms partly removed are used to 
hold the moss in place. August is a good time to 
propagate. 
Ficus elastica is the common rubber plant. The 
“ fiddle-leaved ” rubber plant (F. pandurata) is an- 
other variety, now largely grown. It differs from 
the former in having very broad, blunt leaves, 
shaped like the head of a fiddle, which are marked 
by the whitish veins. Two other beautiful plants 
are F. Cooperia, having large leaves with red mid- 
ribs, and F. Parcelli, with leaves marbled with 
white. They should be given a higher temperature 
than F. elastica. 
Saxifraga: S. sarmentosa tricolor is the commonly 
known strawberry geranium, or beefsteak plant. It 
has a quite unique habit of growth and is best dis- 
