ON THE CULTURE OF STACHYS SPECIOSA, ETC. 213 
Though one of the species which I have named has been many 
years in the country, justice has never been done to its merits 
and therefore I strongly recommend the figuring of them in the 
“ Florist’s Journal,” —as, though no paint can do justice to the 
colour, this would bring them into more notice, and one might 
hope to see them in every flower garden and window, in the 
course of even next season, and they would be far more orna¬ 
mental than many plants which are high priced, and difficult to 
flower and preserve. 
In this country they are frame perennials, and the best mode 
of keeping and multiplying them is to strike cuttings, which is 
readily done in the latter part of summer, potting these in small 
sixties when they strike ; and shifting them alter a time into larger 
sixties, in which they should be placed in a cold frame or pit ; 
until the danger of spring frosts is over—for they follow the same 
law as many plants of South and Central America, in being easily 
destroyed by our frosts, though they stand every other vicissitude 
of our variable climate. While in the pots the plants should be 
trained in a fan shape, as that prepares them for making a better 
appearance in the beds or borders. In the latter situation each 
shoot should be neatly tied to a short stick, the sticks about six 
inches apart; and then the lateral shoots will show themselves 
without any of that crowding which destroys the beauty of a 
flower garden when the flowers are collected into bunches. As 
window flowers they should also be trained fan-shape, and the 
sides of the fan should be alternately turned to the light, which, 
indeed, ought to be the case with all window flowers ; and in 
order to make window flowers have a fine appearance, both from 
the room and from the outside, training and arrangement are very 
important. 
jS. Coccinea is a truly splendid plant, with spikes about a foot 
in length \ the spaces between the whorls of flowers about an inch 
long, and six flowers in each whorl. The calyx is small and 
entire, with five spinescent teeth ; the corolla is about an inch, 
long, and of an intense scarlet; it is divided into two portions in 
the limb, but the tube is entire. The bracteae are minute ; and 
the basal leaves of the whorls are linear and lancet shaped toward 
the termination of the spike, but broader, partially cordate and 
broadly toothed at the bases. The stem is quadrangular and 
hollow; the length of the plant is from a foot and a half to two 
