AKl? CONSERVATOET. 127 



there would not be room for a balloon. Small feathery stick*, 

 like the tops of pea sticks, about eighteen inches in length, 

 may be employed instead of wire trainers. 



The fibrous-rooted garden varieties represented by T. Loh- 

 bianum are invaluable for supplying winter flowers. To have 

 them in full bloom throughout the winter, it is necessary that 

 the plants should be well established previous to the end of the 

 autumn, and also that an intermediate house be available for 

 them. Specimens intended for furnishing cut flowers should 

 be trained within about six inches of the glass, to expose the 

 growth to the light as much as possible. Those intended for 

 the conservatory and other purposes, must be trained to trel- 

 lises or stakes fixed in the pots, and so long as they make new 

 growth they will continue in bloom. AVhere the temperature 

 of the conservatory is maintained at or about fifty degrees 

 during the winter, a few permanent specimens may be grown 

 in it, and trained up the pillars and rafters, where they w'ill be 

 fully exposed to the light. 



The cuttings should be struck in July in the stove or the 

 cucumber house, and potted off as soon as possible after thev 

 are rooted. Short-jointed side-shoots should be selected for 

 cuttings. A considerable saving of time will be eftected if the 

 cuttings are inserted singly in small pots, as they can then be 

 shifted on without sutfering any check. When it is desired to 

 have specimens of extra size for the purpose of obtaining a very 

 large supply of cut flowers, it will be an advantage to com- 

 mence with plants well established in three or five inch pots, 

 and then remove all the flowers until a few weeks before they 

 are required, so that the energies of the plants shall not be 

 unnecessarily taxed. 



Tropteolums do not require so much pot-room in proportion 

 to their size as many other plants, and therefore it is necessary 

 to guard against over-potting them. Specimens trained as 

 pyramids or standards should be put in six- or eight-inch pots, 

 and those intended for training to pillars or rafters in either 

 nine- or ten-inch pots. They bloom more profusely when rather 

 confined at the roots, and exhaustion can be easily prevented by 

 watering them with weak liquid manure. 



Yeeonica. — The shrubby Veronicas are much to be desired 

 for conservatory decoration, for they are easy to grow and keep, 

 and eminently eftective. With proper management, they 



