\U FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



and it is commonly believed to this hour that " black- 

 lead," or graphite, is identical with the metal lead, although 

 they differ as much as chalk and cheese. 



The Cape leadwort is a half-hardy climbing shrub, with 

 scaly leaves, and diffuse panicles of phlox-like flowers of a 

 soft azure-blue colour. It may be planted out during the 

 summer, and will grow and flower freely ; but to be fully 

 appreciated it should be grown in the greenhouse, and have 

 careful training to a wall, pillar, or trellis, when it will 

 soon declare itself one of the most elegant plants of its 

 class in cultivation. As for the cultivation, it is of the 

 simplest possible kind, for the plant will grow in any 

 ordinary compost in which there is a fair proportion of 

 peat or leaf-soil, with sharp, gritty sand. To multiply 

 the stock is an easy matter, for cuttings of any age will 

 strike at any time with the aid of a little heat, although 

 it is better to take cuttings of young shoots in the later 

 part of the summer, and strike them under a bell-glass. 



There are about a dozen species of plumbago known in 

 gardens. The genus is related to statice, armeria, and 

 acantholimon, constituting a group called the Plum- 

 baginacece, all of them herbs or undershrubs, and most of 

 them having a liking for the sea-shore, as, for example, 

 Armeria vulgaris, the common thrift, which you may find 

 in plenty on the rocky coasts of those northern counties 

 that look out on the stormy North Sea. 



The best-known plumbagos are P. capensis (here 

 figured), and the two hardy species P. Europaa, native of 

 Southern Europe, and Lady Larpent's (P- Larpentce), 

 native of China. The last-named is sometimes described 

 as Valoradia plumbaginoides, on the authority of Hooker, 

 who removes it from the genus plumbago because of some 



