348 Mr Philip Sewell on the Use of Spharjnum Moss 



including many of the common bedding-out plants of English 

 gardens, which from time to time are placed in these beds, 

 and removed as soon as they have finished flowering. A few 

 species, notably Imantoiyhyllum, thrive better in the stifTer 

 soil of the ordinary beds. The leaves are more yellow when 

 grown in the restricted space in the Sphagnum beds, whilst 

 the flowers in the latter case are in consequence poorer and 

 often abnormal. In one of these beds also, Linncea horealis, 

 which was introduced from Edinburgh in December, has 

 grown well ; making, as it appears to us, larger, thinner, 

 and perhaps more evidently serrated leaves than formerly. 

 It will be interesting to observe how the summer affects this 

 plant. Doubtless also many of the Ericaccce and other 

 plants of the damp upper slopes of the further mountains 

 could be grown in this way, at this altitude, which is 

 approximately that of the sea-level ; nor must any who liave 

 seen the remarkably full list of plants grown at Mortola, 

 which has been lately printed by Mr Hanbury, suppose that the 

 lists given in this paper include all those from the Mortola 

 collection which would thrive better in these exceptional 

 beds. Doubtless experiments would show scores of others ; 

 the above lists are of those only which are so grown at the 

 present time. 



Mr Hanbury informs us that through several previous 

 years he has grown a vigorous and regularly flowering plant 

 of the Edelweiss {Gnaphalium Lcontopodmm) in one of the 

 beds of Sphagnum. It appeared to him to have a more 

 drawn-out appearance in leaves and flower-stalks than is 

 common to the plant when grown in high altitudes. 



Were time at our disposal, we think that much more 

 might be learnt from these data regarding the beds of 

 Sphagnum than the mere fact that it allows a good collec- 

 tion to be very materially enriched by its use. We have 

 already hinted at certain general tendencies in such varia- 

 tions as we have instanced among plants grown in one 

 species of bed or the other, but more detailed examination 

 of leaves and roots — both of plants grown in this country in 

 Sphagnum and in ordinary beds, and also in Britain — would 

 prove highly instructive. We should, at least, gain definite 

 information regarding that which every amateur or profes- 

 sional gardener should desire to know — viz., how to recognise 



