CHAPTER XL 



FOURTH WEEK IN OCTOBER 



AS the power of the sun declines it becomes necessary to 

 give all the light possible to plants under glass, and 

 any shading which may have been useful in summer 

 should now be removed. 



Not only so, but any climbers which have reached the 

 roof and have been flowering under it, must now be thinned 

 (if not pruned severely), so that the plants below shall 

 not suffer. Specially is this the case with Passiflora 

 racemosa princeps and P. Constance Elliott, both being 

 rampant growers, which need to be attended to at this time 

 under glass. The first-named passion flower, with blossoms 

 in a curious shade of crimson, blooms on the wood of the 

 previous year, throwing long trails from the roof, which are 

 very decorative ; these must therefore be spared as much as 

 possible, thinning out the weaker shoots and those which 

 cross each other, so as to allow the sunshine to penetrate 

 between and ripen the wood. 



The white passion flower (a sport from P. coerulea, named 

 Constance Elliott), on the other hand, blossoms on the wood 

 of the current season, and may therefore be more severely 

 pruned ; it, however, will continue to bloom for some weeks 

 yet, with slight warmth, and its beautiful trails of blossom 

 may be cut gradually back after flowering, avoiding the 

 serious shock to the roots which close pruning would give if 

 carried out in one day. 



The rich carmine-crimson blooms of tacsonia Von Volxemi 

 (nearly allied to the passifloras) are remarkably effective in 

 the greenhouse, and this, as well as the two passion flowers 



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