February 11, 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
377 
for the Calceolarias. Repeat also the edging of blue 
Lobelia. Bed No. 8 had better be a mixed one. In 
the centre put a tall standard Fuchsia, and at each 
of the four corners a Canna, a Castor oil PlaDt, or a 
Fuchsia, according to your resources. The ground 
work may be Tom Thumb Nasturtiums, mixed with 
Stocks, Asters, and Coreopses, with an edging of 
Tagetes and Dactylis planted alternately. 
should have been referred to under the latter name, 
and also under D. hybridum sulphureum, as if con¬ 
vinced that it differed in some respects from Boissier’s 
plant, which is a native of Syria. It may well be 
that the two plants are closely allied, and different 
geographical forms. D. Zalil proves perennial in 
this country, which circumstance would raise it from 
the status of an annual to a perennial or border 
or, preferably, sown during the previous autumn- 
The second year, however, best proves the 
habit of the plant. The accompanying illus¬ 
tration shows a spike ot flowers about the 
natural size. It is a beautiful and distinct ac¬ 
quisition to the herbaceous border, and likes a 
little shade. Well-drained or porous soils are more 
suitable than those of a clayey nature. 
DELPHINIUM ZALIL. 
Yellow Delphiniums are by no means common and 
even some of the best known are seldom seen outside 
of botanic gardens. A yellow species was described 
in Boissier’s Flora Orientals, i,81, under the name of 
Delphinium sulphureum. When D. Zalil was intro¬ 
duced from Afghanistan, in 1887, it was described as 
an attractive annual. It would seem that some 
authorities considered it similar to, if not identical 
with, D. sulphureum, so that we are not surprised it 
plant It grows to a height of 3 ft. and is of very 
graceful habit, the finely cut leaves emphasising that 
character. The flawers are larger than a shilling, of 
a clear sulphur yellow, and produced in long spikes 
during a period extending from May to August. The 
branches of the stem vary from 8 in. to twice that 
length, and coming into bloom in succession serve 
to prolong the display. To get the plant into bloom 
in May the seeds would have to be sown very early 
and brought on under favourable conditions, shifting 
the seedlings into larger pots as they required it, 
A FERN GARDEN. 
(Concluded from p. 331.) 
Polystichums are also a very fine feature, and in 
mulifarious quantities. Their names, too, are some¬ 
what difficult of definition, as there are aculeatum 
and angulare sections, which are again split up into 
ramose, flexuose, plumose, foliose, as well as acuti- 
lobe, divisilobe, etc., sub-sections. Notwithstanding 
their nomenclature, however, they constitute in 
themselves such a wealth of remarkable and graceful 
forms, that one requires to be a Polystichum " fancier ’ ’ 
