THE OLEANDER. 
BY C. E. PARNELL. 
The Natural Order, Apocynaceas, embraces some of 
the most beautiful, as well as some of the most de¬ 
sirable stove and greenhouse plants in cultivation. To 
this Natural Order belongs the well-known Oleander, 
with which most of us are familiar from childhood. 
The Oleander (Neriiun Oleander), is a genus of beautiful 
erect growing greenhouse shrubs, attaining a height of 
from five to fifteen feet, with lanceolate, thick, leathery 
leaves, producing their handsome, various colored flow¬ 
ers in great abundance aud in large clusters during the 
Summer months. The Oleander is a very showy plant, 
and until of late a much neglected one. but recently 
the French florists have given us a number of new 
varieties, differing widely from the old in shape and 
size as well as in the color of their flowers—the original 
species being a native of Palestine, from whence it was 
introduced in 1596. 
The Oleander, it is said, can be found growing freely 
and in great abundance in different parts of the South 
of Europe, especially in the Isle of Candida and Sicily, 
near rivulets and water courses, while Kebel describes 
it as “clothing the banks of the river Jordan with ver¬ 
dure, and blooming at the overflow of that river, its 
roots being then wholly immersed in water; and in 
Palestine it is always to be found wherever river or 
water courses invite its thirsty roots." 
"Whether grown in the greenhouse, window-garden 
or flower-border, the Oleander is at all times a deservedly 
popular plant, on account of the ease with which it is cul¬ 
tivated, as well as the great variety in the color of its 
flowers. It is a plant that requires good drainage, a 
compost composed of two parts well-rotted sods, one 
part well-rotted manure, with enough sand added to 
render the compost a porous and open one, and in pot¬ 
ting be careful to give them sufficient pot room for their 
roots. During the Summer season, the plants (if small), 
can be planted out in the flower-border, or plunged in 
a sunny situation, care being taken to give them at all 
times an abundant supply of water. They can also be 
wintered in a light cellar, where but little water need 
be given them, but, during the season of growth and 
flowering, water must be abundantly supplied. 
Unfortunately, the Oleander is very subject to the 
white Beale, and, on this accoimt, it should be frequently 
washed with water in which whale-oil soap has been 
NEW HYBRID 
This splendid and beautiful family of bulbous plants 
has not been as extensively cultivated as it should have 
been, containing as it does so many species and varieties 
of surpassing loveliness, beauty, and grandeur. Such a 
combination should have seemed for the genus a large 
share of the attention that has been paid inferior sub¬ 
jects. But it has a still stronger recommendation for 
extensive culture: namely, that it can be made to pro- 
dissolved in the proportion of two ounces of soap to one 
gallon of water. 
There are between fifty and sixty named varieties of 
the Oleander, but the following are the most distinct, 
and all of them well worthy of a place in any collection 
of greenhouse plants. It is well to bear in mind that 
the flowers of the double varieties on small plants are 
most frequently semi-double and of indistinct colors. 
Album grandijlorum —Very large flowers of a pure 
white color. 
Atropurpureum plenum —Very large, double flowers, 
of a rich dark-purple color. 
Cardinale —The flowers of this variety are of a rich 
purple vermillion, but lighter towards the centre of the 
petals : one of the finest dark double varieties in culti¬ 
vation. 
Flavian duplex —A tine free-flowering variety, with 
large, double, yellow flowers. 
Gloriosum —Large, very double flowers of a brilliant 
cherry-crimson color. 
Henry Hares —Very double flowers of a delicate rose, 
lightly bordered with carmine. 
Lutea —Single, yellow, free-flowering. 
Lilian Henderson —This is the best white flowering 
variety ; flowers double, very full petaled and rose-like 
in form ; small plants bloom very freely. 
Hadoni grandiflora —Pure white semi-double flowers 
of great growth—one of the best. 
Had Chas. Baltel —Large, double cherry-carmine flow¬ 
ers with a fringed throat. 
Purpureum simplex —Simple, bright-purple flowers— 
distinct. 
Pictum argenleum —The foliage of this variety is of 
a creamy white, irregularly bordered with’ reddish 
green. 
Professor Durand —Large, double white flowers with a 
yellow throat—one of the best. 
Professor Planchon —The double, plum-colored flowers 
of this variety are bordered with rose and striped with 
yellow. 
Rosea splendens —Double, rose-colored flowers, of 
vigorous growth. 
Shaw’s seedling—A. very free flowering variety with 
single, violet-colored flowers. 
AMARYLLIS. 
duce its gorgeous flowers at nearly all seasons of the 
year; on which account it is invaluable to all who have 
plants in the drawing-room. The many truly elegant 
and superb varieties we now possess, the length of time 
they continue in flower, and the very pleasing variety 
they make, very justly give them a claim to a high place 
among decorative plants. 
For more than twenty years, the hybridization of the 
