»!«*' ■% ^^. !/ I'X r\>. BOUGHT WITH THB INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg W, Sage 1891 a./i4.m>:j ^^/^-y? RETURN TO ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY ITHACA, N. Y. DATE DUE Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002826943 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. First Edition, November i88 Second Edition, February i8 Third Edition, May 1893. Fourth Edition, June 1895. Fifth Edition, June 1896. Reprinted, February 1897. Sixth Edition, May 1B9B. Reprinted, November 189B. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN Design and Arrangement shown by existin,g examples of Gardens in Great Britain and Ireland followed by a Description of the best Plants for the Open-air Garden and their culture By W. ROBINSON Author of *The Wild Garden' Illustrated with many Engravings on Wood Sixth Edition " You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race : this is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature." — Shakespeare- London John Murray Albemarle Street m.dccc.xcviii S6 TO W. T. THISELTON-DYER, F.R.S., UNDER WHOSE DIRECTION THE ROYAL, GARDEN AT KEW HAS BECOME, A BEAUTIFUL FLOWSR-GARDEN WHILE MORE AND MORE USEFUL . AS A BOTANICAL ONE, THIS NEW EDITION OF THE ENGLISH FLOWER. GARDEN IS DEDICATED., " Laying out grounds, as it is called, may be considered as a liberal art, in some sort like poetry and painting; and its object, like that of all the liberal arts, is, or ought to be, to move the affections under the control of good sense. If this be so when we are merely putting together words or colours, how much more ought the feeling to prevail when we are in the midst of the realities of things ; of the beauty and harmony, of the joy and happiness of living creatures ; of men and children, of birds and beasts, of hills and streams, and trees and flowers, with the changes of night and day, evening and morning, summer and winter, and all their unwearied actions and energies." — WORDSWORTH. " A nother thing also much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind, which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when T am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought.' — W. MORRIS, HOPES AND FEARS FOR Art. " Vous travaillez pour ainsi dire d cdtd de Dieu, vous n'etes que les collaborateurs de la loi divine de la v^g^tation. Dieu, dans ses ceuvres immuable, ne se prite pas d nos chimeres ; la nature ria pas de com- plaisance pour nos faux systemes. Elk est souveraine, absolue comme son Autetir. Elle rhisted nos tentatives folles ; elle dejoue, et quelquefois rud&ment, nos ilhisions. Elle nous seconde, elle nous aide, elle nous recompense, si nous touchons juste et si nous travaillons dans son sens vrai ; mais si nous nous trompons, si nous voulons la violenter, la con- traindre, la fausser, elle nous donne d I'instant mime des dementis Matants en fails par la stMlit^, par le d^pMssement, par la mort de tout ce que nous avons voulu cr^er en d^pit d'elle et d [inverse de ses lois." — Lamartine, Discours aux Jardiniers. FOREWORDS TO NEW EDITION. This book is the muster of various once forlorn hopes and skirmishing parties now united with better arms and larger aims, and its beginnings may have an interest for others. I came to London just when the Royal Horticultural Society's garden at Kensington was being laid out, a series of elaborate patterns set at different levels, and the Crystal Palace, in its glory, . was described by the Press of the day to be the most wonderful instance of modern gardening — water-temples, water-paths, vast stone basins and all the theatrical gardening of Versailles reproduced in Surrey. There was little or no reason admitted into garden design : the same poor imitation of the Italian garden being set down in all sorts of positions. If the place did not suit the style, the ground had to be bolstered up in some way so that the plan might be carried out — a costly way to get an often ridiculous result. The great writers of the past had laughed the carpenter's rule out of the parks of England, and pictures arose where they were once impos- sible ; but the ugliness of the garden about the house was assumed to be an essential part of the popular gardening, removing that for ever from the sympathies of artistic people. The flower garden planting was made up of a few kinds of flowers which people were proud to put out in thousands and tens of thousands, and with these, patterns, more or less elaborate, were carried out in every garden save the very poorest cottage garden. It was not easy to get away from all this false and hideous " art," but I was then in the Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, where there was at that time a small garden of British plants, which had to be kept up, and this led me into the varied country round London, from the orchid-flecked meadows of Bucks to the tumbled down undercliffs on the Essex coast, untroubled by the plough, and so I began to get an idea (which should be taught to every boy at school) that there was (for gardens even) much beauty in our native