when open. Hence the significance of the name; but it is further descriptive of the arrangement of the leaves, which are rather closely packed in four rows along the stems. The flowers are deep blue, arranged in whorls or clusters in the axils at the upper ends of the stems. Height about 9 inches or I foot. Flowers in June and July. Native of dry mountain pastures on the great ranges of central and southern Europe. May be cultivated with little difficulty in any moderately good garden-loam, in the open border or rockwork; and is handsome and distinct.

G. gelida (Pale-blue Siberian G.)-A very beautiful species, growing about 1 foot high, with rather diffuse stems and lanceshaped leaves. The flowers are bright pale-blue, rather openly bell-shaped, produced in clusters in the axils of the upper leaves; appearing in June and July. Native of Siberia. Succeeds well in border or on rockwork, in moist peaty loam, sandy and well drained.

G. lutea (Large Yellow G.)-The roots of this species supply the greater bulk of bitter Gentian of the druggists. It is the largest and most bulky of the Gentians known to cultivation, reaching the height of 3 or 4 feet, with erect strong stems. The leaves are broadly egg-shaped and ample. The flowers are produced in dense whorls in the upper part of the stems, the full inflorescence having the appearance of a long-whorled spike. They are yellow, and appear in June and July. Native of high mountain meadows in central and southern Europe. It is a striking border-plant, both on account of the broad ample leaves and the inflorescence, which, though not so showy in colour as that of many, is very distinct. Very deep, rich, moist loam suits it best.

G. pneumonanthe (Marsh G.)-A British species, though not common. It grows about 9 inches or 1 foot high. The leaves are oblong lance-shaped. Flowers long, deep blue, lined on the outside with green, produced in the axils in the upper part of the stems, and appearing in August and September. Flourishes best in rich, peaty, sandy loam, moist, but well drained; and succeeds in either border or rockwork. It is a very common plant in moist pastures in hilly countries throughout Europe and northern Asia.

G. punctata (Yellow-spotted G.)—A strong-growing plant about 2 feet high, with erect strong stems. The leaves are oval, on short stalks. The flowers are produced in clusters at the extremities of the stems, and are pale yellow spotted with purple. Flowers in June and July. The plant is a native of high alpine pastures on the great mountain-ranges of Europe. It succeeds well in the mixed border in deep sandy loam.

G. pyrenaica (Pyrenean G.)—This is one of the high alpine species. It grows only a few inches high, with branching, spreading stems. The leaves are narrow lance-shaped. The flowers are deep blue, divided into ten segments, each alternate one being smaller and more angular than the principal or representative five. They appear in June and July. Native of lofty stations on the Pyrenees.

G. saponaria (Soapwort-leaved G.)-A good and accommodating border-plant, growing 1 or 2 feet high. The stems are ascending, and clothed with broadly-lance-shaped leaves. The flowers are stalkless, in rather close heads at the extremities of the stems; they are blue and barrel-shaped, being almost closed at the mouth, which is cut into ten nearly equal segments. They appear in August and September. Native of North America. This is one of the most easily cultivated species, thriving in any ordinary garden-soil.

G. septemfida (Crested G.)-A very handsome species, suitable only for culture on rockwork, except where moist peaty borders exist, when it may be successfully grown on the level; but it delights most in peat, or sandy loam and peat, whatsoever station it may occupy. The plant forms tufts about 9 inches high. The leaves are lance-shaped, rather broadly so, and distinctly three-veined. The flowers are large, bright blue, with a white-and-blue spotted throat; and the smaller alternate segments are finely cut. Flowers in August and September. Native of the Caucasus.

G. verna (Vernal G.)—One of the smallest and most beautiful of Gentians. It grows only 1 or 2 inches high, and has the same close matting style of growth as G. acaulis; but is even more dense and compact than that plant. The leaves are hard, small, and oblong in shape. The flowers are borne on short stems, often barely carrying the whole length of the tube of the flower above the mat of leaves; they are funnelshaped, and divided at the mouth in five spreading, rather broad lobes, having intermediate and smaller lobes, slightly cut or crested, between. They appear in April and May. The plant is a native of high alpine pastures, and is often coddled and vexed to death in cultivation. Although a tiny plant, it requires a deep, rich, cool, sandy loam to grow in, and a good open exposure; and, like all, or nearly all, Gentians, water in abundance is necessary during the growing season. The rockwork is the best place for it, where, if the natural soil is not what it flourishes best in, a suitable compost may be provided for it; but if suitable, it may be tried with every confidence in the open border.

Linnanthemum nymphæoides, syn. Villarsia nymphæoides. -An elegant aquatic plant, found in many parts of Britain and Ireland, but supposed to have been introduced, and not native. It forms widely-extending immersed stems, rooting freely below, and branching at the extremities; the branches ascending to the surface of the water, and terminating in a tuft of leaves, deeply heart-shaped, on long stalks, and floating on the surface. The flowers are large, bright yellow, on long stalks; appearing above water in June, July, and August. It may easily be introduced into pieces of water, natural or artificial, by procuring divisions and immersing them, and otherwise treating them as described already for Water-Lilies; and seed, if more handy, may be treated in precisely the same way, taking care to sow them as soon as ripe.

