170 BEAUTIFUL FLOWEKS 



Dipladenia.k beautiful plant for the roof of a stove, or for 

 training round a trellis in a pot. Different species and varieties 

 have rose, pink, crimson, or white flowers, large, expanded, and 

 showy. If grown in a warm, moist house the plant will be in 

 beauty for a considerable time. It likes a compost in which peat 

 predominates, but the latter should be stiffened up with some 

 loam. It can be propagated by cuttings of the young shoots 

 when it starts growing in spring, if bottom heat is available. 



Erica (Heath). In years gone by what were termed hard- 

 wooded plants enjoyed high favour, but that is hardly the case 

 nowadays. The Heaths (Ericas) were, and are, the most esteemed 

 of this class, once so important, but now ignored by the majority 

 of greenhouse owners. They are evergreens, and bear their 

 slender, eardrop-like flowers on the main stems. They are un- 

 questionably most graceful plants, and it is quite probable that 

 they would have maintained their hold on the public to this 

 day but for two things their slow growth, and their extreme 

 impatience of over or under watering. Some nurserymen succeed 

 with them by growing them together in one house, and putting 

 them under the charge of an experienced man. Amateurs cannot 

 afford this luxury. If Heaths are grown at all they have to make 

 shift with other plants, and submit to the treatment which their 

 neighbours receive. Sometimes this means that they get too dry 

 once or twice, or are tended by one of those indiscriminating 

 persons who like to flood everything they grow with water twice 

 every day, irrespective of season and weather ; in either case the 

 Heaths promptly die. The normal compost does not suit Ericas. 

 They require peat, and nothing but sand need be added to it. 

 Propagation is effected by striking young shoots in summer. 



Eucharis. Eucharis amazonica or grandiflora is a stove plant 

 which throws up a cluster of broad, dark green, glossy leaves from 

 a large bulb, and bears pure white flowers on the summit of 

 a thick stem in winter. It is a beautiful plant, and a great 

 favourite with those who have a hothouse. It will thrive in the 



