Plate 'iol 



DRAC2ENA HIBBERDII. 



This is a garden hybrid of great beauty and of medium growth. It has the pendulous habit 

 of D. excelsa, with leaves of the rich metallic colour shown in the plate, the young foliage 

 being luminous carmine. As a decorative plant it is of the first class, and it is, we are 

 informed, to be sent out in May by Mr. B. S. Williams, of the Victoria and Paradise Nursery, 

 at Upper Holloway. It has been named after Mr. Shirley Hibberd, the editor of the 

 Gardener 's Magazine. The culture and propagation of Dracsenas is very easy, and the best 

 method to follow, according to a recent writer in the Garden, is to take an old stem — no 

 matter how thick — cut it into pieces an inch long, lay these in congenial soil, give a bottom 

 heat of eighty or ninety degrees, and in three or four weeks each piece will be a young, 

 sturdy plant, which only requires time and care to grow it into a splendid specimen. No 

 plants are more suitable for table decoration than Draccenas, when proper plants are selected. 

 If they are too tall for that purpose, pass your knife round them at the desired height to the 

 depth of the bark, with the thumb-nail press the severed part away, take a little nice sandy 

 soil, and with a handful of moss fasten it around the wound, and in a few weeks the head 

 will be rooted, and may be removed with perfect safety, to be placed in a vase or any other 

 convenient place. This, to say the least of it, is a convenient way of extemporising a plant. 

 Then every joint, from the place where the severance is made to the base, will produce a 

 shoot that will make a plant ; and, what is more, the stronger roots may be cut into lengths 

 an inch or two long, and, under the same conditions as the stem cuttings, each piece will 

 make a plant. 



Plate 202. 



BEGONIA— MAGENTA QUEEN. 



This is a second handsome new Begonia, to be sent out by Mr. B. S. Williams, of Upper 

 Holloway, in May next. The habit and great size and brilliancy of the flowers can be 

 better understood by a reference to our coloured plate than by any mere verbal description. 

 Considerable attention has been given to the proper culture of these plants in recent numbers 

 of the Journal of Horticulture, where it is said, under " Pot Culture," that the tubers should 

 be potted in February, in small pots, in soil consisting of two-thirds of good friable loam, 

 the remaining third being equal moieties of leaf or light peat mould and silver sand. The 

 drainage should be ample and efficient. Water should be sparingly applied until the plants 

 have made some growth ; but when they are growing vigorously a more copious supply is 

 necessary. As they increase in size they should be shifted into larger pots, and the shifting 

 repeated till the flower-buds make their appearance. The temperature in which the plants 

 are started should be from fifty to fifty-five degrees ; as the season advances this may be 

 slightly raised. Under the conditions above stated, fine sjDecimen-plants in eight and even 

 twelve-inch pots may be obtained from good tubers. As soon as the flowering is over — 

 which in healthy well-grown specimens lasts from two to three months — the tubers must 

 not be allowed to dry too rapidly, or they will shrivel and weaken. They should be allowed 

 to dry off very gradually, and afterwards be preserved in a cool, dry place, of course free 

 from frost. 



