BRUCKENTHALIA SPICULIFOLIA. 
scriptions of the best and most generally useful species will be found 
in any good and adequate catalogue of bulbs, such as that of Van 
Tubergen. 
Bruckenthalia spiculifolia is, to all gardening intents and 
purposes, a most dainty and charming miniature of the common 
Ling. It is a plant of central Europe, rejoicing in the usual heathy 
conditions, and sheeting the mountains of Bulgaria in its mats of 
close brilliant green fur. It should make a fine subject among which 
to poke choice bulbs of medium growth. 
Brunella is now the accepted spelling for what used to be 
Prunella, our own native Self-heal, of which B. grandiflora and B. 
pyrenaica are immensely glorified versions, and yet still possess that 
readiness of B. vulgaris to sow tiny seedlings among the choicest 
treasures, out of which their long tenacious roots can only be tugged 
with the utmost difficulty and disturbance. Others are B. incisa, and 
a form Webbiana, with flowers of blue-violet, varying to a pink develop- 
ment called rosea ; with a variety alba, also, to every form or species. 
Bryanthus has now gone wholly into Menziesia, ¢.v. Wemay, 
however, keep under this name that beautiful small heath called 
B. erectus, which is traditionally a hybrid between Rhodothamnus 
and Kalmia. It is in habit a neat Bryanthus, with erect shoots well 
clothed in fine green yew-like foliage ; and then large salver-shaped 
flowers of pink in clusters at the top of the 6- or 8-inch shoots. It 
answers to any fair heathy treatment, but is not invariably prone 
to Methusaleh’s longevity. 
B. Breweri. See under Menziesia. 
Bulbinella Hookeri is a stout little asphodeloid species for the 
bog, which has long been in cultivation under the name of Chryso- 
bactron—forming tufts of lax green foliage, with spikes in summer, 
about a foot high, or more, of golden-yellow stars. But we shall have 
an infinitely finer thing when we have acquired B. Rossi: from the 
Antarctic Islands, whose slopes it gilds with its enormous masses, and 
its stalwart 4-foot spikes of dense blossom, like some more serried and 
brilliant Eremurus. The climate in the Auckland and Campbell group 
being more odious and inclement by far than ours, many of the plants 
that come from thence should certainly appreciate the change, and 
prove robust and hardy. The only delay about their introduction is 
that the islands are so far away that no one ever goes there. 
Bulbocodium vernum is a pleasant cousin to autumn Crocus 
that is not a Crocus, nor even a Colchicum, and does not bloom in 
autumn. It isin earliest spring, high on the flanks of the Alps, that 
you will see its narrow strap-rayed stars of magenta-lilac peering 
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