June 20.] THE COTTAGE 
them an open place, with a little butnot a thick shading. 
The shading obtained from climbers in a warm green¬ 
house, or in such a house with vines not too thick on 
the roof, is just the thing that suits them. If treated 
with light rich soil, plenty of water, and a manure 
solution frequently, the plants will grow with great 
rapidity, and soon reward you by masses of their pretty 
blossoms; keeping on flowering generally until the cold 
nights of autumn, when you must bid them adieu for 
the season. Before stowing them away in their winter 
quarters, try and set them right in the sun for a few 
weeks, and refrain from watering, that the tissues may 
be consolidated. In a house kept from 45° to 50° 
during the winter, some kinds will bloom freely all the 
winter, such as obliqua ; but for the general collection 
you must be content with blooming them in summer, 
unless you have a plant stove. For the preparing for 
this summer’s blooming of these plants, Achimenes, 
Gloxinia, &c., nothing is better than a vinery, or a 
greenhouse used as such; all that is necessary being a 
sheltered spot, or rather a cold pit, to remove the hardier 
plants to when the temperature is increased. 
But now comes the difficulty. I have glanced at how 
the plants should be managed in such circumstances, 
and this I can do with confidence, but the instancing of 
the species most suitable is quite another thing; not 
because these species require different treatment, farther 
than will be apparent from the character of the species 
as a herbaceous plant, or a succulent under-shrub, but 
because of the great difficulty of being sure of giving 
such a name, that the collector may depend upon obtain¬ 
ing the “ Simon Pure ” indicated ; for, either owing to 
the carelessness of botanists, or the ignorance and stu¬ 
pidity of us cultivators, the whole genus seems a mass 
of confusion; some of the prettiest species receiving 
almost as many names as the gardens in which they 
are found, while these names are either not to be found 
in catalogues, or are contradictory to the definitions there 
given. For instance, there is a Begonia (and the only one 
I have seen) grown in cottage windows, rather coarse 
looking, large leaves, brownish green above, crimson 
veined below, herbaceous, fleshy, tuberous rooted, and 
hardy enough to bear rather rough cottage treatment, as 
I have seen it frequently there for at least fifteen years 
past; and yet this old plant has I know not how many 
names, being termed bicolor, diversifolia, heracleifolia, 
mutabilis, discolor, Evansiana, &c., the latter being, per¬ 
haps, the most current, only, according to the catalogues, 
it should have white flowers, while our favourite rough 
gentleman has pink ones; and rough though he be, so 
rough as to be discarded by our fastidious friends who will 
not give house room to such a common thing, we, never¬ 
theless, place it here first in our list; because when for¬ 
warded as we have indicated, and potted in equal por¬ 
tions of loam, leaf-mould, and rotten cow-dung, the plant 
four feet in height, and the mass in the pot nearly as 
much in diameter, standing upon a stage, or in a vase 
above rather than below the eye, with leaves like cab¬ 
bages, showing the purple of then - under sides, and 
masses of the long pedunculed cymes of pink blossom 
hanging over them, it then becomes an object so far 
from despicable, that ladies of refined taste have stood 
before it and exclaimed, “ Beautiful! ” 
2. B. nitida .—The name given in this neighbourhood 
to one of the very best of the group, with thick shining 
pale green leaves, and beautiful large pink or flesh- 
coloured flowers. This species in the catalogues is 
marked white. This is one of the prettiest ornaments 
of a plant-stove in winter. Soil for this and the follow¬ 
ing, equal portions of peat, leaf-mould, and half portions 
of sand and cow-dung. Plants kept in a conservatory 
are just now showing bloom and breaking, but rather 
lanky. Young plants forwarded in a vinery are in 
bloom. 
GARDENER. 173 
3. B. obliqua. —Pink; not so showy as the last, but 
hardier; flowered all the winter in a conservatory; tem¬ 
perature from 40° to 45°, with a rise of 10° for sun heat. 
4. B. manicata. —Pale pink ; very pretty. 
5. B. hydrocotylifolia. —Rather pretty; leaves are stud¬ 
ded over the surface of the pot: they and the numerous 
flower-stems rise from thick tuberous short shoots. 
6. B. parvifolia (sometimes floribunda and semper- 
fiorens). —White ; a little gem : for a limited space the 
best of all; an evergreen shrub in the stove, deciduous 
under the treatment we are speaking of; leaves small, as 
the name implies; flowers small, but in vast abundance. 
Plants that stood in the back of a vinery, in a medium 
temperature of 40°, so woe-begone in their appearance 
that many would ask, what we kept such things for?— 
after being pruned, potted, and assisted by the increasing 
heat of the vinery, are now nice little bushes, 2 feet in 
height, and more in diameter; a dense mass of bloom, 
and with moderate care will continue so until the mouth 
of October. 
7. B. sanguined. —Small white flowers ; the underside 
of the large leaves crimson; little attractive except for 
the leaves. 
8. B. argyrostigma. —Also termed punctata and macu- 
lata, owing to the white spots on the leaves, which are 
its only attraction ; the flowers being small and white, 
and produced in no great profusion. 
0. B.fuchsioides. —Scarlet; one of the prettiest; flowers 
produced upon dependent twigs, making it resemble a 
fuchsia. Should, therefore, be grown with one or more 
upright stems ; does not like being cut down ; must be 
kept in the warmest possible place in such circumstances 
during the winter, so as to preserve the stems entire. 
If the leaves are browned, or if even many drop off, that 
is of little consequence, provided the wood has been 
hardened by exposure to the sun in the autumn; for 
shortly after growth commences the flowers will also 
begin to be produced. The plant, if well-grown, is always 
beautiful to look at, but as the flowers are not produced 
in large panicles they must be numerous to render the 
plant a floral attraction. 
10. B. coccinea (sometimes rubra). —Scarlet. The 
flowers are small, but produced in large panicles, and 
of such a vivid rich colour as to make it a desirable 
acquisition. It is rather tantalizing to tell our friendly 
amateur, that this will be one of the worst to manage in ; 
his greenhouse vinery. In such circumstances I only j 
succeeded once to my satisfaction. The plant was the | 
growth of several years. In the end of summer it was | 
kept close to the glass, aud water was gradually with- | 
held in autumn; during the winter it had a temperature 
seldom below 45°, aucl oftener near 50°. When the 
vines showed in the spring, the flowers of the Begonia 
came with them, and continued for several months a 
mass of bloom. It is of little use cutting such a plant 
down, unless when growth is desirable, as, unlike such 
sorts as parvifolia, aud blarula, &c., which flower on the 
year’s wood, the Coccinea chiefly blooms on the wood, or 
rather the extreme points of it, formed during the pre¬ 
ceding season. 
]J. B. blanda (also termed lucida). —A very pretty 
species, with shining leaves; may be treated as a her¬ 
baceous plant; has'large white flowers, seldom grows 
high, and should have been placed after Parvifolia. 
We think that from this limited number a small col¬ 
lection may easily be made. I have already referred to 
watering and soil, but forgot to say that Coccinea should 
have more peat than any of the others. All the kinds 
are easily propagated, either by divisions of the root or 
by cuttings, which should be dried at the base before 
inserting them in sandy soil, and covering them with a 
bell-glass. Many of the species also produce seeds in 
abundance, aud these will bloom in the second year, and 
some of them the first season. Tb Fish. 
