368 
IXORA COCCINEA. 
most of our stove plants, it is no sooner out 
of health than it is attacked by the mealy 
bug; and whatever check it may meet with, 
soon impairs its health. It does not require 
rich earth, but it does a sound compost, one- 
half rotted turf, (which is of itself strongly 
impregnated with vegetable mould,) and one- 
half peat-earth such as we should use for 
heaths, will make an excellent compost ; and 
although — if rapidity of growth be an object — 
they would be greatly excited by the addition 
of cow-dung, we do not recommend it for the 
stock, nor do we agree with those who want 
strongly excited growth. The Ixoras are 
propagated by cuttings, which should be the 
small side-shoots, and they should be struck 
in the common hot-bed, with much about the 
same heat as we should use for a cucumber. 
Let the pots be prepared for the cuttings by 
being filled to within half-an-inch of the top, 
and that half-inch must be sand ; when this 
is all well saturated with water, it is fit to 
receive the cuttings. The cuttings should be 
selected from the shoots which have pretty 
well made their growth, but are not too long, 
as it requires that there should have been 
some rest previous to cutting them off their 
mother plant. Cut up to a joint, and take 
off the leaves carefully for half-an-inch up, 
and they are to be struck in the wet sand, so 
that the bottom of the cutting just touches the 
soil but not enters it. Then place it in a hot- 
bed, with a hand or bell-glass over the cut- 
tings. This glass must be wiped dry every 
morning, and the pot of cuttings should be 
plunged to give a good bottom heat. The 
cuttings will soon strike, when they must be 
potted off, one in a pot, size sixties, or two 
and a half to three inches across. These 
should be returned to the close frame till they 
are established, when they may be removed 
to the stove. If they are at all inclined to 
run up tall, instead of branching out well all 
round, let the top be pinched out, but the 
greatest care' should be taken with the stove 
to keep up a regular heat, not less than 65°, 
but varying up to 80°, would be effective. 
If there be the slightest appearance of bug, 
it must be removed by a soft brush, and soap 
and water, not too warm nor too strong, and 
afterwards rinsed with plain water. As soon 
as the pots are filled with roots, let the plants 
be shifted into pots a size or two larger than 
those they have already fitted ; continue them 
in the hot-bed, but constantly check any of the 
shoots that grow too fast, or too vigorous, 
because the form of a plant is soon spoiled if 
any portion of the plant runs away. When 
they have fully established themselves, they 
may be removed to the stove, where they will 
be liable to attacks of the mealy-bug, even if 
they had not been affected before, which, 
indeed, is likely enough, considering that the 
heat from a dung-bed is unftivourable to 
animal growth in general, and will kill almost 
any description of insect; for this reason it is 
that pines to be cured of the scale, and plants 
to be cured of the mealy-bug, are frequently 
submitted to dung heat to dear them of the 
scale and other insects that infest them. In 
the stove, therefore, they will be doubly liable 
to attack to what they were in the hot-bed, 
and the precautions must be washing with 
soap and water or tobacco water, and syringing 
with clear water frequently. We may now 
begin to regulate the number of shoots that 
we intend to compose the plant. It is as bad 
to be too crowded as too open ; therefore, if in 
addition to the shoots that you have excited 
by stopping the early branches you find 
some shoot up from the bottom, remove the 
weakly ones, and leave none but the strong 
and best disposed as to form, to grow onward. 
Shifting from time to time as the pots fill 
with roots comes almost as a matter of course 
with all specimen plants, and, as a general 
rule, all great changes pf temperature are 
much more effective in the stove than in any 
other habitat for plants. If the stove which 
is kept up to a moist heat of 65°, to 85°, 
were suddenly left at a dry heat of 60° 
for a few days, every plant would suffer 
greatly in general health, and red-spider, 
mealy-bug, thrip, aphis, scale, or some other 
equally destructive thing, or perhaps all of 
them, would appear among all the plants in 
the place. When the plants are wanted very 
rapidly grown, they are sunk into the tan- 
bed ; but it is not desirable to grow them too 
quickly. It is only those who value plants 
by their size, and who perhaps sell them 
according to size, who take an interest in 
getting them a tolerable size for the first sale. 
Specimen growers ought not to grow for size, 
but for beauty. If you desire to have nu- 
merous small heads of the bloom, the ends of 
all the shoots may be kept stopped until you 
have any number of side-shoots you require, 
every one when perfected being terminated 
with a little truss of bloom ; while, when not 
so stopped, but allowed to grow for large 
heads, they will yield from eight to ten heads 
as large as small cauliflowers, or large brocoli. 
As the blooming always delays, and for a 
time stops the growth of a plant, it is the 
better way to pick off all the blooming buds 
as soon as you can get hold of them ; but if 
you are not in a hurry to get the plant large, 
let the bloom perfect itself It is plenty of 
time to take it off when it begins to decay; 
but it is so much the fashion to get the 
plants for exhibition as large as possible, that 
many are completely spoiled by the hurried 
growth : that is, spoiled for those who look 
