brilliant colours may please the eye of the passing traveller, they are no very agreeable sight to the farmer, to whom they are but troublesome weeds. He informs us, that there is a law in Denmark to oblige the farmers to extirpate them. These flowers are also called Gowans, Gules, Gools, Gowls, Guills, Goulans, Goldins, Yellow-bottles, and Golden Corn-flowers. The Germans use them as a yellow dye. The Chrysanthemum, the Indian particularly, is in high estimation with the Chinese, and is celebrated by all their poets *.

CORYMBIFERE.

CINERARIA.

SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA.

'Ash-coloured; most of the species being of a grayish colour.— French, cendriette; cinerre.-Italian, cineraria.

THE handsomest kinds are the Blue-flowered Cineraria, or Cape-Aster, and the Woolly Cineraria. The flowers of the first are of a bright sky-blue, and the plant is never without them the whole year round. Of the second, the inner part of the flowers is white, the outside a most vivid purple: it flowers early in the spring, and, if in a healthy state, will also flower all the year; but this plant is often infested with a kind of insect which destroys its vigour; therefore, to ensure a succession of healthy, handsome plants, it should be annually increased by cuttings, which, if planted in September, and placed in a tolerably warm situation, will strike root very readily.

These plants must be housed in the winter. Many persons keep the last kind in a stove, but, like many of ourselves, they are more healthy when treated less tenderly. The earth must be kept moderately moist.

* See Titsinghi's Illustrations of Japan.

CISTUS.

POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

CISTEÆ.

Called also gum cistus, and rock rose.-French, le ciste.—Italian, cisto, cistio.

THE Cistus is a very extensive genus, and all the species are valuable ornaments to a garden. Their flowers, although of short duration, are succeeded almost every day by fresh ones, for more than two months, and are generally about the size of a rose. They are of different colours, and the plants retain their leaves all the year.

Some few require a stove; it will be sufficient to specify the most beautiful kinds which may be preserved without

one.

The Poplar-leaved Cistus, a native of Portugal: flowers white, tinged with purple at the edges; bloom in June and July.

The Bay-leaved Cistus, a native of Spain: flowers white; blow in June and July.

The Spanish Gum Cistus: white flowers, with spots of purple at the base; in blossom from June to August.— The whole plant exudes a sweet glutinous substance in warm weather, which has a strong balsamic scent, and perfumes the air to a great distance.

The Montpelier Gum Cistus, a native of Narbonne and Valencia: white flowers, open from June to August.This species exudes a gum, like the last. There is a variety of it, with lemon-coloured flowers.

The Hoary Rock Rose, or Rose Cistus, le ciste ordinaire of the French: a native of Spain and Narbonne; purple flowers.

The Cretan Cistus: a native of the Levant; flowers red purple, blowing in June and July. This is frequently

called the Ladaniferous Cistus, being that from which the drug called ladanum is obtained: a kind of resin, which, on account of its fragrant smell, is frequently used in fumigations.

The White-leaved Cistus, a native of Spain and Narbonne: flowers purple. June and July.

The Sea Purslane-leaved Cistus, a native of Portugal; with large bright yellow flowers, which appear in June and July.

These Cistuses are shrubs, from one foot to five or six feet high. They must be housed at the approach of winter, and gradually replaced in the open air early in the' spring. The earth should be kept moderately moist.

The Dwarf Cistus, or Little Sunflower, is an indigenous plant: it is called in France, la fleur du soleil [sun flower]; Thysope des Carigues; l'herbe d'or [golden herb]: and in Italy, eliantemo [sun flower]; fior del sole [sun flower]. The flowers are usually a deep yellow, or pale lemon colour; but they are sometimes seen white, and rose-coloured.All these varieties, placed together, have an agreeable effect. This species will live in the open air, all the year round.

RANUNCULACEE.

CLEMATIS.

POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA.

Called frequently, virgin's bower, or traveller's joy.—French, l'herbe au gueux [beggar's herb]; la viorne; viorne des pauvres [poor man's rest]; la consolation des voyageurs [traveller's consolation]; in the villages, vouabla, a corruption of the Latin name vitalba [white vine]. -Italian, vitalba; clematite.

THESE are, for the most part, climbing plants, needing support, and should be placed where they may run up a wall or balcony. They will not flower so strongly in pots as in the open ground; but must not, on this account, be

rejected. The Evergreen Clematis would require to be planted in a tub of some magnitude: it grows to the height of eight or ten feet, and becomes very thick and bushy. The flowers are of a greenish colour, and appear in December or January. It retains its leaves all the year.Gerarde gives it the name of Traveller's Joy of Candia; Johnson, Spanish Traveller's Joy ; and Parkinson, Spanish Wild Climber.

Purple Clematis grows naturally in the woods of Spain and Italy: there are several varieties, the Single Redflowered, Blue-flowered, and Purple-flowered, and the Double Purple; which flower, in June, July, and August: and another with white flowers, which appear in May.Gerarde gives this species the name of Climbing Ladies' Bower, "from its aptness," he says, "to make bowers or arbours in gardens."

The Curled Clematis is a native of Carolina, Florida, and Japan; the stalks grow near four feet high, and fasten themselves by their claspers or tendrils, to the neighbouring plants. The flowers are purple, and blow in July.

The Oriental Clematis is a native of the Levant; it has flowers of a greenish yellow colour, which are in blossom from July till October.

The Upright Virgin's Bower, or Clematis Flammula, (in French, la flammule; clematite odorante: Italian, flammula:) grows naturally in many parts of Europe. The flowers are white, and continue in blossom from June till September. This is an acrid, corrosive plant, and inflames the skin, whence it has been named Flammula.

The Hungarian Clematis has blue flowers, which are in blossom from June to August. This and the last mentioned species have annual stems.

All the kinds here enumerated, which are the handsomest, will live in the open air all the year. They should,

in general, be watered about three times in a week, but in very hot and dry weather every evening.

There are some few species of the Clematis which require artificial heat, but they are by far the least handsome. The two last mentioned kinds may be increased by parting the roots, which should be done either in October or February. The roots may be cut through their crowns with a sharp knife, taking care to preserve some good buds to every off-set.

The Clematis is as great a rambler as the Honeysuckle itself:

"o'errun

By vines, and boundless clematis, (between
Whose wilderness of leaves, white roses peep'd)
And honeysuckle, which, with trailing boughs,
Dropp'd o'er a sward, grateful as ever sprung
By sprinkling fountains."

BARRY CORNWALL.

Mr. Keats makes mention of the Clematis in a passage, of which, as it relates entirely to flowers, it may, perhaps, be allowable to quote the whole. He describes a youth sleeping in a bower walled with myrtle:

"Above his head

Four lily-stalks did their white honours wed,
To make a coronal, and round him grew
All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue,
Together intertwined, and trammel'd fresh:
The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy-mesh,
Shading its Ethiop berries; and woodbine
Of velvet leaves, and bugle blooms divine;
Convolvulus in streaked vases flush;

The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush;
And virgin's bower, trailing airily,

With others of the sisterhood."

ENDYMION, p. 72.