May 22—The graceful Heavenly Bamboo is in flower: this is another shrub that we are liable to pass by at this time of the year without giving it more than a passing glance; but in the Autumn, when the plant is bearing panicles of red fruit and its foliage has turned a purplish-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 of the berberis family. The Heavenly Bamboo thrives as a pot plant and also grows ju 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 predates a position where it is protected fi the cold Winter winds. We see that the coreopsis is beginning to give our gardens a touch of colour. The tick-secd obtained its name fro the Greek word meaning bug-like: the showy yellow-flowered coreopsis is much used as a cut 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 so that they appear like large bell shaped blooms, 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 as folks, the name eventually became "folks glove" and this was later misspelt "fox glove." In north Scotland, the plant is known as "dead man's bells" while in the south part of that country, it is known as "bloody fingers."—w.J.K.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.