eabout we grow Wistarias as
standards, and they bloom magnificently. What a sight a big standard
wistaria in the green-house in February would be! Among other shrubs
may be mentioned Shadbush, African Tamarix, Daphne of sorts and
Exochorda. We have also a good many barely hardy plants that may be
wintered well in a cellar or cold pit, and forced into bloom in early
spring. Among these are Japanese Privet, Pittosporum, Raphiolepis,
Hydrangeas and the like.

And for conservatory decoration we can also use with excellent
advantage some of our fine-leaved shrubs, for instance our lovely
Japanese Maples and variegated Box Elder.

_Wm. Falconer._

Glen Cove, N. Y.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Iris tenuis.--_See page 6._]

Plant Notes.

A HALF-HARDY BEGONIA.--When botanizing last September upon the
Cordilleras of North Mexico some two hundred miles south of the United
States Boundary, I found growing in black mould of shaded ledges--even
in the thin humus of mossy rocks--at an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000
feet, a plant of striking beauty, which Mr. Sereno Watson identifies
as _Begonia gracilis_, _HBK._, _var. Martiana_, _A. DC_. From a small
tuberous root it sends up to a height of one to two feet a single
crimson-tinted stem, which terminates in a long raceme of scarlet
flowers, large for the genus and long enduring. The plant is still
further embellished by clusters of Scarlet gemmae in the axils of its
leaves. Mr. Watson writes: "It was in cultivation fifty years and more
ago, but has probably been long ago lost. It appears to be the
most northern species of the genus, and should be the most hardy."
Certainly the earth freezes and snows fall in the high region, where
it is at home.

NORTHERN LIMIT OF THE DAHLIA.--In the same district, and at the same
elevation, I met with a purple flowered variety of _Dahlia coccinea_,
_Cav._ It was growing in patches under oaks and pines in thin dry
soil of summits of hills. In such exposed situations the roots must be
subjected to some frost, as much certainly as under a light covering
of leaves in a northern garden. The Dahlia has not before been
reported, as I believe, from a latitude nearly so high.

_C. G. Pringle._

CEANOTHUS is a North American genus, represented in the Eastern States
by New Jersey Tea, and Red Root (_C. Americanus_ and _C. ovalus_), and
in the West and South-west by some thirty additional species. Several
of these Pacific Coast species are qui