IKES and dislikes, as regards flowers and plants, are not very easy to explain, and we shall not now attempt to say why it is that many people dislike the Commelina and the Tradescantia and the rest of the "spiderworts." However, it may not be improper to remark that in proportion as taste is in-fluenced by knowledge it becomes universal. Large-minded and generous-hearted people discover beauties and points of peculiar interest in all the works of nature, and we may reasonably expect to find the wise ones of this generation unencumbered with prejudices in their observation of the wonders that spring up around them.

The Commelina takes its name from the Dutch botanists, J. and G. Commelin, whom it thus keeps in remembrance, just as its near ally, the Tradescantia, is named after John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I., a man who contributed in an eminent degree to advance the botany and horticulture of his day, which were not altogether favourable to science. The genus has a wide geographical range, but a majority of the species are American. The plant figured is the best known of all, and is certainly a very charming subject for pot or border culture. Although a perennial, it may be grown as an annual by sowing the seeds in heat and nursing the plants under glass until May, when they should be carefully hardened by gradual exposure to the free air, and be planted out towards the end of the month. The tuberous roots may be preserved in the same way as dahlia roots, but should never be quite dry; the best way to keep them is to take them up early in October, and, having removed the stems, pack them in moist sand in a large flower-pot, and put this under the greenhouse stage where no damp will reach it, for if the roots get wet in winter they will rot. As it is such an easy matter to raise a stock from seed, there is no great inducement to keep the roots. Nevertheless, they are useful to the cultivator who cannot conveniently raise early seedlings, because he may sow the seed in the open border at the end of May and take up good roots in October, and by keeping these make sure of a good bloom in the season following. If the tubers are planted at the end of May they will begin to grow immediately and make fine plants; but a better way is to start them into growth in pots in a frame or greenhouse first, and defer planting until the early part of June. Supposing there is no need to save the roots, they may still be turned to account; when boiled in salt and water and served with white sauce they constitute an agreeable table vegetable, and thus the flower garden may in this respect be made subservient to the dinner table.

All the species of Commelina require a light, rich soil and a sunny situation, but they will bear a certain amount of shade. There are a few hardy species with blue flowers, the best of which are C. erecta, C. fasciculata, and C. Virginica; but these are only known in botanic gardens, and the amateur will in most cases have to content himself with the charming blue-flowered plant which is the subject of the accompanying figure, and its two beautiful varieties. One of these (Commelina coelestis alba) has white flowers, and the other (C. coelestis variegatc) has variegated leaves.

The Virginian spiderwort (Tradescantia Virginica) is a capital border plant, for it will grow in almost any soil, and gives plenty of flowers all the summer through. We have had it thriving amazingly in a wet clay, the varities being at least a dozen in number, and we have seen it scarcely less happy in old worn-out garden loam or sandy peat. The deep violet blue, which is considered the typical form, is extremely beautiful in the contrast of its golden anthers with the violet satin of its petals. The white variety also is extremely beautiful. Those who want more than these two will have no difficulty in obtaining the blue and white, the double blue, the single red, and the single blue. They have but to be planted and left alone, and they will do their duty. They are not out of place on a rockery, but are not good enough for a really choice rockery, for, though curious and beautiful, there is a weedy and common tone about them, and a rockery must be extensive to admit such things. Propagation is best effected by division in spring, and those who are unaccustomed to propagate plants may be advised to avoid minute division, being content to divide a clump into two or three good-sized pieces rather than make of it as many as possible.