22 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ January, 
fact, are very generally prejudiced against plants in living or sleeping-rooms. It 
is found that, to a very great extent, that prejudice is quite unfounded. Plants 
purify, not vitiate the air. But the sight- of plants so frequently unhealthy has 
begotten a prejudice against them, that healthy plants are not even considered 
wholesome in living-rooms or elsewhere. They can, indeed, do little or nothing 
to purify the air, and it is possible that they may vitiate it, for disease 
always brings about derangement, not seldom reversal of function. But 
instead of condemning plants in living or sleeping-rooms, their state of 
health, or otherwise, would often supply valuable data for ascertaining 
the state of the atmosphere, and it might in “most cases be safely inferred 
that rooms in which plants refuse to grow are not fit for men and women to 
live in. In this way plants would prove forerunners or scouts to enter into and 
furnish unmistakable data concerning the sanitary state of the air in our dwelling- 
houses. We might in this, as in our attempts at moral reform, safely follow the 
lead of the plants, and find that where they were safe, we were safe likewise.— 
D. T. Fish, Bardwkhe, 
GAEDEN GOSSIP. 
« HE so-called Double Poinsettia^ which the Gardeners’ Chronicle suggests might 
well be called Poinsettia pulcherriina plenissima^ found in Mexico by M. 
f Eoezl, a year or two ago, and now in the hands of the Messrs. Veitch and 
Sons, of Chelsea, has been flowered by them, so that there is no doubt of 
the genuineness of the stock, nor of the magnificence of the plant itself, which indeed the dried 
specimens had already well shown. It is in truth a grand plant, infinitely superior to the ordi¬ 
nary kind, inasmuch as instead of the usual single tier of bracts, the axis of the inflorescence 
is branched repeatedly in a dichotomous manner, and all the ramifications bear their quota of 
coloured bracts, and have fresh branches proceeding from their axils. This branching goes on 
till, in some cases, the heads have been seen to acquire a depth of 15 in. We should conclude 
from this habit of growth that the plants will last for a very long time in beauty, and possibly 
it may be found that the outer series of larger bracts perish before the crowded central tufts of 
smaller coloured bracts are fully developed. The colour is a carmine-scarlet, somewhat softer 
than that of the type. 
- ^HE Hydrangea paniculata grandifiora is undoubtedly one of our finest 
liardy deciduous slirubs. We saw it in great beauty in August last, in the nursery- 
grounds at Knap Hill, where Mr. Anthony Waterer, who has a keen eye for 
detecting meritorious novelties amongst hardy trees and shrubs, cultivates' it somewhat 
extensively. A bank of young plants in full blossom presented quite a striking feature, and 
at once riveted attention. It grows into a moderate-sized bushy-growing shrub, and is per¬ 
fectly hardy. The great paniculate inflorescence is crowded with large white flowers; and 
not only does the branch itself terminate in one of these great panicles, but the lateral 
branchlets also bear at their apices others which are but slightly smaller, so that the 
vigorously developed shoots for the greater part of their length become literally enveloped in 
blossoms. The grand effect of such masses of flowers can be well imagined. 
- SbiGNOE Giuseppe Sada, nurserymen, of Milan, lias raised a very 
handsome seedling Oak, which the Gardeners' Chronicle proposes to call Q. {rubra') 
Sada. It is a seedling from Q. rubra macrophylla, which it much resembles in 
habit and vegetation and hardiness, although from its fine foliage and more vigoroxxs'growth, 
it is a finer tree than the one just named. The Acox’ns are said to be larger than those of 
Q. rubra, the bark smoother and redder. The leaves measure about 11 in. in leixgthby 10|in. 
in the widest poi'tion; they are thin in texture, glabrous on both surfaces, except along the 
