22 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



are — Calyx bilabiate, upper lip bipartite, lower one tridentate or five-lobed, 

 the three lower lobes nearly joined to the apex; yexillum oblong-oval; 

 carina oblong, straight, not always containing the genitals ; stamens 

 monadelphous. Gytisus forms the 60th sub-family of the order. The 

 characters which distinguish it from Genista are — Upper lip usually entire ; 

 vexillum ovate, large ; carina, obtuse, inclosing the genitals. Coronilla 

 forms the 135th section of the order in Don's arrangement. The charac- 

 ters are — Calyx campanulate, five-toothed, the two superior teeth approxi- 

 mate and joined together higher up than the rest; claws of petals usually 

 longer than the calyx ; carina acute ; stamens diadelphous ; legume 

 nearly terete, slender, at length separating into oblong, seeded joints. 

 One character by which Coronilla may be readily distinguished from its 

 associated genera is the production of the flowers in heads or umbels at 

 the tops of the peduncles, and from this it takes its name, from the resem- 

 blance of the flowers to a corona or crown. We shall give next month a 

 selection of species and varieties. 



MYETLES AND EXIGENIAS. 



The prettiest example of the use of the common myrtle is to be seen in 

 the Alhambra Court at the Crystal Palace. There is a marble floor, a 

 marble fountain, Moorish surroundings of colour and design, and a close- 

 clipped hedge of myrtles all round the impluvium (if that is the right 

 name), so that when the fountain splashes in the sunshine it will sprinkle 

 the myrtles, and briag out all their delicious odour to perfume the air of 

 the apartment. Just such a hedge as that might be made a feature of in 

 any private garden in any part of this tight little island, on the same plan 

 precisely as we keep up a row or bed of geraniums. I was reminded of 

 this some time since by the inquiry of a correspondent who asked about 

 the formation of a myrtle hedge, and I then remembered that though I 

 never bad a myrtle hedge, so to speak, I had had something very near 

 akin to it, namely, a row of short bushy myrtles to form the front line of 

 a mass of evergreens all planted on the ribbon system. Why such a 

 thing is desirable is because the myrtle is one of the most beautiful ever- 

 greens we possess when well grown, but a wretched thing when badly 

 treated. There is a south of Europe, if not a tropical look about it, and 

 if brushed by the outer boundary of a crinoline, as it may happen to be 

 when on the margin of a terrace walk, the leaves emit the most delightful 

 fragrance. During hot weather in autumn, the odour of the myrtle, 

 ■when the leaves are bruised, is the most reclierclie combination of the 

 flowery and the spicy of all the garden odours at our command, and it 

 alwayscalls to mind that line inCowper's lines "To his Mother's Picture" — 



" Where spices breathe and fragrant roses smile." 



Eor these and other reasons the common myrtle, Mijrtus communis, is a 

 very desirable subject to grow in quantity for neat, close marginal lines 

 of dark rich green, and the best of all evergreens for a front line of a 

 carriage drive, or approach where flowers are not used plentifully. It so 

 happens that I have a few plants left of the row of myrtles in which I 

 once delighted. They are in the form of thick stumps like broom handles, 

 a foot high, beset all over with short twiggy branches so as to form round 

 mop-headed shrubs. Those that are wanting to make the original lot 



