THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
279 
but must always be full of delight at the manifestations 
of love shown in this particular regard for the beauty 
which may be given to the most common objects, to 
recommend them to man’s attention when discovered; 
and one must be awed too by the certainty of the care¬ 
ful and deliberate design and plan which influenced 
the conception and development of every object in 
nature.” 
Our study should be to imitate nature, that our gar¬ 
dens may communicate to us and to our neighbors the 
same pleasure and instruction that we derive from 
Nature’s plantings. No real pleasure comes from me¬ 
chanical gardening; regulation patterns may be ad¬ 
mired, they cannot be loved. Plants were made to 
occupy a given space, and clothed with richness and 
taste to give pleasure, while they are performing their 
allotted tasks. In a natural position they develop into 
a beautiful form, but how different when stunted, 
dwarfed, cut out of shape, unwillingly made vegetable 
dudes. 
HARDY PLANTS IN FLOWER. 
FEW leisure moments at dis¬ 
posal prompts me to notice 
the hardy plants in flower at 
this time. A collection of 
Phlox decussata is truly beau¬ 
tiful, large fine panicles stand¬ 
ing boldly out from the 
general formation of an old 
fashioned mixed border. 
Twelve good varieties are 
Isabey, Richard Wallace, 
Prime Minister, Charlemagne, 
Lothair, Prinqess Louise, Sir 
E. Landseer, Roi des Blanches, Arago, Cross of Honor 
and La Tour Monde. 
The lovely yellow Coreopsis, lanceolate and verticul- 
lata; Gaillardia aristata, orange and brown shaded; 
Campanulas—these bell flowers are all beautiful; there 
are the white and blue pyramidalis, the white and blue 
persicifalias, double and single, and the Wahlenbergia 
or Platycodons, blue and white, double and single. 
Why these are not Campanulas as they once were, I 
cannot say. Then the magnificent shades of Delphi¬ 
nium simplex, from the purest white grades dp to the 
most intense and richest blue, are effective beyond de¬ 
scription, How is it this lovely Delphinium is not seen 
oftener ? There is no difficulty attending its manage¬ 
ment ; it is hardy, flowers freely and requires no 
nursing. The different forms of Pentstemon Sorreyi 
and Chelone barbata, are effective with their scarlet 
tube-shaped flowers from June until frost. Lychnis 
coronaria alba fl. pi. with white flowers, so useful for 
cutting and lasting long; Stokesia cyanea, true lav¬ 
ender in color, with its large effective centaurea-shaped 
flowers. For cutting the Lysimachia cletliroides is 
equal to Gladioli for opening in water its peculiar cyme¬ 
shaped spikes of white flowers, and its lance-shaped 
leaves are effective beyond description when placed in 
vases so as to be free from molestation. A robust and 
very effective plant is Hemerocallis Rwanso, fl. pleno, 
deep bronzy red, lasting from middle of July to far in 
September. Funkias in several shades, especially the 
white Subcordata, and several shades of the double 
Potentillas, are at this date effective from their orange 
red and maroon shades, 
Another plant is Hyacinthus candicans, thoroughly 
hardy, stately and distinct in character; it is one of the 
very best plants we know, its flowers are pendant, 
opaque white, one and one-half inches long and one 
inch in diameter, strong plants, having from forty to 
eighty flowers. It has a distinct fruity perfume, very 
agreeable and mild. We have lately seen this plant 
noticed, and the writer stated there was not the 
slightest perfume, but we assert that the flowers have, 
as we have said, a most agreeable fruity odor. 
John Thorpe. 
THE CAMELLIA. 
In their native homes, either in Japan or China, the 
different varieties of Camellia Japonica are larger ever¬ 
green shrubs or small trees, often exceeding twenty 
feet in height, with bright, glossy green leaves, and very 
showy, large, single or double flowers, in color either 
red, white or blotched. Although the first plants were 
brought from China about the year 1789, yet it is a 
native of Japan, from which fact the specific name 
Japonica was applied, and it was introduced into 
Europe by Father Kamel, a Moravian priest, who was 
then traveling in China, where he first saw this beauti¬ 
ful shrub. In his honor the generic name was given; 
Latinized it became Camellus. The first plants were 
brought from China into England in 1739, but as they 
were given the treatment usually applied to stove 
plants they soon died, and were lost to cultivation until 
1792, when the single variety was again introduced; 
this was followed by the double white, and in the 
course of a few years by the fringed white, and some 
varieties of the Anemone flowered section. The single 
white variety was not introduced until 1818, and even 
now it is a very rare plant. 
Robert Fortune, tlje well-known traveler, to whom 
we are indebted for so many valuable plants, and who 
has traveled extensively in both Japan and China, de¬ 
scribes the Camellia as growing wild in the woods; 
some specimens being quite trees, their glossy green 
foliage and magnificent flowers rendering them one of 