FOREWORDS TO NEW EDITION. flowers and trees, and then came the thought that if there was so much in our own island flora, what might we not look for from the hills and valleys of the countries of the northern and temperate world ? From thoughts of this kind if I turned to actual things, I saw the flower-gardener meanly trying to rival the tile or wall- paper men, and^ throwing aside with contempt all the lovely things that through their height or form did not conform to this idea (so stupid as to life), and this too the rule, not only in the villa garden, but in our great public and private gardens. There was, h^pily,. always the beauty of the woods and lanes and the lovely cottage gardens in the country round London, and here and there, though rare, a quiet garden with things as the great mother made them and grouped them. And so I began to see clearly that the common way was a great error and the greatest obstacle to true gardening or artistic effects of any kind in the flower-garden or home landscape, and then, made up my mind to fight the thing out in any way open to me, and with this view began writing in the Field, and other papers, and then came my own books on Alpine Flowers, Hardy Flowers, the Wild Garden, and Beauty of Form: to be followed soon by the Garden and Gardening Illustrated, in which the subject has been dealt with week by week, and so on to the present book. The English Flower Garden consists of two parts : the first dealing with the vital question of artistic design — the aim being to make the garden a reflex of the beauty of the great garden of the world itself and to prove that the true way to happiest design is not to have any stereotyped style for all flower gardens, but that the best kind of garden should arise out of its site and conditions as happily as a primrose out of a cool bank. The second part includes most of the plants, hardy and half- hardy, for our flower gardens and pleasure grounds, and it is illustrated with a view to show the beauty of the things spoken of, as few know the many shrubs and trees worth a place in our open-air gardens, and it is of little use to discuss arrangement if the beauty of the flowers is hidden from us. In this edition, however, a number of plants of doubtful value in the garden are omitted, as the more I think of the good effects we may have in the flower-garden throughout the year, the more I see that making good use of the many beautiful hardy shrubs and flowers we have is far more essential than noveltv. The X' FOREWOJWS. TO NEW EDITION. beauty of many plants of the highest value is rarely shown in any right way owing .to the habit of dotting single plants about — too often engulfed in rubbish.; No stereotyped garden of half-a-dozen kinds of plants will satisfy any one who knows that many beautiful aspects of vegetation are possible in a garden in spring, summer, and autumn.. At present, too often there is no art, no good grouping, no garden pictures, no variety — little but repetitions of ugly patterns. The choke-muddle, shrubbery, in which the shrubs kill each other, shows betimes a few ill-grown plants, and has wide patches of bare earth in summer,, over which pretty green things might crowd. Yet ■ the smallest garden may be a picture, and not only may we have much more' variety in any one garden, but, if we give up imitating each other, may have charming contrasts between gardens. ^ This is not a botanical book, as should be clear from its title ; but some may expect in the book technical, terms which I wisK to keep out of it. Although the debt of the gardener to Botany. i.s great, the subordination of the garden, to .Botany has been fruitful of the greatest evil to artistic gardening. The way of arranging a garden like a book, and a very ugly book, as in. the, French botanic gardens (Caen, Angers, Rouen), in which one. sees a sea of showy labels, where one might look for the life and. peace of a garden, is a blinding obstacle to beautiful gardening and the Garden of Plants, in Paris, may be cited as one having had for ages a disastrous effect in the gardening of France. It is the spirit of natural beauty we should seek to win into the garden, and so get away from the set patterns on the one hand, and labelled " dots " on the other. English names are given where possible — as it is best to speak of things growing about our doors in our own tongue, and the practice of using in conversation long Latin names, a growth of our own century, has done infinite harm to gardening in shutting out people who have a heart for a garden, but none for the Latin of the gardener. There is no more need to speak of the plants in our gardens by their Latin names than to speak of the dove or the rabbit by Latin names, and where we introduce plants that have nO' good English names we must make them as well as we may. . Old English books like Gerard were rich in English names, and we should follow their ways and be ashamed to use for things in the garden a strange tongue-r— dog Latin or as it may .be. Every plant grown in gardens should have an English name, among the many reasons