one of the least valuable in its normal state for ornamental purposes, the flowers being ineffective dull yellow. There is a purple-flowered variety, more ornamental; but both these are only fit for the most common use in decorating woods and the banks of streams, or suchlike places. There is, however, an important variegated form worthy of a place in mixed borders, and might be used with good effect in large borders and beds in bedding out, as the variegation is decided and distinct, and the foliage ample.

SOLANACEÆ.

There is very little in this order that may be considered good ornamental perennials and hardy, but there are one or two which we cannot pass by without some notice, although it need take up but little time and space.

Physalis Alkekengi (Winter Cherry).-A not uncommon plant in old-fashioned gardens, valuable solely on account of its pretty fruit, which resembles a red cherry very much in colour and size. The fruit is very useful in early winter for room and table decoration, where that is in demand; and for this purpose the plant should be grown in beds or patches sufficiently large to meet the required supply. The plant may also be used in the mixed border; but except in very extensive collections it may well be dispensed with, for its beauty requires to be looked for, as the berries are enclosed in the inflated bladder-like calyx. Flourishes best in dry warm soil and a sunny situation. Propagate very freely by division.

Physochlaina. Two or three species of this genus are known to cultivation, but very rarely beyond the precincts of botanic gardens, or a few large private collections. They are useful early spring or summer flowering plants, though not exactly what would be termed first-rate ornamental subjects; still they are quite hardy, and being accommodating as regards soil and situation, and sufficiently beautiful for border decoration, they are desirable plants where room may be spared them.

P. grandiflora (Large-Flowered P.) The plant grows about I foot high, forming rather dense masses of dark-green, eggshaped, glutinous, hairy leaves. The flowers are borne in terminal panicles, and are longish, bell-shaped, pale yellow, and veined with livid purple. The flowers appear in April and May. Native of Thibet.

P. orientalis (Purple P.)-This species grows about 1 foot or 18 inches high. The leaves are broadly egg-shaped, and form rather dense masses. The flowers, smaller than those of the last species, are in compact head-like panicles, and dark purple. They appear simultaneously with those of the last. Native of Iberia.

Ramondia pyrenaica (Pyrenean R., syn. Verbascum Myconi). -This is a handsome little alpine plant. It grows a few inches high, forming flat masses of roundish heart-shaped, muchwrinkled, notched, and toothed leaves, clothed on the upper side with shaggy hairs, and below with rusty down. The flowers are borne on short stalks in few-flowered panicles— are deep purple with a yellow eye. Flowers in May and June. It flourishes best in moist shady nooks about rockwork. The drainage should be thorough, and the soil good sandy loam and peat, the latter predominating. Propagate by division and by seed. Native of the Pyrenees.

Verbascum (Mullein).-A large genus of striking and in many cases handsome plants. The greater part are, however, biennials or perennials of very uncertain duration, many of which establish themselves freely, and abundantly provide for their propagation and perpetuation in a place by means of the large quantities of seed which they annually produce and scatter about. They are only fit for naturalising in woods and suchlike places, and rocky spots where they may find sufficient depth of soil in the fissures to support their often gigantic growth. The following few species are some of the more permanent perennial kinds, and are worthy of a place in wide borders, in the back lines of which they produce a very good effect; and they are very good for working in amongst masses of shrubs, and the borders surrounding beds of these. They succeed in any good garden-soil, and are readily increased by division, which has an invigorating effect when the process is attended to before the plants become debilitated too much, which is apt to be the case if they remain many years in the same spot, especially in wet soils; and they all ripen more or less of seed, which offers another ready means of increase.

V. nigrum (Black mullein).—The quality of the specific name does not apply to the flowers, but the roots. The plant grows 2 or 3 feet high, often more in congenial soil. The leaves are heart-shaped, and stalked on the lower part of the stem, and diminish in size and the length of the stalk as they ascend, till they become quite stalkless. The flowers are in long racemes, in weak plants commonly unbranched, but more or less branched in those that are luxuriant. They are yellow, with purple-haired

stamens, and appear in early summer, and continue for some months. Native of Britain, other countries of Europe, and western Asia. There are numerous hybrids of this plant differing in habit, foliage, stature, and the colour of the flowers, but I have met with none superior to the typical form for border decoration.

V. phoenicum (Purple Mullein).-A very distinct plant, and excellent border ornament. The leaves are mostly confined to the roots and the base of the stems. They are dark-green, with a dash of purple on them, but destitute of hairs. The stems are weak, at first erect, but in the process of growth becoming straggling. The flowers are in very long slender racemes, very numerous, and dark bronze purple. There are several hybrids and varieties of this plant in gardens, some of which are well worth a place along with the type, the most valuable being the white and the red flowered. Height 2 or more feet. Flowers appear in June, and continue for some months. Native of the south of Europe.

SCROPHULARIACEÆ.

This is a very important tribe of plants in floriculture, comprising as it does the Calceolaria, the Pentstemon, Mimulus, and many other showy genera with which we are more or less familiar, and not a few that are not very generally known outside botanical gardens.

Antirrhinum (Snap-Dragon).-This genus is so familiar to all who have anything to do with gardens or flowers, and so generally admired, that in so far as the most common species is concerned, there is no need for description or praise, as it is long and unassailably established in favour. There are other species, but all are inferior in usefulness and beauty to A. majus in all its variety.

