HERBACEOUS ELOWEES. 



>7 



ters when not too severe, and in good deep soil will send 

 up noble stems from ten to twenty feet high, producing 

 an Eastern, jungle-like effect. But our summers are 

 scarcely hot and long enough for this fine reed. In the 

 south of Europe and the Levant, it is largely grown to 

 serve as vine-props, stakes, and many of the purposes 

 for which bamboo is employed. Painters also are fond 

 of placing it as the mock sceptre in the hands of the 

 Suffering Jesus. Multiply by root-division. Offsets best 

 strike root on a hotbed. Do not cut the old stems till 

 spring, just as the young buds are beginning to start. A 

 magnificent diaecious grass, Gynerium argenteum, which 

 appears to be hardy in England and Ireland, has lately 

 been introduced from South America. It is too large for 

 any but extensive gardens 5 those who desire plants, can 

 obtain them from Messrs. Henderson and other first- 

 class nurserymen. 



Flax — Linnm. — A large genus, with rather dangerous 

 cathartic powers, and pretty flowers, in shades of blue, 

 yellow, red, and violet, whose petals are extremely short- 

 lived. The most ornamental species are greenhouse 

 plants, of shrubby and sub-shrubby growth. The com- 

 mon textile Elax, of which linen is made, is frequently 

 sown in gardens as an annual. Its azure blossoms plead 

 in its favour ; and it is right to make young people fami- 

 liar with the aspect of a plant of such extreme utility. 

 See our Book on " Elax and Hemp." Z. montanum is a 

 blue-flowered perennial of the same hardiness as other 

 Alpines, and likes to be shifted after blooming. 



Forget-me-not, — The true plant is the Water Mouse- 

 Ear, Myosotis palustris, a charming weed which grows 

 wild in abundance in damp meadows, and sends forth 

 roots freely from its trailing stems. To have dwarf pot- 

 plants, strike cuttings in gentle bottom-heat in early 

 spring, selecting terminal shoots, and giving all the light 

 and air possible, with plenty of water. The Parisian 

 gardeners drive a considerable trade in this pretty 

 favourite. M. sylvatica, which grows naturally in drier 

 situations, is also cultivated for its blue flowers. Mer- 



