HARDENBERGIA. 



152 



HARES AND RABBITS. 



Siberian hardy shrub, which will 

 grow in any soil or situation. When 

 graftedstandard high on a Laburnum, 

 it forms a very handsome drooping 

 tree, with silvery leaves and pui-ple 

 flowers. 



Hamame^lis. — Hamamelidacece. 

 — The Witch Hazel. A hardy shrub, 

 a native of North America, which 

 wDl grow freely in any soil that is 

 not too rich, though it prefers a dry 

 stony gravel. It has the peculiarity 

 of flowering during whiter, beginning I 

 to expand its rich deep yellow flowers \ 

 just as its leaves are falling ofi", and 

 dropping its flowers when its branches 

 begin to be re-clothed with leaves in 

 spring. 



HAND-BILL.--An instrument used 

 in pruning hedges. 



Hand-glasses. — Portable frames 

 or covers, formed of iron, zinc, or 

 wood, and glazed. These glasses 

 difier from bell-glasses in beinglonger, 

 and composed of numerous small 

 pieces of glass, which are fastened 

 together by narrow strips of lead. 

 Hand-glasses are geuerally square, 

 but they may be made of an octagon, 

 or any other shape that may be most 

 convenient ; and they are sometimes 

 made with a pane to open to admit 

 air, or with the upper part to take 

 off. This is verj'^ convenient ; for 

 as hand-glasses are chiefly used for 

 protecting half-hardy plants during 

 winter, which it is necessary to give 

 air to every fine day, it is found very 

 troublesome to be obliged to lift the 

 hand-glass off the plant, and to lay it 

 on one sidfe whenever this is doLe. 

 Bell-glasses, on the contrary, being 

 principally for preventing the evapo- 

 ration of moisture from the leaves of 

 cuttings, do not require any opening, 

 as the plants seldom want any air till 

 they have rooted, 



Hardenbe'bgia. — Leguminosce. 

 — Anewnamegiven by Mr. Bentham 

 to Kenedy a, vrvonophylla, and five 



other species of that genus, which 

 have small purplish flowers. 



Hardy Plants are all those that 

 will stand the open air in British 

 gardens without the slightest pro- 

 tection ; half-hardy ones are those 

 that may be planted in the open 

 ground, but require the protection 

 of a mat or hand-glass ; and tender, 

 those that must be kept during winter 

 in a hotbed or plant-house heated by 

 artificial means. Greenhouse and 

 frame-plants are those grown in pots, 

 wdiich require protection from the 

 frost during winter ; and stove- 

 plants are those grown in a hothouse 

 all the year. 



Harebell. — It is rather curious, 

 that though few poets can write a 

 sonnet without mentioning the Hare- 

 bell, and though it is sure to be intro- 

 duced in every eloquent prose desci'ip- 

 tion of country scenery, botanists 

 cannot exactly decide what plant is 

 meant by the name — some supposing 

 it to be the beautiful little blue Cam- 

 panula rotundifolia, and others, the 

 wild Hyacinth, Scilla non-scripta. 

 The fact is, that both plants are now 

 known by the name in different parts 

 of Britain ; but as the original word 

 is said to have been "air-bell," it is 

 most probable that it was the Campa- 

 nula that was first so designated, and 

 that is alluded to by the poets ; as 

 the tender blue of its flowers is so 

 near the colour of the skies, as not 

 to require any great exertion of 

 poetic fancy to call it a bell of air, 

 and as its slender stem has sufl&cient 

 elasticity to rise again when lightly 

 trodden on. 



Hares and Rabbits do a great 

 deal of mischief in flower gardens, as 

 they are very fond of devouring many 

 flowering plants — particularly Pinks 

 and Carnations. They are also very 

 fond of young plants of Laburnum in 

 the shrubberies, and of Parsley in the 

 kitchen-garden. The usual way of 



