Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/218

200 where the plants flower freely. Home-grown seed is unknown, as hitherto the flowering of a Beaucarnea in Europe has been a rare event.

.&mdash;This is a fine genus of bromeliaceous plants requiring the same treatment as agaves. B. juncea, on account of its elegant rush-like leaves, is one of the most popular plants of the class in cultivation. It makes a fine ornament for a vase in the open air during summer. B. gracilis is equally valuable, though but little known.

.&mdash;The Cycads combine the gracefulness of the tree fern with the noble aspect of the palm. A considerable proportion of the species succeed in the conservatory with no more warmth than is necessary to keep the ordinary stock of decorative plants in health. They merely require an abundance of light, with protection from frost and cold chilling winds. It is true some of the species will make a more rapid progress when in a temperature rather higher than that at which the conservatory is usually kept; but, on the other hand, it is equally true that reputed stove species are sufficiently hardy to admit of their being placed in the conservatory for the summer season. Further than this, the more hardy kinds are of the utmost value in the embellishment of the garden, C. revoluda, having been employed for several years in the subtropical department of Battersea Park. However, they are too rare to admit of more than a solitary specimen here and there being put out.

Although the annual growth made by the most healthy specimen is exceedingly slow, it must not be considered of little consequence whether they are dealt with in a thoroughly generous manner, or kept simply in a state of semi-starvation. It is, indeed, of the highest importance that they should be dealt with generously, and although the effects of good management will not be so strikingly apparent as in the case of a geranium or fuchsia, or a number of other soft-wooded plants, it will show its effects in time, and the cultivator will receive an ample reward in having specimens of a highly increased value. In this respect they differ from soft wooded plants, insomuch that they steadily increase in value and yield a fair interest on the first outlay. To grow them well it is only necessary to pot them in strong loam and sharp siliceous grit, and give them liberal supplies of water all the summer,