THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 325 



weedy ; but perhaps no plant in the world will cover a rockery or 

 any similar place, with a fairy carpet of green so quickly as this 

 plant. Upwards of thirty years ago, I pointed out this little plant 

 as a fine thing for surfacing, nor have I ever seen anything that will 

 "beat it ; but it is as a climbiiig flant that it appears in all its beauty. 

 If you have a low wall (especially if damp) that you wish to cover, 

 no matter whether stone or brick, dibble in a few bits of this plant 

 at the base, it will clamber up to the height of eighteen inches to 

 two feet in one summer; and a wall covered with pea-green 

 velvet, studded over with ten thousand silver spangles, will give some 

 idea of its appearance. It is astonishing to see this tiny plant 

 sheeting a smooth brick wall, just as we have seen Picus repens in 

 our old stoves. The low brick wall in front of my little greenhouse 

 presents the above appearance annually, and a friend of mine, an 

 ardent admirer of plants, who lives about twelve miles away, and 

 who comes to look at things now and then, always declares that 

 this sight alone is worth the journey. 



Caltha palusteis (the Marsh MA.EiGOLi>)and Genista tincto- 

 EiA (the Dyee's BEooii), I have double varieties of both these plants, 

 and the double variety of Caltha yalustr is is one of the choicest plants I 

 am acquainted with. It has a more subdued compact habit than 

 the species, and the double Genista tindoria is a most charming 

 plant to haug from the ledges of rockwork. 



LupiNUS POLYPHTLLUS is a uoble plant, perhaps a little too 

 strong for very choice borders, but a noble shrubbery plant. I grow 

 two charining varieties of it : one called hicolor has a portion of the 

 flower white, very handsome ; the other, called alha, is a very compact 

 plant, the whole spike of the most snowy white, perhaps the most 

 handsome of all the Lupines. 



Eaniikcultjs ACJiis Jlore 2:)Ieno is noticed by our friend '' Crusoe " 

 as a tolerable thing. Strange to say, I have but lately made its 

 acquaintance, having for many years grown a plant I mistook for it, 

 and which proves to be Ranunculiis Stevenii, a far handsomer plant 

 than a. aeons pleno — in fact, a truly handsome plant of the easiest 

 possible culture. 



I find that long evenings allow us to write long articles, and I 

 have written already far more than I intended; the fact is, that when 

 I sit musing on these old flowers, the fire kindles, and it is hard 

 w^ork to blow it out. 



Agapaxthus umuellatus. — It is not generally known tLat this plant may be 

 wintered, in any place where it can obtain a moderate amount of ligbt, and be kept 

 free from Irost. I keep a couple of dozen large plants through the winter montlis 

 in a place originally intended for a laundry, in which I can keep a fire during 

 frosty weather. The plants are placed on a rough stage raised in front of the 

 window. I stand them out of doors in a sheltered place in April or May, if the 

 weather is favourable. The treatment they receive natux-ally causes them to bloom 

 late, and they come in at the time they are most wanted. As to soil, I generally pot 

 mine in two parts loam, one part rather rotten dung, with the addition of a little leaf- 

 soil and sand. I reduce them in the spring of every other year, to keep them to a 

 serviceable size, to eflfect which it is necessary to pull them to pieces, and I find 

 they do not bloom so freely tliat year as the following ; therefore it is best to do a 

 part one year, and part the next. • J. S. 



