16 STOVE AND GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



buBh. When there is any choice in the matter the oldest berrleB should 

 be taken for sowing, as 1 hey will be the first to fall from the plant. 

 Wash the pulp from around the seed and sow immediately, cover the 

 seeds with a quarter of an inch of soil, firming well and giving the 

 pots or boxes a. position in a cool house. Keep the soil moderately 

 damp, with abundance oJ air during mild -weather. Conditions such as 

 these will give the seed amijle time to germinate and make plants in 4- 

 inch pots by the following Fall. Cuttings root freely in sand, but do not 

 make as symmetrical plants as seedlings. When the old plants get leggy 

 the tops are easily rooted by making an incision in the stems and tying 

 moss around them. These tops make very fine dwarf specimens. 



ASPARAGUS— As pot plants there are only three species of any value; 

 these are A. plumosus nanus, A. tenuisslmus and A. Sprengeri. 



A. plumosus is a very distinct plant from A. plumosus nanus and 

 probably is a distinct species. (See Vines). 



A. plumosus nanus makes a profusion of short growths from the 

 base, and may be kept in this condition by pot culture and pinching 

 shoots that show a tendencj- to run up; for it will grow 30 feet high 

 under proper conditions. Dividing starved plants is the readiest 

 method of increasing stock. Wash out the roots and place the divisions 

 in moderately wot sand, to make a few roots before potting. 



A. tenuissimus should be rooted from cuttings. Unlike the other 

 kinds it is easy to manage in this respect. 



A. Sprengeri does best where its branches are allowed to hang down 

 instead of being planted in a bed like the better known A. plumosus 

 nanus. The ideal method is to have the plants in large wire baskets 

 suspended from thereof of a house; and where the plants underneath 

 don't suffer from drip or shade this system will work all right. Where 

 a large supply of this green is wanted the north wall of a house may te 

 used economically by erecting trough-like receptacles running the entire 

 length of the house. The top one may lie as near the glass as possible, 

 the next in front 6 or 8 inches lower down, and so ou, giving enougli 

 room to prevent crowding of the branches. Old plants may be divided 

 for planting out, and .for small specimens in pots, which are useful in 

 associating with ferns. Seedlings are easily raised. The plants ripen 

 seed in midwinter. If cleaned and sown as soon as ripe the seeds 

 germinate quickly. 



.A.SPIDISTRA — The usual way to increase the stock of these very valu- 

 able decorative plants is to divide up large specimens into small pieces, 

 potting and keeping close until they make fresh roots. .^ method requir- 

 ing a little more work, certainly, but giving salable plants in a shorter 

 period, and more of them, as every small piece will grow, is to shake the 

 old plants out, disentangle the rhizomes as carefully as possible, and 

 wash clean, saving every little piece that is likely to grow. Cut the rhi- 

 zomes into small pieces, with roots attached, and put in the sand bed 

 to make fresh roots; subsequently put in small pots and keep close for 

 a few days. .\. elatior and A. elatior variegata are the ones most com- 



