SEPTEMBER 27 



if cut back after flowering. It should be fed with a 

 little mulching and watering when it comes into bud. 

 I increase it easily from cuttings in spring. 



As time goes on, I become fonder and fonder of the 

 generally abused Polygonums. Mr. Robinson, in his 

 latest edition of 'The English Flower Garden/ speaks 

 of them also with much favour, and gives a splendid list 

 of the varieties; but even he does not lay stress enough 

 upon what entirely different plants they become if suf- 

 ficiently thinned out and the suckers pulled off each 

 spring. Otherwise they are ragged, intolerable weeds. 

 If P. sachalinense is planted even under shade or in 

 half shade, thinned out to three or four shoots, and 

 watered or hosed in dry weather, the yearly growth is 

 absolutely tropical. It turns a rich yellow colour in 

 early autumn, and forms a splendid feature in places 

 where many plants would not grow at all, such as under 

 Fir-trees or in very poor soil. P. molle I do not think 

 Mr. Robinson names, and yet it is a beautiful thing ; 

 though some years, if in an exposed place, it flowers 

 so late that it gets injured by frost. It requires divid- 

 ing every autumn, re-planting in better soil, and thin- 

 ning every spring ; it is well, if it can be watered, to 

 grow it under some tree or shrub, which protects it in 

 case of early frost. It is worth some trouble, as its 

 flowering branches, almost like feathery white lilac, are 

 very handsome, coming, as they do, so late in the year. 

 P. Leichtlini is a very dwarf kind I brought from Ger- 

 many, and will, I think, prove a useful little plant on 

 the rockery for September flowering. The light blue 

 Cape Plumbago capensis is doing very well this hot year, 

 and is covered, out of doors, with its lovely cool china- 

 blue flowers. No other colour in the garden is quite 

 like it. It looks especially well planted against the posts 

 of a verandah. We pot up the old plants in October, 



