216 A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



ing freely over the foliage, or your plants will_dwindle 

 away and die. 



PHLOX. 



(LYCHNIDEA.) 



This is decidedly one of our best native flowering plants, 

 and is found growing in perfection in the Western States. 

 It is perennial in duration, very showy, and strikingly or- 

 namental. It is well calculated for the border of the 

 flower garden, by its flowering so freely at almost all sea- 

 sons of the year, depending on the variety. It is more 

 cultivated in Europe than in this country, where many 

 new hybrids have been added to the list by fecundation j 

 some of the dwarfs are well calculated for pot culture. 

 The general charactor of this family of plants is pretty 

 well known ; they differ but little, and the difference is 

 most conspicuous among the hybrids. The capsules are 

 three-celled ; the segments divided into five ; the corolla 

 flat, supported by a tube about one inch long ; stigma 

 trifled ; calyx five cleft ; flowers pannicled, on corymb 

 elongated on the stem, or terminate, arid gorgeous in ap- 

 pearance. In the open ground the plants require but little 

 attention or protection through the winter, and are easily 

 propagated by seed, cuttings, or division of the roots. To 

 propagate from seed, if new varieties be the object, you 

 must take the pollen from one flower with a camel's hair 



