42 



PERENNIALS. 



[^JMarcTi. 



the first of May. Plant them in light^ rich soil^ and they 

 will flower profusely through the season ; if it is very dry, 

 they must be watered to keep them growing. The scarkt, 

 white, and purple varieties are the finest ; but there are many 

 intermediate sorts, all handsome. M. glabra is the Wall- 

 flower leaved stock, and requires the same treatment as the 

 former two. There are about twenty varieties of this, all 

 various in color. In planting any of these into the open 

 ground, choose cloudy weather, except they have been in pots ; 

 in such case, plant at any time in beds, or detached groups, 

 through the borders, keeping each kind separate. 



(E)iotheras. The most of them are indigenous, and in 

 Europe they afford a continual ornament to the flower gar- 

 den from April to November ; but in our gardens they are 

 entirely neglected. By rejecting these and many others, our 

 flower gardens are deprived both of much beauty and inte- 

 rest they might easily possess. The herbaceous sorts delight 

 in light, rich soil. (E. odordta, sweet-scented; dJ. ma- 

 cwcdrjxi; CE. mldla ; (E. lati/Iora ; CE. Frazerl] (E. spc- 

 cidsa f (E. missouriensis, and (E. pallida; are all fine, 

 native, herbaceous plants, mostly with large yellow, four- 

 petaled corollas; in bloom from May to September. 



Phlox J another American genus, and one of the most 

 handsome in cultivation. It consists of elegant border flow- 

 ers, valuable for flowering early, and during the whole sea- 

 ' son, even till frost. While the majority of plants blooming 

 late in the season are generally syngenesious, with yellow 

 flowers, these delight us with their lively colors of purple, 

 red, white, and striped. A collection of them, properly at- 

 tended to, would of themselves constitute a beautiful flower 

 garden. It will be difficult to state which are the finest; but 

 the following are select varieties: P. alba kcnnosinCj white 

 rose-eye; hlanc de XeuUli/j pure white; captivatwii, dark 

 rose; C7u7r/t\^, blush ; divarlcCiia, hlxxe ) longiflbraj white; 

 odordfa, fragrant red; prostnita, creeping; Princess Man'- 

 auncj striped; specibsa, dark crimson; speciosissinia, rosy 

 lilac; subuldta, dwarf pink; Van Eouftii) striped. In the 

 spring of 1831, an eminent British collector * exclaimed, on 

 seeing a patch of P. subuldta in one of the pine barrens of 

 New Jersey, ^'Tlie beauty of that alone is worth coming to 



* ]Mr. Diuiiinioiul. 