for this being the frequent FOREWORDS TO NEW EDITION. changes that Latin names undergo in the breaking down of the characters which are supposed to separate genera. For instance. Azalea and Rhododendron are now one genus ; such changes are even more troublesome when they occur in less well-known plants ; and one of the most beautiful plants of our gardens, the Irish Heath (Dabcecia now Boretta), will not be found now by its hitherto recorded name in the London Catalogue of British Plants. If we have a good English name, these changes are of less consequence. It is impossible for gardeners and nurserymen to keep up with such changes, not always indeed accepted even by botanists themselves. The fact that in speaking of plants we use English names does not in the least prevent us from using the Latin name in its right place, when we have need to do so. The systematic nomenclature followed is that of the Kew list, wherever use does not compel us to adhere to old names like Azalea. The book is under constant revision, and there are six new chapters in the first part of the present edition. For the second part of this book the storehouse of information in The Garden has been taken advantage of, but articles have been specially written where necessary, and the following are the names of the writers whose contributions are embodied in the second part of the book, and frequently marked by their initials : — J. Allen J. Atkins P. Barr W. J. Bean J. Birkenhead J. BriUen \V. Brockbank F. W. Burbidge G. A. Champion Latimer Clarke E. T. Cook J. Comhill Mons. H. Correvon Rev. Harpur Crewe A. Dean R. Dean D. Dewar Rev. C. WoUey Dod Rev. H. H. Dombrain J. Douglas J. Dimdas Rev. Canon Ellacombe II. J. Elwes Rev. II. Ewbank W. Falconer D. T. Fish Dr. M. Foster P. NeiU Fraser O. Froebel T. W. Girdlestone Gravetye, May 14/A i8 W. Goldring P. Grieve J. Groom W. E. Gumbleton T. Hatfield W. B. Hemsley I. Anderson-Henry A Herrington T. H. Archer-Hind E. Hobday Rev. F. D. Horner Miss F. Hope C. M. Hovey E. Jackson Miss G. Jekyll Miss R. Kingsley A. Kingsmill Max Leichtlin H. Selfe-Leonard E. G. Loder R. I. Lynch B. Latour-Marliac F. W. Meyer A B. Freeman-Mitford H. G. Moon F. Moore ■. M'Nab Mamock G. Maw G. Nicholson \. J. C. Niven Miss C. JI. Owen A. Perry J. T. Bennett- Poe R. Potter A. Rawson The Very Rev. The Dean of Rochester A. Salter C. W. Shaw C. R. Scrase-Dickens J. Sheppard J. Simpson J. Smith T. Spanswick J. Stevens Rev. Canon Swayne W. Thompson W. P. Thomson G. Van Tubeigen, Junr. Rev. F. Tymons Maurice L. de Vilmorin Dr. A. Wallace W. Watson T. Weathers "W. Wildsmith Miss WiUmott G. F. Wilson T. Wood E. H. Woodall W. R. y'' CONTENTS. PART I. CHAP, PAGE I. — Art in Relation to Flower-gardening and Garden Design ... 3 II. — Design and Position; Against Styles, Useless Stonework, and Stereotyped Plans ; Time's Effect on Garden Design ; Archi- tecture and Flower Gardens ; Design not formal only ; Use in the Garden of Builders, and other Degraded Forms of THE Plastic Art . . . ... 11 III. — Various Flower Gardens : Mainly chosen for their Beauty ; Cottage Gardens in Kent and Somerset ; Mount Usher ; Greenlands ; Golder's Hill ; Pendell Court ; Rhianva ; Sheen Cottage ; Drummond Castle ; Penshurst ; Compton WiNYATES ; Ketton Cottage ; Powis ; Cotehele ; Edge Hall ; Shrubland ; Chillingham ; Bulwick ; Offington ; Wilton ; Stonelands, and Others . . ... 27 IV. — Borders of Hardy Flowers . . . 74 V. — The Reserve and Cut-Flower Gardens . . . . 91 VI. — Hardy Bulbous and Tuberous Flowers, and their Garden Use . 97 VII. — Annual and Biennial Plants, Half-Hardy Plants Annually Raised from Seed . . . no VIII. — Flowering Shrubs and Trees, and their Artistic Use . . . 118 IX. — Climbers and their Artistic Use . . . 127 X. — Alpine Flower- Rock- and Wall-Gardens 139 XI. — The Wild Garden ... . 155 XII. — Spring Gardens ... i66 THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL :— XIII. — The New Rose Garden . ... . . i8i XIV. — Carnation, Lily, Iris, and the Nobler Summer Flowers 198 XV. — Summer-bedding .... . . . . ... 204 XVI. — Plants in Vases and Tubs in the Open Air 214 COXTEXTS. CHAP. ?AGE XVn. — Bkautt of Form is the Flowkk Gakdex, axd herkis also of THE SCB-TROPICAt GaKDEX . . .... ... 226 XVni. — The FijDwer Gasdex ix Autcms . . . .... 239 xrx.— The Fuower Garden is Winter . ... 246 XX.— Water Gardens bt Various Water Gardeners . . . 254. XXL— The Bog Gardes ... . . - ... 267 XXIL — ^The Hardy Ferx Gardes .... . . ..... 274 XXHL— CouocR IS the Fijower Gardes . . ... 283 XXR". — ^Etergreeks as Backgrounds: Dividing Lines; Hedges: Shelter: AND Topiary Work 290 XXV.— ;Fragraxce ..... . . . . . ... . 305 XXAI. — SmpLER Flower Garden Flans and the Relation of the Flower - Gardes to the House .' 310 XXXntl. — Ms. AND Shade . . . . . . 325 XXVIIL— -Walks ast) Edgincs . . . . 334 XXIX. — Soils and Cultivation in the Flower Gardes : Water, Drainage, Weeds, Rotation, Evaporation, Shelter, T.abet.s . . 345 XXX.— The Flower Garden in the House . . . .... 355 XXXI. — Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground Houses, Bridges, Seats and Fences . . . . . . ..... .