334 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



many of the primroses are in flower, and the early chrysanthemums, 

 such as Berroll, are richly coloured. I now have flowers always, 

 and yet I watch your pages with eagerness to learn whatever you 

 have to teach me respecting hardy plants that I have not yet made 

 acquaintance with. Let us hear more and more about them. Could 

 vou not, for example, take the flowers of the months, say on the 

 basis of the lists in the " Garden Oracle " of 18G1, and so present to 

 us the names of all worth growing, that we may revise our garden 

 collections, and obtain good things of which by the aid of sach lists 

 w-e might find ourselves deficient ? Just observe, now, how rich we 

 are in flowers for all seasons without touching one tender subject. 

 January gives us several specie.^ of hellebore, the yellow acoiiite, and 

 the tussilago ; February presents us with snowdrops, daisies, marsh 

 marigolds, and the dandeliou, which, though a weed, is beautiful 

 when it first appears. In March there is an outbreak of spring 

 flowers — crocuses, hepaticas, alpine phloxes, arabis, large leaved 

 saxifrage, violets, primroses, and fifty more good things of less note. 

 In April all the foregoing may still be seen,' with the Star of Beth- 

 lehem, several buttercups (the double garden buttercup is a most 

 beautiful, thing), American cowslips, the small red fumitory, the 

 corydalis, and a few fine flowering trees, such as the red flowering 

 currant, the plum-leaved spirea, etc., added to make a glorious 

 garland. ' May is so rich in the bloom of fruit-trees that we scarcely 

 need anything else ; but we have the lilac and the laburnum 

 above, and below we find several saxifrages in flower, a few species of 

 symphitum, the pretty saponaria, and the oriental poppy. jS'ow 

 begins the joy of the florist in the bloom of polyanthus and auricula, 

 and the new race of double pyrethruras, are especially splendid, 

 and ought to be planted in quantities in every garden. In June we 

 have irises and pgeonies ; in July Oenotheras, portulaccas ; in August 

 phloxes ; in September perennial asters (one named A. eler/ans is in 

 bloom now, October 22, in my choicest border, and is a mo.st lovely 

 object — a slender bush covered with thousands of little white stars) ; 

 in October the Japan anemone, and that most chaste and splendid 

 white anemone which bears the name of Honorine Jobert. For 

 November you have chrysanthemums ; and the year winds up with 

 berries in place of flowers. Yet I can always find a few primroses, 

 violets, and a few of the hardy asters for the December wreath ; 

 and in the shrubbery, perhaps, there are flowers on the fragrant 

 honeysuckle (L./ragantissimcf), and the Dauric rhododendron, and 

 perhaps the garrya may be in flower, in which case I am rich indeed. 

 We want — at least I want, I am sure Others want^to see good lists, 

 and large lists, of hardy plants, for too many who would grow them 

 know not what to grow ; and if you take up the subject, we know it 

 will be dealt with in a sound, practical, useful manner. 



JSorwich. W. Fellowes. 



[We are preparing lists of all the best hardy herbaceous plants for the next 

 issue of the " Garden Oracle," a work better adapted for the purpose than the 

 Floral Woeld, as its arrangements admit of a complete presentation of the 

 subject, and the concentration of a large mass of information in a small compass. 

 — S. H.] 



