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THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



glove is a poisonous plant, employed in medicine to 

 diminish and deaden the action of the heart. Due 

 caution must therefore be observed in not carelessly nib- 

 bling and chewing its leaves, — a foolish habit in which 

 some people indulge whenever they happen to enter a 

 garden. 



Geum — Herb Bennet ; Benoit, in French : all which 

 means no more than Benedictus, or Blessed. — A genus 

 more remarkable from having been one of the favour- 

 ites, the whims, the caprices of the great Linnaeus, 

 than for anything else. It is hard to say what, in the 

 Geum rivale, for instance, a British meadow weed, could 

 so take the fancy of the Master. It is impossible to 

 account, logically, for attachments and sympathies. The 

 handsomest Greuin, perhaps, is G. coccineum, Scarlet 

 Bennet, a hardy perennial, with radical pennated leaves 

 having very large terminal leaflets, sending up a branch- 

 ing stem half a yard high, which produces, during the 

 summer, a succession of scarlet flowers. Requires a 

 light soil and a warm exposure. Multiply by seed and 

 root-division. There is a double variety. 



Gentian — Gentiana. — An Alpine genus of great 

 beauty, whose leading characteristic is that they are both 

 bitter and beautifully blue, though some are yellow. 

 Seen on the exposed ridges of their native mountains in 

 May and June, they look like brilliant bits of sky that 

 have dropped on the earth. G. acaulis, Dwarf or Stem- 

 less Gentian, is sometimes used as an edging. It is better 

 in a led, in heath-mould, by itself, requiring a half-shady, 

 neither wet nor dry situation. Propagate by offset- 

 shoots, and by seeds sown as soon as ripe on heath- 

 mould, and not covered. G. verna, same intense blue 

 colour and culture. G. purpurea has yellow flowers 

 speckled with purple. G. lutea, with large yellow 

 flowers, is the species whose roots furnish the bitter 

 tonic medicine, the gentian of the apothecaries. Pro- 

 pagate by seed, in sandy loam, not too exposed to the 

 sun. G. asclepiadea and saponaria, from North America, 

 have both blue flowers, and require the same treatment 



