HERBACEOUS PLOTTERS. 



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is the Yellow Everlasting, of which such enormous quan- 

 tities are sold, in the shape of garlands and crowns, out- 

 side the cemeteries of France, to hang about the graves 

 of relations and friends. This Everlasting is a perennial, 

 low, cottony plant, thriving best in a warm, light, dry- 

 soil. Heliclirysum bracteatum, the annual or large- 

 flowered Everlasting, produces yellow flowers, and only 

 requires to be sown in spring ; there is a white variety. 

 H. rnacranthum, from Australia, with white flowers 

 tinged with various shades of pink, which have varied 

 considerably since its introduction to this country, must 

 be grown in heath-mould, and treated as a tender annual. 

 Helipterum eximium, speciosissimum, and humile, are Cape 

 Everlastings; require pot and greenhouse culture, in 

 heath-mould. Xeranthemum annuum, Purple Everlasting, 

 is an annual, rising half a yard high, with cottony stems 

 and leaves. Must be raised on a hotbed ; and is grown 

 best in pots in rich sandy soil, although it will flower 

 well in a warm dry border, in fine summers. The coarse 

 white Everlasting of old farm-house gardens is little 

 better than a troublesome weed. Dried Everlastings 

 are made to assume various hues by dyeing ; the taste is 

 questionable. In drying the flowers for winter bou- 

 quets, cut them before they are fully expanded, and keep 

 them suspended heels upwards till they are perfectly stiff. 



Foxglove — Digitalis purpurea. — A native plant, which 

 adorns the rocky slopes of Scotland and Wales with its 

 bold and taper spikes of crimson flowers, delicately 

 spotted within. There is a white variety, which, together 

 with the original, well deserves a place in the garden. 

 Biennial, though, in point of fact, the stool will often 

 prolong its existence by dividing into offsets. Sow the 

 seeds as soon as ripe, and prick out where to remain 

 when large enough. The same culture is applicable to 

 all the species, such as D. grandiflora, from Switzerland, 

 with large yellow purple-spotted flowers ; D. olscura, 

 from Spain, with small rusty flowers and shrubby stems, 

 tender in winter ; and D. ferruginea, a hardy perennial, 

 with flowers yellow outside and white within. The Eox- 



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