124 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



' Botanic Garden,' and in the poem nanaed ' The Loves of 

 the Plants ' it is thus spoken of : — 



Proud Gloriosa led three chosen swains, 

 The blushing captives of her virgin chains, 

 When Time's rude hand a bark of ■wrinkles spread 

 Round her weak limbs, and silver'd o'er her head ; 

 Three other youths her riper years engage, 

 The ilatter'd victims of her wily age. 



I must acknowledge that I have watched attentively 

 a great many blooms of ' proud Gloriosa,' and have 

 admired her immensely, but I never could see the differ- 

 ence in the length of the stamens, or that first one set of 

 three and then the other set of three came to maturity. 



I consider it quite as essential for amateurs who really 

 care about their gardens to grow out-of-the-way plants in 

 the greenhouse and conservatory as in the garden. "Why 

 should only just a few easily grown and eternally repeated 

 plants, everywhere the same, be alone chosen from the 

 wonderful and beautiful and abundant supply that Nature 

 provides us with, while many rarer sorts, with a Uttle care 

 and knowledge, are quite suitable for growing under glass ? 

 A study of Veitch's or Cannell's catalogues, and looking 

 up the names in Johnson's ' Gardener's Dictionary,' makes 

 a selection quite easy, even if you cannot visit any of the 

 first-class excellent nurseries in summer, or if you do not 

 possess any of the old illustrated books. 



June 27th. — For those who Uve in the country, or those 

 who spend the early summer months in towns and have 

 their flowers sent up, no family of plants are more useful 

 than the Campanulas (all described in the ' English 

 Flower Garden'). Perhaps the one we could least do 

 without is the beautiful C. persicifolia. It takes little 

 room, is a true perennial, and divides well in the autumn. 

 In Ught soils it flowers better if treated as a biennial and 

 sown in a seed bed annually, so as to have a good supply of 



