ON ROOM PLANTS. 



771 



Variegated plants are always appreciated, especially if they are 

 sufficiently robust to withstand the winter in an ordinary living- 

 room. For this reason Chlorophytiini elatum variegahim (better 

 known perhaps as Anthericum variegatti77i and Phalanghim argenteo- 

 liiieare) must not be forgotten. It is a near relative of the 

 St. Bruno and the St. Bernard Lilies. The grass-like foliage is 

 striped and margined with white, and the habit of the plant is 

 graceful in the extreme. It may readily be- grown in a window, 

 if during very severe weather it is removed at night out of the 

 reach of frost. The drainage must be good, as during the 

 growing season plenty 

 of water is necessary ; 

 but in winter it must 

 be kept upon the dry 

 side. Propagated 

 readily by division in 

 spring. 



Popular subjects 

 with those who make 

 room plants a speci- 

 ality are Cyperus 

 alter?iifolius^ and ■ its 

 variegated form. They 

 are very decorative, 

 too, for the dinner- 

 table. The leaves 

 are long and narrow, 

 and arranged in the 

 form of an umbel, 

 which gives the plants 

 an uncommon ap- 

 pearance. They look 

 like very graceful 

 Palms : indeed by 

 some they are popu- 

 larly known as Um- 

 brella Palms. They 

 are natives of Aus- 

 tralia and about 2ft. in height; they are shade-lovers. Unfor- 

 tunately they are not as hardy as some of the subjects already 

 enumerated. 



It is scarcely amongst a genus of stove plants that one 

 would look generally for a good room or window subject, yet 

 it has already been shown that in Ficus elastica we have a 

 plant sufficiently accommodating to be kept in good health in 

 our rooms, if but a little care is exercised. And so it is with 

 several of the Screw Pines {Fanda?ius), and particularly so with 

 F. Candelabrum variegatiis, whose long, narrow, gracefully 



3 D 2 



Fig. 511. — Araucaria excelsa. 



