THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 181 



omission is curious, because of the venerable author's extensive knowledge of plants. 

 In Millers "Gardener's Dictionary" (1771) it is fully and accurately described. 

 It: the course of the description the following remarks occur: — "It hath had the 

 epithet of ' Rosa Marite' given to it by the monks, who have superstitiously sup- 

 posed that the flowers open on the night that our Saviour was born ; but the. truth 

 is that the dry woody plant being set for some time in water, will dilate and open 

 so as to disclose the seed vessels and seeds. This I have seen done when the plant 

 has been many years gathered, so that there are several curious persons who pre- 

 serve them in their repositories of curiosities for the singularity of this property." 

 The Hebrew writers drew but few similes from the aspects of nature, and minute 

 observation is of modern growth entirely. Yet the peculiarities of this plant, now 

 blown about the desert sere and sorrowfully, like the sinner made sport of by 

 the power of darkness, and again revived by the breath of God and endowed with 

 new life and beauty — these peculiarities and their fitness as materials of spiritual 

 imagery can scarcely have been altogether unnoticed. Job may have had this plant 

 in mind when he said in his mournful reply, "Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and 

 fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? " (xiii. 25). And again Ezekiel, " I the 

 Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the 

 green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish" (xvii. 24). And again Isaiah, 

 in one of his most wonderful outbursts of ecstatic teaching, " He shall also blow 

 upon .them and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as 

 stubble" (xl. 24). 



The Rose of Jericho is a plant of easy culture, requiring the treatment usually 

 accorded to the ordinary greenhouse annuals, and in the southern part of this 

 country it will succeed under the same conditions as many half-hardy annuals, pro- 

 vided it has the advantage of a warm and dry position. March is the best time to 

 commence the cultivation. The seed-pots should be filled in the ordinary way with 

 light fibry loam, leaf-mould, and sand broken up finely, and a slight covering of 

 sifted soil spread over it to receive the seed. Sow rather thinly, and then cover with 

 a sprinkle of fine soil, and placj the pots in a propagating or cucumber frame, where 

 they will receive the advantage of a bottom-heat of about 70' or 75', and an atmo- 

 spheric warmth of a few degrees less. The soil must have no more water than is 

 just sufficient to keep it nicely moist, and as the young plants get well above the 

 surface, shift the pots to a more favourable position for the plants receiving a sufficient 

 supply of those two essentials to plant life— light and air. Pot off singly when they 

 are strong enough to undergo that operation, and keep close for a few days to enable 

 them to make fresh roots quickly and get established. After this remove to the 

 greenhouse and shift into larger pots as needful, or plant in a warm dry sunny 

 position. Plants from seed sown in March will flower in July and August, according 

 to the way in which they are grown. They should be pulled up by the roots just 

 as they come into flower, and be suspended in a warm place until dry. With the 

 •convenience of a dry room they can be kept for several years, and when the roots 

 are placed in a vessel of water will gradually unfold, and the buds and flowers swell 

 and expand as though they had but recently been taken from the ground. 



Selaginella (Lgcvpodium) lepidophylla is another so-called "resurrection" plant. 

 It is a very strong grower in the way of S. Mertensii, and well worth a place in the most 

 select fernery, as well for its elegant habit as its peculiar property of becoming fresh 

 and green after being dried up and apparently dead for several months. In a letter 

 we received from Mr. Sim, of Foot's Cray, a short time since, he says in reference to 

 this plant: — " A neighbour, Mr. Pickersgill, told me he had a piece of Selaginella sent 

 him by post from a friend in Philadelphia, on whose desk it had been shrivelling for 

 four months previous to its despatch. After the orthodox immersion it grew in Mr. 

 Pickersgill's stove fernery until some mishap caused its death : a good many mosses 

 possess the same latent vitality." This Selaginella will thrive under the same 

 •conditions as the other stove species, and therefore no special directions are needed. 

 When the plants come to hand they require soaking in tepid water until they return 

 to their usual green state, and then ate repotted and treated in the same way as the 

 -others. 



The confounding of these two plants is a pardonable blunder of those who never 

 made acquaintance with a single scrap of vegetation technically, and to whom the 

 word Allium conveys no idea at all of an onion or a leek ; but, strange to say, men 

 whose whole business in life consists in noting distinctions amongst plants and in 



