256 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
white, fragrant, solitary; corolla nine-parted; August. Introduced 
from China (1754). The var. Fortunei is a larger form. Stove. 
G. niTIpA (shining). Stem 3 feet high. Leaves oblong-lance- 
shaped, undulated; opposite, or three in a whorl. Flowers white, 
solitary; corolla seven-parted; October and November. Introduced 
from Sierra Leone (1844). Stove. 
THUNBERGIA (Thunberg’s). Stem 4 to 5 eet high. Leaves 
elliptic, smooth, opposite or whorled. Flowers large, white, fragrant, 
solitary ; corolla eight-parted; January to March. Introduced from 
South Africa (1773). Greenhouse. 
Dik ccasion For the decoration of the greenhouse or stove 
Gardenias have much to recommend them, whilst for the 
supply of cut-flowers they are invaluable. The great point in growing 
is to see that the plants do not get old. Cuttings should be struck 
every year, and after two or three seasons’ flowering the plants should 
be thrown away. Propagation should be effected preferably in January, 
the cuttings taken with a heel from the partly-ripened side-shoots and 
inserted in small pots of peat and sand. They require to be plunged in 
a bottom heat of 75° and kept close. When rooted they must be 
gradually used to lower temperatures, and potted in a compost of two 
parts peat to one of fibrous loam with which a little charcoal has been 
worked in. Shift on when necessary, and when growth is completed 
for the season, harden off by exposure to a lower temperature in more 
airy structures. Give water abundantly during the growing period, 
and syringe twice a day. The plants may be started in a hot moist 
house in April and gradually hardened as the flower buds develop. 
They are beautiful shrubs for the conservatory when well grown and 
flowered. G. Thunbergia does not flower in gardens in this country, but 
at the Cape and in similarly dry sunny climes it is a beautiful free- 
flowering shrub. Gardenias are very liable to the attacks of Mealy- 
bug, Red-spider, Green-fly, and Scale-insect, which must be constantly 
looked for. . 
SPUR VALERIANS 
Natural Order VALERTIANER. Genus Centranthus 
CENTRANTHUS (from Greek, kentron, a spur, and anthos, a flower) z 
genus of about ten species of perennial, rarely annual, herbs, sett 
ida entire, opposite leaves and small red or white flowers in panicle 
