110 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
of the soil, to encourage the production of strong shoots from the 
base. 
H. Otaksa, a very large flowering species, of great beauty ; the 
flower heads, even of comparatively small plants, frequently exceed- 
ing twenty inches in diameter. It is of vigorous growth, has bold 
handsome foliage, and the flowers are a pleasing shade of rosy-pink. 
H. paniculata grandiflora, a very handsome form, bearing pyra- 
midal panicles twelve inches in depth and eight inches in diameter, 
crowded with white flowers. 1t blooms very freely, and is one of 
the finest dwarf flowering shrubs in cultivation. 
H., stellata prolifera is a small-growing kind, with neat foliage, 
and bearing a profusion of small trusses of double bright pink 
flowers. It is a very beautiful little plant for pot culture. oe 
JW Bi 
GARDEN DAISIES. 
BY W. COLE, GROVE VINEYARD, FELTHAM. 
“These flow’res white and red, 
Such that men callen daisiea in our town ; 
To them have I so great affection.” —OHAUCER. 
SASTLY different to the “Wee modest crimson tipped 
flow’r’’ of Burns are the double daisies of the garden, 
for they have, comparatively speaking, flowers of large 
size and exceedingly rich colour; and, in their season, 
make so brilliant a display in the parterre, that they 
have but small claims to modesty. They indeed more properly 
belong to “the flaunting flow’rs the gardens yield; and as they 
form one of the most valuable classes of spring-flowering plants we 
have for massing, the readers of the Frorat Wortp who like to 
have their gardens bright and attractive during the spring as well 
as in the summer, may with advantage consider how far these 
flowers are likely to be of service to them. 
For my own part—and there is not a single spring flower with 
which I am not well acquainted—I believe them to be unsurpassed 
in utility for the purpose here indicated. The daisies are perfectly 
hardy ; not only are they capable of withstanding the effects of the 
most severe frost likely to be experienced in this country, but they 
are hardy enough in constitution to withstand the adverse influ- 
ences of a saturated condition of the soil during the winter season. 
There are plenty of plants flowering in spring hardy enough to bear 
exposure to the severest frost without suffering, provided they are 
planted in a dry soil, but which perish outright, or are so much 
injured as to be of little service, when planted in a cold wet soil, 
whether the winter is severe or not. Then, again, the daisies can 
be multiplied to any extent by pulling the tufts to pieces, which is 
perbaps the simplest form of plant propagation known. 
Early and continuous flowering are not the least of their merits, 
