MISCELLANEOUS EXHIBITION PLANTS. 109 



GLOXINIA. 



There are many good varieties of this popular flower in 

 cultivation, from which the best for exhibition can easily be 

 selected, those with erect flowei's being generally most appre- 

 ciated. Great variety of colour and excellent form can be 

 obtained from seed, which should be sown in pans of fine peat 

 and leaf-mould during February, and placed in a temperature 

 of 65°. Care should be taken not to cover the seed, which 

 should be sown on a thin layer of pure silver sand, pressed 

 down, and watered through a fine rose. Cover the pan with 

 glass and shade the young seedlings from sun, and as soon as 

 they can be handled prick out in boxes, and admit sun and air 

 after they have started to grow. Their subsequent treatment 

 is similar to that of the Begonia, except that fibrous peat 

 should be substituted for loam, and they require a higher 

 temperature to develop the foliage and flowers. The best 

 varieties among the seedlings should be selected in autumn, 

 and well ripened preparatory to being cultivated for exhi- 

 bition specimens the following season. The points of merit 

 are : (1.) Size of plant, health of foliage, and number of 

 flowers ; (2. ) size and substance of flowers ; and (3. ) colour, 

 which should be pure and bright, and the marking distinct. 



GUELDER ROSE. 



This well-known and conspicuous hardy flowering shrub is 

 one of the most useful for early spring forcing, and when a 

 good specimen is seen at a flower-show it attracts much atten- 

 tion, with its profusion of globular heads of snow-white flowers. 

 Suitable plants should be well prepared beforehand, by a year 

 or more of good cultivation in rich loam, in a warm sheltered 

 spot, fully exposed to the sun, where the plant can be carefully 

 built up into an exhibition specimen by attention to water- 

 ing, manuring, and regulating the shoots, which should be 

 thoroughly ripened the autumn previous to the show. The 

 plants should be lifted and potted in good sound loam as soon 

 as the leaves have fallen in October, and then set away in a 

 cool place, protected from storms until the time arrives for 



