THE origin of the cinerarias, that are so highly esteemed by the florists, cannot be determined with certainty, but their prevailing characteristics point to C. cruenta as undoubtedly one of the parents, and C. populifolia is probably another. It matters little to the amateur florist, perhaps, what was the particular wilding that gave rise to a race so well established as the one represented in the figure before us, but the parentage of our pets should be traced in every instance if possible, for when we would make "a new departure" in cross-breeding, it is of primary importance to know something of the lineage of the plants whose characters we propose to change.

The cineraria is a tender plant, and a troublesome plant, and a plant that often disappoints the experts; therefore it is bound sometimes to disappoint the beginner in floriculture. It is not particularly tender, and really will not endure a high temperature for any length of time. On the other hand, frost, damp, a cold wind, a dry air, or long-continued sunshine may prove fatal to it, or at least injurious. Its wants are few, but it can endure no extremes; and, when the circumstances are unfavourable, it becomes infested with green-fly, or red-spider, or thrips, or mildew, or some other plague, or it simply dies, and tells no tale of the reason why. Where cinerarias are seen in good condition, therefore, we must regard them as representing careful, if not skilful cultivation, for a blunderer will never do any good with them, nor will one that is inconstant or impatient, or too trustful in rough-and-ready methods.

The best cinerarias are grown in cold frames, or in pits heated only to a sufficient point to keep out frost. They should never be placed on wooden stages, or in large houses, except when in flower and required for display; all the growing should be done in pits or frames on a groundwork of clean coal-ashes or gravel, and at all times the plants should have abundance of air and light, but be protected from frost and from excessively powerful sunshine. The soil should be rich and light, consisting of turfy loam, leaf-mould, very rotten hotbed manure, and sharp sand, the turfy loam always predominating. The compost should be prepared long before it is needed, and should be several times turned and mixed, to free it from vermin, and render it perfectly sweet and mellow. It should be broken down to a fine texture, but should not be sifted--in fact, as a rule, sifted soil is worthless.

The cineraria is increased by seeds and offsets. For all ordinary purposes seeds are to be preferred, and it is therefore advisable to destroy all the plants that have served their purpose as decorative objects. The seed should be sown as soon as ripe, or as soon after as possible. It will, however, keep to the following spring, but after a year has passed from the time of gathering it is worthless. It should be sown in shallow pans filled with light, sandy soil, and should be very slightly covered. In places where great numbers of cinerarias are grown to produce seed for sale, no trouble is taken to sow seeds for ordinary stock. The handsome plants are kept in pits on a flooring of clean coal-ashes, and in the course of gathering the seed, a certain quantity falls, or is blown about and lost for a season. But the loss is soon compensated for by the appearance of innumerable seedling plants on the ground amongst the pots, and these are lifted when large enough, and then receive the needful care to render them worthy to maintain the stock.

When offsets are wanted, the flower-stems must be cut down, and the plants must be put out-of-doors and taken care of; and when the offsets appear they must be carefully removed, and should have the same kind of nursing as seedling plants. We have obtained offsets in great plenty by planting the selected specimens in beds of light, rich soil, in an airy pit. They are turned out without damage, and the fresh soil promotes production of offsets.

The magnificent specimen plants that are seen at the spring flower shows are invariably grown from offsets. There are, at least, two reasons for this course of procedure. In the first place the grower knows what sort of flowers he will have, and may select according to taste and knowledge; whereas when we grow seedling plants we do not know what the flowers will be until they actually appear. Another reason is that offsets make better plants that seedlings. They are more compact in growth, and producer more even heads of bloom. And there is yet a third reason for preferring offsets for specimen culture: it is that three of them may be placed in one pot to present the appearance of one plant, a thing impossible--or at all events ludicrous--in the case of seedlings, because when the head of bloom is produced, it should be of one kind in every separate specimen. The usual practice is to pot the offsets singly into small pots, and when they have become well rooted, they are transferred in threes to five-inch pots, and in due time shifted from these to the larger pots in which they are to flower. Great care must be taken to keep all the sorts correctly labelled, when this system of potting them in threes is practised; for if more than one sort is used to make up a group of three, the specimen will be useless for exhibition. It must be repeated, however, that for all ordinary purposes it is best to grow cinerarias from seed, and care must be taken to secure seed of the best quality.