THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January, 



haps seen, as represented in a chromo in the 

 Garden. It is of the bronzy yellow class. 



Heupestes reflexa, — A New Aquarium 

 Plant. — Our country is so full of interesting 

 aquatics of which little use has been made, that 

 it is doubtful whether any new kinds will be 

 thought desirable. It may be different some 

 day, and then the following described plant 

 which we find in the Garden may be worth intro- 



ducing 



It is an interesting fact in connection 



with a large number of aquatic plants that their 

 foliage is cut or divided into numerous fine seg- 

 ments. Some noticeable examples of this in our 

 native plants are the "Water Violet, Hottonia 

 palustris, 'and the Spiked Myriophyll (Myrio- 

 phyllum spicatum), the Water Crowfoots (Ran- 

 unculi), and others. There are none, however, 

 that excel in beauty and delicately-cut foliage 

 this pretty exotic, which may be seen in the 

 "Water Lily House at Kew. The plant is wholly 

 submerged except a few inches of each shoot, 

 which is furnished with whorls of finely cut 

 pectinate or comb-like foliage, very similar to 

 that of a Neptunia or the plants just named. 

 The pleasing emerald-green of the leaves con- 

 siderably enhances the beauty of the plant, and 

 more particularly so at the time we saw it, when 

 the delicate azure-blue flowers of Nymphsea stel- 

 lata were springing up amongst its elegant 

 feathery foliage. It belongs to the Figwort 

 family, and is a native of Brazil." 



Improved Pyrethrums. — These are now as 

 numerous and quite as beautiful as improved 

 chrysanthemums, with the advantage of bloom- 

 ing through early Autumn to frost. "We note 

 among the leading colors crimson, rose, purple, 

 yellow and white, — and there are double as well 

 as single forms. It is perhaps rather hardier 

 than the ordinary chrysanthemum. 



Improved Garden Marigolds. — The com- 

 mon garden marigold. Calendula officinalis, has 

 now been improved by the German florists. One 

 called Meteor has a stripe of light yellow down 

 the centre of each deep orange strap-shaped 

 corolla, — " down the petals " as the florist, if not 

 the botanist would say. 



Salvia farinacea.— This pretty blue Salvia, 

 common in Southern Kansas, and at one time 

 known in our gardens as Salvia Pitcheri, is just 

 becoming a popular herbaceous plant in Europe. 



Two iSTEW Ornamental Grasses. — The 

 Holcus lanatus aureus is a charming gi-ass, un- 



like any other with which I am acquainted. I found 

 it on the wayside near Chihvell last spring. Its 

 leaves tinted with gold, are very handsome^ 

 The other, Alopecurus pratensis argenteus, i& 

 also distinct, the flower-stems being ivory-white 

 and the foliage beautifully striped with green 

 and .white. This is also a roadside Grass, and 

 one which was found last winter on the Burton 

 Road, near Derby. — Garden. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Trees and Yellow Fever.— Mr. Stewart,, 

 who has resided thirty years in Memphis, writes 

 to the Memphis Avalanche in favor of a large park 

 with hospital to which any person with contagious 

 disease be at once removed. He combats the 

 idea that Memphis is dirty, and contends that it 

 has always compared favorably with any city in 

 the South. He protests against the expenditure 

 of vast sums of money in sewering a small city 

 like Memphis at an expense that would only be 

 warranted in wealthy communities like St. Louis 

 or New York, when there is no more likelihood 

 that " filth" had any more to do with the fever 

 in Memphis than in many much more dirty 

 places which were wholly exempt. He favors 

 rather a sort of Boai'd of Cleanliness, which shall 

 clear up everything once a week, and the mate- 

 rial be used for fertilizing purposes on the hos- 

 pital farm, — in this way making cleanliness pay 

 its expenses, instead of costly culverts which 

 sweep the fertilizers into the Mississippi. 



It would seem as if some distinct understand- 

 ing should be had as to the cause of the yellow 

 fever, before immense sums are expended on 

 mere guess work. One of the worst places for 

 yellow fever in 1878 was Grenada, Miss. The 

 writer of this spent a little time there the year 

 before, and it seemed to him there were few 

 cleaner or more pleasant places, — and the idea 

 that " filth" had anything to do with the disease 

 there is ridiculous. Canton, also, he found a re- 

 markably healthful place in all that is usually 

 considered sanitary conditions. Cleanliness al- 

 ways aids health everywhere. No eff"ort, in rea- 

 son, is too great to secure it; but some of the 

 eff'orts of public bodies under this excuse are as 

 ridiculous as they are costly. During the yellow 

 fever scare of 1878, a city in New Jersey had 

 men continually employed mowing down the 

 weeds all around, and the stench from the rot- 

 ting material in every direction was awful, — and 

 all this in the name of the " Public Health." 



