THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 137 



the bulb. Instead of chopping the plants to pieces, when I want to 

 increase the stock, I pick up the small bulbs which lay about on the 

 surface of the soil, and pot them, several in each pot. In the winter 

 enough water is applied to the roots to keep the foliage plump. 

 Three or four times watering, from the end of September until the 

 plants start in the spring, will be quite sufficient. 



These observations have extended to a greater length than I 

 anticipated, but I shall not offer a word of apology, for every plant 

 named fully deserves all that has been said about it; and, in 

 conclusion, I can only say, that if a few barrow-loads of the soft- 

 wooded stuff, much of which is little better than rubbish, were to be 

 thrown overboard, and replaced with a few plants of each of the 

 subjects enumerated, the change would be a beneficial one, and give 

 greater interest to the conservatory at a time when the furnisher is 

 at his wits' end to keep it respectable. 



NOTES ON THREE INTERESTING PLANTS. 



BY ME. THOMAS WILLIAMS, 

 Bath Lodge, Burscough, Ormskirk. 



SYHPHIANDRIA PENDULA. 



1HAT is it, and where is it ? Such is a query put by a 

 correspondent, styling himself " A Nook and Corner 

 Gardener," in the February number of The Floral 

 "World ; and the answer given by the Editor to the 

 above query, although very good, as far it goes, is rather 

 too curt for such a beautiful plant. That it is a rare plant is quite 

 true, nor do I ever remember seeing it offered in any catalogue or 

 collection. In answer to the first part of the query, " What is it ? " 

 I may say, when properly known and properly managed, it is a hardy 

 herbaceous plant of the first class. It is no use to attempt to grow 

 this fine thing simply as a border plant — it must he elevated ; it is 

 such a decided trailer, that grown in the ordinary way, or as an 

 ordinary plant, it presents a poor, miserable appearance, its some- 

 what rough, light-coloured foliage, and sprawling panicles of creamy, 

 campanula-like flowers, presenting just such an appearance as a 

 young lady in white muslin would when rolled in the dirt. It is a 

 prodigious plant to flower — thirty to forty flowers may be counted 

 on its slender prostrate panicles. An old stump of a tree, or a few 

 large rough stones, or clinkers even, about eighteen inches to two 

 feet high above the border, and the plant put at top, and allowed to 

 fall over, is just the place for it. But the material on which it is 

 planted should be of a dark colour — white boulders, or light-coloured 

 limestone, do not suit it at all — the plant is so very light, both in 

 foliage and flower, that the effect is destroyed ; but hanging over a 

 mass of some dark material, the effect is beautiful. How often do 



