The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 05 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed

There is an elegance and neatness in most of this tribe, and none possess those qualities in a greater degree than the present species, which is a charming little evergreen, admirably adapted for the greenhouse, as it forms a pretty bulb, and flowers during most of the summer.

It grows spontaneously in the South of Europe, and many parts of the Levant; Honorius Bellus, in his epistle Clusius (vid. Clus. op.) describes it as growing on the hilly parts of the island of Crete.

Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, received it about four years since from the Crimea.

It is propagated by cuttings.

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Fumaria Glauca. Glaucous Fumitory.

The term sempervirens applied to this plant by Linnæus, originated in the description given of it by Cornutus; (vid. Syn.) the impropriety of calling an annual plant (for such it undoubtedly is with us, and must be in Canada, its native place of growth) an evergreen, has appeared to us too glaring to be continued; we have thought the promotion of the science required a change in the name, and have therefore altered it to that of glauca, as coinciding with the English name of glaucous, given it by Mr. Aiton in his Hortus Kewensis; for to the delicate, pleasing, glaucous hue of its foliage, it owes its beauty, as much as to the lively colours of its blossoms.

It is a hardy annual, coming up spontaneously in the open border where it has once flowered and seeded, and sometimes reaching the height of two feet.

It flowers from June to September.

Mr. Aiton informs us of its having been cultivated by Mr. James Sutherland in the year 1683. Strange! that it should yet be a rarity in our gardens.

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Azalea Nudiflora var. Coccinea. Scarlet Azalea.

Whether the variety of the Azalea nudiflora here figured, was originally introduced to this country by Mrs. Norman of Bromley in Kent, or Mr. Bewick of Clapham in Surrey (both celebrated for their collections of American plants) we cannot with certainty assert; true it is, the Azalea coccinea was little known here till the sale of Mr. Bewick's plant in 1722; a considerable number of these shrubs formed the choicest part of that collection, and sold at high prices, one of them produced twenty guineas: prior to this period, Mr. Bewick had presented one of the same sort of shrubs to Mr. Thoburn, the fruits of whose skill and assiduous care in the cultivation of American plants are apparent in his late nursery at Brompton, now Mr. Whitley's, and from the produce of which plant our figure was taken.

The original species, found abundantly in the more southern parts of North-America, was introduced, according to Mr. Aiton's account, by Peter Collinson, Esq. about the year 1724.

The brilliancy of colour and a happy combination of form, unite in rendering the variety here figured, one of the most beautiful plants in nature: yet it wants the fragrance of some of the varieties of the viscosa.

It flowers in June and continues in blossom about three weeks, requires a sheltered but not too shady a situation, more dry than moist, and a soil composed of loam and bog earth, or rotten leaves.

The usual mode of propagating it is by layers; care must be taken not to remove the offspring too soon from the mother plant.

INDEX.

INDEX.