1880.] TRANSACTIONS. 31 



used to think some years ago it was difficult. I start some in 

 pots for early bloom, and plunge in the border when it is warm 

 enough to trust them out of doors. Others I plant in the ground 

 after it is thoroughly warmed, and they soon start. If in the fall 

 there is danger of frosts, no plant is more easily lifted. I never 

 saw that it made the slightest difference with the bloom. It is 

 very important that we have strong northern-grown bulbs. The 

 Clematis is of great value for summer bloom. I think it thrives 

 in almost any soil and location, and is especially adapted to cov- 

 ering stumps, making screens, and covering unsightly places with 

 'masses of beautiful bloom. The foliage is almost evergreen, 

 thus making it doubly valuable, and their growth is so vigorous 

 they are getting more in favor each succeeding year. Another 

 fact ought not to be forgotten, they bloom almost constantly 

 during the season. It would be useless for me to speak of the 

 deutzias, spireas, liydrangeas, and otiier hardy, flowering shrubs, 

 as they are so sure to live when once established ; they form, 

 with pseonies, hardy phloxes, perennial delphiniums, and other 

 hardy herbaceous plants, a class to be depended on year after 

 year. Anemone Japonica, alba and rubra, are beautiful fall 

 flowering plants, entirely hardy, and very strong growing. I 

 must touch lightly on the aquilegia family, as I consider them of 

 very great value. Aquilegia chrysantha, the beautiful yellow 

 variety, cosrulea, blue and white, and a hybrid between the two, 

 which our Secretary introduced into this city three years ago — 

 blue and yellow — I believe he calls it Cerulea hybrida. 



The varieties raised from the last named are numerous, as 

 sliown in some gardens in this city, and on Elm Park. I noticed 

 an article in the Gardener's Monthly for December 1879, entitled 

 " Hybrid Columbine." " The Garden gives a colored plate of an 

 aquilegia, in which the sepals are bright blue, and the petals yel- 

 low, a hybrid between the American Aquilegia chrysantha and the 

 A. coerulea." Now this is the aquilegia that many of us have grown, 

 but the worst feature al)out it is, it scarcely ever comes true from 

 seed. There are a great many nice varieties older than these 

 that are well worth cultivating. The only difficulty in growing 

 them is the liability to damp off, and there is a worm that eats 

 into the centre of the stalk and causes it to droop without any 

 apparent cause. I am told the only way to destroy it is to cut 

 the stalk open and destroy the intruder. I have found lime water 

 would make the plant revive, by which I inferred that the worm 

 was dead. One of my especial favorites is the Pansy. How 

 beautiful the many varieties are, has been demonstrated time and 

 again in this hall. So easily grown, and requiring so little care, I 

 suppose if some of our florists were to show baskets of plants in 



