CULTURE OF THE GENUS BANKSIA. 
121 
cuttings at a joint, two or three inches long ; take off the leaf from the bottom 
joint, when it is to be inserted in the pot, but let the other leaves remain un- 
mutilated. 
12. When the cuttings are prepared, plant them in very shallow pots of sand; 
place the pots on a board or something of the kind, and place a hand-glass over 
them. Never either set them on a moist bottom, or plunge them, or they will 
most likely damp off. 
13. As soon as they are rooted, pot them off in small sixty-sized pots, filled with 
the same soil the old plants are potted in. 
14. When potted, place them again under a hand-glass or two, or in a cold 
frame, but they must stand on a dry bottom, or they will soon perish. When they 
have begun to grow, expose them by degrees, until they will bear to be treated like 
old plants. 
BUTOME^E (Genus Limnocharis). 
Limnocharis Humboldti. Humboldt’s Limnocharis. New aquatic stove plants 
are almost as uncommon as new hardy evergreens. Generally plants of this descrip- 
tion are very beautiful, either in their flower or their foliage, or remarkable for the 
singular manner in which nature has enabled them to pass their lives amidst the 
water. Unless provided with floating apparatus, the small quantity of air contained 
in their leaves would be insufficient to support them on the surface of the water, 
and they would sink and drown like animals themselves. 
But to prevent this occurrence we always find some curious and beautiful con- 
trivance, such as a distension of the leaf stalk, till it assumes a swollen and gouty 
aspect; or the construction of myriads of air chambers in the solid stem itself; or 
the roots distended in vegetable swimming bladders ; or, as is the case with this 
species, some special alteration in other parts, which consists in the midrib of the 
leaf being so enlarged and filled with air, as to render it impossible for the leaf to 
sink, although loaded with thrice the weight it has to carry; not, however, all the 
midrib, but only the under-side of it, by which means any upsetting of the leaf, or 
application of the breathing side (which is the upper) to the surface of the water, by 
which it would be smothered, is effectually prevented. 
This plant was originally found by Humboldt in marshes to the west of Caraccas; 
but it seems common over all the east side of South America. 
The flowers are very fugitive, opening in the morning, and withering up in the 
course of the day. The petals are extremely transparent and delicate; but the chief 
beauty of the species resides in the rich purple fringe of barren stamens which 
surrounds the fertile ones. It flowers all round the year in a tank in the stove. — 
Sat. Reg. 
