272 



EONDELETIA. 



looks well near water, and merging 

 into it, or in an open airy garden, 

 where it is surrounded by a gravel- 

 walk ; but it does not look so well 

 when rising from turf, without an 

 adjoining walk, or when large shrubs 

 grow up among the stones. Where 

 there are collections of such plants 

 as Saxifrages or other Alpines, or of 

 Cistuses, Helianthemums, or other 

 mountain shrubs, rock-work is very 

 desirable ; and in such cases it may 

 be placed on a lawn, as a feature in 

 a general collection of herbaceous 

 plants or shrubs, arranged according 

 to the Natural System ; but rock- 

 work as an ornamental object, or as 

 a nidus for a miscellaneous collection 

 of plants, should always be in an 

 open airy situation near a pond, or 

 surrounded by a walk. In short, it 

 may be laid down as a general prin- 

 ciple, that rock-work should either 

 adjoin gravel or a piece of water ; 

 and that it should seldom or never 

 adjoin trees or grass, or walls or 

 buildings. 



One of the most common faults in 

 rock -work is the indiscriminate 

 mixture together of all sorts of 

 stones, bricks, shells, fragments of 

 statuaiy or sculpture, and even 

 roots of trees ; which latter objects, 

 though very suitable as receptacles 

 for plants, should always be ar- 

 ranged in masses apart from any 

 intermixture of stones. — See RooT- 



WOKK. 



Rodrigue'zia. — Orchidacece. — 

 Orchideous Epiphytes, natives of 

 tropical South America. it, se- 

 cunda has beautiful pink flowers, 

 but the other species have generally 

 drooping racemes of greenish-yellow 

 flowers, more graceful than posi- 

 tively beautiful. All the kinds 

 should be grown in moss, and they 

 all succeed better on wood than in 

 pots. — See Orchideous Epiphytes. 



Eoe'lla. — Campanuldcece. — 



Cape plants, generally with blue 

 flowers, which have somewhat of 

 the dazzling glossy hue of Venus's 

 Looking-glass. The shrubby kinds 

 are of low growth, and rather dif- 

 ficult to propagate ; but the annual 

 species are of very easy culture, 

 and only require the usual treat- 

 ment of half-hardy annuals. — See 



AXNTALS. 



Kome'ria. — Papaveracece. — The 

 Purple Homed Poppy. — This is a 

 very beautiful flower, but, unfortu- 

 nately, its beauty is so very short- 

 lived that it is difficult to find a 

 perfect flower, as one or two of its 

 petals drop almost as soon as the 

 flower expands. It is quite hardy, 

 and only requires to have its seeds 

 sown in the open border in April. 



Rolling. — Gravel walks cannot 

 be kept in proper order without 

 frequent rolling, and this rolling is 

 most efficacious when the ground is 

 moist below, but the upper surface is 

 dry. On this account the best time 

 for rolling is a fine dry day after two 

 or three days' rain ; and when rol- 

 ling is necessary in continued dry 

 weather, the walk should be pre- 

 viously watered. Turf should also 

 be rolled occasionally, to prevent its 

 surface from becoming uneven. 



RoNDELE^TiA. — EuhiacecB. — 

 Beautiful stove plants, with white, 

 blue, or reddish flowers, natives of 

 the East and West Indies. H. odo- 

 rata, which is the most common, 

 has terminal corymbs of scarlet 

 flowers greatly resembling those of 

 Ixbra coccinea. It should be grown 

 in a moist stove, in peat, sand, and 

 loam, the pots being well drained 

 with potsherds and cinders. The 

 flowers are produced in great abun- 

 dance, and they are very fragrant 

 as well as beautiful. The species 

 with blue flowers, which was called 

 R. longiflora, requires similar treat- 

 ment. It is now called Hindsia. 



