HOYA, OR WAX PLANT.

A showy genus of stove climbers, of which one, Hoya carnosa, succeeds well with parlor culture. It is a climbing shrub, the leaves dark green and fleshy; the flowers are of a peculiar waxy appearance, produced in umbels, whitish, with rose-colored centre, in which hangs a drop of limpid honey.

Give the plant a large pot, and a compost of peat and loam in equal parts, securing good drainage. Give as much sunlight and heat as possible. The old bloom stalks should not be removed, as they put out flowers year after year. Much water is not needed, especially when the plant is not growing. This beautiful plant is a native of tropical Asia, and is one of the few stove plants that will adapt themselves to parlor culture.

CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

These plants are favorites for autumn blooming, and quite a treatise might be written on their cultivation, since they have become florists' flowers. A few hints must, however, suffice.

The best way to obtain a fine specimen is, to set out in

the garden in the early spring a small plant; give it constant attention during the summer, and pinch out the shoots so as to make lateral branches. About the first of September let it set for bloom, and on the approach of frost, pot it and remove it to the parlor. It will bloom for two months or more. Then dry it off for the winter in the cellar, and by the spring it will furnish you with plenty of young plants. Water should be liberally supplied. The smallflowered, Pompon, varieties are very desirable; the larger flowers are best seen in the garden.

The proper soil is loam and well-rotted manure, with a little silver sand. Waterings of liquid manure are very beneficial as the plants are showing bloom. The following

will be found to be fine kinds :

BEGONIA.

The only two species of this ornamental stove plant that do well in the parlor, are B. incarnata, and fuchsioides. The former is an evergreen shrub, with thick, fleshy stems, and large, drooping clusters of pink flowers in winter. It shows to great advantage if well cared for, and is one of the best window plants. The latter is often called "coral drop," and resembling the former somewhat in habit, produces at all seasons, but chiefly in summer, its pretty, drooping, coral flowers.

Both species require the warmest possible situation, and plenty of light and sun. They are impatient of much water, but the plants should never be allowed to droop. Good drainage is indispensable. The whole family thrive in a compost of one half loam, one half leaf mould, with a slight portion of sand.

Vari

THE IXIA: Soil. - Potting. - Drying off. - Seedlings.- Species. eties. THE OXALIS: Culture.- Soil. - Species. THE BABIANA: De

scription. Culture. -Red Spider. - Species.

THE

HEMANTHUS :

Description. - Culture. — Species. THE AMARYLLIS: Description. Soil. Species. THE LACHENALIA: Soil. - Potting. - Foliage. - Species. THE SPARAXIS: Description. — Culture. Species. Watering. THE ANOMATHECA: Description. - Planting. Resting. Seedlings. — Species. THE TRITONIA: Culture. - Species. THE HOMERIA: Soil. -Culture.- Flowering. - Species. THE NERINE: Culture. — Soil. Species.

WHERE is no finer class of window plants than the subjects of the present chapter. They combine, in a remarkable degree, the two requisites

of easy cultivation and floral beauty.

Yet strange it is, that we seldom see them, except in the green-house or conservatory, in this country, while in England they are pop

ular plants for home adornment, and grown both

in the window and garden.

Now, the inclemency of our climate debars us from blooming these floral gems in the garden; but, as a compensation, our winter suns bring them to perfection at a season when the earth is locked with frost, and out-door gardening is entirely prevented.

They are mostly natives of Southern Africa, in the region of the Cape of Good Hope; whence their horticultural name, Cape Bulbs. From the nature of the climate