54 
ABUTILON STRIATUM. 
Having given some attention to the subject of its culture, we find that, in the 
nursery of Mr. Fairbairn, Clapham, a specimen stood in the open ground during 
the winter of 1838-9, without any protection, and with complete impunity. We 
saw the plant in question during the frost of last December, and it appeared in 
admirable health. This fact will render apparent the absurdity of growing the 
plant in a stove. In extensive places it may, notwithstanding, be occasionally 
treated as a stove plant, since, when there is an abundance of other specimens 
placed in the foreground, so as to conceal the bottom portion of its leafless branches, 
the fascinating flowers and light waving foliage will form a desirable relief to the 
eye from the ordinary sorts of tropical plants. 
We would not be understood as positively commending the practice of trans- 
ferring this species to the open air. Our design in producing the foregoing case is 
simply to demonstrate, from the fact of its maintaining a healthy habit in such a 
site, that the tenuity so much complained of results from excessive excitation, and is 
not a natural feature. We greatly prefer the greenhouse as a general receptacle for 
the present subject, because it would doubtless blossom better if sheltered from 
direct atmospheric influence. By retaining it in a cold house, it will bloom in 
almost all the more favourable months, and will continue to flower through even a 
large part of the winter in a stove, so amazingly prolific is its nature. 
Cuttings must be prepared from those shoots which are most nearly ripened, as 
the very sickly sprays are too succulent to sustain, without rotting, the direct 
inhibition of water consequent on being planted independently in an earthy com- 
post. They should be placed in shallow pots of very sandy soil, and these plunged 
in a gentle bottom heat, as well as covered with a small hand-glass. 
Calling at Mrs. Lawrence's gardens, Ealing Park, in the autumn of 1839, we 
observed some beautiful specimens of this plant in a flowering state, and were 
courteously allowed to obtain the representation hereto attached. 
The generic title is derived from the Arabic name of an undetermined member 
of the order Malvaceae. 
