Thirty-one species, and many varieties. Chiefly greenhouse herbaceous perennials, or evergreen shrubs. Cuttings or seeds. Any rich, open, sandy soil.

Characteristics Of Excellence

"The plant should be shrubby; the foliage thick, and dark green; the habit bushy; the wood strong.

"The flower-stems should be short and strong; the foot-stalks of the blooms elastic, and branching well away from each other, to form a rich mass of flowers without crowding.

"The individual blooms depend entirely on the form of the purse, and it should be a perfect round hollow ball.

"The orifice and calyx cannot be too small, nor the flower too large. The colour should be very dense, and whether it be a spot in the middle, or stripes or blotches, should be bold and well defined, and the ground should be all one colour or shade, whether white, straw-colour, sulphur, yellow, or any other. The colour of a self should be brilliant, and all over the same actual shade. Dark flowers, with pale edges, or clouded or indefinite colours, are bad, and unfit to show. The bloom should form one handsome bunch of pendant flowers, which should hang gracefully, and be close to each other; the branches of the flower-stems holding them out to form a handsome spreading surface." - Hort. Mag.

Raising From Seed

"The pods should be taken oft' when turning yellow, and laid to dry on a large sheet of paper, under a hand-glass, that the wind may not disturb it. In the early spring this may be sown thinly in pans well drained with crocks, and covered with a hand-glass, in the green-house or under the glass of a garden-frame; when they have attained a sufficient size to handle, they may be pricked out into other seed-pans, an inch apart, and allowed to grow until they are large enough to be in each other's way. They may then be potted in sixty-sized pots, and placed in a pit or frame, there to grow, under tolerably attentive management as to being kept neither dry nor wet. If the green-fly make its appearance, they must be fumigated with tobacco smoke, not too strongly, as it has been known to kill all the young shoots. If the roots reach the sides of the pot, and begin to mat a little, they may be changed to size forty-eight; and if they should after that grow still stronger, they may be once more shifted to size thirty-two, in which they will bloom to great advantage." - Hort. Mag.

Cuttings And Division

"About the middle of July, when the plants have done flowering, preparation should be made for propagating the different kinds - the herbaceous, by dividing the roots; the shrubby, by cuttings. The plants should be encouraged in their growth, a short time previously to this operation, by judicious watering, the remaining flowers picked off, and the stems allowed to die down, that no nourishment may escape. The cuttings from the shrubby sorts should be struck singly in small sixties, in a frame with a gentle bottom heat, kept shaded, and rather sparingly watered; when rooted, air may be more freely admitted, and the plants gradually hardened. As soon as the roots appear through the soil, they will require shifting into forty-eights, and to be placed in a house where they may receive plenty of top air, side air and drafts being prejudicial to the free growth of the Calceolaria; when the sun bears considerable power, the plants should remain on the shady side of the green-house; the temperature of the house should be from 45° to 50o." - Gard. Chron.

Layering

A writer in the same work, who thoroughly understands his subject, says: - "At the time they have done flowering, which is under ordinary circumstances about the latter end of June, divest them of their flower-stalks and dead leaves, and top-dress them for about an inch deep, with silver-sand and yellow loam in equal portions, taking care that all the ripe joints of the young shoots are covered for about half that depth; place them in a cool and shaded situation, until the beginning or middle of September, giving occasional waterings during that period. By this time most of the shoots so covered have rooted so as to permit of their being removed with safety from the parent plant." - Gard. Chron.

Potting

The same authority says on this point of their culture: - "Plant them in forty-eight sized pots, or smaller if necessary, and place them in a frame, on a gentle bottom heat of tan, taking care at this period to guard against the direct influence of the sun, until they are fairly established in their pots.

"The compost for the first potting is. three parts of yellow loam, four of well decomposed lenf-mould, one of cow-dung which has lain at least twelve months, and two of silver-sand. This soil to vary as the plants strengthen and approach their flowering season, until the proportions are five of loam, two of leaf-mould, two of cow-dung, and one of silver-sand. From the time the plants are well established in their pots, give them no particular attention beyond that of slightly fumigating them once a week, until about the beginning of January, when shift them into larger pots, and place them on the front stage of a geranium house, the temperature of which is kept at about 45o., with an exceedingly humid atmosphere. In shifting always sink the ball a little to admit of a top-dressing of fresh mould being put over the ripe joints of the young wood, which very soon emits roots; an operation which tends materially to increase the size and strength of the plants. Be very particular in drainage, never allowing a particle of the old drainage to be removed, and by the time they arc placed in their flowering pots, have a complete open drain, from within a few inches of the surface, down" to the bottom of the pot, with the exception of the layers of fresh turf, which always introduce between the mould and potsherds." - Gard. Chron.