282 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
Omithogalum luteum , Cypripedium calceolits, and several 
Crocuses. Adiantum capillus Veneris is found growing on 
rocks near Durham : it is in a very divarf state.” 
The finest Maiden-hair Fern we have seen grows in very 
damp and very much shaded places, in the crevices of rocks 
within the influence of the spray of waterfalls, in the High¬ 
lands, where one could gather loads of it. 
“ Linum grandiflorum is particularly fine with me, and seeds 
freely; hut recollect it is very treacherous in that respect. 
Unless you ‘set’ the blooms with their own pollen you 
cry chicks before the eggs are hatched.” 
PENTSTEMON CORDIFOLIUS. 
Raised from seeds brought home by Mr. Hartweg in 
June, 1848, and said to be a shrub four feet high, from the 
mountains of Santa Ines, in California. 
A downy-stemmed half-shrubby plant, with a trailing of 
spreading habit, so that it is well suited to hang down over 
stones or rocks. Leaves dark green, shining, cordate, 
serrate, slightly downy. Flowers in one-sided, narrow, leafy 
panicles, which sometimes measure more than a foot in 
length. The branches of the panicle are hairy, and bear 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 4, 1857. 
each from three to five flowers when the plants are vigorous. 
Calyx covered with glandular hairs; corolla not quite an 
inch and a half long, rich dull red; the tube almost cylin¬ 
drical ; the upper lip straight, nearly flat, slightly two-lobed; 
the lower three parted, spreading at right angles to the 
upper. 
It has so little the appearance of a Pentstemon that it 
may be expected to be regarded hereafter as a distinct 
genus. 
A hardy little shrub, growing freely in any good rich 
garden soil, and easily increased by seeds or cuttings in the 
usual way. It flowers freely, one year from seeds, and lasts 
in flower from June to October. 
It is a very desirable hardy plant.—( Horticultural Society’s 
Journal .) 
TROPiEOLUM SMITHII. 
Fkom Messrs. Yeitch and Son, whose collector, Mr. Wil¬ 
liam Lobb, sent it from Peru. 
A climbing annual, with smooth dark green five-lobed 
leaves, glaucous on the under side. The flowers grow singly 
from the axils of the leaves on very long stalks, are bright 
orange red, with the petals divided at the edge into bristle- 
pointed teeth. 
It is a very pretty species, which deserves to be more 
generally cultivated than it is. — ( Horticultural Society's 
Journal.) 
NOTES FROM THE CONTINENT.—No. 7. 
BERLIN. 
As the subject of spring-flowering plants to be used as 
bedders has been brought conspicuously before the readers 
of these pages, I deemed it my duty to look round, and see 
if I could not add my mite to the general treasury of know¬ 
ledge on this point. I find that in the best gardens in this 
neighbourhood it is customary to fill the beds of the flower 
garden twice. The best plants I have seen used for the first 
planting are as follows : Silene pendula, one mass of flowers 
of a rosy crimson colour, growing not more than four inches 
high on our soil; it is raised from seed every autumn, and 
