168 HOT-HOUSE — OF REPOTTING, ETC. \^May, 



ages that are generally half full of water, which appears to 

 be confined within them by a lid with which the append- 

 ages- are surmounted ) hence the name of pitcher-plant. 

 We have never observed the lids close again when once 

 open. Writers have called it an herbaceous plant, but it 

 is properly a climbing shrub. The pot in which it grows 

 should be covered with moss, and the roots liberally sup- 

 plied with water every day. It delights to be in a moist 

 state. The flowers are small, and in long spikes. The 

 plant is of easy culture, and even rapid in growth : a plant 

 with us only nineteen months old is now five feet high. 

 (Soil No. 5.) 



Pancratium is a genus of hot-house bulbs, and now only 

 contains five species. They are all free-flowering. Several 

 of them are handsome and fragrant. P. maritimum and 

 P. verecundum are the finest ; the flowers are white, in 

 large umbels ; petals long, recurved, and undulate. P. 

 liftordlis, P. speciosum, and P. caribaeinn, are now given to 

 the genus HjjmenocdlUs, and are fine flowering species. 

 Care must be taken not to give them water while dormant. 

 The soil ought at that time to be in a half dry state. They 

 are in flower from May to August. (Soil No. 12.) 



Panddnus, Screw Pine. There are about twenty species 

 in this genus, several of them very interesting, but none so 

 greatly admired as P. odoratissimus. The leaves in estab- 

 lished plants are from four to six feet long, on the back 

 and edges spiny ; are spreading, imbricated, and embracing 

 the stem, and placed in three spiral rows upon it. The 

 top soon becomes heavy, when the plant throws out prongs 

 one, two, or three feet up the stem in an oblique descending 

 direction, which take root in the ground, and thus become 

 perfectly supported. It is cultivated in Japan for its de- 

 lightful fragrance, and it is said, " of all the perfumes, it is 

 by far the richest and most powerful." P. liiilis, red- 

 spined. We question this species, and are inclined to be- 

 lieve that it is the former, only when the plants are newly 

 raised from seed the spines and leaves are red, changing 

 to green as they become advanced in age. The plants are 

 easy of culture, and will grew almost in any soil. (Soil 

 No. 12.) 



Passrflora, ^' Passion-flower, so named on account of its 



