8 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
nate or spiral, the flowers solitary or cymose, rarely ra- 
cemed. This genus is entirely confined to the Old World. 
In Helianthemum, on the other hand, the placentae and 
valves are three in number; the embryo is folded, hooked, 
or circumflex, and the flowers are frequently racemed. As 
before stated, true Helianthemums are found in both hem¬ 
ispheres. The leaves are simple and mostly entire, the 
lower usually opposite and the upper alternate. The flow¬ 
ers of some species are dimorphic, the earlier ones being 
large, with numerous stamens and many-seeded pods, 
while those produced later in the season are much smaller 
in size (the petals being sometimes altogether absent), the 
stamens much less numerous, and the seed-pods smaller, 
with fewer seeds. The flowers open only once, and cast 
As it would require too much space to include all the 
species, only the more showy ones are described in this 
article. Probably some of these are not at present in cul¬ 
tivation, but it is to be hoped that not a few will be re¬ 
introduced now that attention has been called to them. 
Nothing could be easier than for summer visitors to Spain, 
Portugal, North Africa, and the Mediterranean region 
generally, to collect and send home seeds of some of these 
beautiful plants. 
For convenience of reference the Helianthemums here 
described are arranged in alphabetical order. 
H. Canadense. This is a perennial herbaceous plant, 
with several erect or ascending purplish brown hairy stems, 
simple below and branched above, springing from the 
Helianthemum Formosum. 
their petals before the next day; they are produced in such 
profusion, however, that few plants make a brighter display 
during their flowering season, which in some species is a 
somewhat prolonged one. 
The cultural requirements of all are of the simplest; H. 
vulgare, and the numerous garden varieties of that species 
will succeed in almost any soil or situation; the more 
exclusively southern kinds should have a thoroughly well- 
drained position in the shrubbery border or rockery. The 
latter, it is safe to assert, suffer much more from the exces¬ 
sive moisture than from the severity of English winters. 
In any case, a pot of cuttings could be placed in a cold 
frame each autumn, in order to replace the parent plants, 
should they succumb. The annual kinds—and there are 
many well worthy in any sunny portion of the garden—do 
best if sown in pots under glass in spring and planted out 
when two or three inches high. 
same root. They attain a height of a foot or more, and 
produce a large number of beautiful clear yellow flowers 
an inch or so in diameter; these are solitary, the small 
apetalous flowers’being borne in nearly sessile clusters in 
the axils of the leaves. It is found in gravelly or dry soil 
from Maine to Wisconsin and southward. The flowering 
season lasts from June to August. The name, Frostweed— 
under which it is generally known in its native habitats—is, 
according to Dr. Asa Gray’s “ Manual of the Botany of 
the Northern United States,” owing to the fact that late in. 
the autumn crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at 
the root. 
H. Carolinianum. Like the last, this is a herbaceous 
perennial,- with large, pale yellow flowers. Several erect, 
very hairy stems spring from the somewhat creeping root, 
and attain a height of from six inches to one foot. These 
mostly die back in winter for the greater part of their 
