Eight] House-plants 79 



pings will keep it in proper condition. Avoid wetting 

 the foliage and as far as possible touching it. The 

 stems of both leaf and blossom are very brittle and the 

 slightest blow may deprive one of a cherished blos- 

 som. For this reason I like to grow them by them- 

 selves and use a mulch instead of cultivation. So 

 much of the beauty of the plant depends upon the 

 perfection of the foliage that every effort should be 

 made to preserve it. In setting or potting Gloxinias 

 the crown of the bulb should be above the earth, the 

 soil should slope to the rim of the pot, that no water 

 may settle about the crown and rot it. The plants 

 may remain in the hotbed or other quarters until the 

 approach of frost, when they must be shifted into 

 larger pots and given a position in an east window 

 with plenty of light. Gloxinias, if kept growing vig- 

 orously and shifted frequently, should bloom the fol- 

 lowing season. Some florists advise resting the bulb 

 the first winter, but this, I think, is a mistake; the 

 plant has done nothing to require a rest, nor has the 

 bulb gained sufficient size to live without nourish- 

 ment for any length of time, so that drying off is 

 likely to result disastrously. After the Gloxinia has 

 completed its period of bloom water should be grad- 

 ually withheld and the foliage allowed to ripen. 

 The bulbs may then be set away in their pots in a 

 warm, dry place, until the following spring; or, if 

 grown in hotbeds, they may be dried off by with- 

 holding water until the foliage ripens, when they may 



