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CULTURE OF SPARMANNIA AFRICANA. 
H. longifolium grows six feet high, and in June and July produces its red flowers ; 
also a native of the East Indies, and introduced into this country in 1823. 
H. speciosum. This is a showy species, with delightfully scented pale yellow 
flowers ; it grows eight feet high ; flowers in August and September ; is a native of 
the East Indies, whence it was introduced in 1823. 
H. maximum. This is a larger growing species, attaining the height of H. 
speciosum, and produces white flowers in August. Introduced in 1820. 
H. villosmn. A dwarf species^ three feet high, with cream-coloured flowers. 
Introduced in 1823. 
H. glaucum grows from four to Ave feet high, producing, in July and August, 
white flowers. Introduced in 1822. 
-fir. ellipticum grows five feet high, producing white flowers from July to 
September. Introduced in 1804. 
H. acuminatum attains the height of four feet, flowers white, appearing in June 
and August. Introduced in 1820. 
H.spicatum is a dwarf-kind, producing yellow flowers in June. Introduced in 1810. 
H. thyrsiforme. This is a handsome species, attaining the height of four feet, 
and produces an abundance of white flowers in July and August. Introduced in 1818. 
The generic name Hedychium is compounded from hedys, sweet, and chion, 
snow ; from the true qualities of the flowers, viz. white and sweet. 
CULTURE OF SPARMANNIA AFRICANA. 
By E. 
We not unfrequently witness large specimens of this beautiful plant in a state 
of ill health, indicated by the dingy yellow colour of its leaves, and the contracted 
growth of the two or three preceding years' shoots, although the plant in general 
appears to have grown quite free before this diminution in growth became manifest. 
The want of luxuriance in this plant in the case now in hand is in my judgment 
attributable to two causes ; on the one hand, to confinement at the roots, which 
disposes the plant to produce a greater quantity of flowers than it can support, 
without robbing a considerable portion of the nutriment sent np by the rootlets, 
and necessary for the completion of the usual growth in the branches ; and on the 
other, too poor compost, which induces the plant to throw out a quantity of stunted, 
half-sized, and half beautiful flowers, without affording the required strength to the 
branches. Whether or not this deficiency be referable to either of the causes I 
have pointed out I am not fully prepared to prove, but certain I am, that a good 
sized plant now under my eye grew and flowered remarkably well for the first four 
or five years of its growth, and was every spring greatly admired by all who saw it ; 
after this a decline in the growth of the wood, and luxuriance of the foliage, with- 
out any diminution in flowers, size excepted, took place, which rendered the plant 
unsightly instead of ornamental, for it always after looked sickly and ofl"ensive to the 
eye. In this state it stood two years ; I potted it as usual, but perceiving no im- 
