ON GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



747 



Vallota purpurea (Scarborough Lily) somewhat resembles a 

 Hippeastrum, and should receive similar treatment. Raise from 

 offsets, and grow in sandy loam, peat, and leaf-soil. Keep dry in 

 the cool pit in winter, grow warm in summer after flowering, and 

 then partially dry off in early autumn. The flowers are scarlet. 



Veltheimia viridifolia is a useful bulb, flowering in spring. 

 Propagate by offsets. At the time of potting in autumn grow in, 

 loam, leaf-soil, and sand, in a cool pit or in frames. Ripen 

 after flowering, keeping in pots, and starting again in February. 



Ornamental Foliage Plants. 



Plants grown for their ornamental foliage 

 play a very important part in the furnishing 

 of the greenhouse, being of the greatest help in 

 the setting off of groups of flowering subjects. 

 There are quite 

 a number of 

 subjects that 

 may be utilised 

 for this purpose, 

 and a good 

 selection will 

 add consider- 

 ably to the in- 

 terest of the 

 house. For the 

 most part they 

 do not present 

 many difficul- 

 ties as regards cultivation, and 

 as they are only required for 

 their foliage, many may be 

 grown in the greenhouse al- 

 together. In many cases for 

 placing on the shelves it is 

 best to keep on raising 

 young plants to take the 

 place of older ones when the 

 latter begin to look shabby 

 and become too big. These 

 young plants always give the 

 best coloured and most healthy foliage, and being easy to pro- 

 pagate a supply can readily be kept up. 



The effect of these plants, however, and of all the flowering 

 plants, greatly depends on the taste exercised in their arrangement. 

 They should be scattered thinly amongst the groups of flowering 

 plants on the stages, using one species to a group. If the 



Fig. 494. — RlCHARDIA africana. 



