102 



Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



CHOROZEMA. 



For jiiopagation and cultivation, see 

 Ferns, general details of culture. 



STOVE SPECIES. 



C. farinosa. East Indies. 



C. hirta Ellisiana. South Africa. 



C. pulveracea. Mexico. 



GREENHOUSE SPECIES. 



C. elerjans. Tropical America. 



C. fragrans. Madeira. 



C. frigida. South America. 



C. lendigera. Spain. 



C. profusa. 



C. pulchella. 



C. tenuifolia. Ceylon. 



CHIRITA. 



Low-growing Gesnerads, that take up 

 little room. They are very effective when 

 in flower, and suitable for standing on the 

 front stage of a stove or intermediate house. 

 C. sinensis, and its variegated form C. 

 sinensis variegata, will succeed in a warm 

 greenhouse. They require the same treat- 

 ment as advised for Gloxinias, which see. 



The undermentioned are pretty kinds: — 



C. Moonii. Has blue, or purple, and 

 yellow flowers, produced in summer. A 

 native of Ceylon. 



C. sinensis. Flowers lilac; blooms in 

 summer. From China. 



0. sinensis variegata. A variegated form 

 of the last-named. 



CHOISYA TERNATA. 



An evergreen shrub, all but hardy in 

 the south of the kingdom, but worth a 

 place in the greenhouse. It produces large, 

 many-flowered, somewhat lax heads of 

 white flowers from the points of the shoots, 

 the individual blooms are in shape like 

 those of an Ixora, but longer and larger ; 

 they are sweet-scented. It can be in- 

 creased by shoot cuttings put in during 

 either spring or autumn, and treated in the 

 way required by other shrubs of partially 

 hardy nature. Introduced from Mexico. 



CHOROZEMA. 



These are greenhouse plants, and all 

 natives of New Holland or New South 

 Wales ; the brilliant coloured blossoms of 

 the varieties most generally found in 

 cultivation render them striking objects 

 when in flower. Their peculiar spiny, 

 holly-like leaves (large for such slender- 

 wooded plants) give them a very distinct 

 appearance, and render them desirable in 

 contrast with the more ordinary forms 



usually met with in hardwooded plants. 

 There" is also very great difference in their 

 general habit, "from the comparatively 

 weak-growing C. Henchmannii, the some- 

 what bushy C. varium nanum, to the strong 

 free-growing C. Lawrenceanum and C. 

 varium Chandlerii. The two latter varieties 

 frequently push shoots 4 or 5 feet in length 

 in one season, and their vigorous growth 

 adapts them either for training bush 

 fashion, as specimens, or for greenhouse 

 or conservatory climbers. In the latter 

 position they look well, not taken up the 

 roof, but trained to wires between the 

 upright sashes ; here they should not be 

 kept tied or stopped in too closely, but 

 simply attached to the wires or trellis- 

 work for support, and allowed to droop 

 loosely down. They will continue to 

 flower through the mnter and spring 

 months most profusely if well managed. 

 But here they should not be planted out 

 in the borders, as they sometimes are, 

 among plants of much larger growth and 

 greater rooting powers, that rob such things 

 as these of their due share of nutriment, 

 and thereby reduce their existence to a 

 mere struggle for life, which quickly ends 

 in the weakest succumbing. In situations 

 such as those under consideration, they 

 should be grown in pots, in the way de- 

 scribed further on, for trained specimens, 

 the difl'erence in their general treatment 

 principally consisting in their being en- 

 couraged to make as much growth as 

 possible without much stopping. 



In the selection of these and other small 

 hardwooded plants, for growing on, great 

 care should be taken that they are perfectly 

 free from scale insects. Even the least 

 trace of these most objectionable pests 

 should at once suffice to condemn any 

 plant, however strong and healthy in other 

 respects ; for although it is possible by 

 perseverance to completely destroy the 

 insects, it is always done with more or less 

 injury to the plants, and the labour it 

 involves costs more than the value of com- 

 paratively cheap plants. All the varieties, 

 except C. Henchmannii, will succeed in 

 either peat or loam, or a mixture of both • 

 yet we prefer peat where it can be had 

 good, with plenty of vegetable fibre in it. 

 These plants are quick growers, and con- 

 sequently will bear more liberal treatment 

 as to root-room than most hard-wooded 

 subjects. Chorozemas strike readily from 

 shoot cuttings ; these should be taken off 

 with a heel when in a half-ripened condi- 

 tion, such as obtainable about midsummer. 

 Put several together in 6 or 7 inch pots, 

 keep close, moist, shaded, and under a bell 

 glass or in a prouauating frame in an inter- 



