100 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS. 



GESNERA. 



The Gesnera has long been classed with greenhouse 

 bulbous plants. The species form a varied and most 

 interesting class, which can only be grown in the green- 

 house or stove-house. They are all natives of South 

 America and Mexico, and are quite as remarkable for 

 the beauty of their foliage, which is singularly marked 

 and has a velvet-like appearance, as for their flowers. 

 The brilliant, mostly scarlet and yellow flowers, are pro- 

 duced on long branching stalks. To grow them success- 

 fully they must have plenty of heat and moisture, but 

 in watering avoid wetting the leaves. They are easily 

 managed, so far as their period of bloom is concerned. 

 By applying or withholding water, after a period of rest, 

 a succession of bloom may be kept up with a few plants 

 the entire season. 



Propagation is readily effected by cuttings of young 

 shoots, or by leaf cuttings if the leaf be taken off with a 

 bud at its base, or by division of the tubers, which 

 should be made when starting into growth. They are 

 also easily grown from seed, which should be sown in 

 pans of sphagnum, made very fine and mixed with clean 

 sand, as soon as ripe. The pans should be covered with 

 glass to avoid evaporation, and placed in a warm house. 

 As soon as the second pair of leaves is formed prick 

 out into thumb pots and grow on in a humid atmos- 

 phere. The plants will show when they need rest, by 

 the drooping and drying wp of their foliage ; then grad- 

 ually withhold water until the tops die down, after 

 which put them away in a dry, warm place, until their 

 period of growth again arrives, which they will show by 

 their starting ; then repot, and divide if desirable. 

 There are upwards of fifty species, all desirable. 



GETHYLLIS. 



The most diminutive genus of the Amaryllidacece. 

 The species are little bulbs from the Cape of Good 



