Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/171

 Rh 99. t. 6, a Jamaica shrub, was for a number of years cultivated in the English stoves, and propagated extensively by cuttings, each plant growing many feet in length every season, from abundance of moisture and nourishment, without showing any signs of fructification. At length a pot of the Solandra was accidentally left without water in the dry stove at Kew; and in consequence of this unintentional neglect, the luxuriant growth of its branches was greatly checked, and a flower came forth at the extremity of each. By a similar mode of treatment the same effect has since frequently been produced. Several plants, especially with bulbous roots, which blossom abundantly in their native soils, have hitherto defied all the art of our gardeners to produce this desirable effect; yet future experience may possibly place it within our reach by some very simple means. In general, whatever checks the luxuriant production of leaf-buds, favours the formation of flowers and seeds. That variety, or perhaps species, of the Orange Lily, Lilium bulbiferum, which is most prolific in buds, seldom forms seeds, or even those organs