MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 419 



The Kardy Blue Chinese Shrubby Verbena. 



Now we may tell our friends all we know of this novelty— a 

 novelty, at least, to this country, thouojh known in England and France 

 since 1850. Tbe leaves, which are coarsely serrate and somewhat 

 downy are opposite, and from the axil of each grows a cyme of light 

 blue flowers, each cyme consisting of about 50, about a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter, with five blue stamens (tipped with a blue anther) 

 twice as long as the petals themselves. The lower petals are pro- 

 vided with a hair-like fringe. The leaves are thick, dark green, of an 

 ovate shape and, as we have said, coarsely toothed towards the apex, 

 but entire (smooth) near the stem. When pressed, as one would press 

 the leaves of a "Fish" geranium, they emit an agreeable resinously 

 aromatic odor. The main stem of the plant becomes woody. The 

 lateral stems are perfectly smooth, round and of a purplish color. 



The following note was made October 1: "Not until now does 

 this plant show its full beauty, though it has been in bloom for a 

 month. The bushes are now bushes for feathery blue, though we have 

 had frosts that killed corn, tomatoes and the like. The lowest umbels 

 bloom first, but the flowers do not fade until those of the terminal um- 

 bel bloom. The flowers of cut stems, we have found, if placed in 

 water, will last for at least two weeks." 



When our friends consider that there are few really pretty flowers 

 in bloom so late, the delicate beauty of the shrubby verbena will be 

 more fully appreciated. 



Its botanical name is Caryopteris Mastacanthus, the generic name 

 meaning a winged nut, and the specific name moustache. Some authori- 

 ties say that it is but a half-hardy herbacceous plant. 



The Breeding of Plants. 



The true method of improving the vegetable kingdom is that pur- 

 sued by nature — the slow unfolding of one form into another, the car- 

 rying forward of the whole body of cultivated forms of any species. 

 There are, probably, few varieties of plants which are habitually grown 

 from seeds which retain their original forms more than a decade. 

 Through the influence of selection and cultivation, the progeny con- 

 stantly departs from the parent type, although we fancy that we still 

 have the same variety, because we retain the same name for all the 



