ed. The bloom lasts
for several weeks in good form, and the foliage is always beautiful,
more especially in the autumn, when it glows like polished mahogany.
Such a plant can hardly fail to please when well grown, but it must be
so developed.

This lovely plant certainly requires a little special treatment, but
that is easy and simple; in fact, it scarcely can be called special. It
may be put in a few words--damp, but not sour vegetable soil, and very
slight shade. My specimen, from which the drawing was taken, is growing
in a little dip at the base of a small rockery, below the level of the
walk, which acts as a watershed; the soil is nearly all leaf mould--a
small portion of loam, and I ought to add that there is a moderate
quantity of small charcoal incorporated with it, which will doubtless
assist in keeping the soil sweet. There cannot, therefore, be much
difficulty in setting up these conditions; the charcoal may not be
necessary, but an annual top-dressing with it will meet the case of such
plants as grow in low damp situations. The propagation of this species
is very easy in the case of well-grown clumps, which, when dug up in the
autumn and thoroughly shaken, will come asunder into many small and
well-rooted crowns; these only require to be replanted separately, under
similar conditions to those by which they were produced. No attempt
should be made to divide other than perfectly healthy clumps.

Flowering period, July and August.

Galega Officinalis.

OFFICINAL GOAT'S-RUE; _Nat. Ord._ LEGUMINOSAE.

A grand "old-fashioned" flower. It is 314 years since this plant was
brought from Spain; it is perfectly hardy and herbaceous. Both it and
its varieties are among the most useful subjects of the flower garden;
they grow to shrub-like bushes, have elegant foliage, and an abundance
of bloom, which continues until late autumn. Specimens have a clean and
healthy appearance, and though they grow to the height of 4ft., they
give no trouble, requiring neither tying nor supports. From their large
quantities of flowers they are exceedingly gay; but it is for the
handsome stems in a cut state that they should be most prized. These,
cut 18in. long, and placed singly in pots or vases, are truly noble,
more especially by gaslight.

As will be inferred from the order to which _Galega_ belongs, the
flowers are pea-flower-shaped, about 1/2in. or more long, and the same
broad. They are of a pleasing, but undecided blu