'2(j 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the border would be gone over, and all the plants which required 

 it would be dug up, and pieces replanted, according to the kind, 

 the soil beneath each being renovated. All this might be done 

 in two or three hours, and weeding and staking, and watering in 

 dry summers, would be the only additional care wanted. The 

 number might be limited, say to fifty or sixty ; but there should 

 be a spare bed in some corner where candidates for admission 

 might be grown on probation, one of the limited select being 

 superseded for each new-comer. Something of this sort would 

 tend to keep up the interest in this useful, but hitherto neglected, 

 class of plants. 



PERENNIAL SUNFLOWERS. 



By Mr. D. Be war. 



With perennial Sunflowers, as with many other strictly garden 

 genera, the difficulty in the way of a proper classification appears 

 to increase as we extend our knowledge and become more 

 minutely acquainted with the many forms now in cultivation. 

 Sunflowers are very old garden-plants — they have been grown 

 in our gardens for several centuries ; they were eagerly sought 

 after in the days when Peter Collinson was a leader in English 

 horticulture, and many of the best species and varieties were 

 known to Philip Miller, who grew them in his garden at Chelsea ; 

 though, let us hope, they were much nearer the old types than 

 we at present find them. 



Many of the species are said to be extremely variable in a 

 wild state, and as they are also said to hybridise freely both wild 

 and under cultivation, there can be little wonder that we are 

 to-day confronted with a set of nondescripts which, to say the least, 

 are very puzzling. 



The collection growing in the Chiswick Gardens are from 

 various sources, and from them I have mainly taken my notes. 

 It is, perhaps, one of the richest collections ever brought together ; 

 and although some few of the species in cultivation are not there 

 represented, it may, on the whole, be taken as a good index of 

 our wealth in perennial Sunflowers. 



Besides being very beautiful and deservedly popular garden- 

 plants, the roots of a few of the wild species formed the staple 



