*J6 ON PENTAS CARNEA. 



into large unvaried masses ; and, if such accidentally occur, though 

 we may for a moment be attracted by their brilliant singularity, it is 

 not on them that the eye delights to dwell, but on the smaller groups 

 of various heights, half concealed by the ferns or brambles from 

 amidst which they spring, and which, like the frame of a picture, 

 enhance their natural beauty. Where the beds of one sort are small, 

 and others near them, then variety in colour, duration, &c, may be 

 better effected and not so liable to the objections which glaringly 

 apply to large ones in every instance. Beds so formed as to be 

 divided into. compartments, or strips, planted with several kinds, also 

 form beds which are less objectionable. 



ARTICLE IIT. 



ON PENTAS CARNEA, 



BY AN AMATEUlt PLANT GHOWEll. 



A recent number of the Floricultural Cabinet contained a 

 figure of the new and delicately beautiful Pentas carnea. One of the 

 specimens exhibited at Chiswick, and far the best there, was mine; 

 and by the following mode of treatment had been produced so hand- 

 some a specimen. 



I had the plant in a sixty-sized pot in January last, and, having a 

 moist plant-stove, I placed it there, repotting it in a twenty-four, well 

 drained, in a mixture of loam and peat, with half a pint of bits of 

 charcoal intermixed. In this it grew rapidly, and in March I re- 

 potted into a twelve, in similar compost ; the plant had then grown 

 to two feet. high. I pinched off the lead of the upright stem, which 

 caused the production of lateral shoots, which in due course grew 

 vigorously. The flowers being produced in terminal heads, each 

 lateral branch produced a corymb of flowers, and the result was 

 twelve fine heads of bloom. 



Although the plant will do tolerably well in a warm greenhouse, it 

 does much better in a plant-stove. It might be forwarded so as to 

 form its heads of bloom in a hotbed frame, vinery, &c, and then be 

 removed to bloom in the greenhouse or conservatory, and succeed to 

 satisfaction. Its beautifully delicate flowers, produced numerously, 

 and for bo lengthened a period, renders the plant worth any attention 

 being paid to it. 



