1880 .J 
DIEFFENBACHTA LFOPOLDII. 
163 
not have much moisture round the roots during 
the greater portion of the summer and autumn. 
I find if we want plants to bloom well at the 
normal time, we must be careful to imitate 
the natural conditions of temperature and 
moisture as nearly as possible. 
The great value of the Auricula as a town 
plant is not yet fully recognised, at least, in 
the South of England. It will grow and 
flourish where many other flowers will barely 
exist, and its quaint and beautiful flowers 
welcome us with their winsome smiles 
amongst the earliest of the year. It is 
much to be desired that workmen in the 
South would take to growing such flowers, as 
they do in Lancashire. There are plenty of 
men in the North who will give a guinea for 
an Auricula, when their wages are not more 
than that in a week. They take care of their 
plants, and propagate them, so that many of 
these small collections represent a considerable 
sum of money ; and it is pleasing to know that 
it could be realised in every case.—J. Douglas, 
Loxford Cottage , Ilford , Essex. 
DIEFFENBACHIA LEOPOLDII. 
S MONGST the many forms of Dieffen- 
bachia which have been raised from 
seed, or introduced from various parts 
of South America, there are none more tho¬ 
roughly effective than that of which a woodcut 
from Mr. Bull’s Catalogue is here introduced, 
the plant being remarkable for the rich, satiny 
lustre of the green portion of its leaves, and 
for the strong contrast presented between this 
and the ivory-white costa. Mr. Bull himself 
remarks that it is “ a noble South-American 
stove-plant, of resplendent beauty. The leaves 
are oblong-ovate, of a rich, deep, lustrous, 
satiny-green, traversed by a broad and stout 
M 2 
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