74 
TELOPEA SPECIOSISSIMA. 
of good drainage and a careful discrimination as to the quantity of water adminis- 
tered, a due degree of exposure to light and air is indispensable to the superior 
cultivation, indeed to the existence, of this plant, especially during the winter 
season ; for, in an ill-ventilated house, where the "Warratah is placed at a great 
distance from the glass, and surrounded too closely with other and larger plants, 
it will seldom survive the winter. 
Judicious potting, however, is of first importance ; for unless this operation is 
performed with great care, and with a due regard to the nature of the plant, no 
success can be expected to be attained. An effective drainage, a light and friable 
(by no means adhesive) soil, composed of equal parts of sandy loam and heath- 
mould, with a good proportion of white sand and gritstone well incorporated, are 
the chief points to be attended to in potting this plant ; and though it requires so 
little water in the winter season, it must have a liberal supply in the summer 
months, particularly while in a growing or flowering state. 
Although it may be propagated by cuttings, which will generally succeed tole- 
rably well if planted in pure sand, young plants may be obtained much more 
speedily, and with much greater certainty, by layers; more especially as the 
plants naturally produce an abundance of suckers, which may be easily laid down 
into small pots introduced round the one in which the plant is growing, and will 
soon form roots. 
At Chatsworth we kept a specimen of this plant for some time in a house, the 
temperature of which was maintained rather higher than that of the greenhouse ; 
but in this situation it was much infested with insects, and we have found that an 
airy situation in the greenhouse is far preferable for it in the summer months, 
though we are inclined to think that the one above alluded to is more suitable 
during the winter season, as a greater degree of heat would doubtless have a tend- 
ency to counteract the injurious effect of a redundance of moisture. 
This plant is a native of New South "Wales, and Sir W. J. Hooker states (in the 
Bot. Mag. 1128) that it is allowed by the natives and settlers of that colony (which 
is well known to be so rich in floral beauties) to be the most splendid of all their 
vegetable productions ; the natives also are said to obtain an agreeable repast by 
sucking its tubular flowers, which abound with honey. It produces its brilliant 
flowers in this country in the months of June and July. 
The generic name is derived from Telopas^ signifying, seen at a distance ; this 
doubtless alludes to the great distance from which its rich crimson-coloured blos- 
soms are discernible in its native country. 
