em to be incapable of
doing harm, we ought to try them boldly, and not be restrained by a false
idea of the dignity of science. The social importance of the problem is
too great to allow of its solution being retarded by the fear that
scientific men may be accused of having been outrun by the ignorant. True
science has none of these puerile susceptibilities; on the contrary, it
deems it an honor to be able to seize all the observations of fact,
whoever may have been their first recorder, to put them to the crucial
test of methodical experiment, and to convert them into a new stepping
stone on the march of human progress.

* * * * *

HALESIA HISPIDA.

[Illustration: HALESIA HISPIDA: HARDY SHRUB: FLOWERS WHITE.]

This fine hardy shrub is perhaps best known under the name of Pterostyrax,
but we think gardeners will, quite independently of botanical grounds, be
inclined to thank Messrs. Bentham and Hooker for reducing the genus to the
more easily remembered name of Halesia. Halesia hispida is a hardy
Japanese shrub of recent introduction, with numerous white Deutzia-like
flowers in long terminal racemes. A peculiar appearance is produced by the
arrangement of the flowers on one side only of the branchlets of the
inflorescence. The botanical history of the plant is well known, and our
illustration is sufficient to show the general appearance of the plant. It
is decidedly one of the best recent additions to the number of hardy
deciduous flowering shrubs. For the specimen whence our figure was taken
we are indebted to W.E. Gumbleton, Esq.--_The Gardeners' Chronicle_.

* * * * *

WINDFLOWERS.

[Illustration: FLOWERS OF ANEMONE DECAPETALA (Natural Size).]

The genus Anemone has a great future. Even at present its popularity is
only a little less than that of roses and daffodils, but when we trust to
seeds as a means of reproducing the best of windflowers instead of buying
dried roots from the shops, then, and then only, will "coy anemone" become
a garden queen. A. coronaria, if treated as an annual, furnishes glowing
blossoms from October until June, after which A. dichotoma and A. japonica
in all its forms--white and rosy--carry on the supply and complete the
cycle of a year's blossoming. By sowing good, newly-saved seed in
succession from February until May in prepared beds out of doors, the
common crown anemone may in many sunny, sheltered g