DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS. 



soil only moderately retentive; for, although there can be no doubt that it is quite 

 hardy, it will be prudent to guard against the evils resulting from too great a degree 

 of moisture in the soil. In sandy loam it would be perfectly safe, but the plant would 

 be less robust in its habit, and produce fewer flowers. We are by no means friendly 

 to the indiscriminate use of supports in the flower-garden, but the stems of the- 

 Fumeworts being somewhat brittle and succulent, and our present illustration is no 

 exception, it will be desirable to secure the principal stalk of the plant to a slight rod 

 which, if not too long and obtrusive, can be employed without in any degree detracting 

 from its graceful mode of growth. 



When cultivated in wet soils, much risk may be obviated by protecting tlm roots 

 in winter with some impervious covering ; in the absence of any thing more suitable, 

 an ordinary flower-pot may be employed for this purpose. 



When grown as a window-plant, it produces its flowers a month earlier than when 

 exposed to the rude changes of an English spring. In cultivating it with this view, 

 the plant, after flowering, should be allowed to remain out-doors during the summer 

 and autumn until the stems have died down and the fleshy roots become dormant, 

 when, at the approach of winter, the pot may be removed to the window of a cool 

 room, the soil being kept in a slightly moistened condition. While dormant, and 

 during the first stages of its growth, it might be placed in a fire-warmed apartment, 

 though we do not recommend such a course; but when the plant has made some 

 progress, and the leaves are fully expanded, the dry atmosphere of a heated room 

 would be prejudicial to its health, and the pores of its delicate foliage become choked 

 with dust : if kept at rather a low temperature, its flowers will continue in perfection 

 for a considerable period. 



For a strong plant, a pot of not less than six or eight inches diameter is desirable, and 

 the soil may be a rich loam, such as would be produced by the gradual decay of turf 

 from an old pasture ; or, in the absence of this, any good garden soil, mixing it when 

 deficient in vegetable matter with a little peat or leaf mould, and when too sandy with a 

 portion of good loam ; for we have not to fear the effects of the frost as in the open 



border. 



The directions we have given for its growth in pots, apply only to those cases in which 

 no other accommodation is available than that afforded by a window ; but where there is 

 the convenience of a cold frame, an accessary we should be glad to find in every 

 garden even of the smallest extent, the plant will, as a matter of course, be allowed to 

 winter there, and need only be removed to the window when the flowers are partially 

 developed. 



The plant may be increased by careful division of the roots in early spring, or by 

 cuttings taken off at a joint, and struck in white sand under a hand glass. From their 

 succulent nature, some care is necessary to prevent the cuttings from damping off, and to 

 avoid this the glass must be wiped every day, and removed at the earliest period after 

 they have emitted roots. 



