GESNERAS AND THEIR KIND. 



pots in coal ashes to avoid rapid drying out and to 

 prevent worms from entering the pot. ' Keep the 

 plants well watered. If properly attended as re- 

 gards repotting and watering, they will be ready to 

 be put in an 8-inch pot by fall, and will make nice 

 flowering plants by spring. From this time on the 

 treatment is the same as that already described for 

 old plants. 



It may be a matter of interest to note that of 

 six plants the same age three were removed from 

 the pots and planted out during the summer while 

 the others were kept in pots continuously but 



plunged in the ground during summer. The three 

 which were planted out, the one illustrated being 

 one of them, have done much better. The others 

 produced fewer and smaller flowers and a great pro- 

 portion of blind wood. 



Robert Shore. 



[Note. — Hydrangea Otaksa is considered to be a var- 

 iety of H. Hortensia. It was figured and described in 

 France so long as 1868, in both Flore des Serres and 

 Rt'vuc Horticole . It is of Japanese origin. This is one 

 of the finest of all cultivated plants, and our illustration 

 represents an excellent specimen. — Ed.] 



GESNERAS AND THEIR KIND. 



NOT MUCH GROWN, BUT WORTHY OF TRIAL. 



'I T7^ 1 1 1 ^ that this class of plants is 

 WL ^MKk 'Ji never mentioned in our horticultu- 

 *t-r«^^K.[/ ral periodicals ? Why are they 

 ^^^^^SS not included in the catalogues of 

 '.'7 '' vT florists ? They certainly are 



deserving of culture, and afford a 

 variety of very charming flowers. I admit that they 

 are of a tender character, and I would not recommend 

 them to the novice in the culture of rare plants. 

 I have made several unsuccessful attempts to grow 

 them ; but I think the failure was on account of the 

 small size of the plants, as they had been sent by 

 mail. Last spring John Saul, of Washington, D. 

 C, the only florist who to my knowledge catalogues 

 them in their different sections, sent me, on special 

 order, well-established and thrifty plants by express. 

 They came in fine condition ; one was in bloom, 

 and the others beginning to bud. 



Mr. Henderson, in his Hand-book of Plants, thus 

 describes the gesnera, so named in honor of Con-- 

 rad Gesner, a celebrated botanist of Zurich. 



" A beautiful and extensive genus of tuberous-rooted 

 greenhouse plants from Mexico and South America. 

 They are remarkable for the beauty of their foliage, 

 which is singularly marked and as soft as velvet, and 

 for their long spikes of brilHant colored flowers, mostly 

 scarlet and yellow. Some of them are singularly spot- 

 ted or marked. With a little care in regulating their 

 season of rest, they can be brought into flower at any 

 desired time. They require a light rich soil, a warm 

 situation, but little sun, and plenty of water, which 

 should not touch the foliage. They are easily propagat- 

 ed by cuttings of young shoots, or by cuttings of leaves 

 with a bud at the base, division of the tubers, or from 

 seeds. The latter is a ve.ry interesting plan. The seed 

 should be sown in March in pans or boxes, in fine light 

 compost, largely composed of sand. Place the pans 

 in a warm, moist atmosphere. As soon as the seedlings 



are up and commence the second leaf, transplant them 

 separately an inch or two apart, in shallow boxes, and 

 from these when sufficiently grown, remove them singly 

 to small pots. In the autumn allow them to rest. As 

 soon as they show signs of life in the spring, repot them 

 in fresh soil, water, place in the light, and many of 

 them will flower during the summer." 



The following I think can be easily made to bloom 

 during the winter months. G. alba rosea, rosy, creamy- 

 white, carmine throat on yellow ground ; G. Diovati, 

 with large flowers, orange-scarlet tip, spotted, free 



Gesnera refulgens. 



grower and profuse bloomer ; G. Hendersonii, the finest 

 of all, a true gesnera, with pale green, velvety leaves, 

 and a large truss of brilliant scarlet flowers, three inches 