Menyanthes trifoliata (Buckbean, or Marsh Trefoil).—This is a beautiful and fragrant plant, and a common native of Britain-in shallow streams or pools, and very wet marshy ground or bogs. The plant forms strong, creeping, rooting stems, in deeper water often floating. The leaves are trifoliate, on long stout stalks; the leaflets large, oval, or oblong. The flowers are borne on stout stalks, varying in length with the depth of the water from 6 inches to 1 foot or more. They are arranged in handsome racemes, and the corolla is deeply cleft into five lobes, and beautifully fringed; on the inside it is white, suffused with pink outside. It will be found easy to establish wherever the necessary conditions of its existenceshallow water or bog-are available, by introducing pieces of the stems, and securing them till, by the emission of roots, they have secured 'themselves.

Spigelia marilandica (Perennial Wormgrass).—This is a lovely plant, very rare in cultivation, and difficult to keep unless the circumstances are most favourable. It is a native of moist warm woods in North America, ranging over a considerable extent of the country, and luxuriates in the rich, deep, vegetable mould formed by the decomposed annual clothing of many generations of trees. The nearest approach to this that we can make in cultivation is a mixture of peat and loam, with abundance of sand. Considerable depth of soil is required; and it should be well drained, but well supplied with water during the hot months of summer. The plant likes a warm position, and also a little shade; but if so placed on rockwork as to enjoy a screen for an hour or two during the hottest part of the day, it will be quite sufficient. Shelter also is required from cutting winds; and the means adopted to secure this, whether by planting in hollows protected by either ledges or

bushes, may be so adjusted as to afford the necessary amount of shade. Propagation may be effected by carefully dividing the roots; but it is one of those subjects which, when doing well, should not lightly be disturbed. The plant grows about I foot or 18 inches high, with numerous erect simple stems. The leaves are very broadly lance-shaped or acutely oval. The flowers are long, tubular, brilliant scarlet externally, and yellow within; but little of this is seen except on close examination, the external colour being that which is conspicuous; and the tube is divided at the mouth into five acute segments. They are borne in small clusters in the axils of the upper part of the stem, and appear in July and August.

POLEMONIACEÆ.

A small family, but an important one to flower-gardeners, for we could ill do without our Phloxes. There are only three genera of hardy Phloxworts represented in cultivation at present, so far as I know. They are Cyananthus, Phlox, and Polemonium. The first is represented by a rare and solitary but very pretty species; the second is familiar to every one who has to do with gardens in any way through the popular florists' varieties; and the last is best known by its old-fashioned representative Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium cæruleum. The species are mostly plants of some ornamental value; and some, along with their varieties, are splendid or very showy free-flowering subjects.

Cyananthus lobatus (Lobed-leaved C.)-A native of lofty elevations on the Himalayas, perfectly hardy, but very impatient of damp. It forms diffuse spreading tufts 6 to 9 inches high, the stems branching freely, and clothed with small lobed and much-toothed leaves, and both stems and leaves are thinly covered with soft hairs. The flowers appear at the ends of the branches, are not large, but Phlox-like, and divided deeply into five broadish-bearded lobes, and beautiful soft blue. The flowers begin to open in early summer, and continue, never very profusely but continuously, to open throughout summer, and often into autumn. The plant is only capable of enduring our winters on warm dry rockwork, or it may be secured over winter by putting a few cuttings early in autumn in pots, in sandy soil, in a cold frame, to be kept dryish during winter. It flourishes best in deep sandy loam and peat, and delights in

abundant moisture during the growing season, but the drainage ought to be very perfect.

Phlox. This is one of the most numerous of the groups of this order, and in so far as the varieties of the late-flowering taller species are concerned it is a very familiar one, for the florists have been very successful in popularising it through them. The species from which these popular varieties have sprung-paniculata, pyramidalis, suffruticosa, and others-no longer exist in gardens; a fact that need not be mourned over, since they have left such a host of beauty in their offspring. These autumn-flowering Phloxes are indispensable to the mixed border, and amongst masses of shrubs their showy panicles have often a fine effect in distant pictures or scenes in places of large extent. They flourish in any ordinary garden-soil, but develop themselves best in moist but well-drained loam, rather strong than otherwise. They may be propagated by cuttings or division; the former is the best for obtaining fine panicles and flowers for show purposes, but the latter is the best way to obtain massive plants quickly for border or shrubbery decoration. They are the better of being occasionally lifted and replanted; this may be done with the best results every year, if done in time-that is, not later than the beginning of March: it keeps the plants always vigorous, both in foliage and panicles; and at each successive planting care should be taken to sink the crowns a trifle lower than they were before. The florists will no doubt smile at my simplicity in these directions. I am quite content that they should do so, if they bear in mind at the same time that my instructions are directed towards the production of many stems and panicles rather than a few of excellent quality. There is another section of Phloxes more rare than these. I allude to the dwarf creeping or trailing species, flowering in spring or early summer. These are not much grown, but they are not less worthy of being cultivated than the tall kinds; indeed some of them rival these, both in the size, brilliancy, and profusion of their flowers,` and their lowly habit renders them available for purposes that the others are unfit for. They are most useful for small or narrow borders and beds, and for the adornment of rockwork and sunny banks and dwarf stumps, in appropriate positions; and altogether they are select plants that may be associated with the more choice herbaceous and alpine perennials in many ways that will suggest themselves in different circumstances. Their culture is quite as simple as that of the taller Phloxes; for although they partake of the character of alpine plants as to stature, they have none of the fastidiousness of some of the