iSyi.] . HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 41 



extending immersed stems, rooting freely below and branching at the 

 extremities, the branches ascending to the surface of the water, and 

 terminating in a tuft of leaves deeply heart-shaped, on long stalks, and 

 floating on the surface. The flowers are large, bright yellow, on long 

 stalks, appearing above water in June, July, and August. It may 

 easily be introduced into pieces of water, natural or artificial, by pro- 

 curing divisions and immersing them, and otherwise treating them as 

 described already for Water-Lilies ; and seed, if more handy, may be 

 treated in precisely the same way, taking care to sow them as soon 

 as ripe. 



Menyanthes trifoliata — Buckhean or Marsh Trefoil. — This is a 

 beautiful and fragrant plant, and a common native of Britain, in 

 shallow streams or pools and very wet marshy ground or bogs. The 

 plant forms strong creeping rooting stems in deeper water, often 

 floating. The leaves are trifoliate on long stout stalks, the leaflets 

 large, oval or oblong. The flowers are borne on stout stalks varying 

 in length with the depth of the water from 6 inches to 1 foot or more; 

 they are arranged in handsome racemes, and the corolla is deeply cleft 

 into five lobes and beautifully fringed ; on the inside it is white suf- 

 fused with pink outside. It will be found easy to establish wherever 

 the necessary conditions of its existence — shallow water or bog — are 

 available, by introducing pieces of the stems, and securing them till by 

 the emission of roots they have secured themselves. 



Spigelia marilandica — Perennial Wormgrass. — This is a lovely 

 plant, very rare in cultivation, and difficult to keep unless the circum- 

 stances are most favourable. It is a native of moist v/arm woods in 

 N". America, ranging over a considerable extent of the country, and 

 luxuriates in the rich deep vegetable mould formed by the decomposed 

 annual clothing of many generations of trees. The nearest approach 

 to this that we can make in cultivation is a mixture of peat and loam 

 with abundance of sand. Considerable depth of soil is required, and 

 it should be well drained, but well supplied with water during the 

 hot months of summer. The plant likes a warm position and also a 

 little shade, but if so placed on rockwork as to enjoy a screen for an 

 hour or two during the hottest part of the day, it will be quite suffi- 

 cient. Shelter also is required from cutting winds, and the means 

 adopted to secure this, whether by planting in hollows protected by 

 either ledges or bushes, may be so adjusted as to afford the necessary 

 amount of shade. Propagation may be effected by carefully dividing 

 the roots, but it is one of those subjects which, when doing well, 

 should not lightly be disturbed. The plant grows about 1 foot or 18 

 inches high, with numerous erect simple stems. The leaves are very 

 broadly lance-shaped or acutely oval. The flowers are long, tubular, 



