Plate 87. 
VARIETIES OE CINERARIA. 
Cineraria hylrida , vars. 
Amongst the earliest harbingers of the flower-season, enli¬ 
vening the dreary and dark days of December and January, 
there are few flowers which are deservedly greater favourites or 
more generally grown than the Cineraria , while they form very 
valuable additions to the earlier flower-shows, especially to those 
spring meetings which are now encouraged by the Royal Hor¬ 
ticultural and Royal Botanical Societies; those who wish them 
merely for decoration, without any reference to their properties 
as florists’ flowers, can obtain a very nice supply of early bloom¬ 
ing plants from seed, while those who are more particular as to 
these points, can propagate by offsets from year to year. 
The Cineraria delights in a rich and open soil; we have used 
with considerable advantage a compost composed of equal parts 
of loam, leaf mould, and well rotted cow manure, with an addi¬ 
tion of silver sand to keep it open. They grow very rapidly, and 
it will be necessary as the plants make roots and fill the pots to 
shift them into larger ones. They should be kept in a growing 
state, free from attacks of frost, or sharp cutting winds, and 
will, if thus treated, make large, handsome plants, with broad 
and luxuriant leaves, before they show their flower-stems; as 
these advance in height, they should, if large plants and a broad 
head of bloom are required, be tied out to slender stakes, which 
should be as little visible as possible; but for ordinary purposes 
this care will not be required. It should be borne in mind that 
there is no flower which suffers more from the attacks of green 
fly than this, and that therefore they should be carefully fumi¬ 
gated when there is the least sign of its appearance: the leaves 
too are easily damaged, either by too much heat, or by being 
bruised against other pots, and therefore care should be taken 
in these particulars. 
