444 GENERAL REVIEW. 



natives of Barbary, N. America, and the Levant, extending 

 even to Cashmere. Platanus orientalis or " Oriental Plane " 

 forms a stately, round-headed, spreading tree, and is one of the 

 finest of all shade-trees. P. occidentalis, or " Western Plane," 

 is but little inferior, and of much the same general character 

 and habit. There are cultural and selected varieties of each 

 type. They are readily propagated by layering, or by sowing 

 seeds in the autumn or spring in open-air beds. There is no 

 specific distinction between the Eastern and Western Planes, as 

 seedlings of acerifolia the variety of Platanus ocddentalis gen- 

 erally found in London gardens often exhibit all the char- 

 acters of P. orientalis. It is singular to note that the variety 

 known as pyramidalis is readily propagated from cuttings ; 

 while, on the other hand, acerifolia cannot easily be propagated 

 in this manner, but is best raised from seed. The ease with 

 which pyramidalis is multiplied by cuttings is said (see ' Mon- 

 atsschrift,' December 1875) to have led to its having become 

 widely diffused through France. 



THE PLUMBAGO OR LEADWORT FAMILY (Plumbaginacece). 



A group of very variable plants, many of which inhabit mari- 

 time marshes in the basin of the Mediterranean, others being 

 distributed widely in both hemispheres. The best - known 

 examples of this order in our gardens are the Armeria (Thrifts), 

 Statice, and Plumbago P. capense, P. rosea, and P. Larpentce 

 being well-known greenhouse plants. The Thrifts are readily 

 increased by careful division or by seeds, and stem-cuttings of 

 Plumbago root freely in a gentle bottom-heat under a bell- 

 glass or close shade. 



Statice (Sea -lavender), a genus of hardy or greenhouse 

 flowering-plants, of which the common " Thrift " is an example. 

 S. Halfordii is a well - known example of the greenhouse 

 varieties. All the species are readily propagated by herba- 

 ceous cuttings or seed, or the hardy " Thrifts " by careful divi- 

 sion of well-established clumps. I am not certain, but it seems 

 probable, that S. Halfordii, S. Frostii, and several other of the 

 tender kinds, are seedlings or hybrids of the S. puberula sec- 

 tion. S. prof usa is well known to be a hybrid production, it 

 having been raised some years ago by an old Scotch gardener 

 named Rattrey, and in Scotch gardens it retains its original 

 name of S. Rattreyana. It is the result of a cross effected 

 between S. puberula, introduced from Graciosa in 1830, and 

 S. arborea, a sub-shrubby species, introduced from Teneriffe in 