A. Asarina (Italian Snap-Dragon).-A very distinct and attractive plant, but unfortunately not easily cultivated in most parts of the country. It is not advisable to attempt its culture in borders or other flat surfaces in any part of the country, but on rockwork it may be grown with satisfaction in all the more favoured districts; in the north, however, it will require to be kept in pots and treated as a half-hardy alpine. It is a prostrate creeping plant with feeble stems, rather thinly clothed with roundly-heart-shaped, hairy, somewhat viscid, irregularly

toothed leaves, in the axils of which appear the handsome creamy-white flowers in June and July. It is fond of a chalky soil, rather dry than otherwise, and should be kept dry in winter, whether in pots or in the open air. Native of the Pyrenees. Propagate by cuttings and seed.

It

A. majus (Common Snap-Dragon or Antirrhinum).- As already said, this plant is too well known to require description or praise. Its use and value as an ornamental plant are well understood and valued. While it is willing to grow and increase itself by means of seed anywhere in the most unlikely places—in the thinnest soil, or even lime-rubbish or gravel, on walls and house-tops-it is very grateful in better circumstances, and forms one of the handsomest of border ornaments. succeeds best in well-drained rich sandy loam. Its propagation by seed is a very simple matter: the plant, wherever it is grown, demonstrates that fact by the multitude of seedlings that spring up around it; but it is often desirable to perpetuate choice and well-marked varieties, and that cannot be done by seed. Cuttings are the only means whereby that end may be attained, and they may be put in, in sandy soil, in a cold frame or hand-light in autumn or spring, and kept shaded from bright sunshine for some time till they begin to root; and they are best kept in some kind of shelter for the winter, if struck in autumn, which is the best season for laying in increase of stock; for though sufficiently capable of resisting cold, they are not so successful in enduring wet, especially in combination with frost. A naturalised inhabitant of many parts of Britain and Ireland, but originally from countries of the Mediterranean.

Calceolaria (Slipperwort).-Of this fine and popular genus there is only one subject, so far as I am aware, that can be recommended as hardy with any degree of confidence. It is a hybrid raised about the year 1840 by Mr Kelly, propagator to Messrs Dickson & Son of Edinburgh. I do not know the parentage of the interesting and pretty plant, but it bears some resemblance to C. plantaginea in habit and flowers and foliage; and as that species is itself almost if not quite hardy, it may be presumed on these circumstances that it is one of the parents. Any way it is a valuable little plant worthy of extensive cultivation. It flourishes in border or rockwork in moist cool soil, and is perfectly hardy. Its name is C. Kellyana, and the flowers are yellow, with pretty crimson spots, and the plant is herbaceous, with smooth obovate coarsely-toothed leaves. Easily increased by cuttings or division.

Chelone. This is a small genus of North American plants nearly allied to Pentstemon, but not so well known in private

gardens as some of the species and their varieties of that popular genus. They are, however, handsome border-plants of neat habit-not so showy as the hardy Pentstemons generally grown, but well deserving a place in mixed collections of ornamental plants.

C. Lyoni (Lyon's C.)—A plant of erect branching habit. The stems are thinly clothed with narrow, egg-shaped, sharply-toothed leaves on short stalks. The flowers are purplish red, in closelypacked terminal and axillary spikes. Height about 2 feet. Flowers in summer, and lasting till autumn. Flourishes best in rich, deep, sandy loam, and is fond of peat or well-decomposed leaf-mould. Propagate by division, cuttings, or seed.

C. obliqua (Oblique-flowered C.)-This species grows about the height of the last, with usually simple stems clothed thinly with short-stalked, lance-shaped, sharply-toothed leaves, arranged in opposite pairs or threes. The flowers are produced in close, short, terminal spikes, and are red or pale purple. The same treatment and propagation as the last.

Digitalis (Foxglove).-Not any of the perennial species of Foxglove that are in cultivation equal the common biennial one with which everybody is familiar. In passing it may be pointed out that it is a valuable plant for introducing in semiwild places, and about ruins and stony places, where the seed may be scattered and left to the protection of nature. There are a good many perennials, good handsome border-plants, which, if they are not so showy, are also not so weedy as the biennial species, which, when introduced into dressed beds and borders, becomes quite troublesome by the freedom of its seeding and seedlings, which spring up in all directions. The perennials succeed best in very well drained yet tolerably moist loam, with a few roughish stones buried beneath them a little way. Propagate by division and seed.

D. ferruginea (Rusty-flowered Foxglove).-A tall plant, but variable in that respect, growing, however, in ordinarily good soil about 3 feet high. The leaves are oblong or lance-shaped, quite smooth, and dark green. The flowers are open, bellshaped, bronze-coloured, and closely packed in long terminal racemes. They appear in July and August. Native of warm valleys in stony places on the lower mountains of Italy. It is not a very durable perennial, and is apt to die off after flowering, a thing that should be anticipated by saving and sowing a few seeds annually; and it ripens seed very freely, so that there need be no difficulty in keeping it up.

D. grandiflora (Large-flowered Foxglove).-This is a tall plant, having the leaves oblong or lance-shaped, slightly toothed, and