THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
SEinT.MP.KTt 8. 
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as that of the smaller Ixias ; that is, five or seven of the 
roots are pat in a No. 48-pot, in a soil ot two-thirds 
good rough peat, and one-third sand. They are too 
small, and apt to be lost in an open border outside, so 
that they are seldom treated but as pot plants. Any 
time in October will do to pot them, and a cold frame 
will do to winter them. They require very little water 
till the leaves are three or four inches high. 
Geissorhiza out us at a. —One of the best of them, and 
a very pretty flower; cream-coloured, and streaked with 
pink lines or veins on the outside. It is usually met 
j with in shops where they sell Ixicis, and is well worth 
having in a collection of the tribe. 
Geissorhiza vaginata. —This is the next best, and 
will be preferred to the last by some. It is the strongest 
of the genus that are good for anything. There are 
three colours in the flower; the bottom, or eye, being dark 
purple, then a soft yellow middle, and the tips of the 
segments, or six divisions of the flower, are marked with 
a large dark blotch. 
Geissorhiza secunda. —There are three varieties of 
this; two are white, and one blue. The blue is the 
best, and is the only one of the three that is the most 
likely to be in the trade. It is a sky-blue, and a rather 
delicate plant; but it is as old and as well known as 
Ixia crocata, and is reckoned the best blue flower among 
the Ixias. 
Geissorhiza excisa. —White flowers, rather small and 
somewhat mottled ; a very distinct species. 
Geissorhiza Larociiei and setacea are the only 
other two worth potting. Setacea is of a sulphur-yellow 
in the flower; and Rocheana, or Larociiei, is a very 
curious little thing, with variegated flowers, which for¬ 
merly went by the name of the “ Plaid Ixia." 
STREPTANTHERA. 
There are only two species known in this genus, but 
these are extremely beautiful, and more hardy than the 
common Ixias. They are from somewhere in the interior 
of the Cape Colony, but I never learned from what part. 
It is questionable if they can be bought here at all, for 
few people knew how to grow them when they were 
introduced, and I recollect when they both first came 
over. They will only grow well and last out in a com¬ 
post of two-thirds sandy loam and one-third peat with a 
little sand. The great'mistake with them was placing 
| them in sandy peat, which suited the swarms ot little 
! bulbs found down near the coast. If these beautiful 
1 flowers had come to us first from Mexico, or Peru, we 
have them now as common as any of the Ixias, because 
few good growers like to give much peat, or hardly any, 
to small American bulbs. The anthers twist round the 
style in these flowers; hence the name. 
Streptantuera elegans. —One of the most beautiful 
of Cape bulbs, with large Ixia-like flowers. The main 
colour is snow-white, but at the bottom each of the 
segments is richly marked with a velvety blotch of 
purple, reddish-brown, gold. In our Dictionary it is 
inadvertently stated that this genus had lapsed into 
Gladiolus. There is no affinity between the two families, 
further than they belong to the same order. 
Streptanthera cuprea. —A coppery tinge in the flower 
is the only difference between this and the preceding. 
They flower at the same season as Ixias ; that is, from 
the middle of April to Midsummer; and I should think 
they might be got somewhere in the colony, as they are 
such marked flowers, that shepherds could find them 
from the description of elegans. At all events, they are 
not found within the range of the Cape Town collectors, 
as I never heard of one of them coming home through 
i them. 
SPATALANTHUS SPECIOSUS. 
| Whether this is really a truthful genus of itself, or 
whether the plant belongs to Trichonema, no one can 
now say, for the plant has been lost more than twenty i 
years, and has never appeared in any collection from ! 
the Cape, that we know of, from that day to this, so that ! 
it is supposed to be native of some place far away in tho j 
interior. I have heard, more than once, that it was i 
growing not very far from Cape Town, down near the 
sea, to the north-east; but it is difficult to believe that 
any one interested in plants could pass it in flower and 
not wish to have it. It is fully as handsome as Strep- 
tanthcra elegans, and produces abundance of flowers 
that are bright red, marked with a star of yellow and 
black in the bottom. The flower is nearly transpa¬ 
rent, and there are three or four straw-coloured bands, 
or stripes, on the outside, and they shine through the red 
on the inside like gay ribbons. This, also, ought to be 
diligently sought out. It flowered with us later than 
the Ixias in July and August; and the probability is, 
that it likewise would require more than half loam in 
the compost; but of that I am not quite so sure as I am 
with the Streptanthers. 
All the Trichonetnas do very well in loam. Indeed, 
the little Italian Trichonema Columnce flowered with me, 
last spring, in an open border that would grow Cauli¬ 
flowers ; and as. this Spatalanthus differs very little 
indeed from Trichonema, the probability is that it 
should have more exposure than Ixias, and a light 
sandy loam without any peat. I am quite certain that 
the best peat is rank poison to a great number of deli¬ 
cate bulbs. Peat and leaf-mould have been the ruin of 
English bulb-growing for many-a-day. If you are in 
doubt about any delicate, rare bulb, put it into pure sand 
for a while, till you learn more about it. I never knew 
a bulb yet refuse to grow in sand for a while. Just pot 
a few of the best early Hyacinths in silver sand, and if 
they do not blossom as well as they ever did before, 
never try the experiment again, nor believe me, even 
when I tell the truth. 
TRICHONEMA. 
This name means hair-like filaments, in reference to 
the hair-like stamens. The leaves are equally slender in 
proportion, and you might take a cluster of them in the 
spring for a bunch of some kind of wiry grass. There 
is only one flower on a scape, and it is the same with 
Spatalanthus speciosus, but the scapes and flowers are 
numerous. Some of this genus are natives of the south 
of Europe; and one of them, Ccelestium, is from South 
Carolina, in America. 
Trichonema bulbocodium. —This is a very old and 
well-known hardy little bulb, which flowers a little after 
the spring Crocus, and it requires no more care than 
that does. The flowers are purplish, and so heavy that 
they bend the stalks to the ground ; therefore, when they 
first rise, the little tuft ought to be staked by thrusting 
down three small sticks triangle-ways, and running a 
thread from stick to stick, This will show the flowers 
much better than letting them peep up from the surface 
of the border, as we often see them. It is a native of 
Spain and Italy. 
Trichonema roseum. —A very pretty little Cape bulb, 
with dark crimson flowers, coming in June and July, 
and with very long grass-like leaves. It will do in peat 
and sand, like Ixias, or in sandy loam alone. In other 
respects treat it as Ixias. 
Trichonema speciosum. —The flowers are light car¬ 
mine, and come early in the spring, on very slender 
grass-like stalks, before the leaves. It requires the same 
treatment as the preceding. 
Trichonema caulescens. —A very handsome summer 
flower; bright yellow, with a metalic lustre. 
Trichonema purpurascens. —A neat little purple 
flower from Naples. This and the following are quite 
hardy in a light border. They are fit associates for 
bulbocodium. \ 
