1875. ] 
THE ALTH2EA FRUTEX. 
21 
Some plants travel above-ground, and some under-ground ; thus, we see the 
Strawberry-plant place its runners with such skill, that we could hardly 
believe it possible if we did not see examples of it by thousands. The 
Easpberry-plant, the Rose, and many others, travel under-ground, and send up 
suckers in fresh pasture, with something like forethought to provide against want 
by new plantations. When the tailor wants to pass thread through cloth, he uses the 
steel-pointed needle, which not only makes the hole, but leads the thread; but 
when the root has to penetrate the clod, it puts the soft spongy part to the front, 
and yet it finds its way through. So wonderful is the principle of vegetable life, 
that we have either to beg the question entirely, or borrow a power able to bore 
hard clay clods, and when needful to up-heave a flag-stone, hard and heavy, that 
a few mushrooms may give their spores to the world. It is therefore clear that 
the travelling of plants and their extension is done under a Leader, who has not 
only the power but the method to deal with this world of living vegetable 
substances, vast and various as is their still life.— Alexander Forsyth, Salford, 
THE ALTHiEA FRUTEX. 
HE Syrian Hibiscus, better known as the Althcea frutex, is one of the hand¬ 
somest of deciduous summer-blooming shrubs, and one of which there are 
many varieties to be found. They are not, 
Q* however, nearly so often met with as their 
merits deserve, and it is with the view of recom¬ 
mending them strongly, either for permanent posi¬ 
tions in the shrubbery, or for conspicuous positions 
on lawns, that we now refer to them. 
As will be seen from the engraving, borrowed 
from Hemsley’s Handbook of Hardy Trees , Shrubs , 
&c., the leaves are ovate, with a wedge-shaped 
base, and deeply cut into about three lobes. The 
flowers are large, produced from the axils of the 
leaves on the young shoots, and are so freely pro¬ 
duced about the end of August, that for some two 
or three weeks the trees are literally covered with 
them. The plant is of bushy habit and grows 
from 6 ft. to 8 ft. high. The varieties have some 
of them double and some single flowers, and one has 
variegated leaves. Probably though not the most 
durable, the single-flowered sorts are the most 
beautiful, the Painted Lady, whose flowers are white 
with crimson spots, being particularly charming. 
The Single Purple, with purplish flowers and deep Hibiscus syriacus. 
crimson spots, is also very handsome. The Double White and Double Purple 
are also desirable varieties, In a word, any or all of them should be freely 
