HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
65 
to admit of a very extensive application without considerable modification to adapt 
them to the requirements of each. Thus, light is universally recognised as an 
essential agent to the well-being of a plant ; but the degree of light beneficial to 
different species, or even which they can bear with impunity, varies as greatly as 
their respective botanical characters or general aspect. The same is true of other 
agencies ; and on this account, therefore, directions for the management of 
particular species, or families corresponding in habits, will always be desirable. 
The detail of different plans of treatment, will likewise furnish a means of creating 
additional variety in the several stations for which each is respectively fitted. 
Considerable interest being at the present time manifested with regard to the 
Juaniillda parasitica, so long cultivated in gardens as Brugmansia floribunda, we 
are induced to pen a few T observations upon it, assured that in so doing we shall be 
complying with the desire of many of our subscribers. 
With the knowledge of the primitive name, we gain some facts relative to its 
natural habits and climate, which may possibly be turned to advantage in its 
cultivation. It is described by Ruiz and Pavon, its original discoverers, as 
a parasitical plant growing on the trunks of trees in forests, and assuming a 
pendent direction. Coupling this fact, then, with the prevalence of a clouded 
atmosphere in Peru, we have at once the best evidence for assuming shade to be a 
necessary condition to ensure success in its management. Effectual drainage, and 
to be effectual it must be extensive, so that the roots may never be surrounded by 
an excess of moisture, is another axiom plainly established by the natural situation 
being upon trees. 
But even to set aside these inductions, as derived from the natural circum- 
stances which attend the plant in a wild state, the conclusions drawn from 
repeated practice and observation come in support of the same theory ; and we 
can have no hesitation in affirming that the frequent failures in its cultivation may 
generally be traced to the neglect of one or other of these conditions. We do not, 
however, mean to assert that success is solely and exclusively dependent on them, 
for the health of plants must ever be influenced by a variety of causes. 
To carry out these hints, instead of using a loamy and retentive soil, one of a 
more open character and more permeable to fluids should be chosen. That degree 
of humidity in the soil most beneficial to this, and indeed to a very large number 
of all cultivated plants, is that which merely moistens all the particles, without 
producing saturation ; and this condition will be best preserved by a looser 
arrangement, and materials of a coarse mechanical texture. The Juanulloa thrives 
admirably in a mixture of rough pieces of rotten wood and decayed leaves ; and 
from the fact of the plant locating upon trees in its native state, we may safely 
conclude that this is the natural medium for its roots. 
A degree of bottom-heat to the roots is another important point, and effects a 
most astonishing improvement in the growth and flowering ; and more especially 
when the plants are provided with it from the earliest stage of their existence, for 
VOL. XTT. NO. CXXXV. K 
