514 
NTfiHT TEMPERATURE OF HOT-HOUSES. 
plants, and these are during a portion of the 
year in a state of dormancy. The stems 
grow up a foot, or a foot and a half in height, 
and are erect and simple, the colour being a 
pale green, slightly tinged with red ; they are 
described as being obscurely tetragonal. On 
this stem the leaves are produced in pairs op- 
posite each other ; they are acutely ovate, 
attached by a short stalk, and serrated along 
the margins ; they are smooth, and green on 
the upper surface, but considerably paler on 
the lower side. The blossoms come out, one 
from each axil of a leaf, along the upper part 
of the stem ; they are large and showy, the 
colour being French white, with yellow at the 
throat of the tube of the corolla. The calyx 
divides into five largish wavy leafy segments. 
The corolla is bent downwards, as is the case 
generally in this genus ; the tube is some- 
what funnel shaped, but is so slightly in- 
creased in size upwards as to approach a cy- 
lindrical form ; the outside of this is the most 
deeply blush-tinted part of the flower, the 
inside being deep yellow, sprinkled over with 
small red dots. The limb of the corolla is 
divided into five large rounded unequal-sized 
lobes or segments, of which the margins are 
waved, and very prettily fimbriated ; these 
lobes are spreading, and quite white, the 
inner surface being sprinkled with very fine 
short hairs. 
The history of this Gloxinia does not appear 
to be well known, at least in England. It 
appears to have been received from Paris. 
Sir W. J. Hooker, in the Botanical Maga- 
zine, states that the Kew collection received 
it from M. Ketelier of Paris, and that he 
knew nothing more of its history. We regret 
to be unable to give any better account of its 
origin. The plant comes into blossom to- 
wards autumn, and continues in a blooming 
state for a sufficient length of time to render 
it worth cultivating as an ornamental plant. 
1.848 seems to have been the date of its intro- 
duction to England. 
The temperature of a stove is requisite to 
its successful cultivation. Being herbaceous, 
the stems die away annually, leaving only the 
scaly tubers or underground stems. During 
this period of the repose of the plant, the 
tubers ought to be kept dry, and the period of 
rest should correspond to our winter. In the 
spring the tubers must be started into growth, 
by placing them in a temperature averaging 
about sixty degrees, and supplying them with 
continual, but limited supplies of moistui'e : 
young shoots will soon appear, and, as soon 
as it can be observed which of them are 
strongest, pot them into wide-mouthed shallow 
pots, in which they will flower. A warm 
pit, or dung frame, is a proper place for them 
at this stage of their growth, as they now re- 
quire a moist and heated atmosphere, not too 
closely confined, but moderately airy. They 
require a light open compost, such as would 
be formed by mixing together equal parts of 
leaf-mould, turfy peat, and sandy loam ; this 
compost may have sand added or not, accord- 
ing to the quantity existing in the loam 
and peat ; the mixture should be sufficiently 
sandy to be porous, and admit the ready per- 
colation of moisture. As they grow, they must 
have more air, and less exciting heat at the 
root, which latter, if continued too long, 
would force them into weak lanky growth. 
They grow best in a rather moist and shady, 
but airy stove, during all the maturer stages 
of their progress. While growing, they re- 
quire regular supplies of water ; but when 
the flower declines, and the growth is com- 
pleted, this element must be restricted, until, 
in the course of three or four weeks, the 
stems become ripened thoroughly. If this 
ripening process has been sufficiently gi'adual, 
the tubers will be plump, in which condition 
they will keep till planting time ; but if it 
has been too much hurried, they will shrivel, 
and be liable to decay. The dry tubers must 
be kept in a moderately warm place, beyond 
the influence of damp or frost. 
The plants of this race increase freely in 
most cases by means of their tubers. In 
ordinary cases, it is sufficient to separate 
these tubers, and plant them singly and entire ; 
but, if very extensive propagation is needed, 
they may be broken into pieces, every scale 
being capable of producing a separate plant 
if placed under circumstances favourable to 
its development, which is, in the atmosphere 
of a hot-bed frame, where there is slight 
warmth for the root. Cuttings, and leaves of 
these plants, will root and form plants ; but 
these modes of propagation are seldom re- 
sorted to in the case of scaly-rooted species. 
NIGHT TEMPERATURE OF HOT-HOUSES. 
The night temperature in all parts of the 
world is cooler than the day, hence all our 
imitations of tropical climates should be carried 
out to the full, or we are imperfect. Nights, 
even in our own country, are frequently 
warm, oppressive, moist, and highly inducive 
to growth ; but these are exceptions to the 
general rule. Too many of our gardeners, 
however, make up their fires of an evening, 
get up the temperature of a greenhouse ten 
or fifteen degrees, and, lest it should want at- 
tending in the night, bank up the fire so as to 
provide the very extreme heat the pipes or 
flue will engender. Now this increased tem- 
perature induces unnatural growth, because 
the growth that takes place in heat and dark- 
