CROCOSMIA A UREA IMPERIALIS. 



343 



tivated shrubs. These shrubs require a large pot 

 to hold them without crowding the roots, and some 

 which I dug with a ball of earth and placed on top 

 of the earth under the greenhouse bench, have done 

 the best and are now (Feb. 14th) in full bloom. 



Among the most showy of our native plants is 

 Polygala bitea, a biennial which produces heads of 

 bright golden yellow flowers on stems six inches to 

 one foot high, and is in form almost the exact coun- 

 terpart of the common bachelor's button or globe 

 amaranth ; and, as in some of that family, the lower 

 florets drop as the season advances, while new ones 

 open at the top, so that the same flower heads con- 

 tinue through the season. The plants commence 

 blooming in June and continue till frost. They are 

 not large, and a ball of earth two inches in diam- 

 eter contains most of the roots, so that a small pot 

 will accommodate one ; but there is less chance for 

 drying if several are put in a larger pot. These do 

 not come so quickly into bloom, but plants brought 

 in January ist had flower stems two to three inches 

 high in early February. 



Hiidsonia ericoides is one of our heath-like plants 



which grows in clear sand so loose that it will not 

 stick to the roots at all when dug. In February 

 the hudsonia is about as dead looking as any plant 

 could be, and no one unacquainted with it would 

 expect it to revive ; but when warm weather comes 

 in spring, little green buds appear thickly among 

 the dry bract-like leaves, and in May it is com- 

 pletely covered with bright yellow flowers. Plants 

 of this which had been in the greenhouse six 

 weeks were still gray rather than green, and oth- 

 ers in two weeks had only just begun to show the 

 life really in them, but they will make a good 

 display long before those in the open ground. Sev- 

 eral were potted together, so as to make, when in 

 bloom, a solid mass of yellow, and they made fine 

 decorative plants for Easter. We also brought in 

 plants of our common May weed and ox-eye daisy, 

 which bloomed promptly and freely in the month of 

 February, to our great delight ; one is not so par- 

 ticular in winter. Both these have handsome foli- 

 age and flowers in the style of the Paris margue- 

 rites. William F. Bassett. 

 Atlantic County, N. J. 



CROCOSMIA AUREA IMPERIALIS. 



This plant, which seems destined to become a 

 favorite in this country, where it is now a compar- 

 ative novelty, belongs to the iridacejE family ; of 

 the genus there is only a single species. It is also 

 classed as a tritonia ; is handsome and hardy, or 

 nearly so, and in growth resembles the gladiolus. 

 The color of the flower is a brilliant orange scar- 

 let, suffused with a gold-like dust, and the plant 

 grows about two feet high and is covered with bloom 

 from July to October. It is a bulbous perennial, 

 and thrives best in a light, rich, sandy soil. It is 

 often grown in pots for room decoration and in the 

 greenhouse ; but, with proper care, it will thrive in 

 the open ground, at least in the summer in the 

 northern states and all the year round in those 

 farther south. The bulbs may be planted out about 



the middle of April, and the plants can be treated 

 exactly like gladioli during the summer. As soon 

 as the stems show signs of decay, the bulbs should 

 be taken up— in the north usually in November or 

 a trifle earlier — and stored in dry sand, out of reach 

 of frost, until the following spring ; but they must 

 not be kept so dry that they will shrivel. The 

 plants are propagated by offsets or seeds. The 

 latter should be sown in pans in a cold house as 

 soon as possible after maturity, and where the spe- 

 cies does well the corms increase quite rapidly. A 

 few specimens were exhibited at the late Paris Ex- 

 position and were much admired, but, so far as we 

 know, no display of them has yet been made at any 

 of the great flower shows in America. We illus- 

 trate on it page 341. 



