hardy-perennial, thriving in almost any soil or situation, but succeeds best in a loamy soil and eastern exposure. Varies with double flowers, in which slate it is often used for forcing.

No notice is taken of this species by Miller, except as a variety of the N. Jonquilla, from which it differs toto calo.

[79]

Lotus Jacobæus. Black-Flower'd Lotus.

Class and Order.

Diadelphia Decandria.

Generic Character.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

N^o79

This species of Lotus has been called black-flower'd, not that the flowers are absolutely black, for they are of a very rich brown inclined to purple, but because they appear so at a little distance; the light colour of the foliage contributes not a little to this appearance.

"It grows naturally in the Island of St. James; is too tender to live abroad in England, so the plants must be kept in pots, and in the winter placed in a warm airy glass cafe, but in the summer they should be placed abroad in a sheltered situation. It may be easily propagated by cuttings during the summer season, and also by seeds, but the plants which have been two or three times propagated by cuttings, seldom are fruitful." Miller's Gard. Dict.

It continues to flower during the whole of the summer; as it is very apt to die off without any apparent cause, care should be taken to have a succession of plants from seeds, if possible.

[80]

Spigelia Marilandica. Maryland Spigelia, or Worm-Grass.

Class and Order.

Pentandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

N^o80

This plant, not less celebrated for its superior efficacy in destroying worms[A], than admired for its beauty, is a native of the warmer parts of North America; the older Botanists, and even Linnæus, at one time considered it as a honeysuckle, but he has now made a new genus of it, which he has named in honour of Spigelius, a Botanist of considerable note, author of the Ifagog. in yem herbar. published at Leyden in 1633.

"This plant is not easily propagated in England, for the roots make but slow increase, so that the plant is not very common in the English Gardens at present; for although it is so hardy as to endure the cold of our ordinary winters in the open air, yet as it does not ripen seeds, the only way of propagating it is by parting of the roots; and as these do not make much increase by offsets, so the plants are scarce; it delights in a moist soil, and must not be often transplanted." Miller's Dict.

The scarcity of this plant, even now, is a proof of the justness of Mr. Miller's observation; it is in fact a very shy plant, and scarcely to be kept in this country but by frequent importation.

It flowers in June and July.

[81]

Colutea Arborescens. Tree Colutea, or Bladder Senna.

Class and Order.

Diadelphia Decandria.

Generic Character.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

N^o81

The Bladder Senna, a native of the South of France and Italy, produces a profusion of bloom from June to August, when its inflated pods please from the singularity of their appearance; on these accounts, it is one of the most common flowering shrubs cultivated in gardens and plantations.

"It is propagated by sowing its seeds any time in the spring in a bed of common earth; and when the plants are come up, they must be kept clear from weeds, and the Michaelmas following they should be transplanted either into nursery-rows, or in the places where they are designed to remain; for if they are let grow in the seed-bed too long, they are very subject to have tap roots, which render them unfit for transplanting; nor should these trees be suffered to remain too long in the nursery before they are transplanted, for the same reason." Miller's Gard. Dict.

We have learned by experience, that a very wet soil will prove fatal to these shrubs.

[82]

Lachenalia Tricolor. Three-coloured Lachenalia.

Class and Order.

Hexandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.