274 On the Cultivation of Rare Plants. 



I regard all the plants, which the late Mr. Dryander has 

 separated from this, as mere varieties, and the last of them as 

 a monstrosity, analogous to a cOw without horns. We find as 

 striking differences in the foliage of many other vegetables, 

 some growing low and spreading, others tall and slender ; 

 and this not from standing remote, or close to one another, 

 but from a natural predisposition, evident in the # seed-bed. 

 This species was first discovered very near the south point of 

 Plettenberg's Bay, and it grows wild, still more abundantly, 

 about the mouth of the Great Fish River. Being now com- 

 mon in our collections, its treatment is pretty well understood ; 

 but it is not generally known that its seeds, which are very 

 curious and beautiful, may be readily obtained here by the 

 following method : Keep the plant as cool as possible without 

 injury to its health, during winter, for the later it flowers in 

 April or May, the better. As soon as the stigma of the first 

 flower is fully grown, dust it with a little pollen, either of the 

 same flower, preserved dry in writing paper for that purpose, 

 or of the next flower ready to open ; if the stigma do not 

 shrivel, the day after, repeat this dusting, and so proceed 

 with all the remaining flowers. At the same time take away 

 nearly all the honey from the nectarium of each flower, with 

 a small bit of sponge tied to a stick of a camel's hair pencil, 

 and perform this operation neatly, as the Certhias do with 

 their long bills, not daubing the flower. During summer and 

 autumn, expose the plant to all the sun our climate affords, 

 keeping the stove 

 idmission of fresh 



