214 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
feet. It is a native of South America, and, though justice has 
never been done to it, it was introduced in 1798. It continues 
in flower from June to December. 
S . Speciosa belongs to the same section as CGctinea. The 
chief difference between them is, that the spike is rather shorter 
and the colour not so intense as in Coccinea ; but still this is a 
splendidly coloured flower ; and along with some of the more 
intensely blue Salvias, of the same natural order, either species 
would form a most striking contrast in colour. Both require pro¬ 
tection from intense frost. 
P. N. Don. 
THE WEATHER FOR AUGUST. 
Taken all together, the characters of the seasons, and the successions of 
the weather, for the present year, are quite a study,—and one from which 
much instruction may be obtained on points useful to cultivators generally, 
but more especially to cultivators of flowers. After intensely cold, but compara¬ 
tively dry weather in the end of winter and the first part of spring, drought, 
and warmth set in, and produced a most luxuriant, though not a very 
early vegetation. There were during this part of the season a few reverses 
which affected some articles, and more especially the early blossoms and fruits 
of the orchard. These, however, had but little effect upon anything else, so 
that the flowering shrubs and herbaceous bed and border plants advanced 
gradually, and with that firmness which is in a great measure proof against 
the vicissitudes of the more advanced part of the season, and ensures a strong 
and vigorous bloom. Cold weather with frequent showers set in about the 
commencement of summer; and these were more favourable to the growth 
and development of flowering plants than if this part of the season had been 
dry, with parching days and chilling nights, which are general results of great 
heat in the early summer. The uniformity of temperature occasioned by the 
showers prevented an over-stimulus; and thus the beauties of the parterre 
advanced onwards with much steadiness,—surer than in more stimulating 
seasons, but, at the same time, slower. 
It is probable, that this diminished heat of the summer may have thrown 
our native wild flowers more into growth of the individual, and less into 
flowering growth, than if the character of the season had been different; but 
in wild plants it is the leaf which we value more than the flower ; and, there¬ 
fore, we should say that the season was peculiarly favourable for the down and 
the upland, and that there was never so much stagnant moisture upon the 
very lowest meadows, if at all kept in decent order, as to sour the vegetation 
there, or change its character from meadow to marsh, as is but too often the 
case upon slovenly managed grounds in wet seasons. The showers alter- 
