GLADIOLUS. 
181 
seed should be sown in a soil rather more sandy than that re¬ 
commended for the mature roots. They should be slightly 
watered, whenever it appears requisite, during the summer, but 
they must be suffered to dry off rather sooner than the old roots 
in the autumn, and not excited too early in the spring; they 
may remain in the pans or boxes they are sown in during the 
two following seasons, giving them a slight top dressing previous 
to starting them the second spring, and attending to the removal 
of weeds, &c. After having completed two seasons in the boxes 
they should be taken out, and subjected to the treatment re¬ 
commended for full-grown roots; the second summer many of 
them will blow, and in the third the whole of them. 
We have thus given a slight sketch of the mode of growing 
this interesting genus, and intend in a future Number reverting 
again to the family of plants composing this beautiful and unique 
order. As a concluding remark, we beg to impress on the no¬ 
tice of our readers the necessity of duly considering the natural 
distribution of these, or in short any other plants they grow ; 
for without a proper knowledge of the natural habitat of a plant 
it is next to an impossibility to assimilate the artificial with the 
natural habit of the plant. So these plants, being natives of 
the more temperate parts of the sandy plains of Southern Africa, 
the situation chosen to grow them in with us should be dry, airy, 
and yet warm, for with a redundancy of the one or a deficiency 
of the other of these requisites, the growth of the plants would 
be languid and the result of no effect. 
Our plate is an apt illustration of the result of cross impreg¬ 
nation. They are two beautiful hybrids grown by Messrs. 
Lockhart, of Cheapside and Fulham, to whose kindness we are 
indebted for the opportunity of figuring them. It must be 
understood they are two distinct varieties, though appearing on 
one stem, it being merely an artistical arrangement of our 
draughtsman, Mr. Holden, who has succeeded in portraying 
them to the life; Messrs. Lockhart grow this lovely class of 
plants extensively, and in great perfection; in their collection 
may be found all those before mentioned, with many others; 
among them G. insignis, a fine large reddish crimson flower 
with purple blotch ; G. inflatus blandus, a deep rose coloured 
hybrid variety ; G. cardinalis blandus, and a great number of new 
hybrids not yet named. Editor. 
