362 Some Remarks on the Genus Phlox. 



to give even a passing notice to the huge mis-shapen clumps and 

 patches which disfigure our borders. Instead of a few strong, 

 straight, well clothed stems, with rich panicles or pyramids of 

 purple or white corols, we see fifty or more weak, bare, yellow, 

 desiccated stems and heads, fading under the powerful influence 

 of the sun, or covered with the insidious mildew, so as to forbid 

 a near approach. By a rarer luck, and owing to the moisture of 

 the season, the earlier kinds escape this fate, and are therefore 

 more universally admired and cultivated. But though superb 

 patches of P. subulata, setacea and nivalis may dazzle or de- 

 hght the eye for a few weeks in early spring by their vivid or 

 snowy flowers, yet no sooner have their floral gems withdrawn 

 themselves from our notice, than neglect causes the plants to as- 

 sume a sickly and faded appearance, instead of the deep vivid 

 green which they should possess. It is my own opinion, judging 

 from the native habitat of P. setacea, on rocky and precipitous 

 hills, and in a rich, strong, loamy soil, that the rock work would 

 afford the best artificial mode of growing them to perfection. The 

 moisture which the covered and buried stones would naturally 

 give to the very small and fibrous roots, would produce a strong, 

 vigorous and constant growth to the plant. 



Another great attraction which these species possess is their 

 habit of autumnal flowering; and if advantage was taken of this 

 disposition, by supplying them with the requisite means, their 

 estimation would be greatly enhanced. 



In like manner that lovely vernal species, P. stolonifera, might 

 be made more conspicuous and manageable by its introduction 

 on the rock work, where its stolones would have ample room to 

 extend without interfering with more delicate plants, as they are 

 certainly wont to do in the border. 



The finest plants of the delicate blue P. divaricata I had the 

 pleasure of seeing in the spring of 1835, on the deep rich mea- 

 dows through which the slow and quiet Monongahela flows; and 

 any one who has ever noticed any species of this superb genus 

 in the perfection of nature, is inclined to feel a sincere pity for 

 its miserable fate when under the misnomered fostering care of 

 the common cultivator. 



P. pilosa naturally thrives in rather wet meadows, and so dif- 

 ferent is its appearance, from the specimens we see in gardens, as 

 to be hardly recognized as the same and identical plant. 



Perhaps it may not be generally known that all the early flow- 

 ering tall species may be made to send out a new and successive 

 display of flowers, by removing the tops just after flowering. 

 From the axils of the vigorous leaves, and oftentimes from the 

 roots, new and strong flower branches issue. By this simple 

 management the general unsightly appearance of the withering 

 plant is avoided, and a fine late succession of good flowers in- 



