iSyi.] RARE HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 357 



NOTES ON NEW AND RARE HARDY HERBACEOUS 

 ; P L A N T S. 



DelpMnium nudicaule — Scarlet Deli)hinlmn.— There are purple, blue, and white 

 Delphiniums, both species and varieties quite numerous in cultivation, but till 

 the present interesting and striking species was introduced last year by Mr 

 Thompson of Ipswich, we could not count scarlet in the list of colours offered 

 by the family. About fourteen years ago D. cardinale was introduced as a 

 scarlet species, and great expectations were formed of its character from the 

 name and description that accompanied it. It was red, but a bad red ; and 

 it proved, besides, a very intractable subject in cultivation, choosing rather to 

 die after the manner of biennials, than live when its abortive attempt at flower- 

 ing was over. The present plant is a very different one in every respect, and 

 I have no hesitation in saying it is one of the greatest acquisitions that have 

 been made to the list of hardy perennial flowers of late years. I cannot speak 

 positively of it as being hardy, however, though it may be assumed, from the 

 fact of its being a native of California, as well as from the way in which it 

 withstood the wintry weather of last May, that it will stand uninjured in win- 

 ter when fairly at rest in this country. Our plant was received in April from 

 Mr Thompson, and was a very healthy one in a 4-inch pot. It was planted 

 out in the first w^eek in May, and was left unprotected, but started into growth 

 at once ; and on the 16th, when flower - stems were beginning to come away 

 vigorously, it stood the test of 10° of frost without the least injury, while her- 

 baceous Pseonies and many other hardy herbaceous plants had every bit of fresh 

 growth more or less injured. It has flowered profusely, and still continues to 

 flower, with promise of many spikes to come. It is earlier and more continu- 

 ous in its habit of flowering than any Delphinium I am acquainted with. It 

 is a vigorous-growing freely-branching plant, about 2 feet in height, with me ; 

 but I observe that Mr Thompson, in speaking of it in his catalogue, remarks 

 that in this and other respects it is apt to vary from seed. The leaves are 

 mostly radical, those on the stem being mainly confined to the points where 

 the branches divide ; they are three-lobed, dark green, thick, and fleshy, and 

 have a light grey -green spot at the base of each lobe. The stems are quite 

 smooth, and without any covering, as the name implies, but have a purplish 

 tinge below, and become glaucous towards their points. The flower-spikes are 

 loose, each flower being supported on long stout peduncles. The flowers are 

 li inch [in length, the spur itself being about 1 inch long and somewhat 

 hooked at the end. They are bright scarlet, and the sepals are tipped with 

 a spot of brownish green. 



Dielytra (Dicentra) chrysantlia — Golden Dkhjira.—Th\&, in its own family, is 

 perhaps even more distinct and novel than the preceding in its family. The 

 species we have been hitherto familiar with in cultivation are characterised by 

 extreme grace of habit and soft pleasing shades of red in their flowers. This new 

 species is erect and rigid, and somewhat woody in its freely-branching stems, yet 

 withal graceful. The leaves partake of the same hard texture, but are beauti- 

 fully divided in a thrice pinnate manner into sharply linear segments, and are 

 deeply glaucous. The main stem and branches terminate in openly branched 

 panicles of clear golden-yellow flowers, borne erect, not pendulous, as in other 

 species with which we are acquainted ; and they are lasting, and freely produced. 

 It is from the same country, and was introduced b Mr Thompson of Ipswich last 

 year. Its hardiness has not yet been fairly tested. Should it prove hardy, it 



