May 22.—The graceful Heavenly Bamboo is flower: this is another shrub that we are able to pass by at this time of the year with out giving it more than a passing glance; but jin the Autumn, when the plant is bearing panicles of red fruit and its foliage has turned ]2purplish-red, we see it in its full glory and admire it. Nandina domestic is the botanical name of this Chinese plant and it is a member fof the berberis family. The Heavenly Bamboo thrives as a pot plant and also grows in full sunshine provided it receives an ample water Supply. It'is more at home, however, in partial shade and although it is fairly hardy, it, appredates a position where it's protected from the cold Winter winds. We see that the coreopsis is beginning to give our gardens a touch of colour. The' tick-seed obtained its name. from the Greek word meaning bug-like: the showy [yellow-flowered coreopsis is much used as a fent flower and, in passing, we should mention that they do not resemble' bugs: the author of that name had the seed in mind when he gave the plant its common name. We have noticed 'a number of foxgloves in local gardens recently, this dignified plant deserves to be popular. We prefer the common Digitalis purpurea: its variety campanulate, with the top flowers united that they appear like large bell. shaped looms, is of course liked by many people; but we feel that it will never become such a favourite as the wild foxglove of the British woods, Digitalis means, in Latin, the finger of a glove; but there appears to be much doubt concerning the origination of the "fox" part of the common name, It is said by some that it originated in Wales where the plant was called fairies' glove:" as fairies were also known folks, the name eventually became "folks glove" Inter misspelt "fox gloy: the plant is known' a nile. in the south part country, it is known as "bloody fingers."—ws. slipper. The bag-like flowers have the appeartance of alippers; but as the cypripedium (a member of the orchid. family) is known as Nady's slipper," we refer to the calceolaria as "lady's purve.* There are. nunierous. speci most of which are native to South Americ there are however, two to be found in New Zealand. We saw an effective member of the Lily family in_one of tue collections of perennals and identified it as Oruithopalum arabicum, native of the Mediterranean regions. The huge black pistil set in the centre of five white petals makes the flower most attractive and Interesting. We admired a collection of sweet peas which we saw on exhibition: they had those long and strong stems which we read about. The exhibitor must have encouraged early root action this year by planting his seedlings in a favourable location last Autumn, We also admired some gorgeous bearded irises. We were rather disappointed to find them in the arlistie arrangement section of the show: we would have liked to have seen them in the Iris classes, where we should have been able to have inspected them better. We feel that many visitors did not notice how really beautiful they were and few flowers can be more beautiful than some of the bearded irises, We admired the efforts of the juniors at the show, some of the exhibits were most artistic: saw a proud little chappie of four, strutting around his exhibit like a peacock, he was probably wondering what to buy with the money he had won, There were some fine pansies on display also, what a long season these plants have! We remember admiring a bed last January and we were picking odd ones last December. The name pansy is a corruption of the French, pense, meaning "thought." We thought a little and remembered that pansies are favourites in Scotland and we wondered if their Jong blooming season had anything to do with this—w.sae May 26—We notice that Maynotia Delavayt and its close relative Mf. grandifiora are beginning fo bloom in local gardens. Both trees at majestic in form and produce beautiful lar White flowers which show to advantage against background of thick evergreen leaves, shiny Sbove and of a rusty colour beneath. The trees
the vegetable kingdom and also as one have. Been described 35 the most beautiful in most ancient of living trees. (M. Delavayi is ative to S. W. China, while AM. grandiflora is 2 native of Georgia and Carolina, We have been fold that the first specimens were brought to
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