Portugal, and are annually exported from those countries into England.

The batata was introduced into this country by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, and great numbers of the roots were brought hither for many years succeeding its introduction. The potato of present use being, however, better adapted to general culture in this climate, it has superseded the use of the sweet potato, and that plant is but little valued amongst us, except as a curiosity, though still much in request in the southern parts of Europe, and an object of general culture in tropical countries.

The very beautiful climbing garden plants, whose plaits of pink or blue vary with the purple or white colours of their flowers, and which are usually termed major convolvuluses, are more correctly called Ipomaéa. Many kinds of this plant throw their bells about the verandah, or over the summer bower of the garden, or they hang down amid the foliage of the tree round which they have been trained. Almost all the species of this graceful flower

are natives of North or South America, or of the East or West Indies. They are abundant in the Canadian forests, festooning the very summits of their tall trees, and growing on flexile stems a hundred feet in length. The Canadians call them "morning gloves," because they display most of their beauty in the early part of the day. Several of the less hardy species require, in our country, the protection of the hot-house.

The tuberous-rooted Ipomaea is, in Jamaica, an evergreen plant, and frequently trained over lattice work. It is said that it may be carried over an arbour of three hundred feet in length, and as its leaves and flowers are very abundant, and the latter delightfully odoriferous, it is a useful plant in a country where shade is always welcome, and it forms a frequent part of the garden arrangement.

The convolvulus order (Convolvuláceæ) contains a few other genera of plants besides the convolvulus, but they are, with few exceptions, all climbing plants, and are mostly distinguished

by their plaited blossoms. Some of them are found occupying every variety of soil and climate, but they are far more abundant in the torrid zone, and in warm than in cold climates. The roots of many convolvuluses contain an acrid milky fluid. The medicinal jalap is procured from the Convólvulus jálapa.

A very common plant belonging to this order is the dodder of our heaths. This plant creeps over the yellow gorse bush in great quantity. Its small pink blossoms are situated on leafless stems, which wind among the prickly bushes, or entwine the nettles so closely that it is impossible to separate them. This is one of the few truly parasitic plants indigenous to our country. The only other true wild parasites are the mistletoe and the purple broom - rape, which grows upon broom or nettles, or even derives its nutriment from the clover. A purplish coloured flower, with broad leaves -the toothwort-is, by some botanists, considered parasitic. The convolvulus, the honeysuckle, and other creeping plants, are sometimes incorrectly

termed parasites; but as their roots are in the ground, and are not nourished by the plant on which they lean for support, they are merely creepers, and are what botanists term epiphytes, or false parasites. The ferns, mosses, and other plants which derive nutriment from the air, are also epiphytal.

All kinds of creeping plants, both those which are parasitic, and those which are not, are more frequent in warm countries than in our climate.

"No tree that is of count in greenwood growes, From lowest juniper to cedar tall;

No floure in fielde, that dainty odour throwes,

And decks his branch with blossoms over all,
But there was planted or grew naturall."

Spenser.

HOWEVER great may be the pleasure which the inhabitants of temperate climates derive from the possession of a garden near their own homes, the delight which it affords those who live in the warmer climates of the world can perhaps hardly be imagined by any who have not felt the heat of a tropical sun, or the sultry air of the interior of an Eastern dwelling.

As a shelter from the excessive heat of the climate, a garden combining both shade and