THE ACHIMEXES. 



119 



or a little less, up the leaf. The pot should be a large 

 60 (3^-inch) filled with fibrous peat and fine-sifted 

 leaf-mould of equal parts, and carefully watered, 

 dried a little, and then plunged in a mild bottom 

 heat, such as a good tan-bed, and having a large bell- 

 glass placed over pot and all. They may also be 

 multiplied by seed sown in a seed-pan filled with 

 sandy peat and fine leaf-mould, slightly covering the 

 seed,' which is very fine. Lay a square of flat glass 

 over the pan, and set it in a mild heat. The bulbs 

 must not have much water (or none at all, unless the 

 plants are growing in a stove) through the winter. 

 Keep them dry in the pots from the time they begin to 

 die off until February, when they may be set in a brisk 

 heat, and a little water given them soon after. As soon 

 as the bulbs have broken leaf a little, shift them, 

 shaking all the old soil from them. 



The Achimenes {Gesneracece) . 



I am much surprised when I visit gardens to find so 

 little, comparatively, of this splendid tribe as an inmate 

 of the glass house. Like the Gloxinia, the Achimenes 

 is considered a stove plant, but it can be as easily grown 

 in a good common greenhouse with a general collec- 

 tion as the Fuchsia or Geranium. I have done so to 

 a great extent, and I might, I think, have challenged 

 all that could be found which had been reared in stoves 

 for effect. Be that as it may, the Achimenes can be 

 grown well year by year in an ordinary greenhouse. 

 My way was this. I started the bulbs in a lively heat 

 in a common hotbed with a sweet heat. I used fine- 

 sifted leaf-mould alone, with silver sand well mixed, and 

 put some moss at the bottom of the pans for drainage, 

 or siftings. Then I filled the pans up with the leaf- 

 mould and sand to within half an inch or so, placed 

 the little rJazomas (bulbs) all over the surface pretty 

 thick, and covered them with the half-inch of leaf- 

 mould to fill the pans quite up, and set them in a heat, 

 as I have said. 



