32 
CERTOCERUS REFLEXUS. 
in summer cuttings may be struck with facility. They should 
be selected from the young shoots that have grown about three 
inches long; and if these are taken off with a heel, or close to 
the older wood, and set into a pot of sandy peat, having a layer 
of pure sand on the surface, covered with a small glass, and 
plunged into a moderate bottom heat, they will emit roots in 
about a fortnight. The young plants, thus formed, should be 
potted off as soon as they begin to grow, placing them singly 
into 48-sized pots, and returning them to the hot-bed. The pot 
recommended may appear rather large, but it is by no means 
good policy to restrict the food of young plants, for the course is 
followed by exactly the same results as are visible on the animal 
frame— a stunted or weakly constitution is engendered, that pro¬ 
bably never afterwards is removed. And it must be remembered 
that this plant has large leaves— consequently a large evapo¬ 
rating surface, and will therefore require a very full supply of 
food, which must be given in the manner described, mixing up 
for it, at this stage of its progress, loam, leaf-mould, peat, and 
sand, about an equal quantity of each. As regards the applica¬ 
tion of water, some degree of cautiousness should be employed, 
as, from the commencement, and onwards for several weeks, the 
plants, by being continued in the hot-bed, will stand in a moist 
atmosphere, and therefore require less than when, at a subsequent 
period, they are growing in the hothouse. 
If the cuttings have been taken at an early period, say in May, 
they will have filled the first pots with roots, and require shifting 
in the following August, when an extra portion of loam should be 
added to the compost, and pots of a size larger will serve them 
through the winter. For a month after this second potting they 
should be kept in a close pit, and at the expiration of that time 
may be taken to their winter quarters in the stove, where they 
will only require the usual treatment of ordinary plants in that 
erection. Early in the following spring they should be again 
repotted, this time using pots at least twelve inches over, and 
increasing the strength of the compost by an additional quantity 
of loam, to the exclusion of the leaf-mould. A situation where 
they may enjoy a gentle bottom-heat and a surface temperature 
of about 65° or 70° will then grow them rapidly, and, with a 
little attention to stopping and training the shoots, handsome 
