About a dozen species of abutilon are recorded in the books, but only about half a dozen (or less) are really cared for by cultivators, because of the fewness of the flowers they produce. They are all of an accommodating nature, requiring only greenhouse temperature in winter and a fairly good soil of light texture, with rational watering. A little draught and a little damp will not kill them, and although none of them are, properly speaking, hardy, yet none of them are fastidious. To strike cuttings in summer is easy work, but those who soar high in abutilon culture must learn to graft or bud the rarer kinds on nice young stocks of A. striatum or A. vitifolium.

Of the varieties there are at least a dozen that deserve a place in every greenhouse. It is important, however, to select the most distinct and free-flowering, for they differ much in relative merit. The very best are the following: -Anna Crozy, the flowers lilac-pink, veined with white; Chinois, flowers large, pale orange-shaded red; Darwini compacta, bright rose, reticulated with crimson; Le Grelot, rose shading to magenta; Louis Marignac, delicate pink; Princess Marie, rosy lake; Prince of Orange, orange-red, veined with crimson; Reine d'Or, clear gold yellow; Seraph, pure white; Vesuvius, brilliant red. The best of those with variegated leaves are Darwini tesselatum, Niveum marmoratum, Sellowianum marmoratum, and Vexillarium variegatum. These thrive in common soil, and are fine decorative plants for the summer garden.

The genus sida is nearly related to abutilon. It has been said that the species of sida flower with such punctuality that a complete dial of flowers might be constructed by the aid of the several species. Perhaps.

All the plants of this category yield a strong pliable

fibre; and during the Lancashire cotton famine the abutilons were made note of as possibly capable of helping us out of a difficulty. The cotton-plant (gossypium) is a mallow, and not very far removed in relationship from the plants now before us. Amongst the abutilons occurs one edible species, A. esculentum. In Rio Janeiro it is known as "Bencao de Deos." It is not the fruit but the flower that is eaten, and it is a somewhat common article of food with the people of Rio.

THE

WINTER ACONITE.

Eranthis hyemalis.

N common with many of the humbler kinds of garden flowers, the winter aconite is but little known to humble gardeners, but the managers of "great places know it, and prize it, and turn it to good account in the comparatively new order of decoration known as "spring gardening." It is but a little herb, with a dark tuberous root, producing in February or March yellow flowers, surrounded by a whorl of glossygreen deeply-cut leaves. It lasts but a short time, and is not very showy even at the best.

But as one star compels attention when the sky is black and no other star is to be seen, so this little flower, which is many degrees inferior in brightness of colouring to a common buttercup, has a most delightful appearance if we have the good fortune to see it on a soft sunny day in February. Then, indeed, it seems to say the spring is surely coming, and even the frost-defying daffodils, that