1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
21 
large flowers, with fewer in the cluster than 
the preceding ; this is offered in some cata¬ 
logues at home and abroad, but on ordering it 
we have in every case received the other in¬ 
stead. Some of the southern species are ever- 
time or money to expend upon them, and while 
we have done this, we have endeavored at the 
same time to keep our readers advised as to all 
that was new and desirable among bedding 
plants, as we hold that the advocacy of either 
mediate relatives have any merit; the native 
species all have the negative merit of not in¬ 
truding themselves upon cultivated grounds, 
and some of the shrubby ones are sufficiently 
desirable to be brought into the garden. There 
the shrubby ST. john’s-wort.— {Hypericumprolificum.) 
the clethra-like LOOSESTRIFE.—( Lysimachia clethroides. 
are several shrubby species, mainly in the 
southern states, but the one most widely dis¬ 
tributed, Hypericum prolificum , is especially 
known as the Shrubby St. John’s-Wort, and 
extends from New Jersey to Michigan, and 
Illinois, and is also very common southward. 
It is a much branched shrub, one to four feet 
high, and when not crowded forms a hand¬ 
somely rounded bush, with abundant foliage of 
a pleasing warm green color. The leaves, one 
to two inches long, vary much in shape, but 
are mostly lance-oblong, narrowed at the base 
and obtuse at the apex. The bright yellow 
flowers are in terminal and axillary clusters, 
and are produced in the greatest abundance 
from July to September, and after the flowers 
have all fallen, the clusters of pods, often 
tinged with red, continue to be ornamental. 
One form of it, the dense-flowered (var. densi- 
fiorum ), grows taller, is more branched above, 
and has smaller and closely crowded leaves and 
flowers. This, though a native of the pine- 
barrens, does well in the garden, and is the 
form from which the engraving was made. 
We do not consider it so pleasing a garden 
shrub as the ordinary wide-leaved form, which 
by an annual pruning may be kept only a foot 
high, and is well suited for the front row in 
clumps of shrubs. Kalin's St. John’s-Wort, 
(H. Kalmii) is a very local shrubby species, 
found only at Niagara Falls, and a few other 
northern localities; it has glaucous leaves, and 
greens there, but we are not aware that they 
have been tested in northern gardens. 
The Clethra-like Loosestrife. 
While we admit the utility of what are pop¬ 
ularly known as “bedding-plants,” i. e., soft- 
wooded tender plants, such as geraniums, ver¬ 
benas, etc., which have to be set out each 
spring for summer effect, we are glad to see 
that they are not, as at one time seemed proba¬ 
ble, to drive all other plants from the gardens. 
The mania for these was at one time so strong 
that the good old-fashioned plants were in 
danger of being entirely overlooked; but now 
a more sensible view prevails, and it is found 
that each class of plants has its place, wffiicli 
cannot be properly filled by the other, and that 
we cannot well do without either. The col¬ 
umns of the American Agriculturist bear 
abundant evidence of the fact that we have 
endeavored to keep alive the love of plants for 
their own individual merits, and not for the 
color effects that may be produced by them 
when massed in hundreds and thousands. We 
have strongly advocated the claims of those 
plants known as herbaceous perennials, which, 
when once planted, keep on year after year, 
without demanding other care than an occa¬ 
sional subdivision, as being especially suited to 
these who love flowers, but have not much 
class of plants, to the neglect of the other, is 
not in the true interest of horticulture. In a 
visit to the gardens in the vicinity of Boston, a 
few months ago, where the bedding system is 
carried to greater perfection than elsewhere in 
the country, we were glad to see that the her¬ 
baceous perennials had also a place, and rows 
of gorgeous columbines, herbaceous peonies, 
our favorite Japanese Astilbe, always so beauti¬ 
ful whether in leaf or flower, and many others, 
offered their attractions in their proper places, 
as well as did the brilliant geraniums, achy- 
ranthes, coleuses, and other bedding plants. 
The list of good herbaceous perennials is 
already a long one, yet we are always pleased 
■when we can add to it a new plant of real 
merit, and it was very gratifying to come 
across, in one of the gardens we visited, a 
clump of Lysimachia clethroides, a new Loose¬ 
strife from Japan. The Loosestrifes are best 
known through the common Moneywort, {L, 
nummularia ;), common in gardens, and much 
used in hanging baskets ; but this is very much 
unlike most of the species in habit, as it lias 
prostrate creeping stems, and solitary flowers 
from the axils of the leaves. We have several 
wild species which are erect, one of them, the 
Upright Loosestrife, figured in Sept., 1871, with 
its flower in a long raceme at the top of the 
stem. This new species has a similar habit to 
the wild one referred to; it has a strong stem, 
two feet or more high, with lanceolate leaves, 
