MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 95 



sibly it is the Hemerocallis Chinensis of some foreign plant lists (though the 

 H. disticha is likewise from China), as it has been long known in Belgium and 

 France, though I cannot find it under any of the names above mentioned in the 

 list of a well-known foreign nurseryman where I sought for it. Your corre- 

 pondent will see that the name of Liliutn mirocale attached to the plant was 

 probably only a Latinized corruption of its French name (lis) Hemerocalle, 

 written down possibly from pronunciation, by some one who did not know the 

 name. It i»a very beautiful plant, and well worth cultivation, both from its 

 flowers and its foliage. It is easily raised from seed, but the young plants do 

 not flower till the third year (as I find mentioned under the head " Hemerocalle," 

 in a useful little French work, the Manuel Complet du Jardinier, vol. ii. p. 261) ; 

 therefore the quicker mode of propagation by division of the roots, or rather by 

 the tubercles on the extremities of the roots, is usually preferred ; the roots often 

 extend to a great distance. The same work mentions that this species requires 

 peat, earth, and a slight covering in winter. It does, however, stand quite well 

 in the open air in many situations. There are four or five other species of Day 

 Lily, which are all hardy and well deserving a place in the garden ; this is the 

 only white one however. 



If the above observations, or any part of them, are in your opinion likely to 

 be of use to your correspondent, they are much at your service. Alpha. 



[We shall be glad to hear from the same source at any future convenience. — 

 Conductor.] 

 Febiuary 20th. 



REMARK. 



On the formation oh Flower Beds. — The simplest contrivances do not 

 always occur to the mind at the moment when they may be useful in saving 

 trouble : you will, therefore, perhaps excuse my bringing under your notice a 

 very rude instrument, which I have found very useful in striking out the shapes 

 of flower beds, where some of the curves are circular and require accuracy. It 

 is simply a substitute for the common spring compasses of the carpenter, which 

 any person may make for himself in five minutes, by bending a stick, about six 

 feet long, into the form of an arch, and fixing it in that shape with a piece of 

 string at any Width that may be required. It may also be useful to some of your 

 readers to be informed of a very simple mode of constructing an oval of any 

 required lenyth and breadth. If four small stakes be fixed in the ground at the 

 extremities of the longer and the shorter diameter, as at A, B, C, and D, and a 



B . 



X 



• D 



line of the length of the longer diameter or axis B D be doubled, and the centre 

 of it held sufficiently tight to prevent its slipping against the stake at A, the 

 extremity of the shorter diameter or axis, the ends of that line will cut the 

 longer diameter in the two points x and y, which are the exact spots (foci) 

 where the stakes should be driven to which the string should be fixed for drawing 

 the oval by the common method, (viz. running a stick along the ground in such 

 :i manner as to keep the line at full stretch) ; and the length of the line should 

 be tli'' lame with that above specified, viz. from B to ]). If the small stakes be 

 tied at the ends of the line B D, they will thus fall naturally into their places. 



A SusscaiBER. 



