Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/197

Rh fibre, and chopped up into pieces the size of one's fist. Common garden soil is quite useless for this purpose, as no plant will thrive in it. To induce the plants to root quickly in the new soil, a little river sand may be mixed with the soil at the spot where the plants are to go, for the free-growing kinds, and silver sand for the slow-growing and choicer kinds. The plants should be managed so that they do not interfere much with the light required for the well-being of the subjects underneath; and, though the beauty of this class of plants consists in their being allowed to grow in a seemingly natural manner, they must not be left to themselves, or they will soon run wild and get unsightly; therefore they must have frequent attention in the way of stopping and training, and those on the roof must be cut hard back in the autumn to admit plenty of light. Those on the walls and pillars can be pruned at any season of the year, so long as they are kept neat and trim. Generally speaking, from October to March is the best time for pruning them. We often hear objections made to employing climbers on account of their shading the house too much, but the objection is untenable. In the summer all plants are benefited by a partial shade; and what can be more suitable than a green canopy of foliage, from which numberless flowers hang about in graceful profusion. In the winter when shade is really objectionable, the summer growth can be cut away.

We have thus far spoken as if we were thinking of climbing and twining plants only, but we must include in our selection a few that have no climbing propensities or means of taking hold of support, because of their suitability to the walls and pillars, and generally speaking to improve the aerial perspective. The very first on the list is of this category.

.The plants belonging to this genus have large handsome foliage, with beautifully marked bell-shaped flowers, the prevailing colours being orange, striped and veined with various shades of red and crimson. A. striatum and A. vexillarum are the two best species for covering walls. Both do well planted out in the summer, in a sheltered position, and are propagated by seed or cuttings of half ripened side-shoots in the summer. They should be carefully pruned, so as to keep them well furnished from bottom to top.

.We have several species in this genus that do