76 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t January 25, iws. 
greenhouse or conservatory, the leaves being dark green, banded 
with a lighter shade, margined white and tinged with pink. Of 
Palms, Arenga Wightii, a dwarf pinnate-leaved species of graceful 
habit, and Calypti-ogyne teres with arching leaves, which in a 
young state have two pairs of narrow leaflets, are the best, the 
latter especially being likely to prove one of the most useful. 
Half a dozen new Crotons—namely, illustris, insignis, linearis, 
rubescens, spectabilis, and tricolor, are notable for the richness of 
their colours, and should be in every collection. Dieffenbachias 
majestica and princeps are two other handsome variegated plants, 
the former being especially bold in habit. Dioscorea speciosa is 
a fine climber for the stove, with heart-shaped dark-green leaves 
banded with white. Heliconia metallica, an ally of the Musas, 
with shining bronzy leaves, and the Monstera-like Epipremnum 
mirabile, the “ Tonga Plant,” which is credited with such valuable 
anti-neuralgic properties, are all extremely ornamental plants. 
Of miscellaneous novelties, that represented in the woodcut 
(fig. 18)—namely, Crossandra infundibuliformis, is perhaps the 
most striking. It is one of the large Acanthus family, a native of 
the East Indies, and produces its dense spikes of rich orange- 
coloured flowers very freely. It succeeds in a stove, and would 
doubtlessly also do well in an intermediate house. Many other fine 
plants have been shown by Mr. W. Bull during the past season, 
and his new plant houses contain abundant stores for future 
distribution. 
ST. JOHN’S WORTS. 
(Continued from page 12.) 
In three or four catalogues of hardy herbaceous and alpine 
plants I find at least twenty kinds of Hypericum included under 
these designations. Three or four of these—as, for instance, the 
natives H. montanum and H. alodes—can hardly be considered 
worth cultivating ; others, as I said in my former notes, are just 
on the line which separate hardy from half-hardy plants, and 
unless a stock is kept in shelter they are likely to be lost in hard 
winters. Others again, though hardy, are short-lived shrubs, and 
require renewal from cuttings. The result is that until recently 
it has not been very common to see any St. John’s Wort in 
gardens except the old-fashioned H. calycinum. This, as I said, 
is a dwarf running shrub, and it is not easy to define the line 
between shrubby plants suited for the mixed herbaceous border 
and those more properly placed in the shrubbery. But here I may 
mention a St. John’s Wort which grows rather too large for the 
mixed border, though it is decidedly an ornamental shrub grow¬ 
ing into a dense bush 4 or 5 feet high, and producing in July and 
August bunches of five or six or more yellow flowers, followed by 
dark red or black very ornamental berries. I think it is inter¬ 
mediate between H. androsaemum and H. elatum ; it reproduces 
itself by self-sown seed, and the seedlings vary considerably both 
in the form of the seed pods and in the height of the bush. This 
is perfectly hardy. In fact one of the parents, if my conjecture is 
right, is a wild plant in the south of England, but it does better 
where the soil is dug than in wild places. 
Another of the shrubby Hypericums, pretty in flower and 
elegant in growth, hardy in catalogues, but not in the cold reality 
of exposed gardens, is H. balearicum. This, therefore, must be 
treated as the H. patulum class. One or two natives may be tried, 
especially H. pulchrum, the slender St. John’s Wort, of which the 
bright red buds and clear yellow flowers make it a very pretty 
object where it can be kept to a dwarf bushy habit; and in dry 
warm soils I have seen it become a very pretty garden plant. 
The only other native I have tried is H. humif usum. The flowers 
of this are small and inconspicuous, but the compact close¬ 
growing mass of neat bright green leaves make it worth the little 
room it takes on the rockery, where few plants are better behaved. 
It comes up year after year of the same size, and never takes more 
ground than is intended for it. 
Resembling the last in foliage but not in flower, having beau¬ 
tifully shaped flowers as large as a florin, is the alpine H. reptans, 
the best of all the genus for a close-growing rock plant; but, I 
fear, like several others, of doubtful hardiness. Still, it ought to 
be grown on all alpine rockeries as one of their choicest gems. 
I have had it two or three times, and severe winters or neglect 
have caused it to disappear; but in October, 1881, a friend in 
Surrey gave me a piece about the size of my hand. It was not 
rooted, as the roots will not divide, but out of its numerous shoots 
I made about fifty small cuttings, every one of which soon struck. 
