282 
THE FLORIST. 
ALLAMANDA SCHOTTII. 
This beautiful plant, coming from Brazil, requires for its successful 
cultivation a warm and humid atmosphere, and except where this can 
be obtained, it is useless to grow it. I have little accommodation for 
tropical subjects in winter, and as young plants occupy less room and 
form equally as fine specimens as old plants, I provide fresh stock 
every year. I select cuilings of short jointed pieces as early in spring 
as they can be obtained in a sufficiently ripe state, and insert them in 
sandy peat, covering with a bell-glass, and plunging the pot in a 
smart bottom heat. As soon as the cuttings are rooted, they are potted 
singly in small pots, replaced in the propagating pit, and encouraged 
with bottom heat in a warm moist temperature, until they become 
established in their pots. When they appear to have made plenty of 
roots they are shifted into 7-inch pots, in light, sandy soil, and kept 
warm and moist for a time. 
If it is desirable to secure large specimens for flowering early next 
spring, they must be encouraged to make wood, and should occupy 
9-inch pots before they have finished the present season’s growth. It 
will, of course, be necessary to equalise the growth by stopping the 
stronger shoots; but this should be done carefully, as such branches, 
when removed while soft, are apt to bleed excessively, and seldom 
break again strongly. Gross shoots should be broken and bent down, 
so as to check their over luxuriance, and they may be removed after the 
buds behind the fracture have begun to push. Whatever size the plants 
may be induced to attain this season, especial care should be paid to 
get the wood thoroughly ripened. Small plants, with well matured 
wood, will be found greatly preferable to larger examples with soft ill 
ripened shoots, and they will speedily outgrow them when subjected to 
heat and moisture in spring. The plants should be freely exposed to 
light and air during the autumn months, and if they can occupy a 
situation in a house where the atmosphere is kept rather warm and 
dry, it will greatly assist to mature the wood. A pit, the temperature 
of which averages about 50°, will be a suitable place for them during 
winter; and they should receive but little water, just sufficient to 
prevent the soil from becoming quite dry. 
As early in spring as possible place them in a moist, warm atmo¬ 
sphere, and encourage them to start into growth by frequent sprinklings 
with the syringe, and a close, warm temperature. When they com¬ 
mence growing, examine the state of their roots, and, if necessary, shift 
into larger pots, using soil composed of one-third loam, one-third peat, 
and one-third well decomposed cow-dung, with a sufficient proportion of 
silver-sand to render the compost porous. A quantity of broken bones 
or charcoal may be added with advantage, especially if the loam is of 
an adhesive character; water with care after potting, until the roots 
penetrate into the fresh soil. As the plants advance in growth they 
will require attention, in order to form them into compact bushy 
specimens; but bear in mind what has been stated above, respecting 
this operation. I do not stop until the plants have pushed consider¬ 
ably, and then I stop every shoot at once; this induces a finer mass of 
