AGAPANTHUS. 



leaves of pear-trees, and other plants 

 belonging to the genus Pyrus. 



^o'nium Weib. — Crassulctcece. 

 ■ — This is a new genus formed out of 

 Sempervivum, of which *S'. arhoreum 

 is taken for the type. Some of the 

 species are very ornamental. They 

 are all greenhouse plants, which re- 

 quire a warm, dry situation in 

 summer, and a cool place with very 

 little water in winter ; and they grow 

 best in wide, shallow pots, well 

 drained with potsherds, and filled 

 ■with a mixture of loam and old 

 mortar, covered with fine sand. 



Ae'rides. — Orchid cicecB. — Stove 

 epiphytes, natives of the East Indies, 

 with whitish flowers that have the 

 odour of the Tuberose. They should 

 be grown on moss, and suspended from 

 the rafters of a very damp hothouse. 



jEschyna'nthus Jack. ; In- 

 carvi'llea JRoxb. — Cyrtandracece. 

 — Stove parasitical shrubs, growing 

 four or five feet high, natives of India, 

 where they are found in moist, shady 

 woods, hanging from tree to tree, and 

 producing large bunches of their 

 showy orange -scarlet flowers. Most 

 of the species are very ornamental, 

 but ^. purjm'rdscens is much less 

 so than any of the rest. In England 

 they should be grown in moss, or in 

 vegetable mould and sand, and they 

 should be allowed abundance of heat 

 and moistuj-e. 



JE'scuLUS. — JEscidacecB. — Most 

 of the Horse-chesnuts are too large 

 trees to be admitted into a work like 

 the present ; but the red-flowered 

 Horse-chesnut {jE. rubicunda) and 

 its varieties are seldom above 

 twelve or fifteen feet high, and they 

 are, therefore, very suitable for a 

 shrubbery. The most beautiful 

 variety is Whitleifs Scarlet. These 

 trees should be grown in a sheltered 

 situation, or they will not flower 

 ■well. For the yellow-flowered Horse- 

 chesnut, see Pa Via. 



Aericax Lilt. — See Agapa'n- 



THUS. 



African Marigold. — See Ta- 

 ge'tes. 



Agapa'nthus. — Hemerocalli- 

 ddcece. — The blue African Lily, A. 

 umhellatibs, is a noble plant, with a 

 bulbous root, somewhat resembling 

 that of a leek ; and it retains its 

 leaves all the winter. There is a 

 variety with striped leaves. A. 

 dlbidus has white flowers, but it 

 does not difi"er from the common kind 

 in any other respect. A. mdximus 

 has a very tall stem, and narrow 

 leaves, and the flowers, which are of 

 an extremely dark blue, with a 

 white stripe, form rather a small 

 head in proportion to thegi'eat length 

 of the stem. Both these last-named 

 plants are, however, probably only 

 varieties of A. unibelldtus. The 

 following directions are given in the 

 Botanical Register for February, 

 1843, for the cultivation of tlds 

 genus : — "About the end of 

 February, the plants should be 

 fresh potted, in a mixture of rich 

 loam and well decomposed leaf mould, 

 or well-rotted dung, and placed in 

 a warm part of the greenhouse, 

 where they will soon begin to 

 grow freely. They will then require 

 to be abundantly supplied with 

 water, and about the end of May 

 should be removed to the open air, 

 if it is intended that they should 

 flower out of doors. The pots should 

 be placed in a sheltered situation, in 

 large pans filled with water, so that 

 one-third of the pots are immersed ; 

 or the pots may be placed by the side 

 of a pond, and treated as subaquatic, 

 in which situation they will flower 

 freely during the summer. If they 

 are retained in the greenhouse during 

 the flowering season, they must have 

 j plenty of air and water, or they will 

 ! become weak, and lose that beautiful 

 ; deep-blue colour, which usually dis- 



