CHAP, xili VILLA GARDENING 217 



into the stove. Roudeletica speciosa is an excellent stove slimb, 

 nearly always in flower. It has maintained its hold upon culti- 

 vators all through the rage for foliage which set in twenty years 

 ago. This list might be indefinitely prolonged did space permit, 

 but I will only fiurther notice the Tabernsemontana coronaria fl.-pL, 

 and the Gardenias, which are so sweet and fragrant in winter and 

 early spring. The former is valuable for cutting, and deserves more 

 attention than it receives. The Gardenia everybody knows by 

 sight at any rate, it being one of the most popular market flowers. 

 Some growers make a specialty of it, and build houses where it 

 can be planted out in beds of rough peat. Under this treatment 

 it attains its most luxuriant development. The Gardenia may also 

 be successfully grown in pots. Fibry peat and plenty of sand to 

 keep it open are its chief necessities, with plenty of warmth and 

 moisture during its growing and blossoming periods, and a thin 

 shade to soften the rays of the sun in the middle of the day. After 

 the growth is made, the temperatiu'e should be lowered to ripen 

 the wood. If the plants are in pots they can be moved to a cooler 

 house, and in the hot summer weather they will receive no 

 liarm if placed in the open air for two or three weeks during the 

 brightest season. Gloxinias can easily be had in flower in winter, 

 or at any other time, by inducing early rest. In this respect they 

 are very manageable, and seem to fall naturally into any desired 

 arrangement without loss of vigoiu*. Achimenes may, by a system 

 of starting in batches, be made to reach up to Christmas. These 

 are very useful, and more ought to be done with them, as they are 

 so well adapted for the small stove or conservatory. They must 

 have heat to start them (a Cucumber frame or an ordinary hotbed 

 will do), but when they have reached the blooming stage they will 

 do very well in the conservatory. They may either be shaken 

 out at starting, or started in the pots of the previous year, and 

 potted off" when an inch or two high ; half a dozen plants in a 6- 

 inch pot will make a nice little specimen, but a dozen in a 10-inch 

 pan will make a grand one. The tops strike freely as cuttings, and 

 dwarf miniature plants may be had in this way -wathout much 

 trouble. They also make excellent basket plants either for stove 

 or conservatory. When the flowering ceases and the foliage be- 

 comes shabby, they may be dried off" and stored away anywhere 

 till the season comes round to start them again. Rough peat and 

 leaf-mould, with plenty of sand, will grow them well. But for the 

 amateui-'s stove in winter there is no class of flowers more useful 

 than the Gesnerias, of which Zebrina si)lendens may be taken as 

 the type. They succeed well in shallow pans, planted in rough 

 peat, with a little leaf-mould and plenty of sand. A single tuber 



