NEW PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 343 



the fruits. The collections of phloxes and other peren- 

 nial plants, as well as of annuals, will also be remem- 

 bered. It is to the enthusiasm of those who have 

 spared neither pains nor expense in collecting every 

 beautiful plant and flower that we owe the Dielytra, 

 the Wiegelas, the Deutzias, and the Lilium auratum. 

 These plants, now so popular, were all introduced within 

 the period covered by this chapter, and, not to speak 

 of many other less conspicuous examples now found in 

 every garden, make it memorable. Among greenhouse 

 plants, perhaps the most extraordinary of all is the 

 Victoria regia ; and although, owing to the expensive 

 arrangements which it requires, it is not now cultivated, 

 such is not the case with the multitudes of variegated 

 leaved plants, the introduction of which took place at 

 about the same time with the flowering of the Victoria. 

 The taste for these, both deciduous and evergreen, in 

 the garden and the greenhouse, as also for ferns and 

 lycopods, has been continually increasing as more beau- 

 tiful varieties have been introduced. Among flowering 

 plants we cannot recapitulate all the novelties exhib- 

 ited, and can barely allude to the improvement in the 

 fuchsia, the gloxinia, and the achimenes. In the gar- 

 den we notice first of all the multiplication of beautiful 

 roses, and especially the advent of the Hybrid Perpetual 

 class, which have now superseded the June roses. Per- 

 haps the gladiolus showed more improvement than any 

 flower, excepting the rose ; but scarcely less was the 

 improvement in hardy rhododendrons and azaleas, in 

 tree and herbaceous pseonies, in the phlox, the aster, 

 the petunia, the hollyhock, and the zinnia. Nor should 

 we forget the revival of interest in the exhibition of 

 native plants. The hardiness of the Japan lilies was not 



