586 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
Leaves lance-shaped, green, variegated with crimson and_ bronze. 
Plate 273. 
Few ornamental foliage plants are so easily grown as 
Cordylines. Some of them may be grown out of doors, 
except during winter, and all except C. terminalis are easily accommodated 
in an ordinary greenhouse. For the decoration of the drawing-room and 
the dinner-table, small plants are very suitable. The most suitable soil for 
them is a compost of equal parts good loam and peat, the latter not 
broken very small; the addition of a little charcoal is desirable. They 
require plenty of water (less in winter), and frequent syringings. A 
rather small pot in proportion to the size of the plant will suffice. 
C. terminalis and all the many forms of it known in gardens as stove 
Dracenas require a tropical temperature at all times. Propagation is 
effected by cutting up the old plants, the top being struck afresh, and 
the stem cut up into pieces an inch or two long. These are placed in a 
mixture of cocoanut-fibre and sand, and subjected to bottom-heat in a 
propagating house or frame, when almost every eye will yield a new 
plant. 
Description of Cordyline terminalis, a few of the terminal leaves, 
Plate 273. . creatly reduced. ; 
Cultivation. 
DRAGON TREE 
Natural Order Lintace&. Genus Dracena 
Draczna (Greek, drakaina, a female dragon). A genus of about 
thirty-five species of ornamental foliage plants closely allied to 
Cordyline, but with flowers generally larger, and the cells of the ovary 
containing usually but one ovule. They are widely distributed in 
Tropical Regions. 
DrAcH#NA DRACO (Dragon). Stem tree-like; when 
old, much branched, 40 to 60 feet high. Leaves slender, 
lance-shaped, in a crowded head. Flowers small, greenish white. 
Introduced from Canary Islands, 1640. 
G. GODSEFFIANA (Godseff’s). A shrubby species with a bamboo- 
like stem, branching freely and bearing clusters of oval leaves 4 inches 
long; green, mottled with yellow. Recently introduced from West 
Tropical Africa. 
D. GOLDIEANA (Goldie’s). Leaves oval, heart-shaped, marbled 
and banded with dark green, yellowish green, and silvery grey. Flowers 
Principal Species. 
