THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
329 
THE EGG PLANT. 
n HE fruits of the Egg Plant cultivated in the market 
gardens at Paris are round, oval, or oblong, according to 
the variety, and of a dull violet colour. In the climate of 
Paris the seeds must he sown about the end of December, 
i or beginning of January. A hot-bed is prepared, the 
heat of which should be from 68° to 77° ; it is surrounded with a 
good lining, and covered with a layer of vegetable mould about five 
inches in thickness, and when the requisite degree of heat is 
attained the seeds are sown. The sashes are covered at night with 
a good straw mat. A fortnight or three weeks after sowing, a 
second bed, not so hot as the first, is prepared. This is covered 
with vegetable mould, and when their cotyledons are well developed, 
the young plants are pricked out into this second bed, and after 
some time they are again taken up and replanted in the same bed, 
but at the distance of eight or nine inches from each other. The 
covering up of the sashes at night is still continued, and as soon as 
the young plants begin to grow, a little air is given if the state of the 
temperature will permit. In the course of the month of March, 
another hot-bed is prepared. The frames are placed and the bed 
covered with vegetable mould. When the bed is of the proper 
mat, from 60° to 08°, four Egg Plants are planted under each four 
and a half feet sash. They do not get air for several days, in order 
that the plants may more readily take fresh root, after which a little 
air is given, by pushing the sashes either up or down, and these are 
opened wider as the season advances, so that they may be taken off 
iu the mouth of May. The further attention they require consists 
in watering when necessary, and in clearing the leaves, which are 
often attacked by the red spider ; next, all the young shoots which 
spring from the base of the stem are taken off, in order to obtain 
an}- main stem, which is pinched when it is sufficiently strong, with 
the view of formiug two main branches, which are themselves 
piuehed at a later period, in order to induce the development of 
laterals on them ; and when the fruit is set, all the young shoots are 
taken off, in order to increase the size of the fruit. By these means 
fruit fit for gathering may be obtained about the end of June or 
beginning of July, and the plauts bear in succession till October. 
COLEONEMA PULCHRUM. 
HE fine, graceful habit of growth, and profusion of bright- 
coloured, star-shaped blossoms, for which this plant is 
remarkable, render it well worth a place, even in 
limited collections ; and as it is also of easier cultivation 
than most of our first-class greenhouse plants, it is 
: herefore very suitable for growers who have had no great amount of 
experience in plant culture. The ordinary method of increasing 
hard-wooded greenhouse plauts, will succeed perfectly in the case of 
November, 
