successfully by an amateur at any time during the season, when good firm cuttings can be got, and when six weeks' tolerably fine weather may be counted on. The success of the whole thing depends on having the glasses fixed so that they may not be removed until the cuttings are rooted, and in placing the boxes in a shady place. So treated, carnations and many of our shrubs and herbaceous perennials may be propagated by unskilled persons with certainty, and without much trouble. * * * * * A FEW OF THE BEST INULAS. Of the fifty-six species of Inula described in scientific works, probably not more than thirty are at present in cultivation in this country, and those are chiefly confined to botanic gardens, notwithstanding the fact that many of them are useful garden plants. They are principally distributed throughout Southern Europe, although we find them extending to Siberia and the Himalayas; indeed, it is to the Himalayas we are indebted for the kinds that are most ornamental. Some of the low-growing species are extremely useful for the rockery, such as I. montana (the Mountain Inula), a fine dwarf plant with woolly lanceolate leaves and dense heads of orange-colored flowers, resembling in habit and general appearance some of the creeping Hieraciums. It is a handsome and desirable plant for the decoration of old walls and similar places, where it can be a little sheltered from rain and drip. Another very useful species for this purpose is I. rhizocephaloides, found plentifully in the Himalayas. It is one of the prettiest Alpine composites we have. It seldom attains more than from one inch to two inches in height, forming a dense rosette of short, hairy, oval leaves, in the center of which the bright purple involucres, in the form of a ball, are extremely interesting. It is easily cultivated, requiring, however, a rather snug nook, where it will not be allowed to become too dry. It is best propagated from seed. Then there is the woolly Inula (I. candida), a pretty plant with small oval leaves, covered with a thick, silky down, and much in the way of the white-leaved I. limonifolia, both of which are very effective when grown in masses, which should always be low down near the front of a rockery, or as an edging for a mixed border. The glandular-leaved Inula (I. glandulosa), of which a good representation is here given, is a beautiful hardy perennial. It is a native of Georgia and the Caucasian Alps, near the Caspian Sea. It is a rather robust-growing species, with large, bright, orange-yellow flowers, varying from three to five inches in diameter, the narrow and very straggly ray florets contrasting nicely with the rather prominent disk. The leaves, although quite entire, seem notched, owing to large black glands which form on their margins. They are lanceolate, and clasp the stem. The plant is very variable, both as regards robustness and size of flowers, and this may in a measure account for the confusion