li THE FAEM. 



Briar, Sweet. — A well known shrub of tlie rose kind. Rows of it 

 carefiiUy planted and pruned make very good hedges, and it will grow 

 in almost any ground, though fastest in good ground. 



Boronia. — Rutacece. — Evergreen New Holland shrubs, which flower 

 during the greater part of the summer, and which are all very orna- 

 mental. B. serrulala is a most desirable species, forming a neat com- 

 pact plant for a room, or green-house, and requiring plenty of light and 

 air, but very little heat. It, and all the other species, will grow freely 

 in sandy peat, well drained, and they may be propagated by layers or 

 cuttings of the young wood in sand, under a bell-glass, taking care to 

 wipe the glass frequently, so as to keep the cuttings free from damp. 



Bell-Flower, Hare-Bell. — ^The Canterbury bell, 0. medium, is the Vir- 

 gin's violet, or Viola Mariana of the sixteenth century, whence it has 

 been falsely styled the marine violet. A large genus, not nice about 

 soil, of easy culture and propagation, and valuable as affording abund- 

 ance of blue flowers. Perhaps the most remarkable, C. pyramidalis, 

 sends up a flower-stem six feet high or more, covered with blue blos- 

 soms from top to bottom. Many of the hardy perennials are dwarf 

 plants, which produce a profusion of flowers, more conspicuous than the 

 leaves. Some of the prettiest little species for pots, or rockwork, are 

 C. cenisia, and C. unifiora, which do not exceed three inches in height, 

 and are covered during June or July with blue flowers ; C. carpathica, 

 C. rotundifolia, C. garganica, and upwards of fifty others, which do not 

 exceed six inches in height. All these are very valuable for forming 

 beds in a geometric or regularly-shaped flower-garden, from their dwarf 

 and compact habit of gi-owth, and from the great profusion of their 

 leaves and brilliant-looking flowers. C. medium, the Canterbury bell, 

 is one of the most ornamental of biennials ; and C. speculum, Venus's 

 looking-glass, is a well-known and pretty annual. 



Basella. — Chenopodiew. — B, tubcrosa, the Madeira vine, is a beauti- 

 ful climbing plant recently introduced, which, from the elegance of its 

 glossy foliage, and its numerous fragrant white flowers, has already be- 

 come quite a favorite. It grows with the greatest ease in any soil, but 

 in a rich loam, it will grow forty feet in a single season — and is there- 

 fore an admirable plant for covering an arbor or screen where immediate 

 effect is desired. The roots are tuberous, with numerous eyes or buds 

 somewhat resembling the potato, and may be kept through the winter 

 in a warm cellar in the same manner. 



Clematis. — Ranunculacece. — Half-hardy and hardy climbers ; shrubby 

 and herbaceous; with white and purple flowers. They are all most 

 desirable plants, of the easiest cultuj^e in any light rich soil ; and readily 

 propagated by cuttings of the young wood, or seeds, which are frequent- 

 ly ripened plentifully. C. florida, with white flowers ; sieholdtii or hi- 

 color, with white and purple flowers, and G. azurea or ccerulea, with 

 beautiful violet blue flowers, are among the handsomest of conservatory 

 climbers ; and under glass, they fi'equently come into blossom early in 

 March. In the open air, they do not flower till May or June. C. azurea 

 is as hardy as the common wild kinds ; but the others are sometimes 

 killed to the ground by frost. C. viticella, and its varieties, C. flam- 

 mula, C. Hendersonii, and C. cylindrica, are all quite hardy, and form 



