536 GAKDEN PLANTS. PAKT II. 



rooted herbaceous plants, some remarkable for the velvet-like 

 lustre on their large oval leaves. They produce roundish bell- 

 formed flowers of astonishing splendour during the Bains. 

 They are easily obtained from England, and sometimes blossom 

 beautifully, but do not seem to last long in this country, owing 

 perhaps to sufficient care not being bestowed upon them. The 

 mode of cultivation suited to them is the same nearly as that 

 given for Achimenes. Sir J. Paxton observes that " the richest 

 colours are usually produced in somewhat mellowed light, and 

 that blossoms shaded by the leaves will be found of a richer 

 tint than more exposed blossoms." They require some situation 

 under shelter from the sun and from the rain. They thrive 

 vigorously and blossom well, Mr. J. Scott tells me, in the grass 

 conservatories in the Botanical Garden. Mr. Coles Hardinge 

 states that at Eangoon he hybridized the flowers of plants he 

 had in bloom there, and was very successful in raising fresh plants 

 with the seed he saved from them. He sowed the seed in well- 

 drained pans, filled with a mixture of sand and sifted leaf-mould, 

 and covered with a piece of glass. They germinated in a week, 

 and the seedlings were fit for pricking out singly into small pots 

 in about a month : then they were covered with bell-glasses, 

 till they had become strong and formed tubers. Mr. Coles 

 Hardinge owed much of his success, I believe, to his seed having 

 been fresh, as that which I have procured from England I have 

 found to fail in germinating. Dr. J. Beaumont, of Indore, writes 

 to the Agri-Horticultural Society : 



" I find Gloxinias do better if made to flower twice a year. I 

 plant the bulbs in January; they flower in April; are dried in 

 May ; repotted and watered as soon as they begin to sprout in 

 July, and they flower again in August and September. Treated 

 thus, the bulbs are finer, larger, and grow much stronger than if 

 flowered only once; and there is the advantage of two crops of 

 flowers." 



G. maculata. A very common plant in Calcutta, altogether 

 distinct from any of the florists' kinds spoken of above ; of large 

 strong-growing habit, handsome for its bright, glossy, succulent, 

 heart-shaped leaves ; bears in November, when it can be 

 brought to blossom, which it is very shy of doing, large pale- 

 blue, tumid, bell-formed flowers. It should be potted in a light 

 rich soil, and be supplied with abundance of water during the 



