710 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



The following heaths flower during the winter: 

 hyemalis, Willmorei, grandinOBa, verticillata, 

 mammosa, umbellata, vernix coccinea, Wescotii, 

 arbuBcula, Lambertiana, L. rosea, acuminata, 

 Persoluta rubra, P. alba, pyramidalis, transpa- 

 reus, regerminans, purpurea, Linnseana, sau- 

 guinea, coccinea, exsurgens and its varieties; 

 vestita, most of the section; gracilis, mundula, 

 musoata, verticillata, arborea, iucarnata, pubes- 

 cens, muscosa, conferta, mutabilis, caffra, echii- 

 flora and varieties; taxifolia, &c. 



Insects and diseases. — Those universal pests 

 the aphides sometimes attack the young shoots 

 of the heath, and should be early assailed by a 

 slight fumigation of tobacco; for if allowed to 

 gain ahead, the extent of fumigation sufficient 

 to destroy them would greatly injure the plants. 

 In dry weather, and when the atmosphere of the 

 house is kept too arid, mildew is engendered, 

 and is very fatal, particularly to young plants. 

 The universal remedy, sulphur, must be em- 

 ployed, by throwing it on by means of the sul- 

 phurator, or by mixing it with the water with 

 which they are syringed ; for syringing, under 

 such circumstances, is highly beneficial in itself. 

 Those who have no sulphurator may dust the 

 flour of sulphur slightly over the plant while 

 yet wet. Removing the plants attacked from 

 the heath-house to the open air, or to a cool 

 pit, will often restore plants affected in the 

 course of a week. 



§ 6. — ^AQUARIUM. 



The cultivation of aquatic plants has hitherto, 

 for the most part, been confined to purely bota- 

 nical establishments. A more general taste is 

 now prevailing, and we believe there are few 

 who have seen the magnificent Victoria Regia, 

 the Nelumbiums, Euryale ferox, Nymphseas, &c. 

 in the plenitude of their glory, but will admit 

 that an aquarium furnished with such plants is 

 not the least interesting of all plant-houses. 

 Figs. 666 to .575, in vol. i., will show their con- 

 struction. It remains only for us to speak of the 

 culture of the plants. The majority of culti- 

 vated aquatics are tropical, and hence, at certain 

 seasons, require a considerable amount of heat, 

 the want of bottom-heat being the chief cause of 

 that want of success which attended our earlier 

 cultivators. This has been pretty well exam- 

 plified by the Messrs Weeks of Chelsea, who 

 succeeded in flowering the Victoria in a tank 

 in the open air, with the mere protection of 

 a thin awning thrown over it during the night. 

 They maintained, however, a temperature in the 

 tank of from 80° to 90° of heat, apparently 

 agreed upon all hands to be the most suitable 

 for it. The heat arising from a large body of 

 water at this temperature would elevate that of 

 the atmospheric air for several inches above its 

 surface to nearly the same height. And this is 

 all that is required, for the leaves, lying flat on 

 tlie surface of the water, will be just in their 

 element, so far as heat is concerned. The 

 flowers rising only their own height, some 6 or 8 

 inches above the surface, would be equally com- 

 fortable. Now, the reverse of this had hitherto 

 been the prevailing practice, the roots of aquatics 



being, for the most part, placed in wooden tubs 

 or cisterns — bad conductors of heat, even had 

 it been applied externally to them — while the 

 foliage was exposed to a temperature of from 65° 

 to 1 00°, as that of tropical houses often is. Here, 

 it appears, the whole evil rested. Those who 

 succeeded in blooming the Euryale, Nelumbiums, 

 and Nymphseas, had the vessels in which they 

 were placed set on the top of flues, or plunged 

 in a strong bed of fermenting material, by which 

 a moderate, but not a uniform, temperature was 

 obtained, and hence their frequent failures. Tc 

 grow tropical aquatics well, a house or pit should 

 be set apart for them, and in which a tank should 

 be introduced sufficient for holding the whole 

 collection. This tank should be heated by pipes 

 of steam or hot water made to circulate through 

 it, and these should be placed at its bottom, for 

 reasons sufficiently apparent to every one who 

 knows anything of the principle of heating. 



The following plants, remarkable for their 

 extraordinary forms, are well adapted for enter- 

 ing into the aquarium. They do not, however, 

 require to be grown in water, but thrive best in 

 a humid still atmosphere, and may, therefore, be 

 arranged around the sides of the house. The 

 Nepenthes, being climbers, may be trained over 

 the roof ; while the Cephalotus follicularis, Dionsea 

 Muscipula, the exotic Droseras, &o., should be 

 placed near to the glass, and in the cooler part 

 of the structure. 



Propagation. — The Euryale, Nelumbiums, and 

 Victoria are propagated only by seed, which is 

 produced sufficiently freely. When ripe they 

 should be removed from the capsules, and kept 

 in phials of water till spring, but not corked 

 down, when they should be sown in small pots, 

 set in pans of water sufficiently deep to cover 

 them, one seed in each, and plunged in a strong 

 bottom-heat, yet near to the glass. The Euryale 

 and Nelumbium seed have a cap or valve-cover- 

 ing over the eye of the seed, which should be 

 removed carefully with the point of a penknife, 

 to allow the seed enclosed within the shell-hke 

 covering to escape. When the plants have at- 

 tained leaves an inch or so in diameter, they 

 should be shifted into 6-inch pots, and replunged 

 again in bottom-heat, still kept in deep earthen- 

 ware pans filled with water. When the leaves 

 have attained the diameter of from 6 to 9 inches, 

 they are fit for planting out in the tank, the water 

 in which should be brought up to a temperature 

 of from 80° to 85°. The Victoria, occupying so 

 larg:e a space for the development of its extra- 

 ordinary foliage, should be planted in a deep 

 tank, in the centre of the one upon which its 

 leaves are to float. Our centre tank is 4 feet 

 square, and the same in depth ; 4-inch hot-water 

 pipes are brought in at its bottom, and made to 

 coil twice round the sides, when the water is 

 allowed to return again to the boiler. This tank 

 is 6 inches below the level of the outer one, and 

 for the first few days it only is covered with 

 water. As soon as the leaves extend to its sides, 

 the outer tank, which is 12 inches deep, is also 

 flooded, and the foliage allowed to extend over 

 it. The same arrangement is suitable to the 

 Euryale and Nelumbiums, only the tank need 

 not be BO large. During the growing season, as 



