Scattered over the pine barrens of New Jersey, in the swamps and even in the white sand, which one would hardly suppose to be capable of sustaining vegetable life in any form, we find some exquisite floral gems. I have occasionally transferred some of these to the garden, but with rather indifferent success. The open weather of this winter, however, has given me a favorable opportunity to try again under more favorable circumstances, and I have transferred several to our greenhouse. As far as practicable, I took them up with balls of earth; but, instead of planting them in ordinary soil, as heretofore, I placed them in white sand, and I find one very strong point of advantage in so doing - I can water them very freely as often as I please, and all the surplus will drain off without injuring the plants.

One of the loveliest of our pine barren plants is the May moss or pyxie (Pyxidantherabarbulata). It belongs, botanically, to the order of diapensiaceae, and in general appearance very closely resembles one member of the phlox family, the moss pink, having the same prostrate creeping habit and similar foliage. The flowers are pure white and star-shaped, but its greatest charm lies in its unopened buds, which are globular, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, white with a rosy blush, and dotted thickly over the plant, nestling like gems among the foliage. Several of these plants, which were transferred to the greenhouse about the first of January with a temperature of 6o° to 700, commenced flowering in three weeks, and on removal to a temperature ten degrees lower, they remained in bloom for weeks.

Another of these beautiful wildlings which has taken kindly to its new position is the sand myrtle (Leiophyllum buxifolium), a heath-like shrub, with small, closely set evergreen leaves and spreading habit. It commences flowering when only a few inches high, increasing slowly in size, and sometimes attaining a height of three feet and producing a great number of small umbel-like clusters of white flowers with exserted stamens, which give it an airy and graceful appearance excelled by few of our cultivated shrubs. These shrubs require a large pot to hold them without crowding the roots, and some which I dug with a ball of earth and placed on top of the earth under the greenhouse bench, have done the best and are now (Feb. 14th) in full bloom.

Among the most showy of our native plants is Polygala lute a, a biennial which produces heads of bright golden yellow Mowers on stems six inches to one foot high, and is in form almost the exact counterpart of the common bachelor's button or globe amaranth; and, as in some of that family, the lower florets drop as the season advances, while new ones open at the top, so that the' same flower heads continue through the season. The plants commence blooming in June and continue till frost. They are not large, and a ball of earth two inches in diameter contains most of the roots, so that a small pot will accommodate one; but there is less chance for drying if several are put in a larger pot. These do not come so quickly into bloom, but plants brought in January 1st had flower stems two to three inches high in early February.

Hudsonia ericoides is one of our heath-like plants which grows in clear sand so loose that it will not stick to the roots at all when dug. In February the hudsonia is about as dead looking as any plant could be, and no one unacquainted with it would expect it to revive ; but when warm weather comes in spring, little green buds appear thickly among the dry bract-like leaves, and in May it is completely covered with bright yellow flowers. Plants of this which had been in the greenhouse six weeks were still gray rather than green, and others in two weeks had only just begun to show the life really in them, but they will make a good display long before those in the open ground. Several were potted together, so as to make, when in bloom, a solid mass of yellow, and they made fine decorative plants for Easter. We also brought in plants of our common May weed and ox-eye daisy, which bloomed promptly and freely in the month of February, to our great delight; one is not so particular in winter. Both these have handsome foliage and flowers in the style of the Paris marguerites.

William F. Bassett. Atlantic County N. J.