THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
389 
flowers with yellow centres; A. Alpina, white, shading 
to blue; A. Appenina, clear sky blue; and A. blanda, 
sky-blue, very early, are excellent for rock-work, or any 
exposed place. They are of mountain birth, as the 
names of the first two would tell; indeed, most of the 
family are mountaineers, being found in the Alps, the 
Appenines, the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, and our own 
Rocky Mountains. 
“ There’s fennel for you, and Columbines,” as Ophelia 
says, and the latter afford some lovely specimens. 
Aquilegia Canadensis, the common native Columbine, 
has showy yellow and red flowers. It is well adapted 
for rock-work, growing profusely on the most inaccessi¬ 
ble points of the Palisades. A. Ccerulea, the Rocky 
Mountain Columbine, has erect blue and white flowers, 
blooming later in the spring than the first named, and 
continuing in flower a long time. A. chrysantha, 
Golden Columbine, is a beautiful and distinct variety 
from Arizona and the Southwest. The flowers are large, 
and clear golden yellow. 
In an herbaceous garden, we may give more license 
to poetic thought and personal fancy, so it seems right 
to give a corner to the ‘ ‘bonny blue bells” of song and 
story, the Campanulas. The botanical name, from the 
Italian, very appropriately means a little bell, but the 
common name Harebell is somewhat confusing, as the 
wild Hyacinth of Great Britain is also called by that 
name, so one of our botanists has re-christened it the 
Bluebell of Scotland, which also seems a misnomer, 
when applied to our native species. The American 
Bluebell, C. rotundifolia, shows a profusion of dark 
blue flowers through the summer; C. Carpatica, the 
Carpathian Bluebell, is one of the Alpine kinds, with 
clear blue flowers and dwarf habit. One little Alpine 
variety; C. Cenisia, is found on the most exposed parts 
of Mont Cenis, fearlessly holding up its little blue 
cups. 
The cultivation of these herbaceous perennials is ex¬ 
tremely simple. They will grow where any garden 
plants will, only requiring a good light soil, with a little 
fertilizing each spring. Even a rock-border may be 
easily improvised, when nature has not already provided 
it, though most rock growing plants soon r adapt them 
selves to an ordinary border. E. L. Taplin. 
CHRISTMAS ROSES. 
Pale winter Roses, the white ghosts 
Of our June Roses, 
Last beauty that the old year boasts, 
Ere his reign closes ! 
I gather you, as farewell gift 
From parting lover, 
For ere you fade, liisjnoments swift 
Will all be over. 
Kind ghost ye are, that trouble not, 
Nor fright, nor sadden, 
But wake fond memories half forgot, 
And thoughts that gladden. 
O changeless past! I would the year 
Left of lost hours 
No ghosts that brought more shame or fear 
Than these white flowers. — Selected. 
AMARYLLIS LROM SEED. 
The increasing taste for Amaiyllis culture in this 
country has been, and is still rapid and constant. These 
who have made this genus a study find in it a large 
field for pleasure and enjoyment. From all quarters 
information is asked as to the best methods of propa¬ 
gation and culture. With this as with all other classes 
of plants, the results of hybridization and cross- fertili¬ 
zation yield the most pleasure. The uncertainty of 
what plants from seed willjbe secured, makes the gro win g 
of all bulbs from seed particularly interesting, and with 
plants having such marked characteristics as the Amar¬ 
yllis, doubly so. For the benefit of such of our readers 
as are interested in the Amaryllis, we copy from a for¬ 
eign exchange the following very able article on grow¬ 
ing the Amaryllis from seed: 
“As an old grower of Amaryllis, I have been much 
gratified by the unmistakable proofs that have of late 
been afforded of the rapidly increasing popularity of 
these magnificent flowers. They have not perhaps been 
so largely or so satisfactorily shown at the spring ex¬ 
hibitions and meetings of the current year as in some 
previous seasons, those from amateur cultivators having- 
been particularly weak.* Eut the exhibitions dc net al¬ 
ways afford the surest indication of the esteem in which 
any class of plants is held by the general body of culti¬ 
vators, and this is a case in point. From nurseries and 
private gardens is the most trustworthy evidence to be 
obtained, and if we visit any considerable number of 
either of these, we shall find the Amaryllis grown to a 
larger extent at the present moment, than at any period 
of its history. In some of the principal nurseries the 
stocks of bulbs may be numbered by the thousand, and 
there is no occasion to doubt the statements that are 
made to the effect that the demand for them has be¬ 
come very brisk of late. In the first place w 7 e may be 
well assured that a nurseryman would not make the 
most strenuous efforts to increase as rapidly as possible 
the stock of any subject for wdiich there was hardly 
any demand; and in the second, we meet with them in 
considerable numbers in gardens in which, until re¬ 
cently, they were not grown. The gratification I derive 
from the assurance that the culture of these flowers is 
extending arises from my knowledge of their great 
value for enhancing the interest and attractiveness of 
the plant houses early in the year. With a moderate 
stock and a judicious course of culture, a succession of 
