164 COMBRETUMS. 
exhibitions in or around London, or the country either. The following 
is the course of treatment I-have pursued :— 
In the beginning of February I take the pots that contain the roots 
of the plants that have flowered the season previous, and carefully take 
away the surface soil till the small tubers appear. I then fill the pots 
up with a compost of peat soil, light loam, and leaf soil, and give the 
whole a gentle watering. I then place the pots ina 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 ina slight shade, occasionally sprinkling them with a syringe 
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. 
COMBRETUMS. 
TuesE splendid flowering climbers have generally been neglected, in 
consequence of a supposition that they could not be properly grown 
and bloomed but when planted in the border of a warm conservatory 
or hot-house. Recent facts, however, prove that they may be grown 
in pots to a high degree of perfection, and an instance in confirmation 
is inserted in Paxcton’s Magazine of Botany, &c., for last February. 
