148 VILLA GARDENIN(; pakt ii 



brought from the Indian mountains and elsewhere. To refer to 

 each genera separately woidd occupy much space and involve a 

 good deal of repetition. Plants requiring the same temperature, 

 the same soil, and the same general treatment, may for all practical 

 purposes, in a work of this kind, be grouped under one heading. 

 The plants from the temperate regions of Australia, New Zealand, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and China, comprise the most interesting 

 and beautifid of our greenhouse plants. It is true their cultivation 

 under ordinary circumstances involves more care and thought than 

 the common ruck of soft-wooded plants with which they are too 

 frequently mixed ; hence they are less grown than they deserve to 

 be. But there is no real difficulty in gi-owing New HoUaud plants, 

 if they can have a light airy house to themselves, and receive only 

 enough artificial heat to keep out frost and dispel damp. The 

 reason why so many people fail with the beautiful shnibs from 

 Australia, which are so well adapted to impart beauty and char- 

 acter to oirr gardens in early spring, is because they mix them with 

 the soft-wooded plants, and try to make them submit to the same 

 rough and irregular treatment in the matter of watering, ventilation, 

 etc., which soft-wooded plants usually get. Assuming, therefore, 

 that a house can be devoted to the cidture ot this class of plants, 

 there should be no difficulty in making it most interesting at all 

 seasons of the year, but especially in winter and spring, when the 

 largest number will be in flower. A span-roofed house is the most 

 suitable, because light in abundance is essential to their well-doing. 

 The ventilation shoidd be as fidl and perfect as possible, and the 

 water supply must be soft and pure. Having all these conditions, 

 the man that cannot grow New Holland plants must be defective 

 somewhere, either in intelligence or energy. 



Soil and Potting. — This class of plants will all gi-ow freely 

 in good peat, and, where rajiid growth is required, peat made porous 

 with sand may be used. But it frequently happens that rapid 

 growth is not required. Where the houses are of moderate size, and 

 the plants are not required to be run up veiy quick for exhibition or 

 any other special piu-pose, it is better to bring them on slowly, to 

 furnish well the base before encouraging an upward tendency. 

 And these slowly grown plants — all other things being equal — are 

 generally longer lived than those grown rapidly at first. Acting 

 on the latter proposition, instead of potting altogether in peat, a 

 proportion of loam should be added varying in quantity according 

 to its character ; indeed most of the New Holland plants have 

 been well grown altogether in Wimbledon loam, and the more loam 

 is used the better, if hardy, slow, well-built-up growth is i-equired, 

 always provided that the loam is of good quality and of soft silky 



