370 Notes a7id Gleanings. 



Buist and others is a wholly different plant, and comparatively insignificant. The 

 real Attraction has enormous trusses of a clear bright scarlet, and is a perfect 

 mass of bloom continually. I have frequently found over a hundred buds and 

 flowers on a single truss, opened in a large, round, full ball of bloom. It endures 

 the hottest sun, and has no failure in it. The foliage is not equal in delicacy to 

 that of the margined varieties ; and, if it were, the plant would be good for nothing 

 for bedding.* 



The phlox is the great commoner. The best varieties are as tough and de- 

 terminate as the old and poorer. By moving them in spring, you get early bloom 

 from the old plants, and late bloom from the shoots sent up by the bits of roots 

 left in the previous beds. I would particularly recommend this plan to those 

 who wish to protract the bloom of their phloxes : Simply transfer the bulk of 

 the plant to another place, and let the roots send up a few shoots from the old 

 bed for later bloom. Our gardeners need particularly to sift their catalogues, 

 and send out a better assorted list of this flower. The true soil to induce per- 

 fection, and clearness of color, is heavy loam ; not sandy nor highly manured 

 nor too compact soil, but a dark, heavy loam. The phlox is modified very 

 largely by the ground it stands in. 



The hollyhock is getting to be beyond praise. The zinnia, tliough coarse, is 

 indispensable for brilliant and long-continued bloom. Give it the fatness of the 

 land, and plenty of room. The Japan Lily {Li/iuin lancifoliJivi) is the most 

 artistic touch of Nature ; and yet it is hardy, and easily multiplied. Give it a 

 light, rich soil, and a high, dry bed. Mulch it from the sun in summer, and from 

 the frost in winter. The lovely aster, always so charming, repays the best of 

 culture, and cannot be too highly manured. The stock should be well mulched 

 if you wish to see it in perfection. The tritoma fills the latest days of autumn. 

 Dignified, royal, brilliant, and easily preserved, it will doubtless soon become 

 popular. 



Last of all, but among the, first to bloom, one of the sweetest pets of the 

 garden, let every one place the Sweet-William. Art has hardly improved any 

 other flower as it has improved this. Raise hundreds of plants, and then pass 

 from one to another in admiration, and tell me if you ever get tired of their 

 charming variety and exquisite delicacy. The double varieties are so pure and 

 so brilliant as to be quite essential to a complete collection. No two plants will 

 ever give you exactly similar blooms, but in some way will multiply your pleas- 

 ure. I shall never cease to be grateful to Mr. Bliss for introducing to me the 

 improved varieties of this flower. Enthusiast. 



The Whortleberry Tomato. — The communication of Mr. Fearing Burr, 

 in the Journal for April, on this plant, has convinced us of the trite old proverb, 

 "There is nothing new under the sun." When we saw tlie announcement of the 

 "whortleberry tomato" in the catalogue of several seed-growers, we really 

 thought it was some variety of the old esculent. Mr. Burr says it is only the 

 Solanutn ni^^rmn. If this be so, we must, in the name of humanity, protest 



* Some of the " marginal varieties " are very fine for bedding. — Eds. 



