(iO 
CULTIVATION OF THE TROIVEOLUM. 
reddish colour, with the green hardly bloomed 
out, and with neither black nor yellow to re- 
lieve it. This had but a short day ; for it was 
discarded from collections for two reasons : 
first, it required no skill whatever to grow it; 
and secondly, because, when ever so well 
grown, it was good for nothing as compared 
with Tricolorum, with winch alone its shape 
allowed it to be compared ; and when com- 
pared, its coarseness and want of colour con- 
demned it Both of these species are grown 
from bulbs, which in time grow as large as 
a potato ; and most of the genus has been im- 
ported in bulbs. We leave the culture of 
Pentaphyllum out of the question, because, if 
the seeds were sown, as the common Nastur- 
tium is sown, agains.t some palings, or trellis, 
or dead hedge, or trunks of trees, it would 
grow in any soil, and pretty well cover the 
front of a house in a season, and when the 
frost killed the haulm, the bulb might be dug 
up to be planted next year instead of seed, 
and cover a house or wall again just as 
rapidly as any climbing plant we know. But 
the cultivation of the Tropaaolum Tricolorum 
is of more consequence, and presents more 
room for the exercise of skill and ingenuity. 
If you grow them from bulbs, which are im- 
ported the size of walnuts, place them in pots 
the size of small forty-eights or large sixties, 
which will grow them, if required, right into 
flower upon a common stick or simple trellis 
of moderate size (the best place for them is a 
warm part of the green-house), and so form 
small compact plants, generally the kind of 
has grown about a foot long, take away all the 
weaker little spindling stems that come out 
from other eyes, and trust to the strongest for 
your plant. This is a very good time to pot 
your bulbs, using the loam of rotten turfs, 
Tropceolum Azurcum* 
plants kept in nurseries for sale ; but if you 
have determined to grow it as much as you can, 
when the strongest of the thread-like stems 
Tropceolum Aduncum. 
decomposed cow or horse dung, and turfy peat, 
in equal quantities ; the pot must have crocks 
in it one-third up, and the bulb need be only 
just under the surface. The shoots which 
come are at first hardly perceptible, scarcely 
larger than fine threads. The greatest care 
must be taken that they are not broken off at 
the bottom. When they are a foot long, the 
top may be pinched off; in fact, they may be 
shortened three or four inches. This will 
make them throw out lateral shoots, and you 
must then see that they do not get tangled ; 
when the fibres of the root come to the side 
of the pot, they may be shifted at once into 
twenty-four sized pots, and have put to 
them the trellis, or other support that they 
are to grow upon. We think, for plants of 
this size, a dead branch of a shrub of a good 
form, like a small bushy tree, is the best ; 
and, as they grow, you must go frequently to 
them, and guide their tender shoots to all the 
lower parts of the intended support, because 
it will easily fill all the upper parts by its 
growth, and if the lower parts be not well 
covered by its early growth, it will be difficult 
to cover them afterwards. In this form they 
make very pretty objects, much prettier, in- 
deed, than any trellis could be made, because 
they are less formal; but if you employ a trellis, 
the lower parts of that must be covered first 
in the same way and for the same reason. It 
is a common practice, when they are intended 
to cover a large space, to fasten a slight 
thread of considerable length for the plant to 
