CULTURE OF FAVORITE PLANTS. 
In the garden they should be set about a foot and a half apart, with the same care for 
their nourishment as in the conservatory, stakes being supplied them to prevent their 
being overturned by the wind. The flowers are rich in quality and in colors, being either 
plain, spotted, splashed or streaked, and in the double varieties they fully equal the 
Camellia. For bouquets and decorative purposes fine thread-wire is drawn through them 
in the same manner as for the Camellia, and the ends brought together, thus leaving the 
flower in a loop, and forming a manageable stem. A little damp moss or cotton-batting 
being then placed at the base of the blossoms, keeps them fresh for some time. The 
flowers of this plant occasionally bloom double without the aid of the cultivator. 
AINLY cultivated in the hothouse until a comparatively recent 
period, Begonias are now kept principally in the greenhouse, 
except when it is wished to stimulate them to an extraordinary 
growth, for which purpose the hot, steamy air of the former is more 
suitable. Of the Begonias there are several kinds, differing in both 
jC^^leaf and flower. The first and probably most cultivated are those 
popularly known as the Elephant’s Ear, with large leaves, oblique and rounded 
at the base, and sharply pointed at the apex, with the upper lobe, or half, much 
more developed than the lower. They are richly colored, being changeable in 
tints from bronze to green, with large silver bands in some, and irregular spots 
in others, the underside being of a reddish-purple tint. The upright or bushv 
varieties have transparent stems, many of them with glossy, irregular, waxy leaves, while 
the flowers are of various colors, from white to bright carmine. The broad-leaved kind 
should be watered freely during summer; the other species when in bloom, and at other 
times just sufficiently to keep them in fair condition. There are also some with tuberous 
roots, which can be laid away during their season of rest, in any place that is free from 
frost, the roots only being sparingly moistened. Begonias should be only sprayed, that 
is, lightly syringed, as the water bears the leaves down to such an extent that they do not 
spring upright as readily as other plants. The soil used is one part peat, one of loam, and 
one of decomposed manure. The large ones are easily propagated from the leaves, thus: 
Take a leaf, cut the stem off rather close, lav it on a surface of wet sand in a pot or box 
that can be covered with glass; pin the leaf down with broom splints, then with a knife 
cut across the large veins in numerous places, and at each cutting roots will start, from 
which young plants will spring. These should he potted as soon as the leaves get to be 
from half an inch to an inch long. Many of these plants accommodate themselves readily 
to the family sitting-room, only they must be kept free from frost. We have some of the 
large-leaved ones that have for several years hung just back from the windows, where 
they get about an hour of sunshine daily, and this in a small, ordinary parlor, requiring no 
great care except hanging farther in on extra-cold nights, the ordinary watering daily, or 
less frequently in winter, and dusting the leaves with a small feather-duster. 
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