JEcUtor'ial JVoles. 187 



I will describe the method I saw practiced for several years by a lady friend. 

 The roots were procured in the lower part of New Jersey. They were kept damp 

 during the ensuing winter in flower pots. A half barrel was obtained in the spring 

 and the hoops well secured. It was left in " the rough " except one year, when it 

 was much improved by a coat of green paint. The tub was set on bricks in the 

 garden, and one-third filled with a mixture of garden earth, sand, and well rotted 

 manure. The roots were set in this and covered. Water was added gently, and a 

 little at a time every day or two, (so as not to disturb the earth), till the tub was 

 filled. The handsome round leaves four or five'inches in diameter, soon appeared, and 

 filled the tub. Water was put in to supply that lost by evaporation, and during the 

 summer several blossoms delighted us with their beauty. When cold weather 

 approached, the water was allowed to dry ofi", and when nearly gone, the tub with 

 the roots and earth still in it, was placed in the cellar, and watered at long intervals 

 during the winter. 



In the spring the roots were separated, and about half of the increase put back 

 into the tub in a fresh mixture of earth. As they were brought out earlier (about 

 the first of April), the blossoms were more numerous. These pure white flowers 

 were as perfect as the Camellia, and delightfully fragrant. They close at night, and 

 reopen in the morning. Those blooming in the tub were about two inches in 

 diameter ; but those of the ponds are larger. Near Moorestown, New Jersey, there 

 is a very large kind, difi"ering somewhat from these, and said to be the real Egyptian 

 Lotus, brought from the East by a traveler. 



A. New (Enotliera, 



A charming novelty has been introduced in Ireland, which in the opinion of the 

 Irish Farmer''s Gazette, has strong claims to be regarded as A 1, among the charms 

 of hardy flowering plants. 



We allude to a new dwarf Oenothera, from Utah, which we saw in flower at 

 Glasnevin last year, and for the introduction of which, as of so many other choice 

 plants, we are indebted to Dr. Moore. Calling at the gardens one evening last 

 summer, while walking round with Dr. Moore, he asked. Had we seen the new 

 Oenothera ? Being answered in the negative, he led the way to the lock-up garden 

 or sanctum, where one is sure at all times to meet something new, very rare, or of 

 much botanical interest. On this occasion, however, all else was forgotten in 

 admiration of the lovely little transatlantic gem to which Dr. Moore introduced us. 

 Looked at in the quiet stillness and shadows of a summer evening's close, with its 

 circlet of large pure white flowers, raised vertically above the foliage, on long, 

 slender tubes, and expanding their broad fair bosom to the cooling moonbeams, this 

 lovely plant presented an appearance altogether unique and striking. 



This plant is altogether unique amongst its congeners as regards habit and appear- 

 ance. The best of the latter, as for instance, (E. Mis-ourensis, ffl. Lamarkiana, 

 etc., though showy as regards flowers, are of a gawky, straggling habit, which 

 detracts much from their value. The plant to which we now direct attention is just 

 the opposite, being single-stemmed, compact, and dwarf, flowering when not more 

 than 6 inches high, and at the end of the season nearly doubling that height. But 

 to come to particulars. The stem is short, stout, some 8 or 10 inches high ; the 

 leaves runcinate, having long foot stalks, which, together with the midrib, in the 

 lower leaves, are white, in the upper red or pinkish. Commencing at the base, the 

 flowers issue in long succession from the axils of the leaves, and are elevated 

 vertically over remarkably slender tubes fully a span in length, in a way to produce 

 a beautiful efi"ect. The flowers, as compared with the plant, are of great size, pure 

 white, the limb of the corolla consisting of four very large pbcordate petals, at the 

 base of which the anthers are placed, round the mouth of the tube, which here ex- 

 pands considerably, and is of a greenish yellow color. The stigma is cruciform and 

 considerably exserted. The above description, we are quite aware, is very imperfect, 



