AND CONSEETATOEY. 113 



CHAPTER YII. 



SOn-WOODED GEEEXIIOUSE PLANTS. 



Betaveen- herbaceous and soft- wooded plants the difference 

 is sufficiently decisive, but as to cultivation, they require 

 pretty nearly the same conditions, and may, therefore, be 

 associated in the same house. "We shall in this chapter ofter 

 brief directions for the cultivation of soft-wooded plants, but 

 reserve for separate chapters the pelargonium and the fuchsia, 

 on account of their great importance. The whole of the 

 plants now before us may be raised from seeds or cuttings, 

 and, as a rule, the latter are to be preferred. If one or two 

 hard-wooded plants should find their way into this list it will 

 be because they associate better with the softer section than 

 ■with that to which a technical classification would assign 

 them. 



BouTARDiA. — These are hard-wooded plants, but associate 

 best with soft-wooded plants, and should only be grown in a 

 house that is kept well heated during winter. Those employed 

 for bedding purposes make nice pot plants, but the best of the 

 family is B. Jonr/ifiora, which produces a profusion of most 

 elegant and sweet-scented white flowers during the winter. 

 It is a troublesome plant, but worth any amount of trouble. 

 Strike cuttings of the young wood in a brisk moist heat in 

 March. Pot off as soon as rooted in five-inch pots, in a mix- 

 ture of equal parts loam and peat, and a sixth part of the whole 

 bulk of silver sand. Put them into the warmest place you have, 

 but they must not be closely shut up, and the foliage must be 

 frequently syringed. A fortnight after this potting pinch out 

 the points of all the shoots to promote a bushy habit. Winter 

 them in a temperature of 50', and in February shift them into 

 eight-inch pots, and after this potting put them in a good 



