CULTURE OF FAVORITE PLANTS. 
Jl C H Y'JEtA^JSTT HTJS. 
.HAFF-FLOWER is the significance of this name, which is derived 
from the Greek, and has been given to this plant because of the 
chaff-like appearance of its blossoms. The plant is one of the most 
attractive of the well known Amaranth family, and is beginning to 
be perhaps better known as the Iresine. Under whatever name, it is 
in all its varieties a very pretty, desirable and easily cultivated garden 
'or house plant. The beauty of its varied foliage will enhance the attractiveness 
of the best collection. It will grow in any common garden soil, in an atmos¬ 
phere ranging from fifty to seventy-five degrees, the latter grade being abso¬ 
lutely necessary for a rapid growth. A few of the bright-colored varieties, as 
the A. Lindenii, with its long, pointed leaves, are always conspicuous among a 
collection of window-plants, the bright red foliage contrasting admirably with 
the surroundings, and producing almost the effect of flowers among the green leaves of 
the other plants. The varieties known as Gilsonii and Aureus Reticulatus have rounded 
leaves, the latter being also conspicuous for their gold and crimson web-like markings; 
while the former are generally an intense crimson, but with weakening shades down to a 
salmon color. They form an effective ornament when introduced among Rose Geraniums 
or other like green foliage plants; and can be planted so as to assume any shape to suit 
the taste of the cultivator, as a circle around other plants, a cross or heart in the midst of 
others, and the like. They can he easily kept from straggling by pinching back with the 
finger and thumb, and thus maintained for a whole season in the shape it was originally 
designed they should present. For winter plants, a few cuttings should he taken in July, 
and put aside in a shady place, either in sand or common soil, where, if well watered, they 
will strike root in from ten days to two weeks, when they can be potted for use. These 
new plants will prove far superior to the old ones. 
jl G-APJLJSTT HITS. 
ONE among the Liliaceous plants, to which order it belongs, is more 
picturesquely beautiful, perhaps, than this pretty azure-blossomed 
flower. The name signifies, in the original Greek, a love-flower, 
and the plant is sometimes called in our vernacular the African blue 
lily. It is a very ornamental plant for the parlor, the outdoor 
pedestal or tree-stump, and, indeed, will show itself to advantage 
here. Its long, graceful leaves, curving to either side of the bulb, make 
it attractive even when not in bloom. From among the leaves it shoots upward, 
to a heigfht of from eiehteen inches to thi*ee feet, one or two stout flower- 
stalks, which are crowned with a mass of azure flowers, springing from and 
surrounding a common center like an umbrella, whence the epithet umbellatus. 
The bulbs are among the class known as Cape bulbs, because originally introduced from 
the Cape of Good Hope. They require a liberal allowance of pot room, as they send 
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