22 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



3-inch pots, though for large arrange- 

 ments of flowers and foliage bushy 

 plants in 4-inch pots are most use- 

 ful. 



A. tenuissimus needs precisely the 

 same treatment as A. plumosus, but 

 it is not such a general favorite. Its 

 very finely divided, graceful branch- 

 lets are, however, preferred by some 

 above A. plumosus. 



A. Sprengeri is a more recent intro- 

 duction and comes from Abyssinia 

 (the other species are from South 

 Africa). It is a strong grower, form- 



little of the grace and fineness of plu- 

 mosus and tenuissimus it is for cer- 

 tain purposes their superior, and 

 when the sprays are matured their 

 lasting qualities are equal to the well 

 known durability of plumosus. To 

 grow good sprays (and it can be 

 grown five or six feet, and perhaps 

 longer) you should give it the middle 

 of a house where the winter tempera- 

 ture is 55 to 60 degrees. Plant fifteen 

 inches apart in boxes as long as the 

 width of the house between walks. 

 Let the boxes be twelve inches wide 



Asparagus Plumosus. 



ing a large clump of roots and crowns 

 from which it sends out long, strong 

 shoots covered on all sides with fine 

 branchlets. In older plants there is an 

 inclination to run up strong shoots 

 which may climb, but the value and 

 beauty of the plant is in the long, 

 pendent growths. It is a strong feed- 

 er and requires an abundance of water 

 and will grow and keep its color in 

 the full sun; only from our hottest 

 suns should it receive any artificial 

 shading. 



It is easily raised from seed which 

 is best sown in early spring. By the 

 following winter the plants will give 

 fine sprays. For hanging baskets it 

 has scarcely a rival, either for the 

 conservatory, the veranda or parlor 

 window. The magnificent baskets that 

 remain in good condition while hang- 

 ing for months in a florist's window 

 are evidence of its great adaptability 

 to unfavorable surroundings. Three 

 small plants put in a 10-inch basket 

 in July or August will make fine orna- 

 mental baskets for winter, most use- 

 ful for decoration or to sell at a good 

 profit. While the Sprengeri lacks a 



and eight inches deep. Raise the 

 boxes three feet from the ground by 

 some convenient means and keep them 

 three feet apart. This will allow the 

 sprays plenty of room to develop with- 

 out getting dirty from the sand or soil 

 of a bench. Small, well grown plants 

 in 4-inch pots should be always in 

 stock; for mantel decorations they are 

 invaluable. 



None of our well known green- 

 house pests trouble the asparagus if it 

 is given plenty of syringing and water. 

 A rather heavy loam with a liberal ad- 

 dition of animal manure is all it 

 wants. 



ASPIDISTRA. 



The species lurida and its variegat- 

 ed form are known to every cultivator 

 of plants. It will bear more gas, heat 

 and dust than most any other plant 

 we grow. They are invaluable for 

 vases in the cities, not only on the 

 streets in summer time but in the 

 rooms in winter. No one can fail to 

 grow an aspidistra, and a fine speci- 

 men of either the green or the striped, 

 with its leaves occasionally sponged, 



is a handsome object. It thrives in the 

 most sunny and exposed places, or in 

 the shade. The flowers are curious but 

 of no value and in many cases pass 

 unobserved for they are close to the 

 ground at the base of the leaf. 



They are propagated entirely by di- 

 vision, or rather by the young plants 

 that spring from the sides of the older 

 plants. Any good loam with the addi- 

 tion of some rotten manure will grow 

 them, and they should have plenty of 

 water at all times. 



Old and familiar as this plant is 

 there is never an over supply of it for 

 it is not rapidly increased. It is now 

 largely imported from Belgium and 

 the plants are sold by the hundred 

 leaves. 



ASPLENIUM. 



The spleenworts, as the asplenium 

 genus has been termed (from the sup- 

 posed medicinal value that ancient 

 practitioners believed them to pos- 

 sess), form one of the largest fern 

 groups in cultivation, over 300 species 

 having been described, though it is 

 rather doubtful if this whole number is 

 at the present time in cultivation. 



As may be expected in so large a 

 genus, the aspleniums are very widely 

 distributed, and in consequence we find 

 among them species requiring warm 

 house treatment, others that need com- 

 paratively little heat, and a few that 

 are quite hardy in our northern and 

 eastern states, there being more than 

 half a dozen species that are native 

 here. 



The subject of our illustration, A. 

 bulbiferum, belongs to the second di- 

 vision, or those that require only 

 moderate heat, and though in com- 

 merce for many years, is by no means 

 so plentiful as its merits would jus- 

 tify. A. bulbiferum is an evergreen 

 fern from New Zealand, the home of 

 many of our finest ferns, and has fine- 

 ly divided fronds of nearly triangular 

 outline, these fronds reaching a length 

 of nearly two feet in a good specimen, 

 and being nearly one foot in breadth at 

 the widest part. The plant has a 

 gracefully drooping habit, this being 

 accentuated by the weight of the nu- 

 merous tiny young plants that fre- 

 quently form on the upper side of the 

 fronds. 



This proliferous habit is found in 

 several of the aspleniums, but is per- 

 haps most marked in the species un- 

 der consideration, the fronds often be- 

 ing studded over with young plants 

 that are just showing their first leaf. 

 This peculiarity is often taken advan- 

 tage of in the propagation of A. bul- 

 biferum, a common method being to 

 bend over these proliferous fronds and 

 then peg them down on the surface of 

 a flat filled with light sandy soil, and 

 the latter being kept moist soon in- 

 duces the young plants to form roots, 

 after which they may be readily de- 

 tached from the parent frond. This 

 operation is, of course, carried out in 

 a shaded fern house, where the atmos- 

 pheric conditions are favorable for the 

 establishment of these young plants. 



