THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
149 
may have a good start before winter. The soil should 
be light, but rich, and though it must not be allowed to 
become dry, it must not be watered too freely before the 
leaves appear. The branches must be trained over some 
little trellis. T. Lobbianum is a good window plant; it 
is a vigorous grower, with bright orange and scarlet flow¬ 
ers. The tropasolums are allowed to die down, when 
they begin to fade, and are treated like the smilax. 
The maurandya is a very pretty indoor climber. It 
flowers profusely, its pink, white or purple flowers resem¬ 
bling a foxglove in shape. It is of very easy culture, 
growing from seed or cuttings. It grows riotously out 
of doors during the warm weather, but will not stand our 
winters. The thunbergia is another climber which may 
be raised from seed, though it is really a greenhouse 
perennial, and is best increased by cuttings. T. Harrisii 
has beautiful sky-blue flowers ; other varieties are scarlet, 
pale yellow and orange. They are mostly natives of 
Africa and the East Indies. Cobcea scandens is an old 
favorite, and can hardly be surpassed as a basket plant or 
climber, for its clinging tendrils catch at anything they 
can reach. It has large, gloxinia-shaped flowers, rich 
purple in color; they are produced very abundantly. A 
newer variety of this is Cobcea scandens fol. var ., with 
handsomely variegated leaves. It is a native of Mexico, 
and is named in honor of Father Cobo, a Spanish priest, 
who discovered it. 
An oddity among climbers is Phaseolus caracallp., or 
snail plant. Its dark purple flower is an unpleasantly 
realistic imitation of a snail shell. It has pretty leaves 
and numerous tendrils, clinging to all the adjacent objects 
like the cobcea. 
Many of the clematis do well indoors, especially hybrid 
sorts. 
But the ivy stands pre-eminent among climbers. It is 
easy to grow and easy to train, stands all temperatures, 
save below freezing, seldom requires moving, and gives 
added attractiveness to any group. 
The English ivy, Hedera helix, is called a rooted 
climber, as its sprays are fringed with tiny roots, which 
catch hold of any support, so that it requires no special 
training. It needs rich soil— 
“ Of right choice food are its meals, I ween ”— 
arid must have mixed with it a good supply of leaf-mould 
and well-decayed manure. They must be placed in large, 
well-drained pots, with an inch or two of charcoal at the 
bottom. As the roots increase they must be transferred 
to larger vessels. They like plenty of moisture, and soon 
suffer if allowed to dry up, and they should occasionally 
have the leaves well sponged. It is well to train them in 
some portable form, so that they may be moved from 
one room to another. The English ivy is of slow growth, 
rarely increasing more than two feet in a year. It may 
be propagated by rooting the slips in water, and after¬ 
ward transferring them to sand. 
Hedera canariensis is the Irish ivy; it is larger than 
the others, with five-Iobed leaves. It thrives in a cool, 
shady room. Too much sun spoils the leaves, but it will 
not blossom without sunlight. However, the flower has 
little beauty ; the plant is grown entirely for its beautiful 
light-green leaves. 
The German ivy, Senecio scandens, is a misnomer, not 
being an ivy at all. It grows much more rapidly than the 
real ivies, has light-green leaves, and is very clean and 
thrifty. It may be left to hang over its pot or be trained 
to climb in any imaginable shape. 
Linaria cymbalaria is called Coliseum or Kenilworth 
ivy, though it also is not really an ivy. Its tiny green 
leaves and minute lilac flowers completely cover many old 
walls and ruins in Europe. It is very useful as a window 
plant. 
Among the true ivies are many elegant variegated forms, 
all margined with contrasting colors. The silver edge 
ivy, H. argentea, is frequently used as an edging plant. 
Other varieties are margined with yellow, rose, white and 
purple; while some are rendered attractive by their large 
golden berries. Our title of “ Climbers Indoors and 
Out ” seems a misnomer, since only indoor sorts are 
mentioned, but the latter class must wait for another 
month. E. L. Taplin. 
THE TUBEROSE. 
D URING the last fifteen or twenty years no other 
flower has risen to such prominence nor assumed as 
great a commercial value as the tuberose. Formerly a 
florist was content to possess fifty or one hundred bulbs. 
Now each of the leading firms grows as many thousands. 
When the excitement for cut-flowers began to develop, 
this was selected among the first, on account of easy 
culture, pure white color, delightful fragrance and favor- 
' able keeping properties after cutting. To some people 
the odor is overpowering, especially in closed rooms, but 
the demand for the bulbs appears to suffer no diminu¬ 
tion, but has increased, if anything, within two or three 
years. 
The tuberose delights in a deep, rich, light soil, with a 
southern exposure to lengthen the season as much as 
possible at the North. The occasional early frosts of au- 
•tumn frequently destroy the flower-buds, or the bloom 
before it arrives at maturity; hence any assistance we 
can render our plants to hasten the flowering season is a 
great point gained. This is partially accomplished by 
potting the bulbs and slightly forcing them before plant¬ 
ing in the open ground, a measure feasible in a limited 
way, but rather expensive for culture on a large scale. 
Such plants, it is thought, are rendered weakly, and do 
not, as a rule, yield so large a percentage of bloom as 
those grown in the usual way. Beginning with the small 
bulblet or offset, it takes about two seasons to form a 
first-class or flowering bulb—the third summer usually 
finds it in perfection, after which it deteriorates somewhat 
after the manner of many bulbous plants, as, for instance, 
the hyacinth. 
It seems to be pretty generally conceived that the tube- 
