PARK AND CEMETERY. 
i75 
Many shrubs and dwarf trees are grown against brick 
walls here, a position rendering hardy otherwise tender 
species. Ordinarily one specimen of a species repre- 
sents the type and with its varieties is grouped accord- 
ing to its nearest allies. Shrubs very frequently occupy 
a bed from four to fifteen feet in diameter for each spec- 
ies. In Ranunculaceae, clematis coccinia of Texas, C. 
Tremontie, C. Pitcheri, C. Virginiana, Xanthorrhiza pii- 
folia are representatives of the United States and all de- 
port themselves fair. Calycanthus floridus and glaucus 
of the southern United States and C. occidentalis of 
California seem quite suited in the Kew soil. Chimonan- 
thus fragrans from Japan does best on a wall where in 
mid-winter its profusion of fragrant blossoms are most 
acceptable. In Magnolias, conspicua has bloomed bet- 
ter than any other I have seen over there but the hardy 
deciduous flowering shrubs and low trees as a whole are 
not as floriferous as in the United States. Two M. 
glauca plants within twenty feet of each other are inter- 
esting in that while one is typically deciduous, the foli- 
age is quite persistent the entire winter, in the other. M. 
grandiflora is trained on a wall in several situations about 
the garden but it is quite hardy without protection, the 
small M. stellata of Japan, flowers intermittently through 
the summer — where special beds are provided. Glad- 
ioluses are planted amongst them. 
In Berberidacece, the Akebia quinata proves itself a 
worthy subject of Japan, Berberis aquifolia, largely 
planted throughout England for game coverts, looms 
up the year ruund, but the abundance of evergreen vege- 
tation hardy here discounts that striking appearance, so 
excellent a shrub like this would assume in northern 
United States. B. buxifolia does well for a Chilian plant 
and B. Darwinii is extra good. B. Stenophylla (B. 
Darwinii x B. empetrifolia) is admirable. In Batter- 
sea Park, London, is a plant eight feet in diameter and 
over five feet high, in shape hemispherical and compact, 
rising directly from the ground. B. Lycium, cretica 
vulgaris and canadensis thrive very well. 
All the species of that polymorphic genus, Helianthe. 
mum, grow well. Idesia polycarpa (Flacourtia Japonica) 
is among the more uncommon plants. Actinidia poly- 
gama from Japan has the ever sickening appearance it 
shows in cultivation. This is not A. arguta which is 
usually cultivated in America as polygama. 
In Rutaceae— choisya ternata from Mexico forms an 
excellent plant rarely seen in American gardens. 
From Cnina and Japan Rhus Asbeckii and R. suc- 
cedanea in Anacardiaceas are still small plants and their 
fitness for English as well as northern United States 
climate has to be proven. 
Spartium junceum in Leguminosre is quite hardy and 
well shaped but Andre’s variety of Genista scoparius is 
far more floriferous in America although not so hardy. 
In Rosacea; our Prunus augustifolia is cultivated as 
Cerasus Chicasa and P. pumila is not separated from P. 
crenata. That beautiful P. lusitanica — one of the four 
different plants known as laurel-ivy, it is to be regretted 
is not hardy in our northern states. 
Jamesia Americana of the Saxifragacese grows about 
as well in America, but Fendlera rupicola of our arid re. 
gions I did not notice. Ribes aureum and sanguineumof 
the West are quite inferior to their deportment at home. 
In Cornaceae, Cornus Florida, Stolonifera and candi- 
dissima hold their own with those from all other coun- 
tries. Aucuba Japonica is in extensive use and forms a 
large part of the broad leaved evergreen scenery in En- 
gland. 
Except the Himalayan sorts Rhododendrons do ex- 
ceptionally well out of doors and rival the roses. 
On the other hand many of our plants grow or flower 
very poorly. Quercus Georgiana, Buckley a distich 
ophylla, Styrax Americanum, Halesia diptera, etc., are 
instances. Among trees one expects grand old trees of 
Fagus sylvatica, Quercus Robur and pedunculata and 
Castanea sativa, but exceptions are beautiful specimens 
of Quercus suber, Cerrisand Ilex; Ilex opaca etc., Pinus 
monticolo, excelsa and Pinea. 
The hardy collections of trees and shrubs are extra- 
ordinarily rich in species and varieties. One comes not 
amiss in looking here for a wealth of vegetation in keep- 
ing with the dignified prestige of the institution. 
Emil Mis c he. 
The Sleep of Plants. 
The sleep of plants, which is the same physiologi- 
cally as animal sleep, does not exist without reason. 
The art of sleeping is, in the higher animals, sympto- 
matic of repose in the brain and nervous system, and 
the fact of plants sleeping is one proof of the exis- 
tence of a nervous sysL m in the members of the 
vegetable kingdom. 
Plants sleep at various hours and not always at 
night. The duration of plant sleep varies from ten to 
eighteen hours. Light and heat have little to do with 
plants sleeping, as different species go to sleep at differ- 
ent hours of the day. Thus the common morning glory 
(Convolvulus purpureus) opens at dawn, the Star of 
Bethlehem about 10 o’clock, the ice plant at noon. The 
goat’s beard, which opens at sunrise, closes at mid- 
day, and for this reason is called “go-to-bed-at-noon.” 
The flowers of the evening primrose and of the thorn 
apple open at sunset, and those of the night flowering 
cereus when it is dark. 
Aquatic flowers open and close with the greatest regu- 
larity. The white water lily closes its flowers at sunset 
and sinks below the water for the night; in the morning 
the petals again expand and float on the surface. The 
Victoria Regia expands for the first time about 6 o’clock 
in the evening, and closes in a few hours; it opens again 
at 6 o’clock the next morning, and remains so till after- 
noon, when it closes, and sinks below the water. 
For upward of 2,000 years continuous attempts have 
been made to elucidate the phenomena of sleep without 
success; many theories have been promulgated, but they 
have fallen short of explaining it. We know that sleep 
rests the mind more than the body, or, to put it in 
another way, the mere physical as apart from the nerv- 
ous portion, of the organism can be rested without sleep. 
Negatively the effect of sleeplessness proves the value 
and necessity of sleep. And this is seen in a marked 
manner in the case of plants. — Gentleman' s Magazine. 
