For example, Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq. the universally acknowledged head of our English botanists, no longer cultivates his former gardens at Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire, or at Mill Hill, Middlesex, but confines his attention to a choice collection of the most curious plants in pots, arranged in the yard of his house in Queen Street, Edgeware Road. In like manner, Messrs. Loddiges, nurserymen at Hackney, have a very large collection of hardy herbaceous plants, in small pots, set on beds of scoria, to keep the soil contained in them moist.

FLORA DOMESTICA.

FLORA DOMESTICA,

&c.

ADONIS.

RANUNCULACEE.

POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA.

Italian, adonio.-French, adonide; rose rubi; gouttes de sang [drops of blood]; aile de faisan [pheasant's-wing]; œil de perdrix [partridge's eye].—Greek, eranthemon [spring-flower].—English, adonis-flower; bird's eye; pheasant's eye; flos-adonis. The autumnal adonis is also called red maythes, red morocco; to which Gerarde adds may-weed, and red camomile. "Our London women," says he, "do call it rosea-rubie."

THIS flower owes its classical name to Adonis, the favourite of Venus: some say its existence also; maintaining that it sprung from his blood, when dying. It is likely that the name arose from confounding it with the anemone, which it resembles. There are, however, other flowers which lay claim to this illustrious origin; the larkspur is one, but the claim is too weak to be generally allowed. Moschus has conferred this distinction on the rose. Others, again, trace its pedigree to the tears which Venus shed upon her lover's body; and Gerarde would persuade us that these tears gave birth to the Venice-mallow but the anemone has pretty generally established her descent from both parents.-See Anemone.

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The name of the beautiful huntsman, in his living capacity, however, applies well enough; for the Adonis is handsome and ruddy, and an enemy to the corn; but the flower is not so hardy as its godfather, and must be sheltered from the frosts of winter.

The Autumnal, or Common Adonis, has usually a red flower; but there is a variety of this species, of which the flowers are lemon-coloured. It is a native of most parts of the south of Europe; in Germany it grows wild among the corn; as it does, according to Gerarde, in the west of England. It is very common in some parts of Kent, particularly on the banks of the Medway,—a water-nymph, according to Spenser, famous for her flowers.

"Then came the bride, the lovely Medway came,
Clad in a vesture of unknowen geare,

And uncouth fashion, yet her well became,
That seemed like silver sprinkled here and there
With glittering spangs that did like stars appear,
And waved upon, like water chamelot,
To hide the metal, which yet every where
Bewrayed itself, to let men plainly wot

It was no mortal work, that seemed, and yet was not.
Her goodly locks adown her back did flow,
Unto her waist, with flowers bescattered,
The which ambrosial odours forth did throw
To all about, and all her shoulders spread
As a new spring: and likewise on her head
A chapelet of sundry flowers she wore,
From under which the dewy humour shed,
Did trickle down her hair, like to the hore
Congealed little drops which do the morn adore."

The Vernal Adonis [Fr. hellebore d'Hippocrate] is a perennial; and, as it does not flower the first year, it might be more convenient to purchase it at a nursery when in a state to flower, than to raise it at home. It may, however, be treated in the same manner as the Autumnal Adonis. It is a native of Switzerland, Germany, &c. It bears a large