628 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
above-named marblings and blotches will be found repeated with 
greater richness of colour and brilliance, the best points of each 
species being intensified. In some the green has almost disappeared, 
and every shade of red, pink, violet, and yellow is produced in irregular 
blotches, small spots, marbling, and sometimes in lines and stripes parallel 
with the veins. Caladiwms must be kept in the humid atmosphere of 
the stove until the leaves are fully developed; their foliage is of such a 
texture that it will not long endure the dry air of living rooms. They 
succeed best in a compost of loam, well-rotted manure, sand, and leaf- 
mould in equal parts, with a little powdered charcoal added. Good 
drainage must be ensured. In February, the tubers should be shaken 
out of the old soil, carefully cleaned, and any offsets removed for 
purposes of propagation. They should be planted singly in small pots 
of light sandy soil, and plunged in a hot-bed with a temperature of about 
80°, watering them liberally. When they have developed one or two 
leaves, they should be potted into larger pots, or, if large specimens are 
not required, several may be planted together in the same pot. They 
must be kept in a hot, moist stove, and shaded from bright sunshine. 
When the leaves fade, the pots should be placed under a stage in a stove, 
but water must be given now and then, as Caladiwms are all swamp 
plants, and generally suffer if kept dry. 
Description of Caladiwm bicolor, varieties of leaf coloration, together 
Plate 294. with the spathe. Fig. 1 is a section through the spathe, 
showing the spadix ; 2 is a male flower, and 3 a female enlarged. 
ARUM LILIES 
Natural Order AROIDEZ. Genus Richardia. 
RICHARDIA (named in honour of L. C. Richard, a French botanist, who 
lived 1754-1821). A genus of seven species of greenhouse or stove 
perennials with Caladiwm-like rhizomes, and arrow-shaped or halbert- 
shaped leaves on long, stout stalks, which are sheathing at the base. 
The flowers are borne upon a long, thick spadix, the upper part of which 
is covered with the yellow anthers; the pitcher-shaped ovaries cluster 
round the lower end, and each one is surrounded by barren stamens. 
The whole of this column of flowers is closed round by the pure white 
spathe, which is flattened and bent backwards above. The fruits are 
one-celled, few-seeded berries. The species are natives of South Africa: 
their habitat, marshes and river-sides. 
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