Book II. 



GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



905 



Chap. XII. 

 Green-house Plants. 



6597. Of green-house plants we shall first arrange some of the more select tribes, and 

 next class the most showy and easily-flowered sorts, under the head of woody, succu- 

 lent, climbing, herbaceous, bulbs, annuals, and biennials. Each of these subdivisions 

 will be arranged as before as far as respects time of flowering and color ; but consider- 

 in o- the limited height which all exotic plants attain in pots, it has been considered un- 

 necessary to attend to size. Such as are trees in their native country will be indicated 

 by the letters tr, and also such as are biennials by the letter b ; the most tender t, most 

 showy s, and those continuing in flower two or three months 3, as before. 



Sect. I. Select Green-house Plants. 



6598. As select green-house plants Ave shall consider the geraniums, heaths, and ca- 

 mellias ; which three tribes united will supply a green-house with flowers of almost all 

 colors, during every month of the year. 



Subsect. 1. Geranium. — Geranium, L. Geranium, Erodium, and. Pelargonium, of 

 modern authors. Monadelphia, L. and Geranice, J. Geranier, Fr. ; Geranium, Ger. ; 

 and Geranio, Ital. 



• 6599. The geranice tribe comprehends numerous species and varieties of herbaceous 

 suffruticose and shrubby plants, generally of a somewhat succulent nature throughout. 

 They are almost all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and with the exception of three 

 or four species, have been introduced, or originated here from seed, during the present 

 and latter end of the last century. They are chiefly admired for their flowers, which 

 they produce in abundance from May to September, generally in corymbs from the 

 axillae of the leaves, of every shade of red, scarlet, and purple, mixed with white and 

 yellow. The plants are easily cultivated, and by proper pruning, with .the aid of gen- 

 tle forcing in winter, many of the species, as the P. zonale, cuculatum, cordatum, &c. may 

 be kept in flower all the year. The best collection of this family is in the nursery of 

 Messrs. Colville, under the care of the botanist Sweet, whose Geranice, now publishing, 

 is the most elegant and complete work of its kind. 



6600. Species and varieties. Many species and subspecies have been received from the Cape ; but the 

 greater number of the admired sorts have been raised in this country from seed ; some of these have re- 

 ceived systematic appellations, but the greater number have been named by those who raised them after 

 themselves, or their friends, in the manner of florists' flowers. The following table contains some of the 

 old established sorts, arranged according to their habits of growth and time of flowering; the flowers of 

 most of the sorts are so mixed in regard to color, that it is almost impossible to class them in that respect ; 

 most of them are variegated with red, purple, scarlet, and white. 



6601. GERANIiE. 



6602. Propagation. The ordinary mode of continuing each species, is by cuttings, but almost all the 

 sorts produce ripe seeds in this country, by which they may be multiplied, and also new varieties produced. 

 The seed, if ripe before midsummer, may be sown as soon as gathered, in pots of light rich earth, and 

 placed in a gentle hot-bed and shaded ; the plants will soon come up, and if, when they show two proper 

 leaves, they are transplanted singly into pots, and kept under a cold-frame, they will flower the same 

 autumn. No plant grows more readily by cuttings than the shrubby or suffruticose species of this family : 

 the cuttings may be taken off at a joint where the wood is beginning to ripen; laid in the shade for an 

 hour or two till the wound heals ; and then planted in sandy loam, and placed in a gentle heat. The 

 hardier sorts, as P. zonale, inquinans, &c. will strike in the open air or in any shady situation, without 



