34 ON THE CULTURE OF ACHIMENES COCCINEA. 



up with a compost of peat soil, light loam, and leaf soil, and give the 

 whole a gentle watering. I then place the pots in a fruiting pine- 

 stove or hotbed frame, the temperature of which is kept from 70° to 

 85° of heat. I give water sparingly for about ten days, but afterwards 

 more freely, so as to effectually moisten the whole of the soil to the 

 bottom of the pots, which will have become very dry from having been 

 kept during the winter without water. 



When the shoots have attained the height of about three inches, I 

 turn the bulbs out of their pots, and carefully break them till I can 

 divide the young shoots. I then select the strongest, and retain all 

 the roots attached to them, and plant singly into sixty-sized pots, in 

 the same compost as recommended for earthing up the pots, with the 

 addition of one-fifth fine clean sand. I grow the plants in a moist 

 heat and in a slight shade, occasionally sprinkling them with a sy- 

 ringe or the fine rose of a watering-pan. As they advance in growth 

 and fill their pots with roots, I frequently repot them into pots a size 

 larger till I finally remove them,' the strongest plants into sixteens, 

 and the others into twenty-fours, using the same kind of compost, 

 except for the last shifting, at which time I give them pots two sizes 

 larger, and I add one-fourth of well-decomposed hotbed manure, using 

 the other part of the compost more turfy and open. I am particular 

 in draining the pots well at each shifting with plenty of broken pots, 

 and to the depth of one inch at least at the last potting. I examine 

 them at each removal, and take away any suckers that may appear 

 about their stems, and also two or three of their lowest side branches ; 

 this tends to strengthen the main stem, and encourages them to make 

 fine symmetrical pyramidal heads. After they are well established, and 

 are beginning to produce flowers, I place them, some in a cooler stove, 

 and others in the greenhouse, being careful that they enjoy as much 

 light as possible, which I find materially enhances the brilliancy of 

 their scarlet flowers, and adds much to their general lustre. 



After they have done flowering I gradually withhold water, but do 

 not cut their stems away till they have entirely died down. I keep 

 the dormant roots in the pots, on a shelf in the greenhouse, without 

 any water till they are again wanted to vegetate. 



[At the London Horticultural Societies, and Surrey Zoological Gar- 

 dens, as well as country floral exhibitions, we have seen numerous 

 specimens shown, but those grown by Mr. Simpson were double the 



