1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



169 



bronzy, deeply divided leaves, from the centre 

 of which hangs the whitish bell-like flowers, 

 render it one of the most elegant plants we 

 know of. It is not often that we see it "in full 

 bloom," but this Winter with us it has been ex- 

 ceptionally full of bloom. Talking of wreaths 

 reminds us of the grotesque abominations which 

 one sees now and then on the heads of ladies or 

 in the shop-windows of fashionable milliners 

 and artificial flower-makers. In a window of 

 one of the most celebrated of these establish- 

 ments at the West-end we lately saw wreaths of 

 Daffodils and of Polyanthus Narcissus, not mixed 

 in with, but bearing pinnate leaves like those of 

 Mahonia. After this we were not surprised to 

 see large yellow Calceolarias treated as climljing 

 plants; while Hops of bright gamboge and of 

 clear magenta, excited no particular astonish- 

 ment. In these days, when knowledge and 

 taste are supposed to be so much more widely 

 diffused than heretofore, it seems a pity that 

 artificial florists either do not copy Nature more 

 accurately, or ceasing to copy servilely, profit by 

 her teachings, and adapt in a suitable and be- 

 coming manner the means to the end required. 

 Pure conventionalism is far better than hideous 

 or grotesque caricatures. — Gar. Chron. 



Improving old Favorites.— In the anxiety 

 to get new flowers, some florists do not forget 

 the improvement of old ones. Mr. Cannell, of 

 London, has taken the old French Marigold, 

 Sweet William and the Polyanthus, and has 

 made real beauties out of very common things. 



Roof Gardens. — We have a pleasant recol- 

 lection of roof gardens in Louisville of some 

 years standing, and have often wondered why 

 there was not more effort by city people in that 

 direction. They are not only a source of pleas- 

 ure, but would be a source of health. 



Dr. Eichardson in a health lecture in London 

 last Summer puts this last point strongly. He 

 says: At the top of the house I would have, on 

 a firm, almost level asphalted roof, a brick and 

 glass-covered garden, equal in extent to the area 

 of the house. Into this the stair-shaft would 

 finally enter, and any emanations from the 

 lower part of the house would be eaten up 

 wholesomely by the living vegetation. Heated 

 readily from the kitchen, which should be on 

 the third floor, this garden might have at all 

 times a Summer temperature, m which children 

 could engage in luxurious and healthful play; 

 ladies would find occupation in it, in the culti- 



vation of flowers and evergreens, and in it the 

 sterner sex might spend those hours which are 

 now found so unspeakably dull, owing to the 

 monotony of one or two rooms. In this garden, 

 with the pleasant, the natural, and the beautiful, 

 health would be trained, and happiness, her de- 

 pendent sister, novirished. 



NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 



CuPHEA RiLLFiELDiANA. — This resembles in 

 general style and habit of growth C. platycen- 

 tra, with small bright glossy green leaves, and 

 a profusion of trumpet-shaped flowers an inch 

 in length, the upper half of the tube of which 

 is bright crimson, the imder half white, and the 

 end violet purple. This is one of the best 

 pot plants for house culture, being almost 

 always in bloom, and very bright and attractive, 

 but the peculiar markings of the flower in this 

 variety attract special attention. — Henderson. 



Lygodium scandens. — Japanese Climbing Fern. 

 A Climbing Fern from the East Indies. 'A most 

 graceful plant, growing from one to fifty feet, as 

 desired. Quite as easy of culture as the Smilax, 

 and will no doubt be used as extensively for 

 similar uses in decorating; although climbing, 

 when supported by strings or wires, it can be 

 used, with equal advantage, as a drooping plant, 

 for baskets or vases; as a house plant for parlor 

 culture nothing is more easy. — Henderson. 



Sarracenia Mooreana. — A hybrid plant of 

 no ordinary interest, and exhibited for the first 

 time at the International Exhibition held at 

 Florence in May, 1874, by Dr. Moore, the Direc- 

 tor of the Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, by whom 

 it was raised. 



In a paper read before the Congress held 

 during the Exhibition, Dr. Moore thus referred 

 to this hybrid : " It is supposed to be the first hy- 

 brid Sarracenia which has ever yet flowered. It 

 is the offspring of S. flava fertilized with pollen 

 of S. Drummondi. The plant is as nearly inter- 

 mediate with these two noble species of this 

 curious genus as it well can be; and no hybrid 

 which has hitherto come under my notice proves 

 more decidedly the marked influence of the 

 pollen of one plant applied to the stigma of 

 another than this does. It makes its winter 

 growth of pitchers similarly as S. Drummondi, 



