unate will
tell us how to amend our unsuccessful ways. One of the prettiest species
which is now in flower in our gardens is the pure white A. dichotoma,
which carries on the succession after the Snowdrop anemone (A. sylvestris)
has passed away. Then we have dreams, and lend willing ears to the oral
traditions of Anemone alba. Is this species in cultivation, or where may
a figure of it be seen? It is said to be of neat habit, 12 inches high,
with erect, saucer-shaped, white blossoms 3 inches in diameter. The
species we now figure is well worth a place, being easily raised from
seeds. It is called Anemone decapetala, and if not by any means a showy
species, tufts of it three years from seed have this season been very
pretty. It grows less than a foot in height, and bears pale creamy yellow
flowers the size of a shilling on branched flowering stems; each blossom
has eight or nine sepals around a yellowish green center. Some of our
clumps had from a dozen to twenty flowers open at the same time, and the
general effect in the early morning sunshine is a very pretty one. We have
another species similar in habit which is just now a mass of rosy buds,
and if you blow open its sepals, they are of a bright magenta color
inside, but I never yet saw a flower open naturally on this plant. Just as
the sepals open at the tips, and you think they are about to expand, they
shrivel and fall away, leaving a tuft of greenish yellow stamens in the
center. Is it A. Hudsoni? Another species not often seen, but well worth
culture, is A. coerulea, a kind with finely cut leaves and purplish blue
flowers. Then A. coronaria, The Bride, a pure creamy white kind, with
flowers 3 inches across, raised by Van Velsen, of Haarlem, is really a
good addition to these dainty blossoms, and affords a vivid contrast to
the fiery A. fulgens. I have received this year some roots of anemones,
iris, and other hardy flowers from the site of ancient Troy, and trust
that some of these, if not new, will be beautiful additions to our
gardens. The true A. vitifolia from northern India does well in mild
localities; but best of all of this perennial large-leaved race is A.
japonica alba, the queen of all autumnal kinds, rivaling the best of all
hardy border flowers in purity and freedom of blossoming. Taken as a
class, windflowers are so beautiful that we cannot grow them too
plentifully, and but few other genera will so well repay cultural
attention at all seasons.--_F.W.