-..--. 363 PART n. COSTALSING THE FLOWERS, FLOWERING ShRUBS AND TREES, EVSRGREKNS, AND Hardy Feess for the Open-air Flower Gardes in the Brftish Isles, WITH their CaLTIVATION AST) THE POSITIONS MOST SUITABLB FOR THEII-IN Gardens ...... .-- J/ 3 IXDEX TO PARTS L -VXD H. . . 52^ THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN PART I ART IN THE GARDEN. DESIGN AND PLANS IN RELATION TO THE HOUSE AND HOME LANDSCAPE. VARIOUS KINDS OF FLOWER GARDENS WITH A VIEW TO ARTISTIC EFFECT AND GOOD CULTIVATION. ARTISTIC USE OF THE GREAT GROUPS OF PLANTS FOR THE OPEN AIR GARDENS IN THE BRITISH ISLES. HARDY, ALPINE, AND BORDER PLANTS, CLIMBERS, ANNUALS AND BIENNIALS, FLOWERING TREES, SHRUBS, AND EVERGREENS; WATER AND BOG PLANTS, HARDY FERNS, FINE-LEAVED, BEDDING AND HALF-HARDY PLANTS, ROSES, SPRING AND AUTUMN FLOWERS, HARDY BULBS; PLANTS FOR THE WILD GARDEN, FLOWERS FOR CUTTING, COLOUR AND FRAGRANCE. WASTE. ILLUS- TRATED FROM EXISTING EXAMPLES OF BRITISH GARDENS ENGRAVED ON WOOD'. " A K !i^uTr:p:^/cnvf.'L": ivA/ .-"i- Gnvis t/tat t-'w bgiXUtifuJ inus: also be tJu tntc. ar.J recalled tkur. back into t)U' zj.i: . As .-"'.■ coHdnct .""^v- insisted on an energy- zi-ziL'.'s z^js /•.j*':lv.\j.', ov in art and in .";.vrj/;/n- tJtey njziznd :_' rr.j;.-.": .'';,:.■ it Av should r: crf^rc all th:!:gs rational." — Some Asfects of the Greek Gexiu^. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CHAPTER L ART IN RELATION TO FLOWER-GARDENING AND GARDEN DESIGN. There is no reason why we should not have true art in the garden, but much why we should have it, and no reason why a garden should be ugly, bare, or conventional.. The word " art " being used in its highest sense here, it may perhaps be well to justify its use, and as good a definition of the word as any perhaps is "power to see and give form to beautiful things," and we see it shown in some of its finest forms in Greek sculpture and in the works of the great masters of painting. But art is of many kinds, and owing to the loose, '' critical " talk of the day, it is not easy to see that true art is based on clear- eyed study of and love for Nature, rather than invention and the bringing of the " personality " of the artist into the work of which we hear so much. The work of the artist is always marked by its fidelity to Nature, and proof of this may be seen in the greatest art galleries now open to all, so that there is little to hide the proof of what is said here about art in its highest expression. But as a number of people write much about art in the magazines and papers, while blind as bats to its simple law, there is infinite confusion in many minds about it, and we may read essay after essay about art without being brought a bit nearer to the simple truth, but on the other hand get the false idea that it is not by observing, but by inventing and supplementing, that good work is done. The strong man must be there, but his work is to see the whole beauty of the subject and to help us to see it, not to distort it in any way for the sake of making it " original." This is often a way to popu- larity, but in the end it means bad work.' It may be the fashion for B 2 THE EXCLIS3 FLOWER C-ARI>E\. ?. season, owing to 5orae one . uilin . but it is soon found out. and «-e ha\-e to retur^. to the greac masters of all ages, who are always distinguished for truth to Nature, and who show their strength by getting nearer to her. The actual beaut\- of a thing in I'l its fuiness and subtlety :s almost the whole of die question, but the critics of the day will not take the trouble to see this, and wTite essaxs on art in which many long words occur, but in which we do not once meet with the word tnttlu ■■ Realism ' and " idealism " are words iVee!\- used, and bad pictures are shown us .as ex.imples of "realism,"' which leave out all the refinement, subtletj", truth of tone, and perhaps even the ver\- light and shade in which all the real things we see are set. There are men so blind to the beautj- of the things set before their e\-es in sky. sea. or earth, that they would seek to idealise the e\ es of a beautiful child or the clouds of heaven : while all who see natural beaut\- in landscape know that no imagining can come near to the beautj' of things seen, art being often powerless to seize their full beaut}-, and the artist has often to let the brush fall in despair. There are more pictures round the year in manj- a p?a-ish in England than all the landscape painters of Europe could pairt in a centuf}-. Only a little, indeed, of the beaut\- that concerns us most — that of the landscape — can be seized for us except by the ver\- greatest masters. Of things ^^sible — ^flower, tree, landscape. sk\". or sea — to see the full and e\"er\- ^-aried beaut\- is to be sa\-ed for evTer fix)m any wull-o"-the-wisp of the imaginar)-. But many peopde do not judge pictures by Nature, but by pictures, and therefore the}- miss her.subtleties and delicate realities on which all true work depends. Some sneer at those who "copy Nature." but the answer to such critics is for ever there in the work of the great