36 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
It grows tall and large, forming a perfect pyramid of 
fiery scarlet flowers. Massed in a border, it forms a 
most gorgeous spectacle. There is a double form, L. 
tigrinum Jl. pi., lasting longer in bloom. 
L. Washingtonianum is a fine native variety, from 
California, bearing white flowers, which turn to lilac ; 
very fragrant. It grows to a height of six feet under 
favorable circumstances. 
The Pacific coast rivals Japan in producing these flow¬ 
ers. They should be planted ten or twelve inches deep in 
well-drained soil. 
Of Atlantic coast species, L. Philadelphicum has ver¬ 
milion flowers, spotted with black. It should be planted 
three or four inches deep, in sandy soil. L. superbum, 
the Turk’s Cap Lily, has bright oraijge flowers, purple- 
spotted. L. canadense is a showy pendent flower, bright 
orange, spotted with brown. L. canadense var. rubrum 
is a dark-red form of the preceding. The three last- 
named varieties require a moist home; they may be 
naturalized finely in a swampy shrubbery. I have only 
enumerated a few hardy Lilies out of many, being the 
most familiar species. They are all very handsome, and 
all most satisfactory for general culture. 
E. L. Taplin. 
ROCKS AND ROCKERIES. 
T HERE are frequently seen in improved public and 
private grounds large boulders, or ledges of greater 
or less extent, or piles of rocks, either natural or artificial. 
The natural rocks were probably left because it was 
too expensive to have them removed, or it was thought 
they might be made to add to the attractions of the place 
in some way; and the artificial piles of rocks called 
“ rockeries ” were built with the idea of making them 
ornamental, and were generally placed in the most inap¬ 
propriate places, and built without the least idea of their 
proper construction, and with only the most vague idea 
of how they would be ornamented after they were 
finished. 
I have seen a rockery built in the centre of a nicely fin¬ 
ished lawn, or in a conspicuous place in a public park, 
right in the glare of the sun, and without the appearance 
of ornamental vegetation on it, simply because appro¬ 
priate plants could not grow in such a situation. The 
place for an artificial rockery is in a secluded spot where 
it will not be exposed to the full heat of the sun. 
Perhaps a good idea of a properly and an improperly 
constructed rockery could best be given by describing two 
examples of such work, not far from Boston. 
A considerable sum of money was bequeathed to a 
certain town to be used in improving the common, a tri¬ 
angular piece of ground of about ten acres area, extend¬ 
ing from the centre of the town to a lake near. A com¬ 
mittee was chosen to make the improvements; they first 
considered it the proper thing to build a rockery. The 
result was a pile of great smooth boulders selected from 
walls and pastures with special reference to the amount 
of moss and lichen on them, and laid in a pile with nearly 
perpendicular faces, about thirty feet long and twenty 
feet high, with a small basin at the top for soil; on one 
side a cemented basin with fountain; this basin and a 
narrow triangular strip was bordered with pointed stones 
three or four feet high, and the triangular place filled with 
earth and grassed over. This structure was placed at the 
point of the common nearest the centre of the town. 
Now, it is very doubtful if anything can be kept growing 
without a very liberal supply of water, and it is generally 
when the water is wanted most that the supply is limited. 
It might be covered with vines if the soil about the base 
was good enough, and if they could be kept in place in a 
public common where boys are numerous. 
Not many miles from this place is another rockery, 
built by a private individual. On one side of his house is 
a small grove of evergreens, planted by his own hands 
less than twenty years ago, and it is a most delightful 
retreat in hot summer days. Nearer the house and partly 
shaded by the grove and house, was a terrace bank ; this 
he has made into a rockery, using odd-shaped weather 
and waterworn rocks interesting in themselves, on ac¬ 
count of their oddness, but not so placed as to make the 
rocks prominent, but to allow good pockets and crevices 
connecting with the cool moist soil under and around the 
rocks to which the roots of plants can penetrate. 
The rocks are not built up so high that the moisture 
will all dry out in dry weather, and there is a large barrel 
built in the rockery and supplied with water to be used 
when necessary. 
In this rockery may be grown a great variety of our 
native Ferns, and many pretty flowering plants and creep¬ 
ing vines. There are many plants suited for the different 
conditions to be found on the natural ledges and boulders, 
and the same plants will grow in the artificial rockwork, 
and also many others. 
For a large smooth surface nothing is better than the 
Japanese Ivy (Ampelopszs Veitcheii) ; it will cling to the 
surface of the smoothest rock, and form a perfect mat of 
green in summer, turn to most brilliant colors in the fall, 
and when the leaves are off in the winter, the branches 
form a most delicate tracery on the surface to which they 
are attached. For an evergreen plant the Euonymus 
radicans and its variegated variety, or the English Ivy, 
will grow well in shady spots south of Rhode Island. 
For crevices and cracks in the rocks nothing can be 
better than the House Leeks or Sempervivums. There are 
hundreds of varieties, many of them perfectly hardy; they 
vary from diminutive specimens of light and dark green, 
red, gray and purple rosettes, either smooth or covered 
with cobwebby hairs, to those that are six to eight inches 
in diameter, and they will grow where there is absolutely 
no soil, if their roots can find a crack in which there is a 
