152 



Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



beautiful and distinct variegated plants 

 in cultivation, alike remarkable for the 

 charming colouring of their foliage and 

 the elegance of their habit ; tliey are 

 adapted for the warm conservatory or the 

 greenhouse in the summer, or the numerous 

 decorative purposes in rooms for which 

 plants are now so extensively used. The 

 narrow-leaved kinds are the most elegant, 

 but some of those with massive broad foli- 

 age are very effective when associated with 

 Ferns or flowering plants, and in these 

 ways can be emphjyed to the best advan- 

 tage. 



All the warmer section will bear a stove 

 temperature and are free growers, but do 

 not progress so fast as to be of a weedy 

 character ; they are easily propagated, but 

 not being plants that break out side-shoots, 

 they do not aftbrd material to make stock 

 so quickly as many things do. They 

 yield cuttings from the roots difi'erently 

 from most plants ; the feeding fibres pro- 

 ceed from a stout underground stem, thick 

 and blunt at the extremity, which extends 

 do^vnwards, soon reaching the bottoms of 

 the pots. If 2 or 3 inches of these stems 

 are cut off and put points upwards in small 

 pots, they \vill soon push growth, and, 

 forming leaves, make plants similar in 

 every way to such as are the result of 

 striking the tops of the plants. The latter, 

 if taken off with four or five leaves, root in 

 a warm close atmosphere in a few weeks, 

 but the most expeditious mode of increas- 

 ing Dracaenas is to take the stems of any 

 old plants that have attained a con- 

 siderable height, and in such condition 

 have generally lost their lower leaves ; if 

 these are divested of the roots, the soft 

 portion of the tojj and all the leaves, and 

 are laid down in a propagating frame 

 where there is a good l^ottom heat, on a 

 bed of open sandy peat, with about half 

 an inch of similar soil over them, most of 

 the eyes will start into growth and push 

 up sucker-like shoots. As soon as these 

 have made three or four leaves each they 

 should be cut clean off from the old stem 

 with the roots attached that the young 

 growths will have formed ; they should 

 be put singly in small pots in sandy peat 

 and kept close and shaded for a week or 

 two, when they will soon get established, 

 and must then be inured to the full air of 

 the house. Dracsenas are not liable to 

 become drawn or weakly, but their leaves 

 are handsomer and more enduring when 

 they are grown with enough light and 

 have a sufficient amount of air every day 

 during summer. Plants raised in the 

 above way early in spring will, if kept 

 growing in a brisk heat, be ready for 



moving into 4-inch pots by the end of 

 June, after which continue to treat them 

 as before, giving plenty of water so long 

 as the season of growth continues. Syringe 

 freely overhead in the afternoons at the 

 time the house is closed. In the night 

 through the winter a temperature of 60" 

 is sufficient ; in the spring increase the 

 warmth day and night, and as soon as 

 growth commences move them into pots 3 

 inches larger, treating as in the previous 

 summer. Additional root-room as wanted 

 must be given proportionate to the require- 

 ments of the different kinds grown ; such 

 large growers as D. Shepherdii and Baptistii 

 need much larger pots than the smaller 

 sorts. The plants may be kept growing to 

 any required height so long as they retain 

 their lower leaves ; after the loss of these 

 they possess little beauty, and should have 

 their heads taken off and struck, and 

 young stock raised from the stems. Three 

 yeais is geneially as long as the plants 

 can be kejjt fairly furnished with bottom 

 leaves. Comparatively small examples in 

 6 or 8 inch pots are the most useful for 

 ordinary decoiative purposes. There are 

 now an immense number of species and 

 varieties, many differing very little from 

 each other. 



The following is a selection of the best 

 heat requiring kinds : — 



D. albicans. A very distinct and hand- 

 some sort ; leaves bright green, variegated 

 with white. South Sea Islands. 



D. amhoynensis. Handsome in habit, 

 the lower portion of the leaves heavily 

 edged with bright red. Amboyna. 



D. angiista. A handsome small-growing 

 kind ; leaves 1 inch A\ude, dark clouded 

 green, shaded with bronzy-red. South Sea 

 Islands. 



D. Baptistii. One of the finest of all the 

 species. The leaves are large, and the 

 general habit of the plant handsome. 

 Ground colour, a peculiar shade of rich 

 metallic green, edged with red suffused 

 with white. South Sea Islands. 



D. BatLsei. A distinct and handsome 

 variety of garden origin. It has stout, 

 broad leaves, dark bronze, edged with 

 crimson ; the stalks highly coloured. 



D. Claudia. A fine decoiative variety 

 of small habit ; leaves green, shaded on the 

 edge with rosy-cai'mine. A most useful 

 kind. 



D. Earl of Derby. Leaves long and 

 broad, ground coloiu' bright green, broadly 

 edged with crimson ; leaf-stalks highly 

 coloured. South Sea Islands. 



D. Fraserii. This sort has very stout, 

 broad, short leaves ; the ground colour is 

 very dark, with red variegation. A dis- 



