Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/242

224 its bulk of small crocks and a few nodules of charcoal. In potting the plant, first loosen the roots carefully, and spread them out, and finish the potting in such a manner that the base of the plant will be elevated two or three inches above the rim of the pot. To do this it may be necessary to remove some of the soil from the pot first, but it is impossible to give directions for every particular. In any case the soil should be pressed about the roots moderately firm, and a coat of the finer part of the soil should be spead over the top for a finish.

If a very nice mellow loam is not obtainable, peat and sphagnum may be used instead, but a bit of first-rate turfy loam, of a hazel colour and “silky” to the touch, will grow a finer specimen than peat. While the plants are growing they must have regular supplies of water, but in winter they must be kept rather dry.

The pitcher plants, adapted to associate with the cool orchids, are those of America and AustraliaSarracenias, Darlingtonias, and Cephalotus. We must not think of Nepenthes, which requires the heat and moisture of the stove, or it becomes a plague to its sad possessor. But we have enough to afford a delightful change from the ordinary run of greenhouse subjects, and these plants are as curious as they are pretty. The coloured plate of Sarracenia Drummondi, published in the ‘Floral World’ for April, 1870, will convince any one who may be in doubt as to the ornamental uses of the family. As regards the production of pitchers, the plants now before us differ from the Indian pitcher plants in many particulars, and a short account of them will, we feel assured, be considered appropriate to the purpose of this work.

It will be observed, then, that the leaves of the Sarracenias are hollow cylinders, which terminate on one side in a trumpet kind of lip, like a vessel out of which fluid is to be poured, and on the other in a leafy appendage or lid. In the fully developed leaf we may notice that the principal beauty of the colouring is in this lid, which is sometimes of a dull purplish-red, sometimes snow-white, pencilled with carmine lines, and sometimes a delicate greenish-yellow. The leaf in its whole length is strengthened by an angular stem, which is very curiously produced; and when this is cut through it is seen to be exogenous, or an outside grower, a most surprising circumstance, botanically speaking, because, from what we are accustomed to in the forms of the vegetable kingdom, we should,