356 



THE AQUARIUM. 



the seed was sown in May, and threw up several flower buds, which did 

 not come to perfection, but most probably would have done so had the 

 seeds been sown two months earlier. The leaves produced were about 

 two feet in diameter ; but the plant went off in the vdnter, notwith- 

 standing it was treated in the manner heretofore found the most suc- 

 cessful, which has been, to allow the tub to remain in the tan, and be- 

 come nearly diy, giving it no more water than the other plants around 

 it." By the above mode of culture we have seen this plant brought to 

 flower, and produce its seeds in the fullest perfection. 



The following practical directions are from the pen of a contributor to 

 the Gardener's Magazine^ and appear to us so simple and excellent that 

 we will give the essence of the practice. 



" The seed is prepared for sowing by filing a small hole in the shell 

 at the end opposite the point : it is then put into a basin of water, kept 

 warm, and in about ten days it will have made its first leaf : it is then to 

 be planted in a tub about three feet wide and eighteen inches deep, 

 filled to about five inches of the top with mud. That part of the tub 

 covered with water should be painted, to prevent the green Conferva 

 from growing ; the mud should also be covered about an inch T\ith fine 

 sand, for the same purpose. The water should be changed twice a week, 

 and the sand slightly moved. The young leaves should be bent down 

 to the surface of the sand by placing a small stone on them, until the 

 stalk has grown long enough to remain out of the water. During the 

 day the temperatiure should be kept up to about seventy-five or eighty 

 degrees, but at night the house should be left open when the weather is 

 not cold, as also sometimes on rainy days. Towards the middle of 

 September they should be gradually inured to the open air, and left 

 there without covering till the following spring, when they should be 

 put into another tub about the beginning of May. 



" The late Mr. Stewart, of Valleyfield, used to flower this splendid 

 plant in great perfection, by adopting a course of culture very difierent 

 from that followed by most other cultivators. The tub in which his 

 plants grew was plunged in the corner of a pine pit in a temperature 

 during summer from sixty-five to ninety degrees, and even one hundred 

 degrees, but in winter seldom above sixty degrees of Fahrenheit. During 

 winter the plants received little water, the supply being gradually 

 diminished from the time the plants flowered until they became almost 

 dry, in which state they remained during winter. In spring water was 

 increased, and as soon as the foliage had grown above the surface the 

 old earth was carefully removed from round the roots, and replaced with 



