HBEBS, TTJBEES ASD BTTLBS. 337 



Dalea, Desmodmm, DolicJios, CliantTms, Olitoria, Lespedesa, Mimosa, 

 and Fliaseolxis. Of each of these genera there are a few species in general 

 cultivation, either as conservatory or hardy border plants, while some 

 of the genera, such as Astragaliis and Desmodium, are mostly pestiferous 

 or uninteresting weeds. Boliehos lignosms is a showy greenhouse 

 climber from India, readily propagated by seed, or cuttings of its 

 perennial roots. CliantTms Dampleri, or Glory Pea, is a remarliable 

 showy plant from Australia, and thrives only in a high temperature. 

 Seeds should be sown singly in small pots, and the plants carefuUy 

 shifted into larger ones as they increase in growth, great care being 

 required in the operation to prevent disturbing, or allowing the soil to 

 fall away from the roots. Plants set out in the garden late in spring 

 will usually bloom the same season. The Oliiorias are tropical climbing 

 plants, with large and showy flowers, and vrith trifoliate and pinnate 

 leaves. Propagated by seed, ox fi-om cuttings of the side shoots taken 

 off with a hip, and planted in close frames in the house. Lespedeza has 

 given us an excellent forage plant for the South in the Japan clover 

 (L. striata), and a large late, flowering hardy herbaceous plant, the L. 

 bicolor, but usually offered by florists under the name of Desmodium 

 pendulijlorum. The Japan clover spreads rapidly by seed, and the 

 latter is propagated by dividing the rather hard woody stems and roots. 

 M-.mosa is the weU-linown sensitive plant, and is readily propagated by 

 seed. Fhasedlus contains the annual and perennial beans ; the latter 

 may be increased by either seeds or cuttings. 



LiHaee(e (LUy Family).— An immense order of about 180 genera and 

 fuUy 2,500 species. There are also in cultivation innumerable varieties 

 of neai-ly all of the popular species in the different genera. The space 

 at my command wUl only admit of a brief notice of a very few of the 

 most familiar genera cultivated for ornamental purposes. Although in 

 intiinsic value such economic plants as the Asparagus, Onion, Squill, 

 and New Zealand Flax {Fhormium tenax), should take precedence of 

 the purely ornamental, but as luxuries are usually more highly prized 

 than the necessaries of life among civilized nations, so the ornamental 

 must take precedence here of the purely useful among the lilies. Of the 

 latter the AgaparUMts, FritiUaria, JByacinlhus, Lilium, and Tidipa, are the 

 most extensively cultivated and highly piized. The species of all these 

 genera are readily propagated by seed, division, offsets, bulblets — which 

 some species produce in the axils of the leaves — and from scales of the 

 old or mature bulbs. With all the different genera and species having 

 scaly bulbs, such as the L. Speciosum, figure 4, Chapter XI., and 

 L. Canadense, figure 112, may be readily utilized in their propagation. 

 Imported bulbs, or those which have been a long time out of the 

 ground, or until they have become much shrivelled, may always be used 

 with advantage in this mode of propagation. If such bulbs are planted 

 entire they are very likely to decay, but if the scales are sepai-ated and 

 scattered between layers of damp moss, in large pots or well drained 

 boxes, and th?" placed in a green-house or warm cellar, and gives 



