POPULAR GARDEN PLANTS. 



413 



drooping stems, small bright-green leaves, and 

 produces in autumn and winter large numbers 

 of graceful peduncles clothed with bright-car- 



Fig. 519.— Begonia 

 Gloire de Lorraine. 



mine flowers, which hang a long time and are 

 developed in slow succession for three months 

 or more. It should be raised annually from 

 leaf-cuttings inserted in February and treated 

 as for Gloxinias. 



Bouvardia. — Several species of this genus, 

 all Mexican, have been utilized in the produc- 

 tion of the useful race of garden plants now 

 grown as Bouvardias. When properly treated 

 they form pretty little shrubs, and they may 

 be had in flower nearly the whole year round 

 with a little management. It is a mistake to 

 treat them as stove or even warm-house plants; 

 the treatment recommended for the Fuchsia 

 or winter -flowering Pelargoniums being more 

 suitable for them. In the warmer parts of 

 England they may be effectively used for sum- 

 mer bedding, and when the approach of winter 

 threatens them they may be lifted carefully and 

 planted in pots to flower in early winter in the 

 greenhouse, 



Some beautiful double-flowered varieties have 

 been raised by the American florists, to whom 

 also we owe the rich red-flowered seedling known 

 as President Cleveland. 



Propagation. — Cuttings of young shoots taken 

 from old plants started in a warm house in 

 February will root in a few weeks if planted in 

 pots of sandy soil and covered with a bell-glass 



in a propagating house. When rooted they 

 should be planted singly in 3-inch pots in good 

 fibrous loam to which has been added one-fourth 

 leaf -mould and a sprinkling of sand, and kept 

 in a night temperature of 60°, with a rise of 10 

 in the day; when the sun is powerful, shade a 

 little, syringe them overhead in the afternoon, 

 and close the house with sun-heat. The shoots 

 should be stopped to induce the formation of 

 numerous branches at an early stage. Some 

 growers prefer to keep the plants growing 

 steadily in 3-inch pots until the following Fel>- 

 ruary, when they are shifted into 5-inch pots; 

 others shift into these pots in July, and as .soon 

 as the plants will bear it they are placed in 

 frames in a sunny situation, giving them plenty 

 of air in the day, and leaving a little on at 

 night. During the summer they may be grown 

 with the Chrysanthemums, Fuchsias, cvx. If 

 the pots are well filled with roots a little stimu- 

 lant should" be given. They may remain out- 

 side until the end of September, when they 

 must be removed to a house or pit where a 

 little heat can be turned on when the weather 

 becomes cold, If flowers are required through 

 the autumn a portion of the plants should be 

 at once placed in a temperature of 65° at night; 

 they will shortly begin to form buds, which will 

 open in quantity for a time, and keep on pro- 



%7L^- - - - 



Fig. 520.— Bouvardia jasminitlora. 



ducing others to follow as they make additional 

 growth. 



Bouvardias require plenty of sunlight and 

 free ventilation, and although thev do not like 



