68 



Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



under drying influences, as where much 

 air is admitted. If in a position of this 

 kind, a propagating glass partially closed 

 over them, so as to somewhat confine the 

 air and prevent its getting too dry, will be 

 an advantage. The plants must always 

 be shaded when the sun is at all powerful ; 

 they should be stood where a moderate 

 amount of light will reach them, and the 

 soil must never be allowed to get dry. 

 Little root-room will suffice, but, as the 

 sliuots are of a semi-procumbent habit, 

 they must have as much space as will 

 allow them to spread. They do well with 

 the pots plunged in a shallow pan filled 

 with a mixture of chopped sphagnum and 

 sand, in which way, if a number of plants 

 are so plunged, they are very efl'ective. 



The undermentioned kinds are all 

 liandsome : — 



B. guttata. From South America ; has 

 green ovate leaves, the upper surface 

 spotted with rose. There are three forms 

 of this plant, diff'ering somewhat in the 

 appearance of their leaves, but all hand- 

 some. 



B. Hoidteana. A Belgian variety, most 

 likely of garden origin, with beautiful 

 foliage. Its deeply-ribbed, lustrous, 

 olive-green leaves are spotted with rose ; 

 the ribs are marked with rose-tinted 

 liues. 



B. margaritacea. A Brazilian plant; 

 has five-nerved ovate leaves, the ground 

 colour olive-green, with lines of white 

 spots, the under surface reddish-purple. 



B. jorimulceflora. This is a species from 

 Ecuador, with ovate-lanceolate leaves, dark- 

 green in colour. It bears very handsome 

 rose-coloured flowers. 



B. siiperbissima. This is also, we believe, 

 a garden variety. It has large, broadly- 

 ovate leaves, in colour daik-green, with 

 large rose-coloured spots within the margin 

 and smaller spots on other portions of the 

 leaf. 



Insects. — We have found these plants 

 little troubled with insects except aphides, 

 which sometimes aftect them ; fumigation 

 is the remedy. 



BIGNONIA. 



(Stove.) 



The different species of these plants that 

 require more than a greenhouse tempera- 

 ture to grow them are mostly strong- 

 growing evergreen twiners, suitable for 

 decorating the roofs of large stoves or 

 warm conservatories. They belong to a 

 somewhat numerous family, but only a 

 limited number can be recommended for 

 general cultivation, the habit of many 



being so rampant as to render them unfit 

 for growing along with other plants. Most 

 of the species usually cultivated should not 

 be planted in a house where a very high 

 temperature is kept up, as the heat and 

 necessarily accompanying moisture render 

 them unmanageable under such conditions, 

 and induces growth to an extent that pre- 

 cludes a disposition to bloom freely. The 

 flowei'S are produced in panicles, generally 

 during the summer season. They are very 

 elfective, especially when the plants are 

 allowed a moderate amount of freedom in 

 their growth — not kept too closely tied in, 

 but allowed to hang in a wavy, natural 

 manner. 



One thing should be especially observed 

 in their cultivation, as also in that of other 

 subjects of a similar free habit — that what- 

 ever cutting-in becomes necessary during 

 the growing season, to keep them in bounds, 

 should be performed with judgment and 

 due regard to their flowering ; this will be 

 best effected by a total removal of such 

 portion of the shoots as is found necessary, 

 but not by a general shortening of the 

 wliole. Where the latter is done the effect 

 will generally be to stop blooming alto- 

 gether, or so far limit the extension of 

 growth as to prevent the production of 

 anything above a meagre display of flowers. 

 So far as possible, it is better to prune after 

 the blooming season is over, as then the 

 flowering shoots are not so much interfered 

 with. 



Bignonias may be propagated in dift'e- 

 rent ways — by root-cuttings, layering the 

 shoots, or by cuttings made of young 

 shoots. When they are increased by 

 layers, shoots should be selected that have 

 sprung from near the collar of a plant, 

 and the operation shoiild be performed at 

 a time when the wood has got fairly 

 matured. Procure some 6-inch pots, which 

 drain and fill with three parts jaeat to one 

 of sand ; press down firmly into the pots, 

 and place these on the surface of the 

 border in which the plant is growing. 

 Bring the shoots down to the pots, make a 

 slit in the wood at the under side of the 

 shoot, the knife entering just at the lower 

 side of a joint, and passing upwards longi- 

 tiidinally through it for about an inch. A 

 tongue-shaped piece is thus formed, com- 

 posed of about half the substance of the 

 shoot ; this must be bent down and 

 secured by a small hooked stick in the pot 

 whei'e the incision has been made, covered 

 aboiit an inch deep in the soil, which must 

 be kept watered. In this position it must 

 remain until well-rooted, after which it 

 can be severed inmiediately below the 

 point where rooted. When root-cuttings 



