CANDY, or Candie, is the old English name for the island of Crete, and the tufted flower before us having been brought from Crete, obtained the name of candytuft. It is recorded by Gerarde that he received seeds of the "candie-mustard" from Lord Edward Zouche, and that they produced in his garden flowers that were "somtimes blewe, often purple, somtimes carnation or horse-flesh, and seldom white," their leaves being of "a graie or ouerworne greene colour." The generic name Iberis refers to the Spanish peninsula, the ancient Iberia, where the candy-tufts abound.

These are cruciferous plants, and particularly worthy the attention of young botanists, because of the irregular form of the corolla. One of their number is an inhabitant of Britain : it is Iberis amara, the bitter candytuft, a rare weed in chalky corn-fields, more often met with in Oxfordshire and Berkshire than in any other parts of the country. This produces white flowers, which are followed by two lobed seed-pods, which have been valued for their real or supposed curative effects in heart disease and asthma. Whether the plant is, strictly speaking, a native, is at least doubtful, but we will not dwell on a point so abstruse.

The candytufts may be divided into two classes, the annual and the perennial. They are amongst the cheapest, the most gay, and the most easily managed of our garden flowers. The annual kinds may be sown in autumn to bloom in the month of May, or they may be sown in spring to bloom in June and July. In the seedsmen's catalogues will be found a beautiful series of varieties, the whole of which may be grown to advantage in any garden where there is room for an assortment of gay flowers. The most distinct of these are the umbelled candytuft (Iberis umbellata), of which there are varieties with white, purple, crimson, and rose-coloured flowers; the fragrant candy-tuft (I. odorata), which has white flowers agreeably scented; the pinnate-leaved (I. pinnata), with flowers whitish in heads which lengthen as the flowers expand; the rocket candytuft (I. coronaria), a fine white flowering kind, allied to I. umbellata. When sown in spring these require a rich moist soil and a sunny situation; when sown in autumn a dry soil is to be preferred, because of the risk of loss during the winter. They are, however, quite hardy, and as regards conditions by no means exacting. One thing must be mentioned-they do not transplant well; there fore it is best to sow them where they are to flower, and thin out as soon as possible, so as to isolate every plant, for wherever they are crowded they will be weak in growth, and produce but few and poor heads of flowers.

The perennial species are fine plants for the border and the rockery, and will without harm bear a certain amount of shade. Any good loamy or gravelly soil will suit them. They thrive on chalk, but on undrained clay they are liable to injury in winter, and if really in a swampy place will certainly perish. Although classed as "herbaceous," these candytufts are miniature trees or under-shrubs, richly green all the winter through, and flowering in spring or early summer most profusely. They are models of neatness, and when they attain to some size they are paragons of beauty, as none would dispute after seeing our plants, measuring a yard across, of the lovely white flowering rock candytuft.

The most useful of this section are the following:- Iberis corifolia (the coris-leaved candytuft) is very dwarf, and flowers early; the flowers pure white, the growth densely cushioned. I. coriacea (the thick-leaved candytuft), probably a hybrid; it is of shrubby habit, and rises to a foot in height; the leaves oblong spatulate, the growth free, the flowers pure white, produced in great abundance and rather late; one of the finest hardy rock-plants we have, needing only an open sunny position to give joy to all beholders. The Gibraltar species (I. Gibraltarica) is a straggling grower, the flowers, blush-white, appearing early; it is a good rock-plant, but not tidy enough for a highly-dressed border. The rock candytuft (I. sazatilis) is the most useful of all; it grows compactly, has a fine green colour all the winter; the leaves are linear and rather fleshy, the flowers white and lasting long. Tenore's candytuft (I. Tenoreana) is like the Gibraltar plant, but less robust, and less to be desired, as it is apt to die off in winter unless in a warm, sheltered, and well-drained soil.

All these may be grown from seed; but they do not always produce seed, and it is scarcely worth while looking after it, because they can be more advantageously raised from cuttings. These should be taken when the growth of the young shoots is nearly completed, and just before they begin to harden. Dibble them into a bed of sandy earth, give them a sprinkle of water, put a bell-glass or hand-light over, and-forget them. In about two months you may remove the bell-glass, for they will be all rooted. It will be well to leave them undisturbed until the month of April following, when they may be planted out to grow into specimens. Border-plants that are somewhat straggling in form may be improved by judicious pruning, and by pegging a few shoots into places that are vacant. We have had the rock candytuft on a highly-dressed border, and we kept all the plants in shape by annual clipping, the result being that they were as round and convex as watch-glasses. We do not advise any general adoption of this procedure, but where everything should be formal and precise it is at least admissible.