Aug.] THE GREEN-HOUSE. 475 



outer one, is the proper spathe of the first flower and embraces it, 

 together with the spathes and flowers that are to come in succes- 

 sion; the spathe of the second flower is opposed to that of the first, 

 and placed between it and the pedicle of the first flower; and so of 

 the rest, every spathe being opposed to the one of the preceding 

 flower and embraced by it. These spathes are similar in shape, 

 but diminish progressively and become more membranaceous. The 

 corolla, or flower, is large and divided into six segments, of which 

 the three outer are urceolate at the base, expanded above, and re- 

 flected at the point; the three inner ones smaller by half, biform- 

 ed, singularly divided into a lower hastate and an upper ovate divi- 

 sion, by a depressed intersection; the upper division is of the 

 richest scarlet imaginable, variegated by a bright golden yellow. 

 The filament is a cuniculated or piped triquetral column. The 

 anthers are sessile, erect, bearing their pollen on the outside, con- 

 niving at the point, diverging below to admit the exit of the stig- 

 mas. The germen is obtusely trigonal, three celled. Style, the 

 length of the filamental column, through the hollow of which it 

 passes. Stigmas, three, filiform, bifid. Capsule, oblong, obtusely 

 trigonal, three celled. Seeds, in double rows in each cell and round. 



Hernandez, a Spanish physician, who was sent to Mexico by 

 Philip II. King of Spain, informs us that it grew wild about that 

 city, and was much cultivated for its excessive beauty, and for the 

 medicinal virtues of its roots, being, as he terms it, a "frigefacient 

 in fevers, and also a promoter of fecundity in women." 



This flower has no scent; but in splendid beauty, it has scarcely 

 any competitor. It is born to display its glory but a few hours, 

 and then literally melts away; but to compensate for this sudden 

 decline, it continues to produce flowers for several weeks. The 

 latter end of this month is generally the season of its bloom. 



It is properly a green-house plant, succeeds best in light mould, 

 and is easily propagated by seed, from which the plants will flower 

 the second year. The bulbs and ott'sets may be taken up in Octo- 

 ber, when the leaves are decayed, and kept in dry sand, saw-dust 

 or rolled up in dry moss till March; but they must be carefully pre- 

 served from frost. Or they may be replanted immediately in pots 

 of fresh earth, and replaced in the green-house; giving them but 

 very little water, till they begin to vegetate in spring. 



THE HOT-HOUSE. 



Pine-Apples. 



The care of the fruiting pines being the same in this month as in 

 the last, is unnecessary to be repeated; as likewise the propagation 

 of the plants by crowns and suckers, as well as the shifting of those 

 succession pines which are expected to produce fruite next season. 



