174 APHELANDRA CRIST AT A. 
it maintains under congenial culture. We have, in fact, witnessed specimens, the 
flower-spikes of which were not more than one-third the size of the one now 
represented ; and we have no hesitation in affirming that one which bloomed last 
autumn in the stove of Mrs. Lawrence, Ealing Park, and of which the wood-cut 
supplied is a very reduced sketch, was little short of three times as large ; thus pre- 
senting, within our own observation, a difference of magnitude of six stages or degrees. 
The astonishing disparity thus described could not easily be reconciled with the 
production of a single spike of flowers, as it is barely likely that their number and 
size should differ so greatly ; we may therefore state, that in unhealthy plants only 
one spike is usually developed, whereas the more 
luxuriant specimens sometimes bear as many as 
four. Of course the causes which deteriorate 
the flowers or diminish their number to such 
an extent, operate with similar detriment on 
the foliage ; and though the species naturally 
produces very noble leaves, and of a lively 
green, they degenerate beneath unfavourable 
management to miserable abortions, with a 
colour in which yellow and brown are alter- 
nately and indescribably blended. 
When we confirm the propriety of the 
preceding picture by saying that it is not at 
all exaggerated, the influence of good culture 
will be forcibly apparent. The grand items 
in the treatment of A. cristata are a somewhat 
nutritious earth, composed of maiden loam, 
mixed with a small portion of heath-soil 
and sand, and enriched with leaf-mould or 
thoroughly decayed manure, with a sufficiency 
of pot-room, and a moist genial atmosphere in 
the stove during the time it is growing. If these be adequately attended to, 
there will be no danger of failure, and tlie plant will constitute one of the most 
splendid objects in the entire vegetable world. 
Propagation must be effected by cuttings. 
Aphelandra is derived from apheles^ &imple5 mm\ male, alluding to the 
one- celled anther. 