men, be they Greeks. Dutchmen, Italians, French, or English. But it is part of the work of the .artist to select beautiful or memorable things, not the first that come in his \\-ay. The Venus of Milo is from a noble tj-pe of woman — not a mean Greek. The horses of the Parthenon show the best of Eastern breed, full of life and beauty. Great landscape painters like Crome, Corot, and Turner seek not things only because they are natural, but also beautiful ; selecting \iews and waiting for the light that suits the chosen sub-ect best, they give us pictures, working always from faithful study of Nature and from stores of knowledge gathered firom her, and that is the onl_\- true path for the gardener, all true art being based on her eternal laws. All de\-iation from the truth of Nature, whether it be at the hands of Greek. Italian, or other artist, though it may pass for a time, is in the end — it may be ages after the artist is dead— classed as debased art ART IN RELATION TO FLOWER-GARDENING. Why say so much here about art? Because once we see the meaning of true " art " we cannot endure what is ugly and false in art, and we cannot have the foregrounds of beautiful English scenery daubed with a flower garden like a coloured advertisement. Many see the right way from their own sense being true, but others may wish for proof of what is urged here as to the true source of lasting work in art in the work of the great artists of all time. And we may be as true artists in the garden and home landscape as anywhere else. There is no good picture which does not image for us the beauty of natural things, and why not begin with these and be artists in their growth and grouping ? — for one reason among others that we are privileged to have the living things about us, and not merely representations of them. Last expression of "carpet" gardening at Chicago. From a photograph. So far we have spoken of the work of the true artist, which is always marked by respect for Nature and by keen study of her. But apart from such we have a great many men who do what is called " decorative " work, useful, but still not art in the sense of delight in and study of things as they are — the whole class of decorators, who make our carpets, tiles, curtains, and who adapt conventional or geometric forms mostly to flat surfaces. Skill in this way may be considerable without any attention whatever being paid to the greater art that is concerned with life in all its fulness. This it is well to see clearly ; as for the flower gardener it matters much on which side he stands. Unhappily, our gardeners for ages have suffered at the hands of the decorative artist, when applying his THE EXGLISH FLOIVER GARDEK. ■■ designs " to the garden, and designs which may be quite right on a surface Hke a carpet or panel have been applied a thousand times to the surface of the much enduring earth. It is this adapting of absurd ■ knots ■■ and patterns from old books to any surface w here a flower garden has to be made that leads to bad and frivolous design — wrong in plan and hopeless for the life of plants. It is so eas>- for any one asked for a plar. to furnish one of this sort without the slightest knowledge of the life of a garden. For ages the flower-garden has been marred by absurdities ol this kind of work as regards plan, though the Hoovers were in simple and natural ways. But in our own time ihe same '• decorative " idea has come to be carried out in the planting of the flowers under the name of "bedding out," "carpet bedding," or "mosaic culture" In this the beautiful forms of flowers are degraded to the level of crude colour to make a design, and without reference to the natural form or beauty of the plants, clipping being freely done to get the carpets or patterns " true." WTien these tracen,- gardens were made, otten by people without any knowledge of the plants of a garden, they were found to be difficult to plant; hence attempts to do without the gardener altogether, and get colour b\- the use of broken brick, white sand, and painted stone, as in Xesfields work at South Kensington and Sir C. Barrj^'s at Shrubland. All such work is wTong and degrading to the art of gardening, and in its extreme expressions is ridiculous. WTi}" are such designs bad ? The good sense of all is the final court of appeal for even artistic things, and to manj- people these remarks need not be made, but the stereotyped gardens that abound in many places show us that the fight against the ugly garden has only begun. The modem garden is often no more interesting than an oilcloth pattern, because instead of beautiful form and colour we see emphaisis given to pattern-work and plants robbed of all their grace. But while the artist may be driven from the common bedding garden, he will perhaps go to rest his e\"es on a cottage garden, and make a picture of it. as the cottage garden is itself often a picture. Wh\" should the cottage garden be a picture when the gentleman's garden is not? Here is an engra\Tng of a small cottage garden in Devon- shire : an artistic garden in its simplest expression. There was ver\- little