190 GENERAL REVIEW. 



inserted buds of variegated Hollies at nearly all seasons 

 except the dead of the winter with success ; and in all cases 

 the leaf at the base of the bud should be allowed to remain. 

 Grafting may also be resorted to, but budding is preferable. 

 M. Baltet recommends shield-budding in May or August, or 

 oblique side-grafting from April to September, and remarks, 

 " Shield-budding is performed in the open air, with a pushing 

 bud in May, with a dormant bud in August. Autumn grafts 

 are best made under a cloche in the greenhouse, or under a 

 cool frame. The leaf or leaves are left on the scion, and the 

 air should be excluded from the grafted stock for about three 

 months to insure the success of the graft. The operation 

 succeeds perfectly well when the stock is potted at the time of 

 grafting." I have often inserted buds of the variegated kinds 

 on the branches of the green-leaved type, and these produce 

 a pretty effect, the variegation appearing much more distinct 

 when backed by the glossy dark-green foliage of the normal 

 form of the species. 



THE AROID FAMILY (Aradacece). 



The most general and unsystematic observer must have 

 noted that, in addition to the small groups of vegetables 

 which are more or less locally distributed over the earth's 

 surface, there are larger families having a more universal dis- 

 tribution such as Ferns, Orchids, Grasses or Corn-plants, 

 Aroids, Palms, and Conifers. A few general remarks on each 

 of these great groups will be given alphabetically under their 

 respective heads. The true Aroids as Caladium, Alocasia, 

 Dieffenbachia, and Philodendron have unisexual flowers borne 

 at the base of a fleshy club-shaped spadix, and protected by a 

 more or less convolute spathe, which in many cases is hooded. 

 Anthurium, on the other hand, has bisexual or hermaphrodite 

 flowers, and is by some botanists referred to Orontiacese on 

 this account ; but for all practical purposes they may be spoken 

 of here. Our figure (a, b] shows the arrangement of the floral and 

 sexual organs in this group ; while the following general remarks 

 on their fertilisation are from a very interesting article by M. 

 Karl Koch, in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1875, P- 39^, 399? on 

 some hybrid Philodendrons and Anthuriums obtained a few 

 years ago by M. Kellermann of Vienna. The hybrids obtained 

 by M. Kellermann were Philodendron Simsii x pmnatifidum, 

 P. pinnatifidum x Selloum, P. Wendlandii x Selloum, and 

 Anthurium leuconeurum x pedatoradiatum all of which are 

 fully described in the paper above cited. 



