ON STOVE PLANTS. 



647 



to be kept dry during the resting season. Propagation is readily 

 effected by cuttings and by seeds. The latter, being extremely 

 minute, must not be covered with soil as is customary in sowing 

 most seeds. Have the finely-sifted compost made level about ^in. 

 below the top of the pot, watered with a fine rose, and left for 

 a short time to drain. Then sprinkle the seed thinly and evenly 

 all over the surface, cover the pot with a pane of glass, and 

 shade with a piece of paper till germination takes place ; gradu- 

 ally inure the young seedlings to light and air, and prick out 

 into pans or boxes as soon as big enough to handle, continuing 

 to shade from bright sunshine. Some kinds, such as B. socotrana, 

 produce bulbils at the base of the main stem ; these may 

 be detached, and 

 grown on to form 

 plants. 



BURBIDGEA NI- 



tida. — This beau- 

 tiful plant (Fig. 418) 

 was discovered in 

 North-west Borneo 

 by Mr. F. W. Bur- 

 bidge, B.A. It is 

 a stove herbaceous 

 perennial allied to 

 Hedychium, with 

 brilliant orange- 

 scarlet flowers in 

 terminal panicles. 

 It grows freely in a 

 compost of equal 

 ■ parts fibrous loam, 

 peat, and leaf- 

 mould, with a little 

 coarse silver-sand, 

 and is readily pro- 

 pagated by division 

 in spring. 



Burchellia capensis, an evergreen shrub from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, produces hand'some clusters of scarlet flowers. Pro- 

 pagate by cuttings, and grow in equal parts peat, loam, leaf- 

 mould, and sand, in a cool part of the stove. 



Centropogon Lucyanus is a garden hybrid of French origin, 

 and being of a somewhat procumbent habit is well suited for 

 growing in a hanging-basket. Cuttings taken off with a heel 

 root readily, and the plants thrive in fibrous loam, leaf-mould, 

 and sand. It produces its pretty rosy-carmine tubular flowers very 

 freely in mid-winter, which makes it an especially desirable plant. 



FIG. 418. — BUB.BIDGEA NITIDA. 



