20 
CULTURE OF TH UNBERGIA ALATA. 
FLORICULTURE. 
ARTICLE VI.—CULTURE OF THUN BERG IA ALATA, 
BY G. I. T. 
As no one appears to have noticed the enquiry of “ Nanto,” volume 
II. page 474, concerning this beautiful ornament of the stove, green¬ 
house, conservatory, and parlour window, I shall attempt to solve his 
doubts, and put him au fait of successful practice. Early in the 
summer, I unexpectedly received a very small plant from a kind 
friend ; it was merely enclosed in moss, and a loose portion of soil. 
Judging from the form of the roots, and the appearance of the loose 
soil, I planted it in a 60 sized pot, in a mixture of heath-mould, 
(not by any means good bog earth) half decayed leaves sifted, and 
sandy loam all in about equal quantities, and well blended. The 
plant was then placed on the shelf of a pine bark pit. The mould 
was kept just moist, and the plant took to it and began to grow im¬ 
mediately. Now, by referring to Loudon’s Hortus Brittannicus, I 
find that Thunbergia alata grows in loamy peat, and is propagated by 
cuttings. The work further states, that it is a stove trainer, grows 
4 feet high, flowers from May to September, and was brought from 
the East Indies in 1823. My plant-shewed flower in a week or two, 
and ever since, it has been, with the exception of a week, in a parlour 
window, and at this moment has eight fully expanded blossoms upon 
it. During the week alluded to, it was out of flower; it had twined 
up a stick with one simple volute, nearly to the height of 3 feet; and 
opened a flower or two almost daily. It then became rather torpid, 
and I pinched off the leader, shifted it to a 48 size pot, in a soil 
rather more loamy, and with some decayed manure. Laterals were 
soon protruded, the stick was shortened to the more convenient length 
of two feet, and as the young shoots attained its summit, they were 
turned down, and suffered to twine or fasten as they could. The 
plant has now two entire volutes from the soil, and four or five subsi¬ 
diary falling twiners. Two other shoots rise from the crown, and 
are three inches long; one is partially layered under the surface, and 
may take root at the first pair of leaves. When the plant resumed 
its growth, and again showed flower, it was taken out of the stove, 
and brought at once into the sitting room, where it has remained ever 
since, frequently exposed to the full current of the open window and 
door before eight o’clock in the morning; it is watered immediately 
when the surface soil appears dry, and has never flagged for an hour. 
