254 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
be kept both cooler and drier during the winter, otherwise they will not 
sufficiently ripen their wood. The most suitable soil is a compost of 
fibrous peat and leaf-mould, with a plentiful addition of silver sand. 
Although abundance of light is necessary for their successful growth, 
they must be protected from the direct rays of the sun in summer, 
Propagation is effected by means of short cuttings, inserted singly in 
pots of the compost named, and plunged in bottom heat, in a close and 
shaded frame; transferred to five-inch pots when rooted, and placed in 
the stove with a high temperature and kept moist. 
CROSSWORTS 
Natural Order Rusiacem, Genus Asperula 
ASPERULA (from Latin, asper, rough). A genus of about fifty species 
of herbs or small shrubs, with four-angled stems. The leaves and 
leaf-like stipules together form a regular whorl at the joints of the 
stem. The flowers are small, honey-bearing, grouped in cymes. The 
calyx is four-toothed ; the corolla funnel-shaped or bell-shaped, the 
limb cut into four segments. Stamens four; styles two, more or less 
joined. The Species are natives of the temperate regions of the earth; 
two British. 
History, Our native Asperula odorata, the Woodruff, was 
period, for in additi 
valued it on account of th 
an annual Species with pink flowers, that got itself naturalised here 
until the early part of this century; it is still occasionally found in 
cornfields. A. galioides and A. tauwrina (South European plants) wet 
introduced in 1710 and 1739 respectively, A. tinctoria in 1764, 4: 
levigata mi7is.. A. montana, with pink flowers, came from Hungary 
in 1801, and A. longiflora from the same region twenty years later. 
The blue-flowered A. orientalis is a native of the Caucasus, whence it 
was introduced 1867. 
Principal Species, ASPERULA LONGIFLORA (long-flowered). Stems slender, 
. numerous, more or less erect, smooth, 6 inches, Leaves 