in this bejond Roses and a few Pansies. and yet it was right and beautiful, and there are many as good in ever}- count}- in England. May the large gardens be as good in proportion to the monej' spent upon them and their size as this little cottage garden ? Certainly : the gardens shown in this book prove it. although it is rarely now- adays that a large garden shows anything like the charm of simplicity that many cottage gardens do. A Devonshire Cottage Garden. THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. The gardener should follow the true artist, however modestly, m his love for things as they are, in delight in natural form and beautj'_ of flower and tree, if we are to be free from barren geometry, and it our gardens are ever to be pictures. The gardener has not the strenuous work of eye and hand that the artist has, but he has plenty of good work to do :— to choose from ten thousand beautiful Imng things ; to study their nature and adapt them to his soil and climate ; to get the full expression of their beauty ; to grow and place them well and in right relation to other things, which is a life-study in itself, in view of the great numbers of the flowers and flowering trees of the worid. And as the artist's work is to see and keep for us some of the Bedding and Carpet Flower^gaidening (mosaicullnre of the French). Xo. i. Palm; 2, Begonias; 3 Coleus; 4. Lobelia; 5, Pyrethrum ; 6, Altenianthera ; 7, A. amabilis ; 8, A. amoena; 0. Sedum; ic Ciassula: 11, Echeveria; 12, Kleinia; 13, Ciassula; 14, Yucca; 15, iceplant ; 16, Eche^-eria ; i- Sedum ; i3, Eche^-eria ; 19, Altem^nthera. beaut}- of landscape, tree, or flower, so the gardener's should be to keep for us as far as may be, in the fulness of their natural beaut)-, the living things themselves. The artist gives us the fair image : the gardener is the trustee of a world of fair living things, to be kept with care and knowledge in necessary subordination to the conditions of his work. And as there is other and higher design than that of the decorator of flat surfaces with patterns, so there is an absolute and eternal difference bet\veen conventional form as he expresses it, and the true forms of cloud or hill, vale, stream, path, oak, palm and vine, reed and lily. And the first duty of all who care for the garden as a picture is to see these noble natural forms in e\-ery part of life and ART IN RELATION TO FLOWER-GARDENING. nature, and once they see them they will never mistake decorative patterns for art and beauty in a garden. In some writings on garden design, it is assumed as a truism that the landscape and naturalistic view of that design was the invention of certain men, and a mere passing fashion, like many that have disfigured the garden. This is a serious error, as it was based on observation of the landscape beauty which has existed ever since the eyes of men were first opened to the beauty of the earth, whether on wild mountain woodland, or in the forest plain, apart altogether from man's efforts, as seen in the parks of England from Alnwick to Richmond ; and in either case it is too lovely a lesson to forget so long as man has any eyes to see beauty. If all the works of man in landscape planting were swept away, there would still be beautiful landscape on vast areas in many lands. There are ten thousand grassy lawns and glades among the mountain Pines of Switzerland, as there are on the mountains of California and Cashmere, and, indeed, the many other woody mountain lands of the world ; and many of these are suggestive of all that is most beautiful in planting. Apart from the planning of ground and its form, there is the question of the arrangement of all the beautiful things, of earth — flower, shrub, or tree in right or wrong ways. Here there were always lessons to be learned in nature : lovely colonies of Bird's-eye Primrose in the bogs of Westmoreland ; and of Gentian by the alpine streams, islets of wild Heath, lakes of wild Hyacinth, and wood carpets of Primrose ; groups of Venetian Sumach cropping out of the hot southern rocks ; and of May on the hill, the stately groves of the lowland forest, and the Grey Willows of the marsh land. In plant- ing in like ways we are simply taking a lesson from Nature, and not dabbling in a mere fashion. Even the creatures of earth and air are held together beautifully — wild birds in the air, delicate brown flocks of them by the cold northern sea, as well as many groups of nobler birds on the banks of the Nile and southern rivers ; the cattle on a thousand hills : in no other way could their forms or colours be so well seen. And so it must ever be in the garden where natural grouping is the true and artistic \Nz.y. The expression of these ideas may seem to some to imply that the garden generally is to be a tangled wilderness. But having plants in natural forms does not in the least prevent us from making a straight walk along a straight wall, or from having the necessary wall protection for our gardens. A straight line is often the most beautiful that can be used ; but its use by no means implies thcit we are not