74 



THE JARDIN DES PLANTES. 



course) J Datura fastuosa alba-duplex, Pyrettrum Tdiihat- 

 cHewii, of the south of Europe — a capital plant for covering 

 the dryest of banks with dark green ; it is very low in 

 habit, produces white flowers in spring, and for banks 

 and other positions so dry and arid that grass or anything 

 else fails to grow upon them, it will probably prove highly 

 useful. Anemone alba,ricaria calthcefolia, Echinophora tenui- 

 folia, a graceful umbelliferous plant with hoary leaves ; Gly- 

 ceria Michauxii, a pretty grass ; and a collection of the genus 

 Asparagus, among which one, A. Broussonetii, is remarkable 

 for its great vigour and rapidity of growth — it quickly 

 runs up with dense vigour to a height of ten feet in spring, 

 its foliage is glossy and dense, and it might be used with 

 success as a covering for bowers or to make pyramids in a 

 highly diversified garden of hardy plants, and of course it 

 would be valuable in such a place as the subtropical 

 garden at Battersea Park. Asparagus tenuifolius is as 

 graceful and elegant as the one before-named is vigorous 

 and rampant in its climbing power. 



Iris Monnieri, of Western Asia, is a really fine, bright 

 yellow kind. Among the larger Composites are some likely 

 to prove useful for the subtropical garden ; notably Bha- 

 ponticum scariosum, and cynarioides. Serratula pinnatifida 

 is elegant in leaf j and particularly fine is a silvery-leaved 

 Tanacetum (T. elegans), with finely divided and elegant 

 frond-like leaves. Dipsacus laciniatus is fine in its line 

 when well grown, and it will prove really well worth raising 

 annually, somewhat like the Castor-oil plants, for the 

 garden where distinction is desired. Sideritis syriaca is 

 hardy here, and fairly tried might make a useful edging 

 plant in the way of Gnaphalium lanatum, than which it is 

 a shade more silvery. Phlomis herba-venti is a pretty 

 and distinct herbaceous plant, medium- sized, and Eremo- 

 stachys iberica is a yellow species, well worthy of associa- 

 tion with laciniata. Acantholimon venustum is prettier 

 and more elegant than the admired A. glumaceum, the 

 dwarf cushion of leaves being of a glaucous tone, and the 

 large rose-coloured flowers being well thrown out on bold 

 graceful stems ; it is one of the prettiest dwarf plants I 



