496 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Another g'ood old plant for the house in summer is the Gloxinia. 

 I know of no blooming plant that will do as w^ell in a close warm 

 room in deep shade in summer, and a prettier plant for the pot I do 

 not think there exists. I can hardly imagine auj'^thing more hand- 

 some than a well grown plant of Gloxinia in bloom, except more of 

 them, as there is quite a variety in the matter of coloring from the 

 darkest and richest crimson all through the different shades of red 

 to pure white, and the same in blue — you may have them from the 

 palest tint of lavender to the deepest, darkest of blue. There is also 

 a new section or strain that comes in striped, mottled and punct- 

 uated colors on light ground. 



Another plant I want to speak for is the Begonia. In its great 

 variations, this plant I shall always place at the head of any list 

 of useful and charining house plants. For a fact, if I could have 

 only one plant in the house, it should always be a Begonia. There 

 has in recent j'ears been great improvement in the Begonia; we maj' 

 today have thetn with the elegant foliage of the Rex section with 

 flowers approaching the best of the new hybrid Tuberous-Rooted 

 Begonias in size and brilliancy of coloring; but there are a great 

 many of the older varieties that are, in my estimation, ahead of 

 anj'thing else as house plants in winter. What is there, for instance , 

 that is richer or more elegant than a well grown specimen of 

 Metallica, with its most charmingly formed and cut leaves, its rich 

 metallic color shining in the sun like polished bronze, and the grand 

 pink clusters of bloom? or the Begonia Rubra with its great pend- 

 ant clusters of bright scarlet flowers, which last for months? 

 This plant alone, if handled right will keep you with flowers all 

 winter through: yes, you inay have it in full bloom the year round. 

 There are a great many Begonias that would head the list of plants 

 for the house. Yet, they are, without exception, all good as such. 

 Take the Incarnata with its varieties. They bloom freely during the 

 darkest part of the winter, viz., December and Januarj^ and with its 

 rich pink coloring it is about as pretty a cluster of flowers as you can 

 see in a room at that titne of year. If you desire something more 

 modest than the aforementioned varieties, take the Weltouiensis for 

 pink and Dregii for white. There is as prettj'-a pair of winter bloom- 

 ing plants as may be found. 



Or if 3^ou are interested more in foliage take the Rex Hybrids, and 

 I do not believe there exists a handsomer foliage plant that is 

 adapted to house culture than many of the varieties of these beauti- 

 ful plants with their broad, handsome leaves, colored and shaded in 

 such an intricate manner as to almost make them a study, represent- 

 ing,as they do sometimes.fine patterns of lace-work. Yes, each leaf is 

 almost a picture in itself. Then imagine a specimen four to five 

 feet in diameter, with hundreds of leaves, making it a perfect ball, 

 with the leaves completely hiding the pots, and upright three to four 

 feet. Such a specimen may easily be produced in any room with 

 moderate temperature with a little attention. The latest additions 

 of hybrid varieties raised give ua with the handsome foliage of the 

 Red Begonia the beautiful flowers of Bey Sowtrana produced freely 

 in midwinter. In this class of plants, you may have the most beau- 

 tiful flowers as well as foliage in the same plant. 



