HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 331 



SOUTHERN PLANTS WORTHY OF CULTIVATION 



In passing through the gardens in America, one cann-ofc help being struck 

 with the little attention which has every where been bestowed upon our 

 native productions. In Europe, they are properly estimated, and their 

 cultivation sedulously attended to. Many plants that might be made the 

 ornaments of our flower-beds, but which are now overlooked, would be 

 highly esteemed on the other, side of the Atlantic, if they could be pro- 

 cured, or if the climate there was suited to their culture. We pay large 

 sums for foreign flowers, which frequently have little to recommend them, 

 and suffer others of the greatest beauty to "blush unseen" in our native 

 forests. 



I have undertaken in this fragment of a communication, to point out a 

 few shrubs and herbaceous plants, with which we .ought to ornament our 

 gardens, and which can be obtained without much difficulty from South 

 Carolina and Georgia. 



• If the same care be bestowed upon them, as has been lavished upon plants 

 originally not possessed of half their beauty, there is no reason to doubt but 

 that from amongst ourselves we might produce the most brilliant results, and 

 in many instances eclipse all that has been effected in the improving plants 

 from abroad. 



The name3 of the plants which I beg leave to recommend are taken from 

 Elliott's Botany of South Carolina and Georgia. Many of these have, 

 since the publication of that work, been changed and perhaps in a few years 

 will again be altered, but that is of no importance; they are as. well known 

 by their old name3 as by their new. 



I shall first enumerate the shrubs which I think worthy of cultivation, and 

 afterwards the herbaceous plants, interspersing here and there a few. re- 

 marks. 



Pinckneya pubens, a small tree about ten feet high, the foliage dark green, 

 and the flowers, with their large bracts, bright red. 



Cyrilla raeemosa, fragrant white flowers. 



Gehernium nitidum, the most beautiful of flowering shrubs, whether we 

 consider the permanency of its leaves, the golden color- and copiousness of 

 its flowers, or their most delightful perfume. It may not be able to with- 

 stand the severity of the winters here without some protection, but in a 

 greenhouse would be invaluable. It grows naturally as far north as Norfolk, 

 in Virginia. 



Kalmia hirsuta, very dwarf species of this pretty genus, seldom rising up- 

 right more than six or eight inches. 



Elliott (X racemosa, Andromeda nitida, and 4, mariana, all very orna- 

 mental and the A. nitida, an evergreen. 



