374 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
that my part should be confined to questioning. This subject of 
the flower, however, is one which would demand an afternoon to 
itself, and happily it is one with which British horticulture is 
only in very rare cases likely to be concerned. I may venture 
to hope that some scientific botanist may one day devote a paper 
to its elucidation, and if the hint thus thrown out should bear 
fruit the few observations which, with great diffidence, I have 
laid before you to-day will not have been made in vain. 
THE CULTIVATION OF CODI^UMS (CROTONS) AND 
DRAC^NAS. 
By the late Mr. C. F. Bause, F.R.H.S. 
[Read August 27, 1S95.] 
The genus Croton, of the natural order Euphorbiace^e, contains a 
large number of handsome foliage stove-plants, which are well 
adapted for most decorative purposes. They form handsome 
objects for exhibition, and are indispensable for table decora- 
tions. 
The species and hybrids are very numerous, and almost every 
one of them is worth growing, so wide is the difference between 
them in both the form and colour of their foliage. Some of the 
broad-leaved kinds make particularly fine plants if grown with 
one stem to the height of two to three feet, while those with 
leaves of medium width may be grown in bush form, and as 
such make handsome plants. The narrow-leaved section con- 
tains many first-class varieties, and few other plants are so well 
adapted for table decoration on account of their elegant habit 
and the rich colouring of their leaves. 
To grow Crotons well they require a strong heat with a 
thoroughly moist atmosphere, plenty of light, and only moderate 
shading. During the winter months they do well in a tempera- 
ture of G0° at night, with a rise of a few degrees in the daytime, 
but during the spring the temperature may with advantage rise 
from 5 to 10 degrees higher. Air sliould be admitted whenever 
the weather will permit, and when the sun-heat is strong, shading 
