G-recnhouse and Stove Plants: 



3i' 



can boast of ; hence tlieir increased popu- 

 larity. The varieties under consideration 

 bear flowers of a dry paper-like texture, 

 and may almost come under the descrip- 

 tion of Eveilastings. The leaves are large 

 — in some of the varieties from 8 to 12 in. 

 in length by 4 or 5 in breadth. The wood 

 is somewhat soft for a considerable period 

 after it is formed and until the time when 

 it becomes bare of leaves — which the 

 bottom parts of the branches do as the 

 points of the shoots extend — after which 

 it gets very hard. The flowers of the dif- 

 ferent varieties here treated of are pro- 

 duced in large bunches, on stout woody 

 stems, and have a calyx varying in colour 

 from blue to pale lilac (which gives a lively 

 and novel appearance) and a white corolla ; 

 this latter soon perishes, while the calyx is 

 long enduring. 



The time of flowering varies consider- 

 ably, according to the treatment the plants 

 receive, but most of the kinds under notice 

 throw up their principal blooming stems 

 early in the spring, and continue through 

 the season as they grow to push additional 

 flowers, which keep on until autumn. 

 The individual blooms, if they are not 

 allowed to get wet, and the plants are not 

 placed in a moist atmosphere, last good for 

 two or three months ; if cut when newly 

 opened, and dried quickly, they lose little 

 of their colour, and may be used in vases 

 for room decoration many months, or even 

 years, if kept under a glass shade free 

 from damp. Statices enjoy a little 

 closer atmosphere than most greenhouse 

 plants, and do not like full exposure to the 

 sun, their broad, leathery leaves offering 

 a considerable evaporating surface ; if too 

 much exposed to its influence they assiime 

 a bronze-like, sickly appearance, and be- 

 come a prey to red spider, but, on the 

 other hand, they must by no means be 

 kept too confined, with little air, or far 

 from the glass, or they will not succeed. 

 In winter they require more warmth 

 than most greenhouse plants, and should 

 be kept in a night temperature of about 

 45°. It is scarcely necessary to say that 

 they must never be placed out in the open 

 air, as it is needful to do with many things 

 in the summer in order to ensure that their 

 growth should be fully matured, as the 

 flowers are produced from the young shoots 

 as they are formed. In selecting plants 

 choose such as have several breaks not 

 more than 3 or 4 inches above the surface 

 of the soil, for if they have run up high 

 there is no means of getting the lower 

 branches down to keep the base of the 

 plant well furnished, for the shoots are 

 stiff, and until they have extended con- 



siderably — which it takes years for them 

 to do — there is difficulty in bending them. 

 Reject any that have been too long con- 

 fined in small pots, for the plants are 

 remarkably free rooters, and unless moved 

 on as the roots require space they get into 

 a stunted condition, in which case a newly- 

 struck cutting would be better, and with 

 liberal treatment progress at such a rate as 

 to leave a pot-bound plant behind. 



They root readily from cuttings made of 

 the shoots in spring ; select such as are of 

 moderate strength, and not too hard to 

 make roots, and remove the lower leaves. 

 Cuttings should be inserted singly in 

 small pots three-parts filled with a mixture 

 of sand and loam in equal parts, the rest 

 all sand ; cover with a bell-glass, keep moist, 

 shaded, and moderately close in a genial 

 heat, such as that of an intermediate house. 

 Here they will soon strike, after which re- 

 move the glass and keep in a growing tem- 

 perature through the summer, a little closer 

 than that of a greenhouse, with shade, 

 syringing overhead in the afternoon. About 

 the end of July move into pots 2 inches 

 larger, now using soil wth less sand in it ; 

 in autumn give more air, and cease shading 

 and syringing : keep them through the 

 winter in a temperature of about 45°. If 

 they can be accommodated with a shelf near 

 the' roof all the better, as the more light 

 they receive in such a situation the stouter 

 and stronger will they grow. So treated 

 the roots will be fully active through the 

 winter, the heads of the plants also making 

 growth — a condition essential to the well- 

 being of all the varieties in every stage of 

 their existence. 



If Statices are treated in the winter so as 

 to induce a total cessation of growth, or 

 rest as it is generally termed, by being 

 kept in a low temperature, not only is 

 there loss of time in getting them up to a 

 useful size, but they are much injured, 

 such usage inducing a stunted condi- 

 tion, and the growth for the ensuing year's 

 flower is not made by the time it should be. 

 This wiU be looked upon as the opposite 

 of sound practice by those who act on the 

 principle of resting all plants through the 

 winter in something like a uniform manner, 

 but it is this indiscriminate treatment of 

 things collectively that is the cause of 

 many growers not succeeding with quan- 

 tities of subjects that they attempt to 

 cultivate. There are many plants, and 

 these Statices are among the number, that 

 do not need rest in the ordinary acceptance 

 of the term ; it must not be understood 

 that it would be advisable or possible, with 

 a view to health in either these or other 

 things of similar nature, to keep them on 



