. The Cottage gardener. Gardening; Gardening. 96 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. [Mat 15. Botanical Magazine, t. 4566.—This is one of a group of genera of Aoanthads, wliich have been named by dif-. ferent botanists, but on whoso vahdity some doubts have been raised by late systematists—as Eulicher and Lindley. Tlie present genus, Hydromestus, originated with a German botanist, named ScheidweUer, and is from hydor, water, and mestos, full, in allusion to the power which the imbricated bracts have of holding water. Here and there we iind Aoanthads furnishing objects of great beauty and interest to gardene
. The Cottage gardener. Gardening; Gardening. 96 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. [Mat 15. Botanical Magazine, t. 4566.—This is one of a group of genera of Aoanthads, wliich have been named by dif-. ferent botanists, but on whoso vahdity some doubts have been raised by late systematists—as Eulicher and Lindley. Tlie present genus, Hydromestus, originated with a German botanist, named ScheidweUer, and is from hydor, water, and mestos, full, in allusion to the power which the imbricated bracts have of holding water. Here and there we iind Aoanthads furnishing objects of great beauty and interest to gardeners—as in Thunbergias, Justicias, Aphelandras, Eranthemums, and others—but the great mass of the order, comprehended in a few more than a hundred genera, and above seven hundred species, are little better than tropical weeds, where they are most abundant, and, perhaps, constitute three-fourths of the coarse herbage. Acanthus mollis itself, on which the order was founded by Jussieu, is the most northern plant of the order, a native of Greece, whose beautiful leaves furnished the tj^ie of the noble arcliitectural ornament of the Corintliian caiiital. This, the classical Acanthus of arcliitecture, is almost the only plant of the order to which any medicinal uses have been ascribed. They are all of them of but trivial uso to mankind. The Inchau species of Acautliads, in Ur. WalUcli's herbarium, were submitted to Professor Nees Von Eseubeck for arrangement, at thu time the labours of Dr. W. were dis- tributed among European botanists, by the East India Com- pany, for Dr. WalUch's great work on the rare plants of India. It was in that work that the first great revision of the order was made, and the hmits of sections and genera were iuvestigateil, and a natni'al arrangement of the whole proposed. Since tiieo, Professor Meisner proposed some fiu-thor improvements in tlic order; and lie truly asserts, that there ai-e few natiu'al orders which still require a very searcldng inves
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