SUBTROPICAL GARDEN. 229 



riantly in rich soil, I need not say it is a very desirable 

 subject for association with the Castor-oil plant and the 

 like, and especially suited for the many who desire plants 

 of noble habit, but who cannot preserve the tender ones 

 through the winter under glass. The flowers are very 

 ornamental. It should be raised on a hotbed, and put out 

 in May. 



Panictjm btjlbosum is a tall and strong grass, with a free 

 and beautiful inflorescence. It grows about five feet high, 

 and the flowers are very gracefully spread forth. It forms 

 an elegant plant for the flower garden in which grace and 

 variety are sought ; for dotting about here and there, near 

 the margins of shrubberies, &c. ; and indeed for the sake of 

 its flowers alone. P. virgatum is also a good bold grass. 

 Both of these may be raised from seed, and are well worthy 

 of cultivation. 



Phytolacca decandka. — The true plant of this name 

 forms a very free and vigorous mass of vegetation, and, 

 though perhaps scarcely refined enough in leaf to justify its 

 being recommended for flower garden use, no plant is more 

 worthy of a place wherever a rich herbaceous vegetation is 

 desired; whether near the rougher approaches of a hardy 

 fernery, open glades near woodland walks, or any like 

 positions. 



Polygonum cuspidatum. — This is an unusually large 

 herbaceous species of a genus which, as cultivated in our 

 botanical collections, does not appear likely to afford an 

 elegant or a graceful subject for our gardens. But it is 

 one of the best hardy things which can be recommended 

 for their embellishment. The growth is rapid, the size 

 unusual, perhaps eight or ten feet in very good soil, and the 

 bearing of the plant not at any season shabby. It is 

 covered with flowers in autumn. The same plant is often 

 called P. Sieboldi, and frequently sold by that name. 

 When planted singly, and away from other subjects, its 

 head assumes a rather peculiar and pretty arching character, 

 and therefore it is not quite fit for forming centres or using 

 in groups, so much as for planting singly on the turf, there 

 leaving it to take care of itself and come up year after year. 



