General Notices. 557 



flowering plant, for bedding-out purposes, is so generally admitted to be a 

 desideratum, the experience of past seasons with Plumbago Larpentae has 

 not emboldened some of your correspondents to declare in its favor. For 

 who that has seen it will say that Plumbago Larpentae is not " divinely, 

 beautifully blue?" Its habit, too, for bedding-out purposes — is it not all 

 that the most fastidious could reasonably require 1 And in point of hardi- 

 ness, it is, I am confident, equal, if not superior, to most of our parterre 

 favorites. It adds much to ray grief also, that I am unable (although I 

 have given it what I conceive to be a very fair trial, and seen it tried else- 

 where,) to say more for it, as a bedding-out plant, than what is implied in 

 the significant words — 



" Alas, poor Yorick !" 



As a pot plant I have every reason to believe that it will ultimately prove 

 itself worthy of all that has yet been said in praise of it. Not that I have 

 been very successful in cultivating it myself, but having had frequent oppor- 

 tunities of seeing the original plant when first brought into the nursery of 

 Messrs. Knight and Perry, I recollect no plant with whose general appear- 

 ance I was so thoroughly fascinated, or which was so generally admired by 

 all who had then the pleasure of seeing it in this its pristine glory. What 

 treatment it had previously received I know not ; but it would seem, from 

 what I have been able to glean respecting its successful culture, that to 

 induce it to bloom profusely, it must be grown in a light sandy soil, in very 

 small pots, and kept in a rather moist heat. By this treatment I under- 

 stand that many [who?] during the present season have succeeded in bring- 

 ing it to a very satisfactory state of perfection. I make these few remarks 

 in behalf of P. Larpentae, believing that in many respects it has been 

 harshly dealt with, and in order, if possible, to stem, in some degree, the 

 strong reactionary current now running so violently against it, threatening, 

 in many instances, even its total annihilation. — ( Gard. Jour., 1849, p. 709.) 



When you have a small space to spare in your useful periodical , I would 

 like to see inserted a notice of the plant Plumbago Larpentce. Your read- 

 ers who belong to the gardening world all know that this plant is of late 

 introduction into this country, and no doubt, may have seen the character 

 of the plant placed in the list of unfacorables. In the months of August 

 and September of the present year, I have seen seven specimens of the 

 plant at horticultural shows, and none of them pleased me ; they were 

 either too much drawn, scorched to brownness in their leaves, wanting in 

 the abundance of flowers, unshapely in their habit of growth. The sum 

 is, they all had serious faults. 



Now for the redeeming qualities. I am much interested in Chinese 

 plants, so many good things have come from that country. Last spring I 

 got a small plant of Plumbago Larpenta, and found that summer was half 

 over before it showed much growth ; indeed, it has not showed rapid growth 

 except in September, when it came away with vigor. The plant has been 

 in a hothouse for five weeks past, the heat ranging day and night between 

 75° and 50° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. The plant is giving great satis- 



