136 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ June, 
FITTONIAS AS WALL-CLOTHERS' 
HE Fittonias, or Gymnostachyums, are, as is well known, among the most 
beautiful of all dwarf foliage plants. They form charming pots, pans, 
vases, or pyramidal masses of beauty, and are among the most valuable 
of all plants in a small state for forming or filling in flat dinner-table 
decorations. Planted out in masses of tropical rock-work, they are without a 
rival. They are not only beautiful in themselves, but contrast or harmonise 
admirably with ferns, lycopods, mosses and cactuses, or other succulents used 
for the forming or furnishing of tropical rockeries in plant-stoves or orchid- 
houses. 
While admitting to the full the beauty of Fittonias, as generally grown, yet 
the best place for the richest exhibition of the peculiar veining and rare colouring 
of their beautiful leaves is the surface of a rusticated or roughened wall, where 
they may be brought near the eye and looked at on a level with it or downwards. 
The Fittonias are most effective when thus placed, though there are no objections 
to using them for the decoration of higher walls. But the upper surface of the 
leaf is the richest and best to look upon, and the leaf, unlike many others, grow 
in richness and beauty the more closely it is examined. The Fittonias also 
prefer the shady sides of walls. They are most beautiful and most at home on 
the north side of the walls, and plants if used on the south side or other 
sunny aspects, must be carefully and rather densely shaded, to bring out their 
peculiar beauty. It is a peculiarity of the Fittonias and many other variegated 
plants, that their leaf-colouring can only be perfected in a very subdued light. 
Not only are the colours richer under shade, but the plants become far more 
robust and strong. 
The Fittonias also love moisture as much as shade. The roots cling to damp 
walls and the branches root at every joint without being detached from the plants, 
and altogether, no plant looks more at home on walls than Fittonias. Nor are 
the flowers to be despised in such positions. Though small and comparatively 
insignificant, some of the plants should be allowed to bloom, if only for the sake 
of gaining a little more diversity of stature and of form. The Fittonias are dwarf 
plants, and the dwarfer varieties are the best for wall-furnishing. Therefore, 
the best plants to use with them are the more dwarf varieties of Maidenhair or 
other ferns, lycopods of sorts, and Isolepis gracilis. The drooping beauty of the 
latter gives charming green verdure and variety, interspered with the rich colour¬ 
ing of the Fittonias. But the latter are sufficiently rich and varied in themselves 
to furnish any amount of wall with rare beauty, and an entire wall of Fittonias, 
in that luxuriance of health and richness of colour which is seldom seen off walls, 
furnishes one of the richest scenes of wall-drapery within reach of cultivators. 
As to varieties, the whole of those generally cultivated may be employed for 
the purpose of clothing walls excepting Fittonia gigantea^ which grows too large, 
and is not nearly so richly coloured as F. Pearcei, F. Verscliajfeltii^ and F. riibro- 