to group our plants or bushes naturally alongside it. As I use the word "artistic," in a book on the flower-garden, it may be well to say that as it is used it means right and true '^HE EXGLISH FLOIVER GAi.DEX in relation to all the conditions of the case, and the necessary- limita- tions of our art and all other human arts. A lovely Greek coin, a bit of canvas painted by Corot with the morning light on it, a block of stone hewn into the shape of the d\ing gladiator, the white moun- tain rocks built into a Parthenon — these are all examples of human art, e\ er\ one of w hich can be onl\- fairh" judged in due regard to what is possible in the material of each — knowledge which it is part of the artist's essential task to possess. Often a garden may be wrong in \-arious w a\s. as showii b\- the conifers spread in front of man\" a house — ugly in form, not in harmony with our native or best garden vegetation ; mountain trees set out on dry plains and not even hard\- : so that the word inartistic ma\- help us to describe many errors. And again, if we are happy enough to find a garden so true and right in its results in many waj^s as to form a picture that an artist would be charmed tL' stud}-, we may call it an artistic garden, as a short way of saying that it is about as good as it may be, taking everj-thing into account. Eden Hall, Cumberland. CHAPTER II. DESIGN AND POSITION — AGAINST STYLES, USELESS STONEWORK, AND STEREOTYPED PLANS — TIME'S EFFECT ON GARDEN DE- SIGN — ARCHITECTURE AND FLOWER GARDENS — DESIGN NOT FORMAL ONLY — USE IN THE GARDEN OF BUILDERS, AND OTHER DEGRADED FORMS OF THE PLASTIC ART. One aim of this book is to uproot the idea that a flower garden must always be of set pattern placed on one side of the house. The wants of flowers can be best met, and their varied loveliness best shown, ■in a variety of positions, and the first thing to do is to consider the effect of arraying all our flowers in one spot under the same con- ditions, as such a plan can never give us a tithe of the beauty which our gardens may afford. The settled way has too often been to regard •one spot with the same soil and aspect — with every condition alike, .in fact — as the only home for open-air flowers, though near at hand there may be positions, each favourable to different groups of flower. For all that concerns us in this artistic question there are laws which will guide us if we seek for them. The laws here meant are Nature's laws — not merely landmarks set out by man for his convenience. Only they are not laws that bind with weary fetters, but as infinite in delightful change as the restless clouds on the hills. We shall never settle the most trifling question by the stupid saying that it is " a matter of taste,'' and if the reader will come with me through these early •chapters, I hope to convince him that flower-gardening is " a matter ■of reason." The laws of all true art can only be based on the eternal -laws of Nature, and these are the source from which all our guid- -ance should come. One of the first things we have to do is to get a clear idea of the hoUowness of much of the talk about " styles " that forms a great ■part of what has been written in books about laying out gardens, and there are many dissertations on the several styles, the authors 'going even to China . and to Mexico for illustrations. The first thing every writer on this subject does is to puzzle his readers with THE EXGL:S}{ FLO'.'. Er. CARDEX. words about •stales," but when all is read, what is the result to anj-bod}^ who looks firom words to things? That there are two stales : the one strait-laced, mechanical, with much wall and stone, with water-squirts, plaster-work, and absurd sculpture ; the other natural — in most cases, once free of the house accepting the ground lines of the earth herself as the best, and getting plant beautj- from its natural source — the flowers and trees arranged in picturesque wa}"s. There are positions where stonework is necessarj"; but the beauti- ful terrace gardens are those that are built where the nature oi the ground required them ; and there is nothing more melancholj- than the walls, fountain basins, clipped trees, and long canals of places like the Cn,"stal Palace, not onh" because they fail to satisfy the desire for beaut}-, but because they tell of wasted effort, riches worse than lost. There are, from Versailles to Caserta, a great many ugly gardens in Europe, but at Sydenham we have the greatest modem example of the waste of enormous means in making hideous a fine piece of ground. This has been called a work of genius, but it is the fruit of a poor ambition to outdo another ugly extravagance — Versailles. But Versailles is a relic of the past, and was the expression of such know- ledge oi the gardening art as men then possessed. As Versailles has numerous tall water-squirts, the best way of glori^ing ourselves was to make some taller ones at Sydenham ! Instead of confining the terrace gardening to the upper terrace, by far the greater portion of the ground was devoted to a stony extra\-agance of design, and nearly in the