254 HYDRANGEA, OR CHINESE GUELDER ROSE. 
E. Hallicacuba: tube one inch, a deep green ; very singular. 
E. sulphurea: tube one inch, hairy, a deep sulphur colour ; very 
pretty. 
HYDRANGEA, OR CHINESE GUELDER ROSE. 
Hydrangea Hortensis. 
“‘ Witness the sprightly joy, when aught unknown 
Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active pow’r 
To brisker measures.” AKENSIDE. 
Frew flowers ever excited greater interest than the Hydrangea pro- 
duced on its first introduction into Europe, nor do we remember an 
instance of any tender plants having become common in so short a 
period. ‘The extraordinary size of the cymes of the flowers which this 
plant produces, even when confined in a small pot of earth, was a 
novelty alone sufficient to recommend it to every collector of exotic 
flowers. When it first became known in Paris, it was so eagerly 
sought after, and bore so high a price, as to make the fortune of the 
florist who had procured the first plants from England. 
In this country we have followed the Hydrangea from the stove to 
the greenhouse, and from the greenhouse to the balconies of the 
wealthy and the casements of the cottagers, with a rapidity that seems 
almost incredible in a plant that produces only abortive flowers. It is 
now found to be sufficiently hardy to stand the open air during the 
winter, and consequently it is seen as an undershrub in every pleasure 
ground, and is become as common in the cottager’s court as it was 
familiar a few years back in the village windows. 
The native place of this plant is not yet ascertained, but it is in all 
probability an accidental variety of a Chinese plant, since it is com- 
monly cultivated in the gardens of China and Japan, from whence it 
was procured by the late Sir Joseph Banks, who presented it to the 
Royal Gardens at Kew, in the year 1790. 
In the garden the Hydrangea is likely to retain a favourable at- 
tention, for when planted in the foreground of taller shrubs, its pro- 
fusion of monstrous flowers, which continue in beauty for a great 
length of time, must ever make it a desirable ornament. We have 
sometimes seen it planted on lawns, and growing to an incredible size, 
producing a fine foliage intermixed with cymes of flowers of extraor- 
dinary beauty. 
The colour of these flowers is green when young, but turns to a 
beautiful rose-colour when in perfection, after which they again 
become green as they decay. 
Soon after the introduction of the Hydrangea, it was observed that 
some of the plants produced flowers of a fine blue colour, but the 
cause of this change could not be easily accounted for, since the cut- 
tings had been taken from plants with rose-coloured flowers. Some 
supposed that it was caused by oxide of iron, whilst others concluded 
that it originated from salt or saltpetre being accidentally mixed in the 
