478 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



niensse and Aspidium coriaceuin or Leather 

 fern, •will also keep in good condition much 

 longer than many other varieties of ferns in 

 the house. 



There are some other plants that might 

 be mentioned as being particularly adapted 

 to endure for a length of time the baneful 

 effects of coal or illuminating coal gas. 

 Those I have mentioned, however, are 



among the most enduring of our window 

 and greenhouse plants. 



In conclusion I would strongly advise 

 those who live in dwelling houses where the 

 fumes of gas is quickly fatal to plant life, to 

 at once remedy the evil ; for where plant life 

 cannot exist in a fairly good condition for a 

 reasonable length of time human life is cer- 

 tainly more or less endangered. 



SOME CANADIAN WAYSIDE FLOWERS 



CHARLES H. K. BAILLIE, WINONA, ONT. 



WITH the advent of a new by-law in 

 this part of Ontario, urging the 

 destruction of wayside weeds, one is tempted 

 to suggest that there are many so-called 

 wild flowers which are worthy of cultiva- 

 tion. There are many indeed classed as 

 weeds which would never have had such an 

 appellation had they at some time kept 

 within bounds and not escaped for a wilder 

 and freer life. There is no doubt that many 

 are emigrants, the seeds of which have been 

 carried away from their native habicat, 

 either in consignments of hay or fodder, or 

 perhaps intentionally to grace some garden 

 or to be planted for their usefulness. This 

 year, with the approach of spring, I was 

 tempted to visit the mountain side west of 

 Grimsby, and the wealth of the earlier flora 

 was somewhat surprising to one fresh then 

 from the English woods. 



There I found the beautiful Dog's Tooth 

 violet, the Yellow Erythronum, a change 

 from the much cultivated mauve variety. 

 There were the Hepaticas, and a variety of 

 violets in three or four different colors, 

 which covered the ground in all directions. 

 All these, and many others of the spring 

 flowers, have their own peculiar and some- 

 times very unsuited names amongst the chil- 

 dren, but even if classed as " superior 

 weeds," they are stirely worthy of a corner 

 in the " Garden " at a time when color is so 

 welcome after the one continual glare of 



winter's shroud of white. With the 

 summer, and its crowd of garden bloom, 

 we are apt perhaps not to notice so 

 closely these wayside flowers, but I have 

 met many which have graced the old Eng- 

 lish flower borders, and I felt pleased to 

 make their acquaintance again so far away 

 from the garden where I first knew them. 

 I have found growing wild, Lilium Tigri- 

 num (the Tiger lily) drooping its handsome 

 head as if ashamed of being recognized in 

 all its wildness. 



I have met too the little Hyperi- 

 cum (St. John's Wort), with its thickly 

 covered heads of golden bloom, and by its 

 side the Evening Primrose (Oenothera), 

 small perhaps, and no doubt the wildest of 

 its specie, but I predicted for it almost as 

 striking a bearing as some of the more con- 

 cpicuous cultivated varieties, were it tended 

 and put under cultivation. Of the com- 

 moner " weeds " there is an endless field, 

 quite as interesting perhaps, but too well 

 known as " weeds " to be elevated to the 

 flower border. I am thinking now of the 

 Chrysanthemums (Wild Daisies — Oxeyes 

 and Marguerites), which in some parts are 

 most progressive little pests, and seem to 

 have an insatiate longing for travel. There 

 is the wild Achillea Antirrhinum (toad 

 flax), the beautiful blue flowered chicory, 

 and so many others, whioh seldom find favor 

 in any save the children's eves. 



