110 OUK JUNE TLOWEKS. 



this plant we do not know whether it has resisted the late season, and should he glad to learn 

 from any of our readers who may have it. The handsome Gladiolus Colvillii is much more 

 ornamental than the G. communis, and is quite as cheap and easily grown. It is valuable on 

 account of flowering at so early a period of the summer, before the ramosns and gandavensis breeds 

 are in bloom. 



The Amaryllids are now represented by the Ismene amancaes, or Peruvian Daffodil, a beautiful 

 plant with yellow flowers, quite hardy, but best kept out of the ground in winter, damp being 

 injurious to it. Ismene calathinum, with its white blossoms, affords a pretty contrast to the 

 first species, both may be had, in a dry state, for about a shilling each. The Aktr'dmeria tricolor, 

 although not exposed in winter, but preserved in a pot in a frame, deserves mention, for its 

 exceedingly pretty white flowers tipped with yellow and purplish-brown The A. Van Houltei 

 is not quite out, and we must, therefore, leave that for a group of July flowers. 



"We have not referred to the half-hardy Irids, such as Ixias and Sparaxis, as those in bloom have 

 all received more or less protection ; they are, however, well worth this precaution, and are among 

 the most showy of all our June flowers. ' 



At the head of the list of the hardy herbaceous plants now in blossom we must place the Bielytra 

 spectabilis, now, alas ! threatened by some meddlesome Botanist with a new name — Dicentra ; this 

 beautiful plant has been so often noticed in these pages that we need only refer to our past recom- 

 mendations of it. The Campanula nobilis is very remarkable for the large size of its bluish-purple 

 flowers, marked with chocolate, but the white variety of this plant is still more striking, and deserves 

 to rank with the very best of our hardy plants. The C. latifolia is a beautiful species with 

 numerous large blue or white flowers in spikes ; and the Peach-leaved Campanula C. persicifolia, with 

 its double blue or white varieties, is a very ornamental, though common, plant just beginning to bloom. 

 An allied genus Adenophora, scarcely distinguishable from the Campanulas, gives us this month the 

 A. coronopifolia and A. verticillata. The first is a pretty dwarf blue flowered species, quite hardy, 

 and growing in any ordinary soil ; the second is much taller, and has also blue flowers. Here is 

 a patch of our favourite Dodecatheons, with their umbels of elegant rosy flowers so curiously 

 reflexed. As perfectly hardy, dwarf, and easily managed, these beautiful little plants richly 

 merit recommendation. Moisture in summer is, however, indispensable, and a partially shaded 

 situation, as well as vegetable soil, is very desirable. And the Globularia vulgaris, or 

 Blue Daisy, requires precisely the same treatment; this interesting plant is by no means so 

 common as many of less value ; it flowers for weeks together. 



Highly ornamental is the rich blue Pentstemon ovatum ; owing to the dry weather its blossoms 

 look smaller that usual, but are very numerous; it has borne, uninjured, a season which has 

 destroyed many commoner varieties. The Aquilegia jucunda now spreads its delicate violet-blue 

 sepals, exhibiting the white-lip of the cone-like petals ; there is sad confusion among several 

 species of this genus, the plant in question having been sent us as glandulosa, or alpina, by an 

 eminent firm. What can be more striking than this fountain of blue spray, the Anchusa Italira, 

 though so common as to be a perfect weed wherever it once takes root ? This plant succeeds well 

 even in very sandy soils, and appears to suffer less than many plants from dry weather. Even this 

 very ubiquitous member of the Composite tribe of plants, the Centaurea montana, is, in our opinion, 

 deserving of more praise than it commonly receives ; and the Stenactis speciosa is now covered 

 with scores of its large showy lilac blossoms. This plant is one of the earliest of its tribe, 

 and in good rich loam will flower for a long period. 



The very sandy loam of the border seems favourable to the growth of that pretty fragrant trailer 

 with pink flowers, the Crucianella stylosa, which we have never seen do well in soils of an opposite 

 character. It increases so fast as to require to be very frequently divided. Ono or two youn;r 



