of Rural Art and Taste. 



371 



watering. Partial shade is essential to the 

 healthy growth and luxuriance which are de- 

 sirable in a hanging-basket. If exposed all 

 day to the full glare of the summer sun, no 

 amount of watering or care can preserve the 

 plants from a parched and shrivelled appear- 

 ance. Another requisite to the health and 

 full development of plants in baskets, is, that 

 they should not be overcrowded. Tliose 

 which are bought from the florist's ready made 

 are almost invariably either overgrown or over- 

 crowded. — Cultivator. 



The Japanese Primrose as a 

 Pot Plant. 



THIS new floral visitor, condemned by some 

 as an outdoor plant, is yet most highly 

 recommended by D. T. Fish, in The Garden, 

 as fit to take high rank as a pot plant. It 

 bears moderate forcing remarkably well. The 

 leaves are, if possible, greener and more deli- 

 cately serrated and prettily arched when 

 grown under glass. The flower stems rise 

 higher, and the whorls of flowers unfold with 

 more eonndence, greater freedom, and to a 

 wider measure. Grown near the glass, their 

 color suff"ers but little ; it, however, hardly 

 i-eaches to the brilliancy and depth of hue to 

 which it attains in the open air. It is, how- 

 ever, exquisitely beautiful, and any loss of 

 depth of tone in the flowers is compensated 

 for by the greater size and more delicate 

 beauty of the leaves. In size, and also in 

 beauty of leaf, it is unmatched among prim- 

 roses. It fits in nicely with most other 

 flowers, adding richness and variety to the 

 best of them. The color — that of the deepest 

 pink — is one that is rather scarce ; and the 

 habit of the plant, and its bold flower-stems, 

 give it a distinguished air, even among the 

 choicest species under glass. Single plants 

 are eft'ective, but a row on a shelf forms a 

 feature in the greenhouse or conservatory at 

 once unique and rich. It is also admirably 

 suited for vases, window sills, landings or 

 staircases. Among the choicest contrasts I 

 have seen for many a day, was a double row 

 in a long passage of the old Saxifraga pyra- 

 midalis, and the Japanese Primrose. The 



plants presented the most complete contrast to 

 each other ; and in the contrast, from the 

 distinctive simple beauty of each, there resulted 

 a most satisfactory efiect. 



This old Saxifrage is one of the most 

 eflective of pot plants. Last year it was 

 associated with blue LoheUns, depending from 

 brackets above, and drooping from the base 

 of the shelf below ; and the result was even 

 more beautiful. The two plants, while con- 

 trasting exquisitely in color, harmonized 

 well in grace and delicacy of flowers and 

 habit. The Lobelia threw out streams of 

 blue upon and from the white ; the Primula 

 japonica sent a line of the most brilliant pink 

 right through the substance and along the 

 side of the snowy and fluffy Saxifrage. 



I*/anfs f'oi- a iMhilfftm-e liock Garden 

 or a Fernery. — The following are recom- 

 mended by the Gardvn as most suitable : 

 Mesembryanthemums of different colors, Se- 

 dum Sieboldii, Lysimachia, Nummularia, and 

 some of the mossy Saxifrages. 



Spriiifi Hou^e as a I*lant Conserra- 

 tonj. — In Mr. Berckman's Fanner and Gar- 

 dener, there is a description of a spring house 

 which is used as a conservatory. Over a 

 bold spring a brick house has been erected, 

 24 feet in diameter, and arched overhead, 

 with six feet of earth on the arch. In the 

 center of the house is a pool 16 feet across 

 and 4i^ feet deep ; the capacity of the spring 

 •15 gallons a minute. The temperature of the 

 water is 02 degrees ; that of the house is 

 uniformly similar, although in extreme cold 

 weather it has fallen to 55 degrees. The 

 entrance to the house, six feet wide, is iteoer 

 shut, even during the coldest weather. Above 

 and around the inner wall of the house are 

 shelves, upon which numbers of very tender 

 plants are placed, which are never watered, 

 but remain in a most luxurious condition all 

 winter. Begonias and other succulent plants 

 of like character were in fine growth. It is 

 suggested that the fortunate possessors of fine 

 springs like this might use them to great 

 advantage in building over them conservato- 

 ries where ivater is made to do the duty of 

 fire, as in the novel instance described. 



