THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 231 



GARDENING YOU INVALIDS. 



BY MISS nOPE JOHNSTONE. 



jHE FLOEAL WOELD has always taken so kindly an 

 interest in everything likely to promote the pleasure of 

 amateur gardeners, that I am tempted to ask leave still 

 further to trespass on the indulgence of its readers, by 

 stating, as briefly as I can, a plan which may possibly 

 supply a fresh phase of indoor gardening, and thus open, to invalids 

 and others, a new source of entertainment and interest. I mean 

 the cultivation of bog or marsh plants. 



A charming group of bog plants was lately brought in from the 

 hill-side by a friend, and placed in a soup-plate with some sphagnum 

 moss, and it was then suggested that, as we already have indoor 

 ferneries, why should we not also have indoor marshes or bogs ? 

 Marsh plants are always interesting, and in some cases extremely 

 beautiful. They do not often attain any great height before they 

 flower, and thereby seem particularly well fitted for room culture. 

 Nor do they absolutely require much space. The little group already 

 alluded to consists chiefly of bits of fine mossy turf, such as could 

 be covered by the palm, of one's hand ; one piece, measuring hardly 

 more than two inches across, contains three seedling heaths and six 

 or seven tiny plants of sun-dew. To these we added a plant of 

 Pinguicula vulgaris, with a frosted rosette of delicate green leaves 

 and violet-like blossoms, and a spray of Cranberry, with a red stem 

 and little pink flowers, reminding one of tiny cyclamens or Turk's- 

 cap lilies. This altogether forms a delightful little group, which 

 might easily be contained in a saucer, and covered with a large 

 tumbler. 



Speaking of Pinguicula vulgaris, or the Butterwort, a writer in 

 a weekly paper warmly urges its cultivation on all lovers of uncommon 

 plants. He says he finds it thrives well when planted in peaty turf 

 or loam, the pot standing in water in a cool greenhouse. When 

 treated in this way it flowers admirably. Some plants taken up and 

 potted, had, in the third year, made great tufts, containing eight 

 blossoms, either expanded or in the bud state, at one time, and 

 were exceedingly beautiful. Its mode [of propagation seems also 

 most curious and interesting. He says, " Each large plant, when the 

 season's leaves die off, appear thickly surrounded with numerous 

 small ofi"sets, which the parent plant seems to have the power of 

 scattering to some distance, as I have frequently seen them lying on 

 their sides, an inch away from their birth-place, in which position 

 they take root and form separate tufts in a short time." " H. S.'" 

 then adds that though these young plants do not make any display 

 for a year or two, } et they are well worth waiting for, and he again 

 strongly recommends them to the notice of his readers. It is not 

 at all a difficult plant to obtain, as it grows in some localities plenti- 

 fully in brooklets and ditches by the road-side. 



Another singular plant is the sun-dew (Brosera rotundifolia) . 



Aagust. 



