156 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST, [JnLy, 



The eye is small and closed, set in a shallow depression. The stalk is very short, 

 placed in a very deep cavity. The flesh is white, tender, and juicy, with a sprightly 

 and agreeable acidity. It is a valuable addition to the list of culinary varieties. 



— T. MOOBE. 



SUMMER CARPETING FOR ROSE-BEDS. 



^][^0R many years I have allowed a plant called Oxalis to cover my rose-beds ; 

 it is a dwarf copper-coloured annual, with yellow flowers, and always sows 

 itself and reappears in such profusion as to completely hide the soil, not- 

 withstanding that the usual annual dressings are dug in. My rose-bed is 

 on the site of an old greenhouse, and the Oxalis appeared the summer after it 

 was removed and rose trees substituted ; and it has reappeared every year since, 

 — that is, 14 years, — and is now [June 9] just covering the bed with its pretty 

 copper colour. In appearance (except as to colour) the plant resembles the sham- 

 rock, and I have never found it hurt the roses. Though tender in frosts, it is 

 most tenacious of life, and reappears after the spring weeding as if the ground 

 had never been hoed. I strongly recommend it for the purpose required by Mr. 

 Fish, and shall be happy to supply him with a pot of it in the autumn. It seeds 

 most luxuriantly, and a small patch on a rose-bed would, after one year's seeding, 

 cover the bed. [The plant is the Oxalis tropceoloides, as it is called, a red-leaved 

 form of 0. corniculata.'] — J. H. Malleson, The Hermitage^ Higham^ near Rochester. 



A TRICOLOURED RIBBON FOR FLORISTS. 



|S no Eoyal head seems to move in the matter, I wish to establish a new 

 Order of the Garter. The mode of constituting it shall be novel. I offer 

 it to all who are worthy of it. But who is to elect the worthy ? Well, 

 I have anticipated that difficulty also, and will meet it thus. The worthy 

 shall be those who shall take the trouble to procure the Garter. But where is 

 it to be had, and how much effort is needed ? Well, listen ! Some years ago 

 I was passing some cottage gardens. In the front garden of one was a plant of an 

 uncommon Thrift ; it was larger and brighter than any I had seen. I asked for 

 a morsel, gave half-a-crown for it, divided it into single pieces, and placed it on a, 

 shady border. As soon as these single lines tillered they were divided again, 

 and so till enough was made of it to I'un round the outside of the kitchen garden 

 twice. That is the first stripe of the ribbon of glory. 



The second is made of the old Saxifraga hypnoides. A plant of this went 

 through a similar transformation till it formed the second band. Here were red 

 and white, and now for the blue, Myosotis dissitiflora. Well, it is glorious in 

 colour, but it flowered too early, for the other two had hardly reached the stature 

 of the Saxifrage in blossom. Myosotis sylvatica answered, but some of it came 

 white, and marred the beds of colour. I have never mustered enough of M. Impera- 

 trice Elisabeth to bed round the Saxifrage, and it has not mass enough to flower 

 beside a white bed a foot wide, I saw a Lithospermum in Mr. Ware's collection 