Many of them were planted on the rockeries in May, in such 
positions as to hang over the edge of stones. They flowered 
through September and October, and no plants I had were more 
admired both by their owner and by visitors. Some of the plants 
were a foot square, but of this expanse hardly any of the shoots 
overlapped one another, but the growth spreads like a finely 
divided leaf of Maidenhair Fern clinging close to the stone over 
which it grows. A pan of cuttings are struck to repeat the same 
treatment next year, and 1 may add that they will be moved 
straight from the pan in which they are struck—an ordinary seed- 
pan a foot square, to their flowering place. 
Of all the St. John’s Worts I have tried or seen none comes 
nearer to the character of a true herbaceous plant than H. Bur- 
seri. It divides itself into several heads, each having a separate 
root, preserving, however, a compact habit, and disappearing 
from the surface in winter. In height and in the size of its 
flowers it resembles H. olympicum, but the yellow of the flower 
is not so bright nor does it flower so freely, but it is well worth 
growing, and I think easily kept, though I have hitherto given it 
select places. Another nearly herbaceous kind, but without much 
merit as an ornamental plant, is sold, and I believe rightly, by 
the name of H. orientale. Its flowers are not larger than those 
of the common wild St. John’s Wort, H. perforatum, which it 
somewhat resembles, though quite distinct. The foliage is glau¬ 
cous, like that of the common Spurge, and the plant requires no 
attention. Few would much regret losing it. 
A neat variety for the rockery is H. nummularium, a plant 
which takes its name from the wild Moneywort or Creeping Jenny 
(Lysimachia nummularia), which it somewhat resembles in its 
growth and the shape of its leaf and the size of its flower. It is, 
however, less prostrate in habit, and the shoots are much shorter. 
It increases by running underground and sending up shoots at 
intervals, much in the same way as H. calycinum, but is much 
shier in growth. 
It remains to speak of three neat and pretty dwarf shrubs, ad¬ 
mirable rock plants, but, unfortunately, not more hardy than most 
of the shrubs of this genus which have been already mentioned. 
The first is H. empetrifolium, which forms a nice little bush about 
9 inches high, and is covered all through summer with small 
yellow flowers. In habit it is like that neat evergreen, the native 
Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), from which it takes its name. 
Then we have H. coris, not unlike the last in leaf and flower. The 
specific name is taken from Dioscorides, the vowel of the first 
syllable being short in Greek. The root of the word, Itor, suggests 
sweeping, and would probably have been applied to some plant 
like Heather, suitable for making brooms, for which our present 
subject, as we are able to grow it here, would be too small ; 
but what plant was originally called by the name must remain 
uncertain. 
The last and smallest of all the St. John’s Worts is H. mgypti- 
acum ; this, too, included amongst hardy plants in catalogues, but 
not hardy in ordinary gardens. It is so small that a specimen 
may be planted out on a rockery from April to October for two or 
three years, and still continue contented to be planted in a thumb 
pot to pass the winter in a cold frame. These three strike easily 
from small soft cuttings at any time. This completes the list of 
those I have proved, but I have three or four more now under 
probation, and there are probably many more which have not yet 
found their way into gardens. It may be thought from what I 
have said that this is a troublesome class, but it is not more so 
than many half-hardy plants which are grown in most gardens 
from year to year, and makes a pleasing variety amongst them.— 
C. Wolley Dod. 
CULTURE OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
“An Exhibitor and Grower” in his remarks on this subject 
(page 22), says he pays little attention to ripening the wood, also 
that the best and largest flowers are produced on rather soft wood. 
Upon this question I should like to make a few remarks, as I think 
it requires further explanation. I have many times read of the 
ripening system, but if there is such a system have never seen it 
explained, neither have I seen it practised further than this. If 
the bud be taken at the end of August, all being pinched off, the 
plants standing in an open airy position until early in October, 
the wood must naturally become ripened. Take two plants, the 
buds of which are taken the same day, place one in an open the 
other in a shady position, and I have no hesitation in saying the 
first one will produce finer flowers, retain its foliage better, and 
the wood be much firmer than the other. Therefore I am at a 
loss to know what is meant by ripening. If there is a system I 
should very much like to see it explained. On the other hand, if 
your correspondent knows of any system or treatment by which 
fine flowers may be produced from buds that are not taken until 
October, the wood of which is rather soft, I know of several 
growers, myself included, who would be glad of the information. 
For several seasons I have seen the collections that have taken 
many prizes at the principal exhibitions, but have never seen any 
