CEPHALANTHUS, BUTTON-WOOD: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the tetrandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 48th order, Aggregata. There is no common calyx; the proper one is superior, and funnel-shaped; the receptacle globose and naked, with one downy seed. There is only one species, the Occidentalis; a deciduous shrub, native of north America. It grows to about five or six feet high; and is not a very bushy plant, as the branches are always placed thinly in proportion to the size of the leaves, which will grow more than three inches long, and one and a half broad, if the trees are planted in a soil they like. The leaves stand opposite by pairs on the twigs, and also sometimes by threes, and are of a light-green colour. Their upper surface is smooth; they have a strong nerve running from the footstalk to the point, and several others from that on each side to the borders. These, as well as the footstalks, in the au-
tumn dye to a reddish colour. The flowers, which are aggregate flowers, properly so called, are produced at the ends of the branches, in globular heads, in July. The florets which compose these heads are funnel-shaped, of a yellow colour, and fastened to an axis which is in the middle. — The cephalanthus is propagated from seeds, which we receive from America. These should be sown as soon as they arrive, and there will be a chance of their coming up the first spring; though they often lie till the spring after before they make their appearance. They may be sown in good garden mould of almost any soil, if somewhat moist the better, and should be covered about a quarter of an inch deep. This shrub is also propagated by layers. If the young shoots are laid in autumn, they will have struck good root by the autumn following, and may be then taken up, and set in the places where they are designed to remain. Cuttings of this tree, also, planted in the autumn in a rich, light, moist soil, will grow: and by that means also plenty of these plants may be soon obtained.