It is important to note the readiness with which many plants in a state of nature adapt themselves to altered circumstances, and on the other hand there are not a few kinds which perish when subjected to positions very little different from those in which their progenitors flourished. A small amount of observation and thought on the part of one placed in a region of country like this would make the statements just made have all the weight they are entitled to; and further, would lead to the conclusion that, so soon as all the original forests of America are removed, the number of species of plants then existing in their country will be very much less than at present. Many are bound to become extinct. At one time the site and all around the site of the present city of Lexington was occupied by cane-brake and timbered land, and during that period many beautiful though diminutive forms of vegetation now confined to the few remaining morsels of the "forest primeval" of these parts must have had a wide distribution over the area referred to.

The considerations alluded to in the foregoing sentences are of the utmost importance to all engaged in the growing of flowers, as I hope to show in the course of these papers; and if collectors would take note of the matter, and when sending home especially anything precious, state whether or not it has ever been observed thriving on cultivated or cleared ground, the result would necessarily be the saving of many a valuable life; for if a thing in its own land cannot exist in the open field unshaded from the sun's brightest rays, I think it is not likely to make any very great show in a land where it is a stranger.

In rambling through the woods of Kentucky very early in spring, now and then the attention cannot fail to be arrested by masses of large buds pushing aside the hard earth and making for the light, and it matters not though the ground be a little frozen. Those buds belong to Podophyllum peltatum, and it is well worth while to pause for a moment to examine them. In the common order of things, if the flower of a plant is terminal, it is protected by scales or some such contrivance whilst making for the open day, but the subject before us presents a well-marked exception to this rule. The blades of the leaves are neatly folded back, and the two opposite petioles stand stiffly side by side, having only space between for the flower-bud. At this stage of the growth of the plant the flower-bud is ahead of everything else, and just as naked as ever it can be, and in this condition it continues until all that has got to come through the soil has done so. That point gained, the foliage begins to lengthen rapidly, and soon overtops the flower-bud and hides it. A lady told me that when she was a child, living at her home in Greenville, in the southern part of this State, she has frequently used the leaves of the May Apple for a parasol.

And I must say that the magnificence of the great masses of this plant is calculated to excite the admiration even of one but poorly gifted with an eye for the beauties of vegetable life. Accustomed as I have always been before to glimpses of a poor little bit of a thing receiving the fullest exposure in the open ground, or, worse still, ensconced in a pot intentionally and. by order half full of crocks, and "dried off" in the winter time, I was amazed, for I knew not the old friend which I had helped to coddle so much. Horticulturally speaking, and when treated aright, this is bound to be a grand fellow, with its sweet-scented blossoms opening in May, and its large bright yellow fruit ripening about July. The fruit is eagerly sought for by children, and eaten with much relish. I understand that the "root" yields the principal part of the material for "Helmhold's Podophyllum Bitters," one of the patent medicines of the country. I have never met with this plant on cultivated or well-cleared land. It is true that now and then a few imperfect specimens may be discovered hiding behind a fence-post, but the first stiff breeze that blows bends their heavy heads to the dust, and a few years of this sort of treatment puts an end to their being.

In those parts of the forest where shade and shelter go hand in hand the greatest results are obtained. There is a beautiful glen forming part of the Glasgow Botanic Garden, and nearly every part of that glen is well adapted to the wants of the Podophyllum; and if these notes happen to catch the eye of Mr Bullen, perhaps he may be induced to try and naturalise our subject on the banks of the Kelvin. It is easy to propagate this by division of the underground stem, or, as some would call it, the "root".