400 GENERAL REVIEW. 



appear to be generally known that Myrtle-branches, five or 

 six inches long, root freely in water, even in a dry window, 

 although a close case would be better if at hand. Many 

 other plants root freely in tepid water", but extra attention 

 is required in transferring the cuttings to the soil in potting. 

 Hybridism is of rare occurrence in this group ; but there are 

 many seminal varieties of Psidium (Guavas) and Eugenia. 

 Myrtles are readily multiplied by grafting in heat, and the 

 double-blossomed Myrtle grows and blooms much better when 

 worked on the common single-flowered type (M. communis) as 

 a stock. 



THE PITCHER-PLANT FAMILY (Nepnthacc&\ 



Nepenthes ( True Pitcher-plants]. A very curious and inter- 

 esting group of plants, natives of the tropics, many fine species 

 being found in Borneo and the other islands of the Malayan 

 archipelago. Some of the finest species, as N. Edwdrdsiana, 

 N. Lowii, N. Rajah, and others, are as yet unknown in this 

 country, except by dried specimens. The male and female 

 flowers are borne on separate spikes; and careful artificial 

 fecundation is necessary to insure the production of good 

 seed. Several beautiful hybrids have originated in the Chel- 

 sea nursery of Messrs Veitch & Son, a descriptive list of these 

 being given below. Seed should be sown, as soon as it is ripe, 

 on the surface of a pan or pot filled with spongy peat and 

 surfaced with living sphagnum moss ; and in a high moist tem- 

 perature these germinate readily. Imported seeds treated in 

 the same way seldom fail to grow ; but if sown in soil in the 

 usual manner, they never succeed. Cuttings of .the lateral 

 shoots or breaks, which are produced near the base of the 

 main shoots, strike root readily if placed in a close heated 

 case on a layer of living sphagnum moss. If the cuttings are 

 set upright between strips of lath, so much the better. Some 

 insert the base of the cuttings in shell or Derbyshire spar, instead 

 of moss, with equal success ; while in the Belgian nurseries we 

 have noted an ingenious plan of rooting Nepenthes by setting 

 small inverted flower-pots on a bed of sphagnum moss, and 

 placing the base of the cutting through the drainage-hole. 

 This plan may also be used for cuttings of Dracaenas and 

 many other kinds of plants which root better in moist air than 

 in damp earth. 



Dr Moore, of Dublin, has succeeded in grafting N. Hookerii 

 .on N. ampullacea as a stock; but little is to be gained by this 



