HOW TO GROW SPECIMEN PLANTS. 293 



than usual, or than is graceful, because he wants all the 

 branches he can procure to make a surface of flowers, 

 and as soon as the plant assumes any thing like a mod- 

 erate size, twigs are placed to guide them outwards or 

 upwards, and at equal distances ; for all the harm it 

 would do, he might almost roll the plants about the floor, 

 without displacing a shoot or leaf. As the plant advances 

 beyond the distance provided for by the sticks or twigs 

 that support them, others must be placed there for as much 

 more growth as the specimen is likely to make. This 

 applies to all kinds of plants grown by propping with 

 wooden supports, roses in pots, fuchsias, pelargoniums, 

 geraniums, to many of the hard-wooded plants, verbenas, 

 petunias, and many others. 



There is yet another unnatural and yet popular mode 

 of growing plants for show. We have seen complete 

 iron frame-works or cages, and inside these the plants, 

 such as Rondoletia, Hovea, Eriostemon, Chorizema, and 

 many other plants of great merit, crowded, the stems dis- 

 torted all manner of ways, totally destroying the nature of 

 the plant, concealing its habit, and contriving to bring 

 just the shoots through upon the surface. 



It is true these cages are made of a conical or a pyram- 

 25* 



