74 FRANCISCEA LATIFOLIA. 
With such characteristics, F. latifolia must assuredly soon obtain a high degree 
of popularity ; and its appropriate cultivation will necessarily be an object of some 
solicitude. It seems less inclined to branch — or, at least, it has yet branched less 
liberally — than F. Hopeana, and might perhaps be improved by a little early and 
judicious pruning. The compost in which it is potted should be light, to which 
end it ought to be formed of about one-half fibrous heath-mould, and the rest sandy 
loam, mixed with well-rotted leaf-soil or wood-ashes, and some silver sand. It is 
important that the plant be not in too confined a position, nor have the soil in 
which it grows too much shaded by other plants ; and that its roots should be 
allowed full play by potting it frequently into a larger pot as they reach the out- 
side. A house with a western aspect, or the shaded side of a span-roofed erection 
whose opposite compartment fronts the south, is in all respects the most suitable 
situation for it. And if there be a pit in the house, capable of containing bark 
into which the pot may be plunged, or filled with soil, and not very distant from 
the roof, so that a specimen can be planted in it, its growth in either case will be 
more luxuriant, for it loves a moist atmosphere, such as arises from a mass of 
fermenting material or of earth. 
Cuttings, prepared from the partially-matured shoots, root with tolerable 
readiness, in a warm and humid pit, under a shaded hand-glass. 
The genus was named after Francis the First, Emperor of Austria, who bestowed 
a liberal patronage on botany. 
