OLD-FASHIONED GARDEN FLOWERS. 207 



its flowers offer a variety of colour, an odour of the sweetest 

 kind, full and rich, reminding us not only of spring time, but of 

 youthful rambles and holidays. 



As an "old-fashioned" flower for garden decoration it is 

 effective and useful, from the great quantity of bloom it sends 

 forth and the length of its flowering season; from its love of 

 partial shade it may be planted almost anywhere. Its neat 

 habit, too, fits it for scores of positions in which we should 

 scarcely think of introducing less modest kinds ; such nooks and 

 corners of our gardens should be made to beam with these and 

 kindred flowers, of which we never have too many. Plant them 

 amongst bulbs, whose leaves die off early, and whose flowers will 

 look all the happier for their company in spring; plant them 

 under all sorts of trees, amongst the fruit bushes, and where only 

 weeds have appeared, perhaps, for years ; dig and plant the Poly- 

 anthus, and make the wilderness like Eden. 



Flowering period, February to June. 



Polygonum Brunoni's. 



KNOTWEED; Nat. Ord. POLYGONACEJE. 



THIS is a dwarf species from India, but quite hardy. It is 

 pretty, interesting, and useful. The flowers are produced on 

 erect stems a foot high, and formed in spikes Sin. to Sin. long, 

 which are as soft as down and smell like heather. The colour is 

 a soft rose. These flowers spring from a dense mass of rich 

 foliage ; the leaves in summer and early autumn are of a pleasing 

 apple-green colour, smooth, oblong, and nearly spoon-shaped 

 from the narrowing of the lower part ; the midrib is prominent 

 and nearly white ; the leaf has rolled edges, and is somewhat 

 reflexed at the point. Let the reader closely examine the leaves 

 of this species while in their green state, holding them up to a 

 strong light, and he will then behold the beauty and finish of 

 Nature to a more than ordinary degree. This subject is one 

 having the finest and most lasting of "autumnal tints," the 

 dense bed of leaves turn to a rich brick-red, and, being per- 

 sistent, they form a winter ornament in the border or on rock- 

 work. The habit of the plant is creeping, rooting as it goes. It 

 is a rampant grower, and sure to kill any dwarf subject that 

 may be in its way. 



It may be grown in any kind of soil, and almost in any 

 position, but it loves sunshine. If its fine lambtail-shaped 

 flowers are desired, it should be grown on the flat, but, for its 

 grand red autumnal leaf tints, it should be on the upper parts 

 of rockwork. It is self -propagating, as already hinted. 



The flowers prove capital for dressing epergnes. I had not 

 seen them so used, until the other day a lady visitor fancied a 

 few spikes, and when I called at her house a day or two later 



