STRELITZIA REGINiE. 
47 
the conclusion is arrived at without the necessary and proper 
data—they have not tried. 
Nothing can be easier than reconciling plants to this change 
of temperature, so that it is not extreme. As you showed us in 
the last Number of the Journal, it preinduces a flowering state, 
which is the primary object in the cultivation of plants. The 
Strelitzia is rather an old but not the less valuable plant, a na¬ 
tive of the Cape of Good Hope, and why it should ever have 
been deemed necessary to give it stove treatment, I am at a loss 
to divine, especially as Ericas, coming from the same place and 
found quite as far inland, have always been considered green¬ 
house plants; but I suppose it is owing to the mistaken kind¬ 
ness of our forefathers, and the general love of following the 
good old methods ; however, the day is not far distant, when 
every cultivator, before he commences with a new plant, will make 
himself thoroughly acquainted with its native character—the 
only true mode of arriving at the proper treatment: but to re¬ 
turn from this digression. My mode of growing the Strelitzia 
Reginse, which I think the finest of the eight species, is very 
simple, being very little different from that usually employed 
with Cacti. In the spring, about the present time, the plants 
are repotted into large pots, as they delight in plenty of root- 
room ; the soil is composed of peat roughly broken, and rich 
loam, well incorporated with sufficient sand, to give the whole a 
free texture. After potting, a sunny shelf is selected for them, 
and they are liberally supplied with water ; they usually com¬ 
mence growing by the middle of April, and by the middle of 
May the flowers are produced, lasting from then till July, and 
a more beautiful object is not conceivable ; the rich lemon, con¬ 
trasted with the purple, and the bright green of the ample fo¬ 
liage, forms a most lovely object for “ the eye to rest upon.” 
A single leaf on one plant last season measured four feet in 
length and twenty inches across. While the plants are in 
flower, the stigma should be dusted with the farina, that impreg¬ 
nation may be effected in order to obtain seed, as they are slow 
of propagation by suckers; with this simple precaution, ripe 
seed may always be had. After the growth is over, which is 
usually by the middle of August, the plants must be suffered to 
