tHE TROPiEOLUM. 93 



The Trop^oltjm (Trop&olacea). 



This is a class of plant too well known to require 

 description here, but as we rarely see so much of some 

 of the best specimens of this family as we could wish, 

 I think it not out of place to say a few words in refer- 

 ence to them. There is that unique little dwarf climber 

 Jarrattii, which has no equal as a greenhouse plant 

 when well grown. Here I beg to caution the reader 

 against a mistake which frequently occurs. Jarrattii 

 and Tricolorum are two different things in character, 

 although the flowers are so much alike that few, if any, 

 can discover the difference. But Jarrattii has a nearly 

 round tuber, and flowers much more freely, while 

 Tricolorum has a thin finger-like tuber, and flowers very 

 shyly. Some of the roots will not flower at all, yet 

 Tricolorum is frequently sent out for Jarrattii. There 

 is nothing among dwarf climbers to equal Jarrattii 

 trained on a fine wire, salver-shaped trellis of about the 

 size of a small cinder-sieve. The trellis should be set 

 in the pot so as to lean over a bit, then the flowers will 

 hang on the under side of the dishing trellis. 



The propagation of the Tropaolmns is by seed, by 

 layers, and in some cases by cuttings. The seed should 

 be sown in the spring, in pots filled with peat and 

 maiden loam of equal parts, and set in a mild heat. 

 Jarrattii, Tricolorum, Polyphjllum, Pentaphyllum, &c, 

 may be propagated by laying the vines on a bed of 

 fine peat and leaf-mould in a frame during the summer. 

 Bury the joints of the vines by laying a handful of the 

 fine-sifted soil on each alternate joint ; shade for a few 

 days, and keep the soil a little damp ; give air ; thus 

 little bulblets will be formed in the course of the sum- 

 mer, which, by the end of August or September, may 

 be taken off and kept in dry clean sand. _ Cuttings may 

 be struck of the perennial and annual kinds which are 

 not bulbous, such as Lobbianum, Triompke de Gand, and 

 Lilli Schmidt, &c. They should be of the short-jointed 

 side stuff, inserted in pots filled with peat and maiden 

 loam, and set in a mild heat till they have struck root. 



