


172 THE LADIES’ FLOWER-GARDEN 
appellation the plant is still popularly called in France. The culture of the common Hydrangea is remarkably easy ; 
it should be grown in a rich soil, and have abundance of water. It is propagated by cuttings, which if taken off 
while the plant is in a growing state, take root immediately, and have been known to flower in a month. To keep 
the plant in a vigorous state in pots, none of the wood should be more than three years old; but there should be 
a succession of two years’ old shoots kept up for producing flowers. The flowers are generally pink, but they may 
be turned to blue, by growing the plant in earth containing oxide of iron. This mineral is sometimes found in 
peat or bog-earth, and generally in yellow loam, such as is found on Hampstead Heath, at Stanmore on the Common, 
on Wimbledon Common, and in various other places in the neighbourhood of London. Similar soils are found in 
many parts of Great Britain, from Cornwall, where they are abundant, to Scotland. 
2.—HYDRANGEA JAPONICA Sted. THE JAPAN HYDRANGEA. 
Variery.—H. j. cerulea Hook. broadly cuneate at the base, sometimes tapering into the short thick 
Enecravines.—Bot. Reg. for 1844, t.61. Of the variety, H.j. | footstalk, ovate-oblong, acuminate, sharply serrated, quite smooth. 
cerulea, Bot. Mag., t. 4253; Paxt. Mag. of Bot., vol. xii, p. 199; | Cymes of flowers crowded; branches pubescent. Sterile blossoms 
and our jig. 2, in Pl. 34. about five, bearing from three to five large, petaloid, rhomboidal sepals, 
Speciric Cuaracter.—Leaves opposite, on short petioles, rotund or | more or less toothed. 
Description, &c.—There are two varieties of this very ornamental plant, one of which has the sterile flowers 
of a purplish pink, and the other has them of a dark blue. Both form shrubs from three to four feet high, and 
both are natives of Japan, where they are found wild on the mountains of Nipon. Both kinds appear to have been 
introduced at the same time, viz. about 1844. In the “ Botanical Magazine ” it is suggested that the two kinds 
may be originally the same, and that the change of colour may depend only on change of soil as in the common 
Hydrangea; but this does not appear to be the case, as both kinds are so common in Japan that they have 
received different names. 
A plant under the name of Hydrangea Azisai has been exhibited, but it is stated in “ Paxton’s Magazine ” 
that it is in every respect similar to the blue-flowered variety of H. japonica. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
—_>— 
RUBIACEA Juss. 
EssentraL Cuaractrr.—Tube of calyx adhering to the ovarium; | Ovarium situated within the calyx, and adhering to it, crowned by a 
limb variable. Corolla gamopetalous, inserted in the upper part of the | fleshy urceolus; stigmas usually two. Fruit variable. Albumen 
tube of the calyx, usually with a four to five-lobed limb; the lobes or | large, horny or fleshy. Embryo straight or a little curved, inclosed in 
segments twisted or valvate in exstivation. Stamens equal in number | the middle of the albumen, with a terete radicle turned towards the 
to the segments of the corolla, alternating with them, and more or | hilum, and leafy cotyledons, 
less adnate to its tube. Anthers oval, two-celled, bursting inwardly. 
Description, &c.—The plants belonging to this very extensive order are generally aromatic and have very 
ornamental flowers. The Coffee-tree, the Cinchona or Peruvian Bark, and the Ipecacuanha, all belong to this 
order, together with many of our most beautiful and fragrant greenhouse and stove plants. 




