40 STOVE PLANTS. 



A. cydoniafolia. — This is a scandent, or rather an ascend- 

 ing, evergreen stove plant. The leaves are opposite, ovate, 

 obtuse, dark green, and as well as the branches sHghtly 

 downy. The flowers are produced in the axils of the 

 leaves, the tube of the corolla being white, the upper hp 

 white, tipped with purple, the lower lip large, rich deep 

 purple, with a white stripe down the centre. It is a fine 

 plant for training up pillars or rafters, the rich contrast of 

 colours being very effective ; it will also bloom in small 

 pots in quite a young state, and is very ornamental when 

 in bloom as a basket plant. When aged, it flowers profusely 

 during the autumn months. Native of Brazil. 



^SCHYNANTHUS. 



A genus belonging to the Cyrtandraceous division of the 

 Gesneraceoe. The plants form beautiful objects when grown 

 in baskets, and suspended from the roof of the stove. They 

 are scandent in habit, and produce simple, entire, thick, 

 fleshy, opposite leaves, the flowers being produced in ter- 

 minal umbels, as well as from the leaf axils. They are all 

 natives of India and the Indian Islands, and luxuriate in a 

 high temperature and moist atmosphere. Mschynanthiis 

 should be planted in baskets, in a mixture of fibrous peat, 

 sphagnum moss, and lumpy pieces of charcoal ; and they 

 should be allowed to hang down over the sides of the 

 baskets. When thus managed, these beautitul plants will 

 grow and .bloom magnificently, and no stove should be 

 without a good collection of them. Cuttings of the young 

 shoots root readily in sandy peat ; if the atmosphere is not 

 close place a bell glass over them until rooted. 



JE. cordifolius. — A very free-flowering species ; the leaves 

 are heart-shaped, dark green on the upper side, paler below. 



