127 
GLOXINIA SPECIOSA AND CAULESCENS. 
In Volume II. p. 76 of the Magazine of Botany, there is a list of some of the 
Gesneriae, and a notice of some very interesting- facts, which are observable when 
G. speciosa and caulescens are propagated by cuttings placed in water. These 
beautiful plants, the more they are known, become in proportion the subjects of 
admiration ; but we seldom see them. Whatever be the cause, whether it is that 
gentlemen amateurs and gardeners experience difficulties in their treatment, or 
lose their plants in the winter, we cannot decide ; but certain it is that we find 
few of the plants any where. 
There is one circumstance, however, which, were it generally known, might 
rescue them from oblivion, and add greater interest to their cultivation. It is the 
constant practice (and we see it recommended by every writer) to dry off the plants 
in the autumn, and suffer them to remain dormant during the winter months. By 
this mode of treatment, some of the stock is actually lost sight of and thrown 
away, some of the roots become dust-dry, and perish at the first watering, so that 
the number of small and young stocks becomes seriously reduced. 
We do not dispute the propriety of leaving the greater number of strong roots 
to become dormant during winter, because our experience is not as yet sufficiently 
ample to authorise us to pronounce an opposite treatment the best in all cases ; but 
certain it is, that the species, named caulescens, from its having a stem a few 
inches long, may be preserved in full verdure throughout the winter, in a stove 
wherein the night average by fire is rarely so high as fifty-two degrees Fahrenr it. 
We have now by us two fine plants, about six inches high, which did nc iose 
a leaf; and the verdure was preserved solely by gentle waterings, so applied as to 
keep the soil in the pots just moist and free. They began to grow in March, pro- 
duced healthy leaves, and a profusion of flower-buds. Finally they were refreshed 
with new soil, composed of semi-decayed sifted beech and oak leaves, old rotted 
wood earth from under a pile of branches of apple-trees, and very sandy black 
heath-mould, in nearly equal portions ; and water has subsequently been freely 
given at the surface, and by means of pans under the pots. One plant has many 
fine flowers, the other is preparing to expand its blossoms. We have not as yet 
tried this mode of winter treatment on speciosa ; but hope to prove its efficacy in 
the ensuing year. Some of our varieties perished of course, but we appear to have 
retained all those with white flowers (Gloxinia Candida), and one is now a 
specimen of luxuriant beauty. It is in a large forty-eighe pot (about five inches 
wide) ; the foliage, if measured in extent from the tips of the leaves on opposite 
sides, cannot be less than fifteen inches, so that the circumference would be con- 
siderably above a yard. The flowers and buds are extremely numerous, perhaps 
seventy to eighty ; they cannot be counted without great risk of breaking the leaf- 
stalks, and the tout-ensemble is striking. We mention this plant in order to evince 
the appropriateness of the soil above named, to which, however, a small portion 
(one sixth) of yellow sandy loam was added May 25th, 1837. 
