98 



lakes. There is an American species 

 of the same habits, and both have 

 blue flowers. 



Dorya'nthes. — Aviaryllidaccce. 

 ■ — I). excelsa,the only species known, 

 is a splendid Australian plant, sending 

 up a flower-stalk twenty or thirty 

 feet high, crowned with a head of 

 bright scarlet flowers. The plant is 

 herbaceous, and it requires a peat soil 

 and greenhouse heat. It dies as soon 

 as it has produced its flowers. 



Dory'cnidm. — Leguminosa. — A 

 genus of little hardy plants, separated 

 by Tourneforte from the Lotus, or 

 Bird's-foot Trefoil, and growingfreely 

 in any common soil. They are most 

 suitable for rock -work. 



Double Dwarf Almond. — See 

 Ce'rastjs. 



Double Flowers are particularly 

 desirable to cultivate in gardens, not 

 only from their beauty, but from the 

 comparative certainty that exists of 

 their producing their flowers every 

 year, the plant not being weakened 

 by ripening seed ; as the stamens and 

 pistil are generally all turned into 

 petals. This is peculiarly the case 

 with the double-flowered trees and 

 shrubs ; the double -flowered Peach, 

 the double-flowered Cherry, and the 

 double-flowered Hawthorn never fail- 

 ing to produce abundance of blossoms 

 every year so long as the tree con- 

 tinues in health ; while the single- 

 flowered kinds generally fail in pro- 

 ducing an abundant crop of blossoms 

 every second or third year. The ob- 

 servation, however, does not apply so 

 forcibly to semi-double flowers, as 

 from only a part of their styles and 

 stamens being turned into petals, they 

 generally ripen abundance of seeds. 



Dove Flower. — Beautiful orchi- 

 daceous plants, the flowers of which 

 resemble a dove sitting in her nest. 

 — See Perist'eria. 



Dra'ba. — (7)'wc(/er(ie.— Whitlow- 

 grass. — Very low plants, admirably 



adapted for rock-work, as they are 

 generally found in a Avild state in 

 the fissures and crevices of rocks 

 and mountains. They have white or 

 yellow flowers, and should be grown 

 in sandy soil, on a bank, or in any 

 open situation exposed to the sxm. 



Drac^^na. — AsphodeldcecE. — 

 The Dragon-tree. — Eastern trees and 

 shrubs with the habit of palms. They 

 require a stove in England, and to be 

 gi'own in peat and loam. The tooth- 

 brushes called Dragons-root, are 

 made from the root of the tree 

 species cut into pieces, about four 

 inches long ; each of which is beaten 

 at one end with a wooden mallet, to 

 split it into fibres. 



Dracoce'phalum. — Lahiatce. — 

 Dragon's-head. — Several species of 

 this genus are well known as garden 

 flowers ; particularly Z>. molddvicum, 

 the Moldavian Balm, a hardy annual, 

 and D. canariense, the Balm of 

 Gilead, a greenhouse shrub, which 

 should be grown in rich mould, and is 

 propagated by cuttings. Some 

 of the perennial species, such as D. 

 canescens, D. grandiflbrum{si native 

 of Siberia),and D. austrlacum, have 

 large and splendid blue flowers ; all 

 these are quite hardy in any common 

 garden-soil, and they are all propa- 

 gated by seeds or by division of the 

 roots. 



Draining. — Draining in the open 



' garden is effected either by surface- 



I gutters, into which the water may 



j run, which does not sink into the soil ; 



i or by underground channels, formed 



i by earthenware tubes called draining- 



tiles, or by tunnels built of brick or 



stone, or by open drains partially 



filled with small pebbles, broken 



stones or bricks, or even by faggots, 



branches of trees, or other similar 



materials, which will preserve a 



porous channel through which the 



water may percolate. The draining- 



tiles or other materials should not 



