148 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ October, 
varieties he should have—and most of these 
can now be had at very reasonable prices—the 
following:— 
Bizarres. —Sir Joseph Paxton, Masterpiece, Com¬ 
mander, Demosthenes, Dr. Hardy, Orion, Ajax, 
George Hayward, Sulphur, Richard Yates, Prince of 
Wales, and Merit. 
Byblcemens. —Bessie, Adonis, Talisman, Walker’s 
Duchess of Sutherland, Violet Aimable, Martin’s 
101 . 
Roses. —Heroine, Modesty, Industry, Aglaia, 
Charmer, Mabel, Mrs. Lomax,—these three latter 
are one variety, a very fine one too,—Mrs. Lea, 
Sarah Headly, Madame St. Arnaud, Celestial. 
In the class of Breeders, he should get:— 
Bizarres. — Dr. Hardy, Ariosto, Orion, Sir J. 
Paxton, Richard Yates, Storer’s No. 4. 
Byblcemens. — Glory of Stakehill, Alice Gray, 
Talisman, Ashmole’s 112, Hepworth’s 96/63, Adonis, 
Martin’s 117. 
Roses. —Mrs. Barlow, Lady Grosvenor, Lady May, 
Annie McGregor, Queen of England, Lord Derby, 
Mabel. 
If, in addition to the above, he can secure a 
bulb or an offset of each or any of the follow¬ 
ing, he will be well pleased. Although now 
rare, or in few hands, and well held, they have 
proved their quality and constancy. 
Bizarres. —William Wilson (Hardy), Garibaldi 
(Ashmole), Target (Whittaker). 
Byblcemens. —Majestic, Music (Jackson), Norah 
Darling (Lea), Friar Tuck (Slater), Nimbus (Hardy). 
Roses. —Annie Lea (Lea), Nanny Gibson (Hep- 
worth), Lucretia (Slater), Annie McGregor (Martin). 
As Seedlings usually bloom for the first 
time and for several seasons in the breeder 
state, the number of fine varieties shown is 
legion, but the varieties named above will hold 
their own for some time, although Seedlings 
of exceptional merit are found in the very 
front rank every year.—S. Barlow, Stakehill. 
ARNEBIA ECHIOIDES. 
the Borage family we are indebted for 
number of charming plants, admir- 
bly adapted for the decoration of the 
hardy flower garden and herbaceous borders. 
The vigour and beauty of the great Italian 
Alkanet is familiar to all, and loses nothing 
by its familiarity. The drooping golden drops 
of the Taurian Onosma is, perhaps, less familiar, 
and still less so is the Arnebia, upon which I 
purpose offering a few remarks. I am the 
more induced to do so from the fact that, 
though I have grown it for a number of years, 
I find I have never done it justice till now. 
Being rare in cultivation and difficult to obtain, 
it has been almost invariably submitted to the 
process of coddling in a pot, under which con¬ 
ditions it has dragged out a miserable existence, 
rarely producing flowers. 
Before offering a brief description of the 
plant, I may state the conditions under which 
the favourable and, I must say, wholly unex¬ 
pected change in its development has taken 
place. Cultivated in a pot for some six years, 
it produced annually four leaves about 4 in. 
long, and once made an attempt at a spike of 
flowers. I last year planted it in the bed 
allotted to the Borage family, in our new 
Botanical arrangement. It grew vigorously, 
the leaves reaching a development treble the 
size, and forming a dense tuft of well developed 
foliage. So vigorous, in fact, was its growth, 
that I dreaded the result of the severe winter. 
This spring I found it all right and sound, 
with a woody root-stock nearly an inch in 
diameter, crowned with a mass of buds. The 
latter part of March produced, besides a mass 
of leaves, no less than 17 spikes of flowers, 
about 15 in. high, each one carrying its scor- 
pioid arrangement of at least a dozen flowers. 
Nor did some 10 degrees of frost affect it to 
the slightest extent. In the early part of June 
a second set of flower-stems were developed, 
fewer in number, but larger. At the present 
time (September) another set is in bloom, 
while an evident succession is just cropping up 
from the root-crown—that promises a further 
extension that will possibly form a floral chain, 
binding the spring and autumn in one con¬ 
tinuous wreath. 
What, then, is the appearance of the plant ? 
I have already alluded to its stature and habit 
of growth, so need say no more on those points. 
The flowers are about half-an-inch in diameter, 
lobed into five rounded segments, and some¬ 
what funnel-shaped ; their colour is a lovely 
can ary-yellow, but they possess a special char¬ 
acteristic that is, in my floral experience, 
unique, and belongs to this plant alone. On 
the first day that the flowers open, there are 
at the mouth of the tube of the corolla five 
spots of intense blackness, the second day, 
these spots almost disappear, and the third 
day, they have vanished altogether. Where 
have the black blotches gone to, and why have 
they gone ? are questions which cannot be 
answered; but the aspect of the flowers, as 
presented by dozens in the three stages of de¬ 
velopment, is singular in the extreme, and 
gives a special interest to this plant. 
