92 ORNAMENTAL WINTER AND SPRING FLOWERING PLANTS. 



retarding than forcing. These plants do not require repotting 

 every season, but when necessary, it should be done in May, 

 and they should be placed in a favourable situation for making 

 a new growth. When this is completed, they should be gradually 

 hardened till they will bear full exposure to the open air, where 

 they should remain till there is danger of frost : grafted on 

 Periskea aculeata they make very elegant standards. Oxalis 

 versicolor is a lovely little late autumn flowering bulb, if kept 

 dormant till the middle or end of July ; it requires the tem- 

 perature of a warm greenhouse, where it must have full expo- 

 sure to sunlight, as upon this the perfect expansion of its flowers 

 depends. Acacia dealbata is most graceful in a large house, 

 where it has room to form a small tree, and extend its graceful 

 branches on all sides. It, and the other species mentioned, along 

 with Cytisus, Genista, and Daphne indica rubra, require the 

 usual treatment of hard-wooded plants, and to be kept in shape 

 principally by pruning in the old shoots after flowering is over 

 and before they begin to form new growths. The shoots of some 

 of the strong growing Acacias, &c, will also require stopping 

 during their growth, in order to equalise the strength of the 

 plant; but this must never be done with Daphnes or other plants 

 which produce their flowers on the points of the new shoots. 

 Statice puberula requires no stopping ; its soil should be rather 

 rich and very open in texVure. Winter flowering Heaths should 

 be encouraged, and those who have time to spare for their pro- 

 pagation should attend particularly to these varieties, that they 

 may be able to devote these beautiful plants to decorative pur- 

 poses, and care less if some of them are destroyed thereby. 

 Clerodendron splendens is well worthy of a place in every 

 selection ; it has a natural tendency to go to rest very early in 

 autumn, and to start very early into growth again. It quickly 

 produces short lateral shoots, with terminal racemes of beautiful 

 flowers ; it flourishes best in a strong porous loam. Oldenlandia 

 Deppeana is a delightful little white-flowering plant, in appear- 

 ance somewhat resembling white Forget-me-not ; it is a plant of 

 all seasons, for it never ceases to flower till it ceases to live. 

 Temperature, that of a warm greenhouse ; soil, peat and loam. 

 Begonia hydrocotilifolia is an exception to its congeners mentioned 

 above. The old plants require parting in spring, and repotting 

 in leaf-mould and sand with a moderate admixture of loam. 

 They should be grown through the summer in a warm frame, 

 very close to the glass. The old plants of Primula sinensis 

 should be parted in May, and after their roots have started 

 afresh in a warm frame, they should be placed in a cooler one 

 close to the glass. Three sowings should be made — in the end 

 of March, the middle of May, and the end of June — to secure 



