140 



POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. 



creeping; one section has the leaves perfoliate; others have 

 hatchet-shaped leaves, and others again have them three- 

 cornered, or warted, dotted, rounded, or without warts ; 

 in short there is an almost endless variety in the shape of 

 the leaves, and the flowers are of very various hues. Many 

 of these plants will bear the open air in the summer, if the 

 soil be dry, and they bloom very profusely when so treated, 

 but they require winter shelter in the greenhouse, or they 

 will do in a frame ; the dwarf kinds require but little water, 

 and none when in the dormant state ; they should be grown 

 in poor soil to make them flower well, and in small pots ; the 

 larger and more woody kinds will take more water when 

 flowering, and the soil may be a little richer. 



THYMELACEJE. 



Exogens, with flowers without petals generally, or sometimes 

 with many, which are scale-like. Flowers in heads or spikes, 

 terminal or axillary, or solitary. Calyx inferior, tubular, co- 

 loured, generally four-cleft. Stamens definite, inserted in the 

 tube, either four or eight. — Shrubby plants, very seldom herba- 

 ceous, with tenacious bark. Leaves entire, alternate or opposite ; 

 natives of the cooler parts of India and South America, and 

 occasionally of Europe, abundant at the Cape and New Holland. 



