JANUARY. 15 



" Helminthion " would do, by covering all our orchards with glass, but 

 by taking a lesson from M. de Jonghe, as to pruning, selection of 

 stocks, selection of scions, &c., and paying attention to the soil, that is, 

 in raising its temperature by drainage and other means, in improving 

 its texture, &c., and by selecting such sorts as are suitable for the 

 localities. In these things we hope to be assisted by the British Pomo- 

 logical Society. Had such a society been in existence in this country, 

 even from the commencement of this century, we should not now be so 

 ignorant of everything concerning such matters, and we should not 

 annually hear so many complaints about the destruction of our crops. 



(To be continued.) 



NEW PLANTS OF 1854. 



The new plants of the year just past have been numerous, and 

 include several of importance in an ornamental point of view, though 

 they are on the whole, perhaps, less striking than the introductions of 

 former years. As of yore, the Messrs. Veitch have taken the lead in 

 the work of introduction ; but the lovers of gardens and of floral 

 novelties have also to acknowledge the instrumentality in this matter 

 of various other cultivators, among whom Messrs. Standish and Noble, 

 Low, Henderson, Osborn, Rollisson, and Backhouse, and the botanical 

 establishments of Kew and Glasnevin, may be specially noted. 



Of hardy plants, the scarlet and yellow flowered Holly-like Desfon- 

 tainea spinosa is probably the most interesting ; and this, together with 

 two brilliant blue-flowered Ceanoths — C. Lobbi and C floribundus — 

 will be very valuable additions to select flowering shrubs ; the latter 

 are probably better adapted for walls than for open borders. Torreya 

 Myristica, the Californian Nutmeg, is also a striking and valuable 

 plant, having very much the aspect of Cephalotaxus Fortuni, and 

 probably hardy. Other interesting Conifers brought into notice are the 

 free-growing Thuja gigantea, a very promising evergreen ; and Abies 

 Ksempferi, a deciduous tree, like the Larch. Thuiopsis dolabrata 

 and borealis, and Pinus Royleana, Jeffreyana, and Parryana, of which 

 less seems known, are also additions to this class. Among hardy 

 perennials, the most remarkable, of which we have any knowledge, is 

 the blue Gentiana Fortuni, from Northern China, a real gem of its 

 class. Primula mollis, a gay, rosy-flowered plant, is probably better 

 adapted for frame culture than for the open borders, though no doubt 

 hardy in sheltered situations. • 



As hardy or half-hardy annuals we have added Wliitlavia grandi- 

 flora, a fine, blue-flowered plant, with the habit of Eutoca ; a dwarf, 

 small-flowered Eschscholtzia, called tenuifolia ; a deep orange variety 

 of the beautiful Leptosiphon luteus, or, as it is sometimes called, Gilia 

 lutea ; and last, though not least, the brilliant crimson annual Flax, 

 Linum grandiflorum, of which a spurious red kind is in cultivation, and 

 which is also impersonated in some collections by a large variety of the 

 common blue Flax. The genuine kind is a very brilliant plant, and 



