Tacsonia

TACSONIA, Tacsonia Van Volxem

PASSION-FLOWERS and tacsonias are so nearly related, that it is for botanical rather than horticultural purposes that they are separated, as will be shown in the Synopsis, where technical matters admit of treatment more conveniently than here. It may be stated at once that the plant represented by the accompanying plate is the finest climber known to cultivation for a spacious conservatory or cool plant-house. A temperature not lower than 40 degree will keep it safely through the winter, and from May to November the natural temperature suffices; or, in other words, it needs no aid from artificial heat except during the four or five winter months, and then only sufficient to keep it safe from frost. It is of no use to plant this rampant grower in a small house; and to attempt to grow it in a pot is about as unreasonable as to attempt to raise eagles in canary cages.

There are times when "comparisons are odious;" in the present case they might be ridiculous, for there is no plant at our command that could be put before, or even beside, this magnificent beauty; for even the lapageria, lovely as it is, becomes nothing when we have seen Tacsonia Van Volxemi in a thorough state of prosperity in a great conservatory, where it is quite at home.