232 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. Novi-Belgii. A new hybrid of a very interesting nature was 

 shown here a fortnight ago by the Kev. C. Wolley Dod, who has 

 since kindly sent me specimens for a more leisurely examination. 

 The parents were A. Thomsoni and A. Amellus. The flowers, 

 the involucral bracts, and the upper leaves of the hybrid are 

 distinctly A. Amellus, but the lower leaves I should say certainly 

 partake of A. Thomsoni, minus the very distinct teeth. 



The Committee are now engaged in drawing up popular de- 

 scriptions of the varieties they have selected and named (see 

 page 238), and a very remarkable point in these hybrids or varie- 

 ties is the distinctive and presumably constant characteristic 

 given to them by their (1) green or purple stems ; (2) a narrow 

 or a broad, an adpressed or a squarrose involucre ; (3) a strict or 

 compact habit, and also (4) height and (5) time of flowering. 



All hardy flowers that in any way help to draw the autumn 

 and spring together ought to be carefully encouraged. The 

 Michaelmas Daisy in a great measure does this, and to my mind 

 there is no more beautiful or graceful flower in the whole of the 

 huge order Composite. Their high decorative value in the 

 autumn garden has long been recognised by all lovers of outdoor 

 gardening, and, associated as they usually are with Golden-rods 

 and late Sunflowers, they form a noble and very interesting 

 aspect of vegetation. Their habit and characters are varied 

 enough for all the purposes of the flower-garden, and from the 

 tallest of the Novce-Anglice, towering up to 8 or 10 feet high, to 

 the tiny A. Stracheyi of the Himalayas, only rising an inch or so 

 above the ground, we have almost every intermediate gradation 

 in height and habit. 



Asters might be very effectively used as bedding plants, such 

 species as alpinus, acris, and Amellus being extremely free, beauti- 

 ful, and of fine compact habit. Long after the Dahlia and the 

 Japanese Windflowers have been withered by the early frosts, 

 we are cheered by the bright starry blossoms of the Michaelmas 

 Daisy, which in open seasons often carry us well into November. 

 By the woodland walk in the grey autumn afternoon few plants 

 look more lovely or are more in touch with the surrounding 

 vegetation ; their often stately, but generally gracefully arching, 

 flower-branches give them a character quite their own ; and as 

 they are well able to take care of themselves, they give the culti- 

 vator only a minimum of trouble. 



