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AMPHICOME. 
113 
ANAGALLIS. | 
soft, with a large proportion of pith, 
and their branches very liable to be 
broken off by high winds: in other 
respects they are of easy culture in 
sandy soil, and they are readily 
propagated by cuttings or layers. 
Indigo is made from the pulpy part 
of the leaves of A. indigofera, an 
East Indian species. 
Ampeto'psis, Mx. — Vitacee. — 
A. hederdcea is weil known by its 
English names of Virginian Creeper, 
and Five-leaved Ivy. Its flowers 
have no beauty, but it is worth cul- 
tivating as an ornamental plant, 
from the brilliant scarlet which its 
leaves assume in autumn; and 
which look particularly well at that 
season, when intermingled with those 
of the common Ivy, from the fine 
contrast they afford. The plant is 
of very rapid growth in any com- 
mon soil, and it is propagated by 
layers or cuttings. [The Virginian 
Creeper is one of our finest indige- 
nous climbers. It grows very rap- 
idly, attaches itself firmly to wood or 
stone buildings, or to the trunks of 
old trees, and soon covers these ob- 
jects with a fine mantle of rich ver- 
dure. Nothing can be more admi- 
rably adapted than this plant for 
concealing and disguising the un- 
sightly stone fences which are so 
common, and so great a deformity 
‘nm many parts of the United States. 
—Ep.] 
Ampui'comE, Royle.—Bignonia- 
cee.—A very beautiful Nepal green- 
. house perennial, with tube-shaped 
pink flowers. It may be propagated 
by either seeds or cuttings, though 
the first are sometimes two years 
before they vegetate, and the cut- 
tings are very difficult to strike. 
The soil it is grown in should be | 
loam, mixed with peat and sand; 
and to make it flower well, very 
little water should be given to it 
from the time of the leaves dying 
down, till the young shoots appear 
in spring. 
10* 
Amy’epaLus.— Rosdcee@.—Thera 
are two species of Almonds which 
are highly ornamental, on account 
of their flowers: A. ndna, which 
does not grow above two feet high, 
and produces its pink-flowers in 
March; and A. commtnis, which 
forms a small deciduous tree, pro- 
fusely covered with flowers, in 
March and April, before it expands 
its leaves. ‘There are several va- 
rieties of both species, but the only 
one which is worth notice is the 
large-flowered Almond, A. c. ma- 
crocarpa, which has much larger 
flowers than the common kind, 
though they are much paler. The 
dwarf Almond is propagated by 
suckers, and the other species and 
varieties by grafting on the common 
Plum. What is generally known 
in gardens as the double-dwarf Al- 
mond, is now called by botanists 
Cerasus, or Prinus japonica. When- 
ever the tree Almond is planted for 
its flowers, care should be taken to 
let it have a background of ever- 
greens ; as otherwise, from the flow- 
ers being produced before the leaves, 
half their beauty will be lost from 
the cold and naked appearance of 
the tree. All the Almonds will grow 
and blossom freely in the smoke of 
London. 
Anaca'Lus.—Primuldécee.—The 
Pimpernel. — Trailing herbaceous 
plants, natives of the middle and 
‘south of Europe. The common 
wild Pimpernel, A. arvénsis, is red ; 
| but the exotic species vary to seve- 
'ral shades of purple, lilach, and blue. 
The finest species is A. Monélli, 
which requires the protection of the 
greenhouse during winter, but which 
forms a beautiful close covering for 
a flower-bed in the open garden in 
summer, producing its fine mazarine 
blue flowers from May to Septem- 
ber. It is easily propagated by cut- 
tings, which root immediately, in 
sand under a hand-glass, and it will 
| thrive in any light soil. 
—s 
