258 THE FLOKAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



and this should be attended to before the foliage gets disfigured. 

 By continuing this treatment for a season or two, fine, large 

 specimens will be obtained ; and when this is the case, they may be 

 removed from the conservatory, where, if they are afforded a close 

 corner, and not over-watered, or allowed to sutler from damp, they 

 will be quite at home all the summer season. But they must be 

 removed to where a temperature of not less than 55 Q is maintained, 

 as soon as cold, damp weather sets in in autumn. Large specimens 

 will, of course, require to be repotted occasionally, and this should 

 be done as early in spring as there may be an opportunity of afford- 

 ing them a brisk temperature to stir the roots. With proper 

 management, specimens will last any number of years ; and propa- 

 gation is easily effected by dividing the old plants, or by means cf 

 offsets, which should be taken off with as many roots as possible, 

 and kept close for a few weeks after potting, when they will be 

 sufficiently rooted to be treated as established plants. 



Maranta splendida and M. illustris present us with leaf surfaces 

 most elaborately and richly painted, and, moreover, very distinctive 

 as fine foliaged plants ; and in M. rosea picta we have a remarkable 

 example of leaf colouring, the leaves having a bright rosy midrib, 

 with bands of brilliant red and white, the intervening spaces of a 

 solemn tone of deep green. 



VALLOTA PURPUREA. 



HERB are few plants so showy and useful as this which 

 are so suitable for amateurs, or persons possessing but 

 limited accommodation for plant-growing. It is more 

 beautiful than many varieties of Amaryllis, while it is 

 not nearly so troublesome to manage ; and its fine 

 umbels of bright-coloured flowers last in perfection for weeks in a 

 cool greenhouse. It is easily propagated by means of offsets, which 

 are produced freely on established plants. These should be taken 

 off before growth commences in spring, and planted in separate pots, 

 putting one or more into a pot just sufficiently large to conve- 

 niently admit the roots, according as the object may be to increase 

 the number of the plants or to have useful-sized specimens for 

 flowering as soon as possible. After potting, they should be put in 

 a close pit, and sparingly supplied with water at the root, sprinkling 

 them overhead morning and evening in fine weather until they emit 

 fresh roots, when a free supply should be given at the root. When 

 fairly established, after potting, which will soon be the case, the 

 plants should be placed near the glass, and freely exposed to the 

 air on every favourable opportunity, affording them a temperature 

 of about 50° at night, and allowing it to rise 10° or 15° with sun 

 heat. As soon as the pots are well filled with active roots, shift 

 into others some two inches wider. 



During the warm months of summer the plants will do very well 

 in a close part of the greenhouse, or a cold frame ; the latter, how- 



