"Manettia cordifolia," by Charles E. Parnell. August number Gardeners' Monthly, page 232.

I am inclined to think that Mr. Parnell has accepted the ipse-dixit of some author as to the hardiness of this beautiful plant, without a trial personally.

Paxton says that cordifolia is the synonym of glabra, and that the plant is a stove evergreen twiner, etc. My experience is the reverse of this, as to its hardiness. In 1857 I purchased two plants of Manettia cordifolia, of William Heaver, then florist at Cincinnati, Ohio. He described and recommended it as Mr. Parnell does, as "half-hardy summer-flowering, twining vine." I planted them accordingly in the open border with the expectation of taking them up as soon as frost should come. They grew luxuriantly and gave an abundance of flowers until killed by frost. Then cut the vines off within a few inches of the ground. On taking up the first plant I found the knotty corded roots had gone down fully eighteen inches into the soil. The border had been trenched and enriched by compost to a depth between 2 and 3 feet. After examining the roots and crowns I decided that the character of the plant indicated that it would stand many degrees of frost. I potted the one and removed it to the greenhouse, the other I left in the ground. At the approach of hard freezing, in this climate, I covered the plant with leaves and a sufficiency of old hot-bed manure to keep the leaves in place. As soon as the winter frosts were over I removed the manure and gradually the leaves.

When dig-ing the border in winter and spring, care was taken not to disturb the roots. Late in the spring, to my delight, it began to grow and sent up many vines of great vigor, which twined around the single stake to its top and formed a large column of foliage, and bloomed continuously from midsummer until frost. It was an object of great beauty with its deep green, rich foliage, producing hundreds of tubulous waxy looking red flowers. There the plant remained until the spring of 1882, a period of twenty-five years, when a laborer, (a new one of African descent, possessed of more muscle than brains) in my absence dug up everything on the border, the Manettia among them and carted them to the trash heap.

In 1864, at the time of "Hood's raid on Nashville," my premises were on the line of the outer intrenchments of the Union Army. It became expedient, as they thought, to occupy temporarily my house and grounds as headquarters for a portion of the army. "Necessity knows no law." Soldiers had neither thought of, or cared for, plants or shrubbery. That border became the convenient place for the officers' horses to be stationed. They destroyed every character of protection to the plants and trampled the ground as hard as the road. I expected that my Manettia also was destroyed after such usage, but to my surprise and gratification, (the soil on the top having been carefully loosened with a fork and that surrounding it spaded up as usual) the plant came up as formerly, but not so luxuriantly, and bloomed beyond expectation. By the next year it regained its accustomed vigor and continued to bloom every season until destroyed as above.

The thermometer has been many times below zero at my place and occasionally to 150 below.

In 1883 I was given another Manettia cordifolia plant and planted it in the open border. It lived through the winters of '84 and '85 without any protection. It is now growing finely and making blooms. The thermometer fell to 150 below zero in 1884 and to 130 in '85. I am satisfied that any one in this latitude can grow this desirable plant in the open grounds leaving it there during the winter. Would advise light protection for the first two or three years, or until the plant is well established. I believe it will live out even at Mr. Par-nell's place if planted in deep, rich alluvial soil, well drained, and protected in breadth and depth (height) according to the degree of freezing in his latitude. It is worth trying. Nashville, Tenn.

[This is a very interesting paper, and will give pleasure to hundreds by the addition of another very beautiful ornament to the out-door flower garden.

It will be noted that the roots are not possibly frozen in the place noted by our correspondent, for though the thermometer go to zero, sometimes the covering keeps out the frost, and even though it does penetrate some inches, the deeper rooting portion is not reached by the frost. Ampelopsis incisa and the "Hardy" Passion vine, Passiflora incarnata are of this class. They have to be covered as described for this Manettia, but when they are not covered the plants generally hold their own, because the lower roots are not reached by the frost. But who would not take a little care to cover the ground if it will preserve these beautiful plants? - Ed. G. M].