November 7.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
87 
put in the pot close to the branch, and trained to it. 
The plant sends out fibres from its branches, something 
like our common ivy; and these will cling to the moss- 
covered branch, and thus obtain support, and perhaps 
sustenance. In this way it will grow fast, and flower 
freely. The soil in the pot should be a compost of a 
very open texture, for the roots are very impatient of 
moisture ; indeed, its constitution very much resembles 
an orchid in that respect. The materials of the com¬ 
post should be very fibrous : rough peat, very turfy 
loam, and half-decayed leaves—all in equal parts; the 
whole to be mixed with broken potsherds and coarse 
sand. This compost will, with good drainage, keep the 
roots in healthy action, and thus enable the plant 
to thrive; whereas, if the common culture of hard- 
wooded stove shrubs be adopted, the ends of the fine 
roots will canker and perish, the plant will become 
sickly, the leaves will turn a bad colour, and if it 
is not speedily removed into a more genial soil, the 
plant will die. Agahnyla may also be successfully 
grown in a basket made of copper wire, or wood, in the 
same compost, and hung up to the roof in the manner 
of a Stanhopea. In this way it becomes in time a very 
ornamental object. The shoots should be stopped, to 
cause them to branch; and each branch must be trained 
over the basket at equal distances, till they completely 
cover it. They may then bo allowed to droop down¬ 
wards; the clusters of scarlet tubular flowers will then 
appear to great advantage. 
Cultivated in either of the above methods in the open 
compost, this plant will bear frequent syringing, which 
greatly conduces to keep it growing and healthy; and 
will also keep down the red spider, to the attacks of which 
it is, on accoimt of its soft fleshy leaves, jreculiarly 
liable. It requires a warm moist stove, and so will 
thrive particularly well in the orchid house. The tem¬ 
perature should not in summer be less than 75° by day, 
and 65° by night. In winter it should have a degree of 
rest, and so the heat may be reduced ten degrees lower. 
Water may be supplied freely during the spring and 
summer, but very moderately during the autumn and 
winter months. 
Propagation. —As this plant, like the ivy, sends forth 
roots freely against a branch in the open air of the stove, 
it strikes freely with very moderate care and skill. 
Short shoots make the best cuttings. Take off’ the 
bottom leaves close to the stem with a sharp knife, 
leaving the two uppermost leaves entire. Then put in 
the cuttings in sand, singly, in a 2|-inch pot; place them 
under a hand-glass upon a heated bed of sand, and in a 
fortnight they will begin to put out roots. Give them 
then a little air every day for another fortnight. They 
may then have the hand-glass removed entirely, and be 
shaded for a few days longer until they can bear full 
exposure. As soon as tbe pots are filled with roots, pot 
the plants into the compost described above; and when 
they have filled them with roots again, they will be large 
enough either to put into baskets, or fix against a log of 
wood, as described above. 
Glokiosa Superba (Superb G.) ; East Indies.—It 
must not be thought, because wo often write about new 
plants, that we shall forget fine old ones. Our present 
subject, for instance, is not a new acquisition, though 
there are, no doubt, many cultivators who never grew it, 
yet it is a fine plant, worthy of notice, and every care 
the grower can bestow upon it. It is a herbaceous stove 
dwarf climber (that is, the stems die down every year), 
with long fleshy tubers, often, when large, forked. The 
leaves are lanceolate, with tendrils at the ends to lay 
hold of any object that will support the shoots. The 
flowers are produced toward the upper parts of the stem, 
out of the axils of the leaves ; the petals are of an 
orange colour, with stains of chocolate about tbe middle 
of each petal; they are very much waved, almost curled, 
at the edges; and are, when expanded fully, turned 
backwards ; each petal measuring 2^ inches long. It 
is, when well grown, a really handsome, interesting 
plant, and commands attention and admiration amongst 
all its more showy neighbours. Price, for strong bulbs, 
7s. 6d. each. 
Culture. —In winter the plant should be completely 
dormant, as much so as a Gloxinia or a Gesnera. About 
the month of March, prepare a compost of light fibrous 
loam, turfy peat, and very rotten dung, or leaf-mould; 
add as much silver or river sand as will give to it a 
sandy character. Mix these well together with the 
hand, and let it be in a state neither dry nor wet. Then 
have ready a sufficient quantity of broken potsherds for 
drainage, and the required number of new or well-washed 
pots. For full-grown tubers, pots of 10 inches diameter 
will be necessary ; and for smaller tubers, pots in pro¬ 
portion. When all is ready, bring the pots containing 
the tubers from their winter quarters, and turn the pots 
upside-down, and strike them gently on the edge of tbe 
potting bench, catching the ball with the right hand; 
then gently break the ball in pieces, and separate the 
tubers from tbe soil, and from each other if they have 
increased the year previously. And now is the time to 
attend to a point of vital importance in the culture of 
this fine old plant. In separating them from the soil, 
and re-potting, the greatest care must be taken that not 
the least bruise is inflicted upon the tubers, whether old 
or young, for such a wound would, in nine cases out of 
ten, cause a gangrene, which would end in destruction. 
Having, then, got the tubers safely out of the old soil, a 
new beginner would be puzzled which way to put them 
into the soil; they have no eyes, like a potato, to guide 
him: all the surface is perfectly smooth, and nothing 
but experience can tell him as to the right way to plant 
the tubers. Wo candidly confess, the first time we 
potted a root of Gloriosa superba we were as much at a 
loss, in this particular point, as the veriest tyro in gar¬ 
dening that ever existed. To avoid setting the tuber 
the wrong way up, we laid it lengthways across the pot, 
and covered it 2 inches deep with the compost. Of 
course it in due time came up, but the shoot was close 
to the edge of the pot; and, until the trellis to train it 
to was affixed, it had a very ungardener-like appearance. 
It taught us this lesson:—That the new shoots of this 
particular species of plant start from the opposite end to 
which the tuber had been attached to its parent. There¬ 
fore, in placing the bulb in the pot, the end farthest 
from that to which it had grown to the bulb of last year 
should be placed near to the middle of the pot. Place, 
then, all the bulbs, whethor young or old, in that posi¬ 
tion, covering them about 2 inches deep ; and place 
them in the stove, giving no extra heat or any water for 
a fortnight. As soon as the young shoots appear give 
a gentle watering, and, if convenient, plunge the pots in 
a bark pit, the temperature of which should not exceed 
80°. The shoots will push on rapidly, and should have 
support. For a time a single rod to each shoot will be 
sufficient, but when they have reached the height of 
4 feet, it will be advisable to adopt another method. 
Place five rods, 3 feet long, of willow or deal, close to 
the edge of the pot (the strongest shoots from old 
bulbs are the most likely to flower, and to them only 
this training is applicable), have a hoop of thick wire 
about a foot or fifteen inches diameter, place this hoop 
half way up the rods, and tie each one to it at equal 
distances; then bring the ends of each rod together, 
and tie them all firmly together. It will then form a 
neat trellis to train the plant to. Commence training it 
round this trellis, at G inches from the top of the pot, 
tying it neatly to every upright rod round the trellis ; 
and, as the shoot grows, continue to train it round 
again at the same distance from the first coil as that is 
from the pot. By the time the trellis is covered it will 
