1871.] HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 37 



at top to keep away damp. The manure-water may be composed of 

 mixtures of cow-dung and soot, or guano and soot. The best varieties 

 may be gathered from the reports of Chrysanthemum shows ; but a 

 few good varieties are better than a great many of doubtful merit. In 

 conclusion, the grower of this plant need have no fear of his stock get- 

 ting their roots burned up if he keeps them well supplied with water. 

 Two or three years' experience will soon enable him to grow the 

 Chrysanthemum as it can and ought to be grown. And the object of 

 this paper will be gained if it causes some to give this beautiful gem 

 of winter a fair and unbiassed trial. Teetotaller. 



Ilford. 



P.S. — The Chrysanthemum, like other flowers, has insects peculiar 

 to itself. A little insect of a greenish colour and without wings comes 

 out in the greatest strength. Dustings of snuff do for them most effec- 

 tually. Another is a dark-brown insect about a quarter of an inch 

 long, which, if not looked after, eats over the growing point. Hand- 

 picking is the best method of getting rid of it. Earwigs must be 

 looked after too. T. 



I3"OTES ON HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



{Continued from j^agc^ 537 of 1870.) 



Gentianaceae. 



A VERY handsome order of plants, and mainly herbaceous, though 

 not all hardy. Gentiana is the principal genus, and the type of 

 the order. In it there are some of the most beautiful and brilliant 

 of hardy subjects, over which the true lover of plants becomes enthusi- 

 astic, and regards as his horticultural gods. The same may be said of 

 Spigelia, of which only one species is occasionally observed in cultiva- 

 tion : a lovely plant, but always difficult to keep, and requiring too 

 peculiar conditions, perhaps, ever to become popular; for without 

 peculiar treatment it refuses to yield its charms, or live for any 

 length of time. Menyanthes and Limnanthemum or Villarsia are 

 the only two other genera in the order that, besides Gentian and 

 "Wormgrass, yield hardy ornamental subjects. These are both aquatic 

 plants, and each furnishes only one species known at present to cultiva- 

 tion out of doors. They are handsome plants, adapted to ornament 

 the margins of ponds or lakes, or other still shallow waters, and both 

 are found in greater or less frequency in the natural lakes or ponds of 

 Britain and Ireland, though not so often in those that are artificial 



