-208 THE FLORIST. 
We might have Fig: trees! quite as grand ; and we might-grow abun~ 
dantly the Judas trees, the delicate purple blossoms of which diversify 
scenery, throwing colour against the sky ; as does also the Catalpa and 
Paulownia, of which large trees covered with flowers are m all the 
gardens round Rome. | LW 
Carnations abound; you see them falling in a thick mass from 
pots placed on sills of windows up six stories. One plant in the balcony 
above mine droops down like a curtain, and bears flowers for months in 
the year, I am told. They are of the true Carnation tint, and fragrant. 
The pots in which these Carnations grow are small, and my servant 
tells me that water is never given them; all they get comes from the 
clouds. The herbage on the walls of Rome is something wonderful ; 
the Professor of Botany has enumerated 260 specimens of plants found 
among the ruins of the Coliseum alone. Most of them. helong to 
Papilionaceee, nearly all the rest are Cryptogamous. The temple 
Egeria is covered with Adiantum C. veneris; this beautiful Fern also 
lines the great wall at Onixto. Sedums of great variety project from 
the crevices and rents made by time (in. the walls), or nestle in the 
holes of the tufa, rooting themselves between the joints of masonry 
even to the cornice; many are golden yellow, and others all shades of - 
pink and crimson ; likewise Houseleek and those succulent plants with 
their decisive forms and great masses are very characteristic features of 
the scenery round Rome. ‘Wallflowers of all colours, and many with 
variegated foliage, enliven the clustering leaves of plants which have 
not conspicuous flowers. The Antirrhmums, so familiar to us in 
England, hang pendent from walls like drapery, and Ivy hangs loose 
from walls that are smooth, and from the other side, where it ‘is 
rooted, a depth of 20 feet. Great bushes of Rosemary establish them- 
selves in places where a large stone has been dislodged, and Jasmines 
with thick twisted’ stems ramble over the surface rooted ‘in crevices, and 
upheld by mere contact with jutting plants.’ The crumbling ruins are 
jewelled with lizards, iridescent as they dart with the rapidity of thought 
in pursuit of insects, and glide over the flat white marble slabs which 
bear testimony of former luxury, when Nero’s Golden Palace had 
garden walls of polished granite, alabaster, jasper, and porphyry. 
Many of those walls have been veneered with marble over the interior 
work, was 
C.. E. [o. 
o Sab 
25 
2S L TSE. 
STRAWBERRY FORCING. 
THE introduction of several new kinds of Strawberries will have the 
effect of throwing a number of old kinds out of cultivation, excepting 
perhaps Keens’ Seedling and the British Queen ; the former will have 
to be retained for the present, as being yet the best early kind, and-for 
its general productiveness and good qualities. ey’ Ae 
Taking all its qualities into consideration, the British Queen is still 
VIX wWOY 
