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FLORA AND SYLVA. 



ship, is perfectly clear that the people 

 who made and used these things were 

 proportionally civilised; and must not 

 we selectionists, who find these obvious 

 evidences of prehistoric skill, with prac- 

 tical results incomparably greater and 

 more important than are our own as yet 

 — must not we similarly recognise these 

 as evidence of past civilisation? Do 

 we not see that the ancient garden, in 

 which these goodly fruits and herbs were 

 grown, was no mere transient Eden, still 

 less a theologic parable, but a long-en- 

 during place of labour and happiness, 

 of wealth and peace ? " 



The Spring Star-flower {Triteleia uniflord). 

 — One has read with pleasure the article on this 

 bright little flower in the March number of 

 Flora and Sylva. It is too little grown, and 

 anything which will tend to make it more used 

 should be welcome. I notice that it thrives 

 better, especially in cold districts, if it is grown 

 in gravel. One of the prettiest sights I have 

 seen is a group of it in the gravel path in the 

 beautiful garden of Mr. P. Neill Fraser, Rock- 

 ville, Edinburgh, where it has spread into a 

 mass, all the prettier because irregular in out- 

 line. It is close to the wall of the house, and 

 when seen in sunshine one was struck with 

 its beauty, flowering with a freedom not to be 

 seen when in stiffer soil. — S. Arnott, Car- 

 sethern, by Dumfries, N.B. 

 Good Effect from Simple Things. — It is a 

 constant thought of mine that it is not novel- 

 ties that we should seek so much as a better 

 use of the many lovely things that we have. 

 I say making "better use" — the best use we 

 must not hope to see — no one can even ima- 

 gine how much we lose by thestick-about way 

 in which plants are usually set out. Many of 

 the prettiest plants we possess we never see in 

 their true beauty from this cause, and no one 

 can give an idea of the loss because the routine 

 way is in possession. I go in the other way as 

 far as I plant, but though often thinking of the 

 matter I cannot cover half the ground, and so, 

 like many others, left my Periwinkles to take 



care of themselves in hedgerows and rough 

 banks, or anywhere among the wild plants. So 

 I never was more pleased than to see pictures 

 made with the small Periwinkle {Vinca minor) 

 in the garden of the Villa Urie at Cannes. A 

 wide, sloping bank, half-shaded with trees for 

 about half itsarea, was covered with the Little 

 Periwinkle in its ordinary form — a level sheet 

 of blue-purple, only broken here and there with 

 wild Hyacinths. The plant is cut over in the 

 summer, and thus it is kept compact and gives 

 colour effect of a kind that so many like, which 

 I have never seen equalled. And though the 

 climate of the district allows of the culture ot 

 many more classes of beautiful plants than may 

 be grown in Britain, and though the many 

 gardens about are full of fine things and even 

 picturesque effects, this, as to colour, was the 

 best of all. The effect of other pieces of ground 

 treated in the same way and seen here and 

 therethrough the trees was equally good. The 

 heat is so great in summer that grass is kept 

 with difficulty, and so the little plant helps to 

 cover the ground. The soil is of a very open, 

 gritty nature, like so many mountain soils, 

 which may in part account for the beautiful 

 mass of bloom. * * * 



THE AUSTRALIAN BEEF-WOOD 



(Casuarina). 

 Of the many strange families that make up 

 the vegetation of the Australian continent few 

 are more remarkable than that of the Casua- 

 rina or Beef-wood. It is in Tasmania in parti- 

 cular that these graceful trees abound, giving 

 a peculiar aspect to many parts of the country 

 with their leafless branches and more or less 

 weeping habit. Something of this effect may 

 be seen nearer home upon the Riviera, where 

 several kinds are doing well in streets and 

 open places, in which only partial shade is 

 sought. There are some thirty species scattered 

 throughout Australia and Polynesia, one kind 

 extending to parts of India. Their name is due 

 to the supposed resemblance of their weeping 

 trails to the arched and drooping feathers of 

 the Cassowary, but in some kinds the growth 

 is erect and tapering, with fine needle-like fo- 

 liage like a Pine. All are remarkable for their 

 rapid growth, amounting to many feet in a 

 season, the largest kinds reaching a height of 

 nearly 200 feet. The commonest and one of 



