308 THE GREENHOUSE. [CHAP. XI. 



the cuttings should be plunged up to the rim in 

 a hotbed, and each should be covered with a 

 bell-glass. Heaths are easily killed by frost, 

 which acts upon them by splitting, or rather 

 shivering, their stems; and they are very apt to 

 become elongated, and bare in the lower part 

 of the plant. The remedy for the last evil is, 

 tying the branches down to little sticks painted 

 green, so as to be scarcely seen, and by this 

 treatment the heaths become dense masses of 

 flowers. Mr. Barnes practises this mode to a 

 great extent at Bicton; and the consequence is, 

 that his heaths are some of the finest in the 

 kingdom. The best heaths near London are 

 those of Messrs. Rollisson of Tooting; but 

 there are also very good collections at Messrs. 

 Henderson's, Pine-apple Place, Lee's, Ham- 

 mersmith, and Chandler's, Vauxhall. 



Verbenas. — No family of plants better re- 

 wards the care of the cultivator, and none can 

 be more beautiful, than the verbenas. The old 

 scarlet Verbena Melindres, or, as it is frequently 

 called, V. chameedri folia, is the most brilliant of 

 all the kinds, though it is one of the most 

 tender. It is a prostrate plant, and, when 

 pegged down, it is well adapted for covering a 

 bed in a geometric flower-garden; or it may be 

 planted in a vase or rustic flower-basket, to 

 hang down over the sides. Verbena Tweedieana 

 is an upright-growing plant, and though the 

 flowers, which are crimson, are not half so bril- 

 liant as those of V. Melindres, the plant has 

 the great advantage of being one of the hardiest 

 of all the kinds. V. Melindres latifolia and V. 

 M. splendens are both hardier than their parent, 



