1874 ] 
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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Broad-leaved Acanthus. 
Within a few years the taste for plants with 
handsomely formed and stately leaves has 
much increased. We do not now refer to 
leaves attractive for their color, but to those of 
marked outline and habit. Plants of this class 
are for convenience called sub-tropical, though 
many of them are not natives of warm climates 
—sub-tropical being a convenient term for that 
style of gardening, which depends upon beauty 
of form rather than color for its effects. Among 
the plants that have come into prominence for 
this use are several species of Acanthus. This 
name is the Greek word for thorn slightly 
modified, some of the species being very 
thorny; and we are quite sure that the greatest 
stickler for common names will prefer it to 
“ Bearsbreech,” the name given to one species 
in England. The Spiny Acanthus ( A. spino- 
sus ) is the plant that is said to have suggested 
the idea of the ornamentation of the Corinthian 
capital; the story goes, that Callimachus, the 
architect, was in great trouble how to finish off 
the capitals to his columns, and as he was pon¬ 
dering upon the matter in the garden, his eye 
fell upon a jar, around which Acanthus leaves 
had grown in the most graceful manner. The 
largest and finest of all the species used in Eu¬ 
ropean gardens, is called A. latifolius and A. 
Lusitanicus , but it is probably a variety of A. 
mollis. It is a fine, bold plant, with dark green 
leaves of pleasing outline, as shown in the en¬ 
graving. It is said that well established clumps 
of this form a dense mass of fine foliage three 
feet high, and five feet across. The flowers, 
which are upon a long spike about five feet 
high, are white or lilac, each in the axil of a 
large leafy bract. The only plant of this we 
have seen is one which Messrs. Olin Bros, re¬ 
ceived with other things, and treated as a green¬ 
house plant. As far as can be judged from a 
specimen grown in a pot, the European ac¬ 
counts are not overdrawn. It is perfectly 
hardy in England, and we hope it may prove 
so here, as it is a fine plant for the decoration 
of large gardens.. Only two or three days be¬ 
fore his sudden death, the eider Mr. Olm came 
to see us in reference to the specimen, which 
he had sent us for the purpose of engraving. 
The Palmate Spirsea. 
There are certain genera of flowering plants 
so large already, that we always dread to see a 
new species added to the list. This is the case 
with Spiraea, of which there are more than one 
cares to keep the run of, and with the shrubby 
ones at least, half or more of the list might be 
dropped out of cultivation without detriment. 
Therefore, when we saw the Spiraea palmata 
announced in the foreign journals as a new ac¬ 
quisition from Japan, we did not feel very en¬ 
thusiastic over the matter, notwithstanding all 
the praise bestowed upon it. Last year we re¬ 
ceived a plant from Mr. Chitty, of the Bellevue 
Nursery, Paterson, N. J., and are forced to ad¬ 
mit that it is a valuable addition to our garden. 
This is not a shrubby species, but a herbaceous 
one, that reminds us, as to its foliage, of the 
old “ Queen of the Prairie,” S. venusta. The 
leaves, as its specific name indicates, are pal- 
mately-lobed, and the lobes are sharply serrate. 
The stem is one to two feet high, and bears at 
the top a large, much divided, panicle of small 
rich crimson flowers. The plant is as yet little 
known in this country, but at the Exhibitions 
in England, this summer, it has attracted much 
attention, and received high commendations. 
THE PALMATE SFIRJEA. 
With the Queen of the Prairie Spiraea, and oth¬ 
ers related to it, the trouble is that the flowers 
in the cluster open unevenly, so that by the 
time the outer ones in the panicle are well 
opened, the central ones have already dropped 
their petals, and taken on a seedy look. 
Whether this will happen with the Palmate 
Spiraea we cannot say, as our only flower-clus¬ 
ter was sacrificed for the sake of an engraving. 
We have no doubt that it will prove hardy 
here, as our plant stood out all last winter with¬ 
out protection, and came up strong this spring. 
Onions Sown in Fall for a Spring Crop. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
It has long been a practice with market 
gardeners in the vicinity of New York, Phila¬ 
delphia, and other large cities, to plant onion 
sets in spring for an early summer crop. These 
are sold in bunches in the markets in the green 
state; the sales are usually begun in this neigh¬ 
borhood about the first week in June, when 
they are only half grown, and continue to the 
middle of July. Onion “sets” have of late 
years been advancing so in price, owing to the 
increase in price of labor, that our market 
gardeners find that it hardly pays them to any 
longer buy their sets, and they are beginning 
to resort to another expedient to procure an 
