THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



J47 



termined, but the fluid held in the 

 pitcher contains bacteria which is ca- 

 pable of digesting nitrogenous mat- 

 ter. If an insect, a fly or bee once 

 explores the depths of the pitcher he 

 is gone. They are incapable of climb- 

 ing up by the interior walls of the 

 pitchers and are finally drowned, to 

 their discomfiture, but probably to the 

 benefit of the plant, hence they are 

 called insectivorous, or insect-eating 

 plants. 



They are nearly all the most trop- 

 ical of tropical plants, found in Bor- 

 neo, Madagascar, Ceylon and pretty 

 close to the equator. The pitchers 

 hang on for months in perfect condi- 

 tion if not accidentally or purposely 

 emptied of their fluid, which they 

 never should be, or they will shrivel 

 up. 



Although plants requiring a very 

 high temperature they are not at all 

 difficult to grow providing you have 

 heat and moisture. I have enumer- 

 ated several of the finest and best 

 known, but there are many hybrids of 

 great beauty. 



Propagation. They are not difficult 

 to propagate by cuttings, which should 

 be three or four eyes of the tip of a 

 shoot, placed in sand and kept moist. 

 The cuttings should be in a propagat- 

 ing case in a warm house and the sand 

 should be 10 to 15 degrees warmer 

 than the house, or about 80 to 85 de- 

 grees. May and June are good months 

 to propagate and the cuttings will 

 root in three or four weeks. 



Rooted plants should be grown in 

 hanging wooden baskets. Shade in 

 the summer is necessary. Our sum- 

 mer nights are often too cool to do 

 the nepenthes well and a gentle fire 

 heat is essential the year round. The 

 lowest night temperature in winter 

 should not be less than 70 degrees. 

 The baskets should be filled one-third 

 their depth with clean crocks and 

 then the roots of the nepenthes should 

 be filled in with equal parts of fern 

 roots and good sphagnum moss, round- 

 ing up the surface of the basket with 

 good live sphagnum. 



The daily spraying will be sufficient 

 without water, and in summer spray 

 them twice a day. What they want is 

 an atmosphere fairly reeking with 

 moisture. The more moist your at- 

 mosphere the more your pitcher 

 plants will thrive. 



The following all have grand pitch- 

 ers: N. Dominiana, Mastersiana, Mor- 

 ganiae, Rafflesiana, Veitchii, Wil- 

 liamsii, madagascariensis. As the 

 names of the above will denote, some 

 of them are garden hybrids. 



The lamented Mr. Court, who repre- 

 sented Messrs. Veitch, of London, and 

 who made many trips to this country, 

 was an enthusiast on these curious 

 plants, and whoever saw the collec- 

 tion of nepenthes at Chelsea, as the 

 writer did in 1885, could not fail to 

 see that this wonderful collection of 

 grotesque exotics were perfectly at 

 home. One of the handsomest hybrids 

 raised by Mr. Court bears his name. 

 The pitchers on some of the largest 



Otaheite Orange, in gilt basket, tied with ribbon. 



are eight inches long by three inches 

 in width. 



OLEANDER (NERIUM). 



There is a marked inclination 

 among our patrons the past year or 

 two to decorate their grounds, par- 

 ticularly where the grounds are con- 

 fined to a city lot, with palms, sweet 

 bays, tubs of hydrangeas and other 

 plants, and the well known oleander 

 may yet come into favor; in fact, we 

 have of late had calls for large plants 

 of it. 



Our acquaintance with this fine 

 shrub is too often an unpleasant one. 

 Some worthy matron may possess an 

 oleander too large for her window, and 

 she enquires how much we will charge 

 to store it for the winter. You are 

 bound to charge about as much as the 

 plant is worth, so the deal is off. Still, 

 where you have a house entirely de- 



voted to the care of such winter 

 boarders, you must take the oleander 

 as well as other plants, only be sure 

 you get enough for your space and la- 

 bor. It is no more reasonable that we 

 should take in a palm or sweet bay or 

 an oleander for little recompense than 

 that a livery stable should board a 

 horse all winter for little or nothing. 



With all their familiarity, oleanders 

 are beautiful shrubs. We all hear so 

 often about the hedges of them in 

 Bermuda. In the cooler parts of Eu- 

 rope they are almost entirely a green- 

 house plant. With us they are chiefly 

 used for summer decoration outside, 

 and our warm, bright summer suits 

 them finely if well supplied with 

 water. 



They root easily from young growths 

 in spring, and with occasional pinch- 

 ing and shifting on as required soon 

 make large plants. It is with the care 



