I30 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[May, 



is as like, in both leaf and flower, to the old pink 

 Salvia of ten or fifteen or more years ago as two 

 peas. The flowers drop so quickly that there is 

 never enough open at a time to make the plant at 

 all ornamental. But the red spider thought it the 

 most charming plant that ever grew, and came in 

 regiments from all the region round about, and 

 pre-empted homesteads, and increased and multi- 

 plied to an extent that was fairly alarming. Show- 

 ering and washing made no perceptible difference, 

 and so one day Salvia Bethelli and I took a walk 

 in a lonely place under the trees, and S. B. never 

 came back ! Possibly I didn't have the "true" sort. 



Mr. H. B. Ellwanger, in his very useful book, 

 " The Rose," devotes a chapter to " too much alike 

 roses." 1 think this will apply to many other plants 

 beside roses, and noticeably to geraniums. I 

 bought last spring three pink sorts, each claiming 

 to be very "distinct," and, so far as the flowers 

 were concerned, there was not the faintest percepti- 

 ble difference, and they were also just like an old 

 sort I already had, save a slight difference in the 

 zoning of the leaf. 



I grew and flowered very successfully Clianthus 

 Dampierii in the open ground last summer. The 

 seeds were sown in March, in small pots, in soil 

 two-thirds of which was clean sand. They were 

 kept in an ordinary living room till May, when the 

 pots were broken and they were set in the open 

 ground in a dry, sunny place. They grew finely 

 through the rainy weather which prevailed in June. 

 Early in July the drought set in, and was more se- 

 vere than anything experienced in New England 

 for many years. Ah, thought I, what a splendid 

 season for the Clianthus to flourish ! And so, while 

 watering other plants, I was mindful of the direc- 

 tions, "never water," and looked to see it run wild 

 with delight and luxuriance. But it did nothing of 

 the sort ; it just stood still. It had by the 20th of 

 July a number of clusters of flowers, and buds at 

 the axil of every branch, and nearly every leaf. 

 Soon the buds began to turn yellow and blast, and 

 one hot evening 1 found the whole plant limp and 

 wilted. I threw "directions" to the wind, and 

 from that time on watered it copiously every night, 

 and the way it branched and ran rampant over 

 everything was altogether astonishing, for a plant 

 that had the reputation of " never drinking." After 

 the September rains it grew even more luxuriantly, 

 and when finally killed by the frost the last of Oc- 

 tober, had still many buds on it. The glass went 

 down to 20° Fahrenheit several times before it 

 succumbed. It is much hardier than 1 had sup- 

 posed. 



I am much pleased with Canna President Faivre 

 for room decoration as a winter window plant. 

 The foliage is of very fine form, measuring five 

 inches in breadth to fifteen in length, and is a rich 

 shade of bronzy red-purple. It is fully as effective 

 as the best Dracaenas, and is much more easily 

 and quickly grown. 



I have reserved the rankest bit of heresy of all, 

 for the closing paragraph in these jottings. I 

 really shouldn't dare write another, for I am aware 

 that I am in a fearful minority, but I am going to 

 ask, nevertheless, in all meekness and humility, 

 that the various writers and catalogue makers put 

 a foot-note at the bottom of their glowing descrip- 

 tions of Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, which 

 shall read something in this wise : 



"The flowers of this magnificent, unequaled and 

 altogether unapproachable shrub soon fade to a 

 dingy, dirty pink, in which condition it is, without 

 exception, the most disreputable looking plant in 

 cultivation." 



There! it is said. Now let the axe fall. 



STAPHYLEA BUMALDA. 

 BY JOHN F. CLARK, PHILADELPHIA. 



This handsome shrub belongs to the natural 

 order Sapindaceze. It is a native of Japan. Al- 

 though it was introduced several years ago, it is 

 yet seldom met with ; but there is no collection 

 complete without it. A few years ago the writer 

 saw a noble specimen of it, fifteen to eighteen feet 

 high, in full bloom, with hundreds of flowers on it. 

 The blooms are a creamy white and deliciously 

 fragrant. The flowers are racemose, terminal, 

 fruit large, three-celled, inflated like a bladder, but 

 rarely perfecting more than two or three seeds. It 

 is perfectly hardy in this latitude. It may be in- 

 creased by layers, and I have no doubt would do 

 well grafted on the American variety, S. trifolia. 



THE TRUE EGYPTIAN LOTUS HARDY. 



BY E." D. STURTEVANT, BORDENTOWN, N. J. 



Following Mr. Pollock's communication in the 

 December number of the Monthly, you state 

 that Mr. Cope flowered the real Egyptian lotus, 

 Nelumbium speciosum, in the open air, by first 

 starting the plant under glass. I have cultivated 

 this plant for the last four or five years, and have 

 proved beyond a doubt that it is perfectly hardy in 

 this climate. 



For three winters it has stood the test without 

 the slightest injury underneath ice six inches thick. 



