THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



353 



COLEUS. 



FEW of the varieties of Coleus are gorgeous in their 

 leaf-colouring, and iuvaluable as bedders ; but some 

 thirty or forty kinds, supposed to be " in cultivation," 

 are scarcely better for outdoor purposes than nettles 

 from the hedgerows. To grow these plants is easy 

 enough, provided they can be wintered in a stove or intermediate 

 house, and be propagated early over a tank, or on a good hot-bed. 

 They cannot be wintered in a cool temperature that suffices for 

 geraniums, centaureas, and verbenas, and it is but inviting vexation 

 to attempt it. But given warmth enough, and the matter is dis- 

 posed of, for they grow with the vigour of nettles if they grow at all. 

 During winter, keep them rather dry, and near the glass, and never 

 allow a drop of water to touch the leaves. Early in spring strike 

 the cuttings in a moist heat of 70% and pot off the young plants in 

 a light rich compost. Do not be in haste either to turn them out to 

 harden, or to plant them in the beds. The middle of May is early 

 enough to put them in frames, and the first week in June early 

 enough to plant out. The best of all the varieties for out-doors is 

 C. Versckaffelti ; but Emperor Napoleon, Princess of Wales, and 

 Baroness Rothschild are useful, where more than one sort is re- 

 quired. 



Eor in-door cultivation perhaps G. Marshalli is the best of the 

 sombre-toned varieties, the leaf being elegant in outline, and of the 

 richest purple, or red chocolate, with brilliant green eye. C. Mur- 

 rayi also has a fine expanse of leaf, the ground colour bright green, 

 invaded by patches of a fine deep purple colour, while G. Telfordi 

 aurea, though small and rather flimsy in texture, is distinct and 

 brilliant in colour, the ground being golden green, shading to bufl" 

 with a central stripe of purplish red. 



BABINGTONIA CAMPHOROSM^E. 



sT HIS, although not oneofthe most showy of our hard-wooded 

 plants, has the good property of flowering in autumn, 

 when hard-wooded specimens in bloom are scarce ; and 

 being of a free, elegant habit of growth, and flowering 

 profusely as it does for many weeks in succession, it is 

 well worth a place in every collection. It is perhaps one of the 

 easiest of greenhouse hard-wooded plants to propagate ; cuttings 

 selected of the young wood in a half-ripe state, and treated in the 

 ordinary way, very soon emit roots. The cuttings should be potted 

 singly, in small pots, as soon as they are moderately well rooted, 

 using nice rich fibry peat in a small state, with a large admixture of 

 silver eand, and placing them till fairly established in their pots, in 

 a close, rather moist pit. Beginners will, however, save time by 



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