WINDFLOWERS.
FLOWERS OF ANEMONE DECAPETALA (Natural Size).
The genus Anemone has a great future. Even at present its popularity is only a little less than that of roses and daffodils, but when we trust to seeds as a means of reproducing the best of windflowers instead of buying dried roots from the shops, then, and then only, will "coy anemone" become a garden queen. A. coronaria, if treated as an annual, furnishes glowing blossoms from October until June, after which A. dichotoma and A. japonica in all its forms—white and rosy—carry on the supply and complete the cycle of a year's blossoming. By sowing good, newly-saved seed in succession from February until May in prepared beds out of doors, the common crown anemone may in many sunny, sheltered gardens be had in bloom all the year round. This is saying a great deal, but it is true; indeed, it is questionable if we have any other popular garden flower which is at once so showy, so hardy, and so continuous in its blossoming. A friend beside me says: "Ah! but what of violas?" To which I reply: "Grow both in quantity, since both are as variable as they are beautiful." But when viola shrinks in foggy November from the frost demon, anemone rises Phoenix-like responsive to the first ray of sunshine. Besides, fair Viola, richly as she dresses in velvet purple or in golden sheen, has not yet donned that vivid scarlet robe which Queen Anemone weareth, nor are her wrappers of celestial azure so pure; and blue is, as we all know, the highest note of coloring in floral music. But comparisons are not required, Anemones are variable and beautiful enough to be grown for themselves alone. No matter whether we look at a waving mass of sparkling windflowers in a vineyard or cornfield by the Mediterranean, or walk knee deep among the silvery stars of A. nemorosa in an English wood—"silvery stars in a sea of bluebells"—they are alike satisfying. I believe that there is any amount of raw material in the genus Anemone—hardihood, good form and habit, and coloring alike delicate and brilliant; and what we now want is that amateurs should grow them with the attention and care that have been lavished upon roses and lilies and daffodils. But, alas! we have some capricious beauties in this group. A. coronaria and some other species succeed well treated as seedling hardy annuals, and others, as A. apennina, A. Robinsoni, A. Pulsatilla, A. dichotoma, and A. japonica, may be multiplied ad infinitum by cuttings of the root. It is when we come to the aristocratic Alpine forms, to A. alpina, A. sulphurea, A. narcissiflora, etc., that difficulties alike of propagation and of culture test our skill to the uttermost. Tourists fond of gardens walk over these plants in bloom every year; they dig up roots and send them home; but they are as yet very rare in even the best of gardens. Nor is it easy to rear them from seeds. A year ago I sowed seed by the ounce each of A. alpina and of A. sulphurea, but as yet not a single plantlet has rewarded me for my trouble. Even freshly gathered seeds of A. narcissiflora will not germinate with me, but I live in hopes of surmounting little difficulties of this kind, and in the mean time, perhaps, others more fortunate 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.B., in The Garden.
STORY OF LIEUT. GREELY'S RECOVERY.
The story of Lieut. Greely's recovery after his rescue from Cape Sabine is given by Passed Assistant Surgeon Edward H. Green, U.S.N, of the relief ship Thetis, in a communication to the Medical Record. The cases of Greely's six fellow survivors, it is remarked, were very similar to his. The condition of all was so desperate that a delay of two hours in the camp was necessary before they could be removed to the relief vessels. Brandy, milk, and beef essence were administered.