THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
353 
COLEUS. 
FEW of the varieties of Coleus are gorgeous in their 
leaf-colouring, and invaluable as bedders ; but some 
thirty or forty kinds, supposed to be “ in cultivation,” 
are scarcely better for outdoor purposes than nettles 
from the hedgerows. To grow these plants is easy 
enough, provided they can be wintered in a stove or intermediate 
house, and be propagated early over a tank, or on a good liot-bed. 
They cannot be wintered in a cool temperature that suffices for 
geraniums, centaureas, and verbenas, and it is but inviting vexation 
to attempt it. But given warmth enough, and the matter is dis- 
posed of, for they grow with the vigour of nettles if they grow at all. 
During winter, keep them rather dry, and near the glass, and never 
allow a drop of water to touch the leaves. Early in spring strike 
the cuttings in a moist heat of 70’, and pot off the young plants in 
a light rich compost. Do not be in haste either to turn them out to 
harden, or to plant them in the beds. The middle of May is early 
enough to put them in frames, and the first week in June early 
enough to plant out. The best of all the varieties for out-doors is 
C. Yerscliaffdti ; but j Emperor Napoleon, Princess of Wales, and 
Baroness Rothschild are useful, where more than one sort is re- 
quired. 
For in-door cultivation perhaps C. Marshalli is the best of the 
sombre-toned varieties, the leaf being elegant in outline, and of the 
richest purple, or red chocolate, with brilliant green eye. C. Mur- 
rayi also has a fine expanse of leaf, the ground colour bright green, 
invaded by patches of a fine deep purple colour, while C. Telfordi 
aurea, though small and rather llimsy in texture, is distinct and 
brilliant in colour, the ground being golden green, shading to buff 
with a central stripe of purplish red. 
BASING TONIA CAMPHOROSMiE. 
HIS, although not one of the most showy of our hard- wooded 
I plants, has the good property of flowering in autumn, 
when hard-wooded specimens in bloom are scarce ; and 
being of a free, elegant habit of growth, and flowering 
profusely as it does for many weeks in succession, it is 
well worth a place in every collection. It is perhaps one of the 
easiest of greenhouse hard-wooded plants to propagate ; cuttings 
selected of the young wood in a half-ripe state, and treated in the 
ordinary way, very soon emit roots. The cuttings should be potted 
singly, in small pots, as soon as they are moderately well rooted, 
using nice rich fibry peat in a small state, with a large admixture of 
silver saud, and placing them till fairly established in their pots, in 
a close, rather moist pit. Beginners will, however, save time by 
December. 23 
