214 
ON THE CULTURE OF NEW AND RARE PLANTS 
IN THE LEADING NURSERIES AND PRIVATE GARDENS IN THE VICINITY OF 
LONDON. 
On the Culture of Lantana Selloi. 
This interesting- and beautiful little plant, though it has seldom, if ever, been 
noticed in any of the leading botanical periodicals of the day, and very little regarded 
by cultivators, seems to us to possess merits, which, if properly known and under- 
stood, w^ould rescue it at once from the apparent oblivion into which it has sunk, 
and entitle it to a place in the best of collections. It not unfrequently happens, 
that when a plant (like the present) is first introduced to this country, it is culti- 
vated in a much higher temperature than is really necessary for it, because persons 
are, in a measure, unacquainted with its habits. This has been precisely the case 
with the present plant, which, when it was first introduced, was treated as a stove 
exotic; this might readily be inferred from the circumstance that all the other 
species of the g-enus are stove plants, but experience has proved that this plant 
will endure the open air perfectly well in the summer months, and only requires 
the protection of a frame or greenhouse in winter. It is much to be lamented that 
many persons who receive or purchase new plants of the description of the one we 
are now noticing-, cultivate them under the erroneous opinions before alluded to, 
for one or perhaps two years, merely for the sake of their novelty, and then, without 
ever investigating- their true habits, or enquiring- what further purposes of ornament 
they may be made to supply, they are by degrees discarded and lost sight of, till 
they become entirely lost to the collection. Thus it is that plants, which are in 
themselves truly beautiful, and which may be made to answer various ornamental 
purposes, are either for want of attention (having lost their novelty) wholly anni- 
hilated, or are thrown out of large establishments as unworthy of notice, and rescued 
only from total destruction by the amateur or cottager 3 so that we consider that 
any person who exerts himself to ascertain the true habits of plants, or what pur- 
poses they may be applied to, does a signal service to the science of floriculture. 
We are, however, happy to find that the subject of this article has not yet sunk so 
low, and, that it may not, we will just beg to lay before our readers an outline of 
the different modes of culture that it will submit to, which we have observed in the 
vicinity of London ; and we trust that this, added to the beauty and elegance of 
its blossoms, will induce those who have not yet had it in their possession, at once 
to procure it, and those who have, to cultivate it more extensively. 
The first method of treating this plant, we have before observed, was that of 
keeping it in the temperature of the stove ; and, though we would condemn this 
practice while no other is admitted of, yet we cordially recommend it as one of those 
modes by which this plant may be made subservient to the wishes of the cultivator, 
and become an useful and valuable ornament. The first thing to be attended to is, 
necessarily, the work of propagation, and this should be performed by cuttings ; 
for, though the plant may ripen seeds, propagation by cuttings is by far the most 
