258 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
and this should be attended to before the foliage gets disfigured. 
By continuing this treatment for a season or two, fine, large 
specimens will be obtained ; and when this is the case, they may be 
removed from the conservatory, where, if they are afforded a close 
corner, and not over-watered, or allowed to suffer from damp, they 
will be quite at home all the summer season. But they must be 
removed to where a temperature of not less than 55° is maintained, 
as soon as cold, damp weather sets in in autumn. Large specimens 
will, of course, require to be repotted occasionally, and this should 
be done as early in spring as there may be an opportunity of afford- 
ing them a brisk temperature to stir the roots. With proper 
management, specimens will last any number of years ; and propa- 
gation is easily effected by dividing the old plants, or by means of 
offsets, which should be taken off with as many roots as possible, 
and kept close for a few weeks after potting, when they will be 
sufficiently rooted to be treated as established plants. 
Maranta splendida and M. illuslris present us with leaf surfaces 
most elaborately and richly painted, and, moreover, very distinctive 
as fine foliaged plants ; and in M. rosea picta we have a remarkable 
example of leaf colouring, the leaves having a bright rosy midrib, 
with bands of brilliant red and white, the intervening spaces of a 
solemn tone of deep green. 
YALLOTA PURPUREA. 
jHERE are few plants so showy and useful as this which 
are so suitable for amateurs, or persons possessing but 
limited accommodation for plant-growing. It is more 
beautiful than many varieties of Amaryllis, while it is 
not nearly so troublesome to manage ; and its fine 
umbels of bright-coloured flowers last in perfection for weeks in a 
cool greenhouse. It is easily propagated by means of offsets, which 
are produced freely on established plants. These should be taken 
off before growth commences in spring, and planted in separate pots, 
putting one or more into a pot just sufficiently large to conve- 
niently admit the roots, according as the object may be to increase 
the number of the plants or to have useful-sized specimens for 
flowering as soon as possible. After potting, they should be put iu 
a close pit, and sparingly supplied with water at the root, sprinkling 
them overhead morning and evening in fine weather until they emit 
fresh roots, when a free supply should be given at the root. When 
fairly established, after potting, which will soon be the case, the 
plants should be placed near the glass, and freely exposed to the 
air on every favourable opportunity, affording them a temperature 
of about 50° at night, and allowing it to rise 10 tf or 15 a with sun 
heat. As soon as the pots are well filled with active roots, shift 
into others some two inches wider. 
During the warm months of summer the plants will do very w r ell 
in a close part of the greenhouse, or a cold frame ; the latter, how- 
