26 MORE POT-POURRI 



deliberately, for it is often a week before the act is com- 

 plete.' I think that 'Glimpses into Plant Life' is a book 

 that everyone interested in country life or a garden 

 would very much enjoy. The illustrations are clear and 

 good, and explain the text satisfactorily. 



Nothing is more useful at this time of the year in 

 a window or a greenhouse than Vallota purpurea. It 

 is perfectly easy of cultivation, if the leaves are encour- 

 aged in their growth and thoroughly sunned and dried 

 off. The bulb should be very rarely re -potted and well 

 watered in its growing state. I am always hearing that 

 people lose their plants; this is probably from the gar- 

 dener's over -care and keeping them too warm and wet 

 through the winter. I am going to try them out of 

 doors next year, as Mr. Robinson recommends, now that 

 I have plenty of offsets, but I confess I have never seen 

 them doing well in England out of doors. They prob- 

 ably do not fear cold, as I saw many in full flower on 

 cottage window-sills in Norway. 



The west sides of rockeries are often very dull, 

 especially in autumn. I find Origanum hybridum is a 

 charming, interesting, curious little plant that flowers 

 freely in a dry place in August and September. It is 

 almost exactly the same as the old 0. dictamnus figured 

 in Vol. xix of Curtis' 'Botanical Magazine.' Curtis 

 says: ' Turner, whose Herbal was printed in 1568, writes 

 thus concerning it : "I have seen it growynge in Eng- 

 land in Master Riches gardin naturally, but it groweth 

 nowhere ellis that I know of saving only in Candy.'" 

 This is rather a nice way of telling us where the plant 

 comes from. It seems easy of cultivation, and worth 

 growing. Caryopteris macrantke is a little blue dwarf 

 shrub that I have hardly ever seen anywhere, but which 

 I grow and increase here quite easily, and find it very 

 attractive. It wants a dry situation, and flowers better 



