PLATE 17. 
PHILADELPHUS MICROPHYLLUS. 
The genus Philadelphus now contains many species and varieties of 
beautiful flowering shrubs, belonging to the Saxifrage family, and closely 
related to the Deutzias and Hydrangeas. The plants are easily recognised by 
their opposite and usually serrate leaves, which are deciduous in Autumn, and 
by the white flowers having four petals, and from 20 to 40 stamens. They 
are popularly known in gardens under the name of “ Syringa,” but as this is 
the botanical name of the Lilacs, its use sometimes leads to confusion. 
Another popular name for members of the genus Philadelphus is “ Mock 
Orange ”—one that is in many ways appropriate owing to the appearance of 
the blossoms and their fragrance. 
The species represented in the coloured plate is perhaps the smallest 
member of the genus known. It rarety exceeds 3 feet in height, and has 
thin wiry shoots clothed with small myrtle-like leaves. The pure white, 
sweet-scented blossoms, with clusters of yellow stamens in the centre, are 
produced in great profusion during the summer months, on the ripened shoots 
of the previous year’s growth. The plant, although a native of New Mexico, 
is perfectly hardy in most parts of the United Kingdom, and is easily grown 
in any good garden soil that has been deeply dug and well manured previous 
to planting. Owing to its dwarf stature P. microphyllus is scarcely suitable 
for mixing with taller shrubs, which would be likely to rob it of air and light. 
It looks well planted in bold groups on the grass, and may be propagated by 
means of suckers or layers, or cuttings of the ripened wood in autumn. 
A very charming hybrid, known as Philadelphus Lemoinei, has been 
raised by crossing P. microphyllus with the larger, and more common 
European Mock Orange—P. coronarius. This hybrid is intermediate between 
its two parents—being larger than one and smaller than the other in all its 
parts, and is also remarkable for the fragrance of its blossoms. A form of 
Lemoinei, known as erectus , has also appeared, and a beautiful double white 
one known as “ Boule de neige.” 
A “ROSE OF JERICHO” FROM THE 
NEW WORLD. 
For some time past a flourishing trade has 
been done by selling a plant purporting to be 
“ One of the World’s Great Wonders, the 
Rolling thing before the Whirlwind, the 
Semper Viva, or Rose of Jericho, mentioned 
by Isaiah in the Bible.” A circular relating to 
this marvellous plant has been distributed with 
the plants. These, however, have nothing to 
do with the plant properly known as the “ Rose 
of Jericho.” This belongs to the wallflower 
family, and is scientifically known under the 
name of Anastatica Hierochuntica. It is a native 
of the sandy deserts of Arabia, and is found 
growing on rubbish, roofs of houses, and such 
like places in Syria and other parts of the East. 
It is a bushy plant, rarely more than six inches 
high, and has obovate hairy leaves more or 
less toothed on the margins. When the small 
white flowers have withered the leaves fall off 
and the branches turn in towards the centre, 
thus giving a globular shape to the plant. 
It is of no horticultural value, but it 
possesses the remarkable property of opening 
and closing, or contracting and expanding 
according as to whether it comes into contact 
with water or not. The globular form is 
assumed when the plant is in a dry state, and 
this enables it to be blown about the sandy 
wastes more readily by the wind. When it 
touches water the branches expand again, and 
the pods open and drop the seeds. If secured 
before it withers the plant will retain its 
