78 ALLAMANDA CATHARTICA. 
although their colour be yellow, which is not commonly admired, it is of that 
peculiarly rich shade of which none can do otherwise than approve. W e should 
note, however, that unless this plant is favoured with suitable culture, it becomes 
a straggling and almost disagreeable object, the beauty of its noble flowers being 
insufficient to atone for a want of good foliage and general health. 
The principal things to be thought of in its cultivation, are to provide a spot in 
which it can be" planted out where the sun and air may act on the soil, and to be 
careful in keeping this so far above the level of the floor of the house, and so 
thoroughly drained, that it may never be unnecessarily drenched with water. A 
rich loamy soil, to which a little heath-mould can be added, is a proper medium 
for the roots ; the species requiring a rather more nutritive earth than many plants 
of its class, from the unusual vigour of its growth. A tolerably high temperature 
and a moist atmosphere are essential to its full development in summer ; and a 
place in an Orchidaceous-house, where these conditions are secured, and where the 
Allamanda will assist in forming a natural screen to the roof, is most desirable. 
So treated, it will flower during the whole of the late summer and autumnal 
months. 
It is easily increased by cuttings of the younger shoots, which can be prepared 
at the most convenient period, and planted in the ordinary way, beneath a shaded 
glass, in a warm propagation-house or frame. 
The genus commemorates Frederick Allamand, a surgeon of Holme, who 
travelled in Guiana about 1769, and probably discovered the plant that bears his 
name. 
