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some broken pots or bricks for drainage with a layer of old 

 cocoanut fibre over the latter to prevent the layer of sand in 

 which they are to be inserted from washing away through the 

 drainage, are to be used. The plants should be shaded by means 

 of palm leaves or mats or any other suitable materials at hand. 

 The shading should only be used in bright sunshine, the cover- 

 ing being taken off at night and whenever the sky is cloudy. 

 Making beds under trees for cuttings should be avoided if possi- 

 ble. With ordinary care cuttings may be made at any season, 

 but the commencement of the rains is the most suitable time, as 

 little or no care is then required for watering. They generally 

 take root in fifteen or twenty days in favourable weather. 



When transplanting, the plant should be taken up singly, 

 care being taken to leave untouched whatever sand adheres to 

 the roots. Drainage should be liberal, and the pots should be 

 no larger than suffices to conveniently contain the individual 

 plant. Good virgin loam, with leaf mould and about one-sixth 

 silver sand, should be used. If good leaf mould is not procur- 

 able, good loam and sand will suffice. The mistake of putting a 

 small plant in a large pot should be avoided. The use of large 

 pots certainly saves future pottings, but in this case the plants 

 never maintain so healthy a root action as when successively 

 potted into larger pots as required. The central shoot should be 

 stopped at about twelve inches. This causes the plant to throw 

 out branches from the lower part, so that when full grown it is 

 well foliaged down to the pot. Though in growing a few of the 

 narrow-leaved varieties, for table decoration, the principal shoot 

 may remain intact until the plants get too large for that pur- 

 pose. They may then be cut back to about a foot and allowed 

 to grow on for large specimens. Their quick growth, compara- 

 tively easy propagation with their gorgeous colouration and 

 adaptability to either pot-culture or permanent planting out in 

 the garden, to contrast with dark masses of foliage, places them 

 in the first rank of decorative plants. Though certainly making 

 a more vigorous growth under the influence of shade, they lose 

 much in the splendid variations of colour which are never so 

 vivid as when fully exposed to the sun. In places further more 



