etc. Flowers of o-reat beauty, five-lolxMl, funiiel-sliaped, white, i 



in spring. M. cvi.sfa-galli, introduced 



kidney-shaped leaves, 2 to 4 inches wnde. M. trifoliata has trefoils of 



oval leaflets, and flowers with pink outsides. Both species are easily 



cultivated in shallow^ water, or in a bit of boggy ground. Propagation 



by dividing the thick, creeping rootstock. 



ViLLARsiA (named in honour of Professor D. Villars, of Grenoble). 

 A genus of ten species of greenhouse perennials of semi-aquatic habit. 

 Flowers white or yellow, bell-shaped or somewhat wheel-shaped. The 

 species principally cultivated are V. imniassifolia (from Australia, 1825), 

 with broad heart-shaped leaves and yellow flowers in long panicles, 

 August; and V. reniformis (Australia, 1820), with kidney-shaped leaves 

 and fringed yellow corolla-lobes, flowering in July. V. nymphceoides, 

 a native of Britain, is more correctly Limnanthemum i^eltatum. It is 

 a miniature Water-lily, with rounded floating leaves, and bright yellow 

 flowers an inch or more across ; July and August. Its habitat is still 

 water, and it will succeed in almost any pond or lake where it is planted 

 '^' ""' well. The true Villarsias should be planted in pots 



y a mixture of peat and ^sand, and these stood in water. They 

 lised from seeds, or the old plants may be divided. 



Natural Order Polemoniace^. Genus Phlox 



Phlox (Greek, flame or blaze, from the brilliance of the flowers;. A 

 genus of about twenty-seven hardy perennial or half-hardy annual herbs, 

 with entire leaves, and showy red, violet, or white flowers, solitary or in 

 cymes, the cymes arranged in corymbs or panicles. The calyx is 

 tubular-bell-shaped with five sharp lobes, the corolla salver-shaped, with 

 a long slender tube and five wedge-shaped lobes. Stamens five, inserted 

 on the corolla-tube; ovary three-celled; style slender, ending in three 

 narrow stigmas. The species are natives of North America and Asia. 

 mstory "^^^ plants are more deservedly popular than Phloxes^ 



and their cultivation is so simple that it may be truly said 

 no garden is complete without them. And yet they are comparatively 

 recent mtroductions to our gardens, as horticultural records go, for it is 

 little more than one hundred and seventy years ago that Phlox glaberimma 

 first came (1725) toBritain. P. paniculata followed in 1732. P. maculata, 

 which with P. pav iculofa has been the fruitful parent of many of our best 



