MELASTOMACEOUS PLANTS. 
/ 
again declining brings us back to the beginning of the wet 
season; about six months being occupied in the course of the 
two periods. 
In our stoves we may readily imitate this rise and fall of the 
temperature, with the accompanying increase and diminution ol 
moisture ; and at the first glance it may appear extraordinary 
how any error can arise, this simple course of the seasons being 
understood ; but a difficulty does arise in the circumstance of our 
having to extend each to double its natural limit. For con¬ 
venience sake, we make the wet or active season to begin in spring, 
continuing it till Midsummer, when the best and indeed only 
opportunity occurs of an approach to the commencement of the 
hottest period of the tropics ; the declination of our summer and 
the succeeding winter answer well enough to the subsequent 
changes experienced by the plants when in a state of nature, 
except as regards their length, the excess in that particular is 
often productive of trouble ; the plants by force of habit will 
make an attempt to grow in winter, or a little mistake in watering 
starts them into a perplexing development at Midsummer, just 
when we deem them settling into the desired state of rest, both 
cases originating in the difference between the natural and our 
prolonged seasons ; to meet and obviate such occurrences consti¬ 
tute the chief part of the skill requisite in the culture of Melasto- 
maceous plants; those which grow at such improper times do 
not flower, and hence, in all probability, the occasion of the bad 
name and neglect under which they suffer. 
The course we would adopt is to repot all the plants at the 
beginning of the growing season, and as several of the genera 
are remarkable for a vigorous development, they should be pruned 
closely back, leaving only one or two eyes on the base of the 
preceding year’s growth, placing them merely on a shelf in the 
stove till they have begun to grow. From the time their first 
leaves are seen till the entire growth is complete they will require 
every encouragement; the pots should be plunged in a moderate 
bottom heat, plenty of water given to the roots, and frequent 
syringing will be beneficial to the foliage; repotting will be 
necessary at least twice in the time, and attention must be paid 
to the training of the shoots as they are produced. By June, 
large handsome specimens will be formed under such treatment. 
