MYRSIPHYLLUM. 



Greenkuiisc and tSiooe Plants 



255 



footing. Thrips and greenfly are thus in 

 like manner held in check, but should 

 they make their appearance, fumigate or 

 dip in tobacco-water. Blown scale and 

 mealy bug where present must during the 

 growing season be removed by brushing 

 and sponging, and when the plants are cut 

 in after the second flowering, they should 

 be dipped in or well syringed with a 

 moderately strong solution of insecticide. 



MUTISIA. 



Pretty evergreen climbing plants suitable 

 for training to a supporting pillar or rafter 

 of a greenhouse. Being less vigorous in 

 growth than some climbing species they 

 are adapted for situations where plants of 

 rampant habit would not be admissible. 



They strike from cuttings made of the 

 young shoots in spring, treated in the 

 usual way, inserted in sand, kept close, 

 moist, and shaded from the sun in a tem- 

 perature of 70° ; when rooted move singly 

 into 3-inch pots in a mixture of peat and 

 loam, to which add some sand. Keep on 

 in a growing temperature something like 

 that in which the cuttings were struck 

 until they have got established, when re- 

 duce it to an intermediate heat day and 

 night, which maintain through the summer; 

 give air in the day, and as soon as they 

 begin to grow commence syringing freely 

 overhead in the afternoons. About mid- 

 summer put the plants into 6 or 7 inch 

 pots, and stop the points of the shoots. 

 Place a stick for support to each, and keep 

 them trained so that they do not get en- 

 tangled. Admit more air as the season 

 advances, and shade no more than needful 

 until the end of August, after which dis- 

 continue it altogether, and reduce the 

 temperature so as to bring about a state of 

 rest. Keep through the winter at about 

 45° ; we have found these plants to do 

 better when kept during the mnter a little 

 warmer than most occupants of the green- 

 house absolutely require. In spring move 

 into pots 3 or 4 inches larger, in soil such 

 as before, and place the plants so that the 

 shoots can be trained over the space they 

 are to occupy ; attend regularly to this 

 matter through the season as they pro- 

 gress in growth. If to be planted out, the 

 bed they are to occupy should be prepared 

 so that they can be turned out of the pots 

 into it about midsummer, so as to allow 

 time for the roots to make some progress 

 before winter. One of the principal things 

 to be attended to with these climbers is to 

 syringe freely all through the growing 

 season to keep down insects — without this 

 the leaves get an unhealthy appearance ; 



and to be equally careful that the roots 

 receive enough water. Where the plants 

 are kept in pots, all that is further re- 

 quired is to shift them on to larger ones 

 as more root-room becomes needful, and 

 when turned out to remove a portion of the 

 top soil each spring, ^^^lichever method 

 is followed, as the plants get older give 

 manure-water in the growing season, and 

 each year after the flowering is over reduce 

 the growth so far as seems necessary. 



The undermentioned two are best worth 

 growing : — 



M. Clematis. Flowers orange and red ; 

 blooms in summer. A native of Bogota. 



M. decurrens. Has scarlet and yellow 

 flowers that open in summer. South 

 America. 



Insects. — The use of the syringe already 

 advised will keep down red spider, and 

 generally aphides as well, but if these 

 are troublesome fumigate. For scale 

 and mealy bug sponge and syringe with 

 insecticide. 



MYRSIPHYLLUM (MEDEOLA) 

 ASPARAGOIDES. 



A slender growing stove twiner with 

 small, pretty, bright green leaves. The 

 twining shoots, almost as thin as threads, 

 grow to a length of many feet during a 

 season, and are unequalled for decorative 

 use in vases or baskets of cut flowers, or in 

 the endless ways in which green drapery 

 is now so eftectively employed. The shoots 

 are so thin as to be almost imperceptible, 

 which, combined with their flexibility and 

 the smallness of the leaves, adapts it for 

 use where anything that was not ex- 

 tremely light in appearance could not be 

 employed. 



It can be struck from cuttings in spring 

 in heat in the usual way, potted on in 

 peaty soil, keeping the plants in a mode- 

 rate stove heat, with a little shade in very 

 bright weather ; 6-inch pots will be large 

 enough for the first year, and a tall stick 

 should be put to each for the shoots to 

 twine round. A winter temperature of 

 60° in the night will be high enough. In 

 spring give pots 3 or 4 inches larger, and 

 treat as before, affording the necessary 

 support to the shoots as they extend, and 

 managing generally as in the preceding 

 summer. Large pots will ultimately be 

 required as the plants get bigger, for the 

 amount of shoots annually available for 

 cutting will necessarily be proportionate 

 to the size and strength acquired. It is 

 best to turn the plants out in a bed where 

 they will spread and yearly make a large 

 amount of growth, which can be trained to 



