44 PLANTS SUITABLE FOR ROOM CULTURE. [Nov. 



Dutch friends the credit of growing those magnificent bulbs, 

 Mynlieer very properly takes good care tliat he receives something 

 more substantial for liis work. 



BASKET PLANTS. 



Of late years there have been great improvements in the style of 

 baskets ; I wish I could say the same of the plants grown in tliem. 

 This, wliich ought to be the main object, is apparently lost sight of, 

 tlie baskets being everything and the plants nothing. There is 

 nothing better to grow any plant in than an ordinary eartlienware 

 pot. This suspended from the roof witli wire near the window, 

 ought to grow a plant iit to hide any unsightliness in the pot. 

 However, neat wire baskets of various patterns may l>e used with 

 the pots plunged into them. Amongst the oldest and best plants 

 for baskets is Lysimachia nunimularia, a British plant, tlie creeping 

 Jenny or money-wort. Why it has been called " Creeping Jenny," 

 any more than " Creeping Johnny," is a mystery ; but the more 

 appropriate name of money-wort has arisen, no doubt, from the 

 shape of the leaves being like pieces of money. The termination wort, 

 with which so many Englisli names of plants end, being the old 

 Saxon name for plant ; tlierefore we have moon-wort or moon-plant, 

 milk-wort, and many others. The Latin specific name also means 

 the same, Numnndaria being derived from Nummulus, a little coin. 

 Another good old basket plant is 8axifraga sarmentosa, and although 

 a native of China, rejoices in a number of English names. It is 

 called Aaron's beard, the Sailor plant, and the Wandering Jew. 

 One of the most interesting basket plants I know, is one whose only 

 fault is in liaving a name which requires some practice in getting 

 your tongue round it, viz. Chlorophyton Sternbergianum, or Goethe's 

 plants ; so called from Goethe, the great German poet and philo- 

 soplier, having first brought it into notice. It belongs to the Lily 

 family, and has long trailing flower stems, with small white flowers, 

 wliicli also produce quite a colony of little plants from tlie stems. 

 It has long, bright-green leaves, and is so easily grown that the late 

 Miss Frances Hope, of Wardie, a lady who was an ardent and most 

 enthusiastic cultivator of jilants, used to declare that this was a 

 plant which would not kill ; and she reared large quantities of it for 

 the purpose of giving to her friends, who lived in the town, to grow 

 in their rooms. Fragaria indica, an elegant trailing strawberry with 

 greenish-white flowers, succeeded by scarlet or crimson fruit, also does 

 well. Other elegant and highly suitable jdants for basket culture 

 are the ivy-leaved Pelargonium, the Cornish money-wort, another 

 British plant, and Campanula Barellierii. 



