HAEDT HAHDSOME FOLIAGE PLAKTS. 41 



The FunJcia Sieboldiana is a beautiful perennial, with 

 large handsome foliage, variegated white and green, pro- 

 ducing a rather pretty lilac flower in summer. It must 

 have a deep sandy loam, and a warm dry situation. It 

 should be potted into a large pot, and put in a cold pit 

 in winter, brought forward in a greenhouse, and after- 

 wards planted out. It must not be allowed to suffer 

 from want of water. It is easily propagated by division 

 of the root in autumn. 



The 'Farfugium grande is a splendid plant, with bold 

 magnificent showy foliage, gaily and thickly blotched 

 and spotted with yellow on a dark green ground. As it 

 will stand the winter (losing its leaves) in the south of 

 England, it is quite worth while to attempt to acclimatize 

 it more completely. The best soil for it is strong fibry 

 loam, sandy peat, and leaf-mould in equal parts. It must 

 be new potted in March, and again in August; and if it 

 be tried in the open ground the pot should be sunk in a 

 warm sheltered border, after the warm weather begins, 

 and taken up before winter. The old plants send up 

 suckers, which may be taken off with roots, potted singly, 

 kept under a glass, shaded for a few days, and then har- 

 dened and placed in the greenhouse. 



Some of the new Begonias might be made as hardy with 

 us as our old ruby-leaved favourite, by trying to acclima- 

 tize them by careful gradation. They have lived near 

 London through severe winters, in a room in which a fire 

 was kept up by day, but not by night. The begonias 

 grow in light rich sandy soil ; cocoa-nut fibre is good 

 manure for them. 



The Perilla NanJcinensis is most valuable, either as a 

 bedding plant or to mix with other flowers in the 

 borders, on account of its deep crimson foliage, almost 

 amounting to black. It must be sown in heat in March 

 or April, and planted out in May. 



Cineraria maritima mixes in good contrast with the 

 perilla, and other plants of deep-coloured foliage, being 

 clothed on leaves and stalks with silvery down. This 

 is propagated by cuttings and offsets, in a hot-bed, and 

 requires a warm soil and situation. 



