Some of our native plants are objects of enthusiastic culture in the Old World. A correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle, thus talks of the Hepatica:

" In his book on ' Alpine Flowers,' Mr. W. Robinson remarks: ' To add perfume to the Violet, paint the Lily, or gild the yellow Crocus, would seem to be no more wasteful excess than to praise this exquisite little flower. There is a cheerfulness and a courage about it on warm, sunny borders in spring which no other flower possesses; they are hardy everywhere, are not fastidious as to soil, though they love a deep loam, and present a charming diversity.' I like the idea of attributing to this flower the quality of courage. It was the only one in my garden, excepting the Snowdrop, that during the bitter weather dared to unfold its blossoms. It seemed as if, having a duty to perform, it was undeterred by the frosty influences that kept other things from displaying their floral charms. Now that the genial open weather has come with gleams of sunshine, all the more welcome because they have been seen and felt so little of late, clumps of the single blue and double red Hepaticas, under a wall having a west aspect, are just now most attractive, and I notice that in regard to the former they seem to vary both in the size and coloring of the flowers. Some are much darker and larger than others, but it may be this is but an accidental result.

The clumps are large and were planted about two years ago in some good loam. It is a very hot and dry position during the summer, but during the trying time of the prolonged hot weather of last year the plants were top-dressed with soil, and a covering of cocoa fibre added - soap-suds being freely given also. I find the colors of the flowers grown in the open air are much better than those grown in pots in a cold frame.

"In the cold frame the differences of color between the double blue and the single purple, through the varieties of the angulosa type down to one of the latter named ccerulea, is remarkable. The double blue is a true blue, and the single purple is of a distinct blue-purple shade. H. angulosa laevigata has a tint of purplish azure-blue - peculiarly its own; then there is a descent to tints that are so delicate as to be termed silver-blue or gray-blue. Under the name of single red I have two or three distinct types - perhaps they are seminal varieties, some dark, some paler, some with broad, others with narrow petals, but all are very charming. The most delicate tints are very pleasing, the richer and deeper hues very bright and effective. To grow these plants in pots successfully during the summer of 1885 and the winter of 1886 was no easy task. For many days during February and March they were frozen hard, but by dint of keeping them fairly dry, and assisted by a bed of cocoa fibre and leaves, not a pot was broken by the frost and scarcely a plant out of some sixty lost".