RHIPSALIS. 



265 



RHODANTHE. 



■with large handsome leaves and 

 showy berries. These berries when 

 unripe are used in making a yellow 

 dye, and they are sold for this pur- 

 pose in the colour shops, under the 

 name of French berries ; when ripe, 

 their juice, mixed with alum, forms 

 what is called sap-green ; and if 

 they are suflfered to hang on the 

 trees till autumn, their juice be- 

 comes purple. The Avignon berries, 

 also used in dyeing yellow, are the 

 fruit of R. infectdrius, which is a 

 native of France, near Avignon. 

 R. saxdtilis, the Stone Buckthorn, 

 which is a deciduous recumbent spe- 

 cies, is a valuable plant for rock- 

 work, or for clothing rocks or old 

 walls, where it is desirable to give 

 a wild and natural appearance to 

 the scenery ; and R. Erythroxylon, 

 the Red-wooded Buckthorn, is very 

 ornamental as a tufted bush among 

 rocks near water. R. Frdngula, 

 and R. latifoUus, are low trees. 

 All the species are quite hardy, 

 and will grow in any common gar- 

 den soil, and in any situation that 

 is tolerably dry ; and they are all 

 easily propagated by seeds and 

 layers. 



Rhe'xia. — MelastomacecB. — Her- 

 baceous and shrubby plants, natives 

 of America. R. virglnica, which 

 is the handsomest species, is quite 

 hardy in peat earth, in a moist situ- 

 ation, and it produces its showy 

 pink or rather rose-coloured flowers, 

 with conspicuous yellow stamens, in 

 July and August. The leaves are 

 strongly ribbed, as in all the Melas- 

 tomacese, and slightly edged with 

 pink. The shrubby species are 

 more tender than the herbaceous 

 ones, and they are generally kept 

 in a greenhouse. 



Rhi'psalis. — Cdctece. — Very cu- 

 rious succulent plants, which are 

 natives of both the East and West 

 Indies. As the Opuntias may be 



said to be all leaves, and the differ- 

 ent kinds of tree Cereus all stem, 

 so the Ehipsalis may be considered 

 all branches ; for the whole plant 

 consists of a series of short roimd 

 articulated branches, spreading in 

 all directions. The flowers of this 

 genus difier from those of the Cacti 

 generally, in being small and not 

 very handsome. They are generally 

 yellow. The species should all be 

 grown in brick-rubbish and sandy 

 loam, and they should have very 

 little water. The cuttings must be 

 dried by laying them on a shelf for 

 two or three days before they are 

 planted. 



Ehoda'nthe. — Compositce. — A 

 beautiful little annual plant, a na- 

 tive of the Swan River, whence its 

 seeds were imported by Captain 

 Mangles, who so well merits the 

 gratitude of every lover of flowers 

 for the numerous beautiful plants 

 which he has been the means of 

 introducing. The Rhodanthe is 

 generally treated as a half-hardy 

 annual, being sown on a hotbed in 

 February and planted out in May ; 

 but it may be grown to an enor- 

 mous size by the following treat- 

 ment. The seed must be sown the 

 first week in April, in a soil com- 

 posed of three parts of heath-mould 

 and one of loam ; and the young 

 plants pricked out the first w^eek in 

 May into small thumb-pots or six- 

 ties, filled with a similar soil. In 

 a week's time they should be shifted 

 into pots a size larger ; they should 

 then be suffered to remain a fort- 

 night, after which they should be 

 again shifted into larger pots and 

 the blossom-buds pinched ofi". The 

 shifting may be repeated five or six 

 times, always pinching off the blos- 

 som-buds, till the plants have at- 

 tained a large size and shrubby 

 character, which will generally be 

 about the middle of August, and 



