260 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
The Herbaceous Periwinkle. 
Yery likely if this were called the “ Herba¬ 
ceous Running Myrtle,” most of our 
readers would have a better idea of 
the plant than by its correct name, as 
given at the head of the article, as the 
common Periwinkle, with evergreen 
stems and leaves (Vinca minor), is in 
many localities known as the “ Run¬ 
ning Myrtle.” Why this plant, which 
bears no resemblance to a Myrtle in 
habit or flower, should have this name 
so generally attached to it in this 
country, where the true Myrtle is 
scarcely known, has long been a mys¬ 
tery to us. We can generally trace 
common names of plants to English 
usage, but we can nowhere find that 
the Vinca is called in England by any 
other name than Periwinkle, a name 
which comes from the Latin pervinca, 
to bind about, its flexible stems adapt¬ 
ing it for use as garlands or chaplets. 
The little evergreen species is quite 
common in old gardens, and were it 
not so old-fashioned, it would be more 
used than it is, to carpet the ground under trees, 
a situation in which few plants will flourish, 
but one which this plant likes. But our object 
is to speak of the herbaceous species, (Vinca 
herbacea), which we had long known about, but 
had not been able to get until a year or two ago, 
when a correspondent sent it from England. 
We have this spring also received it from 
Thomas Meehan, whose extensive nurseries at 
Germantown, Pa., contain many things not to 
be found elsewhere. It is quite hardy with 
us, and proves to be an admirable little plant 
for the rock-work. Its numerous stems are 
prostrate, and run for onty about nine inch¬ 
es ; they are clothed with narrow oblong dark- 
green leaves, and bear, for some months in 
succession, little bright purple-blue flowers, 
which are rather smaller than those of the ev¬ 
ergreen species. The engraving shows a branch 
and flower of the plant of the natural size. 
The Talinum. 
There are some plants which, though not at 
are always glad to meet with them. This feel¬ 
ing may be due to some peculiarity of the 
plant itself, or because it awakens some pleasant 
Fig. 5.— ELEVATION OF OCTAGON BARN. 
all brilliant or showy, have a kind of quiet 
beauty and attractiveness of their own, and we 
the little giant steam-engine. — (See page 259.) 
associations, and in the case of Talinum, our 
fondness for it may be ascribed to both causes. 
We appreciate the brilliancy 
and beauty of the bedding 
plants, and enjoy a well plan¬ 
ned and well kept design 
worked out in masses of bril¬ 
liant flowers and foliage, but 
our admiration is tempered by 
the thought “here is some¬ 
thing that has cost much time 
and labor to prepareif the 
plants ivere bought, we can 
know r to a dollar what it cost 
to produce the effect, and w T e 
know that the first hard frost 
will make an end of it, and if 
the same effect is to be pro¬ 
duced next year, the scenery 
must all be set anewu On a 
bright June morning, as we 
look around our rock-work, 
there is the little Talinum looking up with a 
smile of greeting, we recollect that this lias 
happened every year 
for these five years, 
the little plant has 
made itself our friend, 
has become a part of 
our place, and we 
know r that we shall 
find it there for five 
years to come—should 
we live so long, or for 
five times five years. 
It has come to know 
us, and we know just 
where to look for 
its yearly greeting— 
“Yes, you always 
were down on bed¬ 
ding plants ” — our 
horticultural friends 
will say. Not at all. 
We are glad to see the 
show you can make 
with them, we like 
them — but do not 
love them. Of your 
■{Seepage 258.) “General Grant” or 
“Mountain of Snow” geraniums, you have 
probably a hundred of each; if one should die, 
you would not miss it, nor would you if ten, 
or even twenty, should get killed; so long as the 
rest grew to fill the gaps, you would not care. 
Your plants have no individuality any 
more than a soldier in the army, where, 
if one is shot down, the officer calls 
out “close up men,” and thinks no 
more about it. If the little Talinum 
should disappear from its particular 
nook among the rocks, there would be 
a sad vacancy; it has out-lived hun¬ 
dreds, if not thousands of bedding 
plants, of which -we only recollect that 
together they made a fine show, but 
what became of them, we have not the 
least remembrance. What we say 
-with reference to the little Talinum 
is true of the hardy perennial plants 
in general, and though we would not 
discourage the use of bedding plants 
in their place, we would encourage 
the cultivation of the hardy plants— 
plants that have some individuality, 
and do not fail us year after year, but 
come again in the same place as sure 
as the seasons return. One may be 
fond of children in general, but 
he loves his own children, and this is some¬ 
what our feeling in regard to tender bed¬ 
the herbaceous periwinkle.—( Vinca licrbacea.) 
ding and hardy perennial plants. We are 
glad to know that plant-growers generally, are 
learning that they need not—as at one time 
promised to be the case—neglect perennial 
plants altogether, in order to make bedding- 
plants useful. Having taken the Talinum as 
representing one of the good qualities of the 
hardy perennials—their endurance—let us des¬ 
cribe it. The engraving of a flowering branch 
of the fife size, will show that it is not very 
large. Its underground perennial stem or root- 
stock is short and thick; from this arises a stem 
some three or four inches long, -which usually 
branches in a forking manner; the leaves are 
one to two inches long, fleshy and cylindrical, 
wdience the name T. teretifolium —the terete¬ 
leaved or cylindrical-leaved Talinum. The 
flower-stalks are six inches or more high, and 
branch above to form an open flower cluster, 
each branch of which bears a bright rose-color¬ 
ed or pink-purple flower, not quite an inch 
across; the calyx of two and the corolla of five 
parts; stamens 15 or 20; the style 3-parted, and 
the ovary ripening into a many-seeded tlirec- 
valved pod. Belonging to the Purslane Fami¬ 
ly, it has the way of some of the other mem¬ 
bers in not opening its flowers except in sun¬ 
shine. It is not a very common plant, and in 
the Northern States is found in but few locali¬ 
ties in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but is more 
