CULTURE OF PENTAS CARNEA. 
133 
THE CULTURE OF PENTAS CARNEA. 
Sir, —This lovely plant, I am persuaded, will be in great re¬ 
quisition, so soon as it has had time to become known, among 
all who delight in the possession of Flora’s gems. Its rapid and 
proportionable growth, and the immense number and long suc¬ 
cession of flowers which it produces, must render it an especial 
favourite in all collections, more particularly with those culti¬ 
vators who require a large number of fine plants several times in 
the season, for exhibiting ; the delicate flesh-coloured flowers of 
this plant affording an agreeable resting-place for the eye, after 
traversing the more vivid beauties which in such a situation sur¬ 
round it. The habit and date of its introduction you have 
already given in your notices of new plants, therefore I proceed 
at once to the cultivation ; believing there are many who will re¬ 
ceive it this season, without an opportunity of previously acquir¬ 
ing any information as to its habits, to whom these remarks may 
probably be of service. It was thought when the plant was first 
brought into notice, from consideration of the situation in which 
it was found, that a very moderate degree of warmth would be 
sufficient to produce it in its greatest beauty; but the experi¬ 
ence of a season has shown that, though it will exist in a common 
greenhouse, yet to properly develope its best character, a very 
warm atmosphere is necessary. My mode of management, which 
has resulted in very fine plants, is this. The plants were re¬ 
ceived last December, very small and sickly, in sixty-sized pots. 
In a fortnight afterwards they were repotted ; two of them being 
placed in large pots at once, and removed to a forcing-pit; the 
other two were put into pots only one size larger than those 
they were removed from, and then placed in the plant stove; 
the soil used being a mixture of peat and loam, with a small 
proportion of sand. Those subject to the large shift and the 
influence of the warmer atmosphere made most rapid progress, 
increasing their size full four times in the course of the first two 
months, and are now large plants; having been stopped twice, 
they present dense heads, almost covered with bunches of blos¬ 
soms : whilst the pair of plants which were treated with small 
pots and the comparatively cool temperature of the ordinary 
stove, after having been repotted twice, offer but a weak at- 
