HEEBS, TUBERS A3D BULBS. 327 



Dalea, Desmodium, Dolichos, Clianthus, Clitona, Lcspedeza, Mimosa, 

 and Phaseolus. Of each of these genera there are a few species in general 

 cultivation, either as conservatory or hardy border plants, while some 

 of ths genera, such as Astragalus and Desmodium, are mostly pestiferous 

 or uninteresting weeds. Dolichos lignosus is a showy greenhouse 

 climber from India, readily propagated by seed, or cuttings of its 

 perennial roots. Clianthus Dampieri, or Glory Pea, is a remarkable 

 ehowy plant from Australia, and thrives only in a high temperature. 

 Seeds should be sown singly in small pots, and the plants carefully 

 shifted into larger ones as they increase in growth, great care being 

 required in the operation to prevent disturbing, or allowing the soil to 

 fall away from the roots. Plants set out in the garden late in spring 

 will usually bloom the same season. The Clitorias are tropical climbing 

 plants, with large and showy flowers, and with trifoliate and pinnate 

 leaves. Propagated by seed, or from cuttings of the side'shoots taken 

 oil with a hip, and planted in close frames in the house. Lespedeza has 

 given us an excellent forage plant for the South in the Japan clover 

 (L. striata), and a large late, flowering hardy herbaceous plant, the L. 

 bicolor, but usually offered by florists under the name of Desmodium 

 pendulijlorum. The Japan clover spreads rapidly by seed, and the 

 latter is propagated by dividing the rather hard woody stems and roots. 

 Mimosa is the well-known sensitive plant, and is readily propagated by 

 seed. Phaseolus contains the annual and perennial beans ; the latter 

 may be increased by either seeds or cuttings. 



Lillacece (Lily Family). An immense order of about 180 genera and 

 fully 2,500 species. There are also in cultivation innumerable varieties 

 of nearly all of the popular species in the different genera. The space 

 at my command will only admit of a brief notice of a very few of the 

 most familiar genera cultivated for ornamental purposes. Although in 

 intrinsic value such economic plants as the Asparagus, Onion, Squill, 

 and New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), shoulJ take precedence of 

 the purely ornamental, but as luxuries are usually more highly prized 

 than the necessaries of life among civilized nations, so the ornamental 

 must take precedence here of the purely useful among the lilies. Of the 

 latter the Agapanthus, Fritillarla, Ilyacinthus, Lilium, and Tulipa, arc the 

 most extensively cultivated and highly prized. The species of all these 

 genera aro readily propagated by seed, division, offsets, bulblets which 

 some species produce in the nxils of the leaves and from scales of the 

 old or mature bulbs. With all the different genera and species having, 

 scaly bulbs, such as the L. Spcciosum, figure 4, Chapter XL, and 

 L. Canadcnsc, figure 112, may be readily utilized in their pr-opagatiop. 

 Imported bulbs, or those which have been a long timo out, of the 

 ground, or until they have become much shrivelled, may always be used 

 with advantage in this mode of propagation. If such bulbs arc planted 

 entire they are very likely to decay, but if the scales aro separated an4 

 scattered between lasers of damp moss, in large pots or well drained 

 boxes, and then placed in a green-house or warm cellar, and given 



