Notes and Gleanings. 165 



Hepaticas. — I have double and single hepaticas growing side by side in 

 my garden, both in bloom at this writing. I must confess, I prefer the single : 

 they are more graceful and unaffected. The double ones are prim and regular, 

 like small dahlias ; but they bloom freely, and are very ornamental. I am aston- 

 ished that the single hepaticas are not more generally cultivated. They grow in 

 abundance in all our woods ; are called wood-violets ; and flower so early in the 

 spring, that my garden is gay with them almost before the lawn is green. They 

 are transplanted with ease, and accommodate themselves to any garden-soil and 

 exposure ; doing well in the shade, where few other plants will- bloom. They 

 increase rapidly, and form large clumps, literally covered in April with graceful, 

 wide-awake little flowers of blue, pink, and white, and a thousand intermediate 

 tints. They may be planted along the margins of beds, where they interfere 

 with nothing. They require little care, and are sure to elicit the love and admi- 

 ration of all who cultivate them, IV. 



Troy, N.Y., May i. 



New Double Crimson Hawthorn. -;- This very fine variety of the English 

 thorn is most remarkable for tiie intensity of color. In other respects, it is not 

 materially diflerent from the common double red hawthorn. We clip from "The 

 F"lorist " the following account of its origin : — 



"The history of the sport is briefly this : About seven or eight years ago, 

 some flowers of this intense hue were observed on a plant of the double pink 

 thorn ; and, on examination, it was found that a strong branch had started up from 

 near the centre of the tree, with leaves as well as flowers diftering from its par- 

 ent. The branch was encouraged, and year by year increased in size, retaining 

 the color and character originally observed. The j^arent plant is apparently 

 .about twenty-five years old, thirty feet high, and as much in diameter, measured 

 from the outermost branches at its greatest width. There is still only one stout 

 central brancli of this deep color ; the other branches, which are profusely 

 adorned with flowers, being of the original pale pink so well known to horticul- 

 turists. When looking at the tree recently, so great was the contrast between 

 the sport and the original, that we could not rid ourselves of the impression 

 that the parent variety was in this instance paler than usual ; and we asked our- 

 selves whether the coloring-matter had not been drawn from the larger surface, 

 and intensified in this particular branch by one of those secret processes which 

 the student of Nature is often called upon to behold and wonder at, without 

 being able to account for or explain. This may be fanciful ; but here is cer- 

 tainly a bcs2is natiircE worthy of the attentive consideration of our vegetable 

 physiologists." 



The plant, which has only recently been brought out in England, is well de- 

 serving of extensive cultivation. There is nothing more ornamental, or more 

 endeared to us by early memories, than the showy and rosy hawthorn of May ; 

 but the colors have always been dull. Now, we have intensity of color, which 

 must add much to the attractions of the plant. We suppose any stock of this 

 variety can hardly yet have reached this country, but have no doubt that our 

 florists, with their usual enterprise, will soon introduce it to the public. 