centre were placed the \-ast and ugly fountain basins. The contrivances to enable the water to go down-stairs, the temples, statues, dead walls, all costly rubbish praised bj- the papers as the marvellous work of a genius, \^"hen a pri\-ate indi\-idual indulges in such fancies, he may not injure many but himself: but in this public garden — set up as an example of all that is admirable — we have, in addition to wasteful outla\-, what is hurtful to the public taste. INIam- whose lawns were, or might readil\- ha\-e been made, the most beautiful of gardens have spoiled them for sham terraced gardens, and there is a modem castle in Scotland where the embank- ments are piled one above another, till the whole looks as if Uncle Toby with an army of corporals had been carrxing out his grandest scheme in fortification. The rude stone wall of the hill husbandman, supporting a narrow slip of soil for olive-trees or \-ines. became in the garden of the wealthy Roman a well-built one; but it must be remembered that, even where the wall is necessarj-. the beaut}- of the true Italian garden depends on the life of trees and flowers more than on the plan of the garden, as in the Guisti garden at Verona, vl '«* '4i ( I 'I'f Si V^ fir' If ' , j.lbj^ \'Si .y n •i -n IJL THE EXGLISH FLOV.'ER GARDEX whereas in our sham examples of the Italian garden all is as flat and lifeless as a bad mosaic. Terraced Gardens, allowing of much building (apart from the house , have been much in favour with architects who have designed gardens. The landscape gardener, : : o often led by custom, falls in with the notion that even," house, no matter what its position, should be fortified by terraces, and he busies himself in forming them even on Ie\-el ground, and lai^ sums are spent on fountains, A-ases. statues. balustrades, useless walls, and stucco work, where these are out of place. B>- the extensi\ e use of such materials manj- a noble lawTi is cut up ; and often, as at Witley Court, the " ardiitectural " gardening is pushed so far into the park as to curtail and injure the \-iew. If the cost of the stone and stucco ornament lavished on the garden were spent on its legitimate object — ^the house — ^how much better it would be for architecture, as well as for gardening! The best ettect is to be got not by carr\"ing architectural features into the usually small level town garden, but b\- the contrast between the garden v^etation and its built surroundings. This contrast should be got, not by the sham picturesque, \\-ith rocks, cascades, and imdulations of the ground, but mainly by the simple dignitj' of trees and the charm of turf It was said that none but an Italian garden would suit South Kensington, and we had an elaborate garden there carried out with the greatest care, yet the result, as ever^^body knows, was miserable. There are many pri\"ate gardens in European cities, with as formal surroundings as those of South Kensington, which are as beautiful as it was stitt and ugly. Elaborate terraced gardens in the wrong place often prevent the formation of beautiful lawTis, though a good lawn is the happiest thing in a garden. For man)- years past there has been so much cutting up, geometry-, and stonework that it is rare to find a good lawn left, and man\- a site cut up would be x^astly improved if changed ir.to a large, nobly firinged lawn. A very common, poorly built house with a fine open lawn has often a better effect than a fine one with a recti- lineal garden and terraces in front of it. though there are cases where walls would be the way to a good result. A style of garden " design " that for a long time has had an injurious efiect on man\^ places is the " raihva\- embankment phase of landscape gardening madness — one in which we see a series of sharplj- graded grass slopes, exactly like well-smoothed railway- embankments. It is curious that any one should imagine that such a plan, marring the whole landscape, should gi\-e pleasure to an\- human being, or do an\-thing but make the foreground of the house weari- some to the last degree. In this variety we often find several sharp banks falling one below the other without a protecting wall 3 i6 THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDES. at the top, and the sharp green angles cutting horrible capers from various points of view, and this perhaps in the face of a beautiful landscape. Of this there was, until latel\-, an instance at Verdle\- Place, in the midst of one of the most beautiful landscapes in England, and many others might be named in almost every county. A beautiful house in a fair landscape is the most delightful scene of the cultivated earth, all the more so if there be an artistic garden — the rarest thing to find ! The union beUveen the house beautiful and the ground near it — a happy marriage it should be — is worth}- of more thought than it has had in the past, and the best way of effecting that union artistically should interest men more and more as our cities grow larger and our lovely English landscape shrinks back from them. \\'e have never jet got from the garden and the home landscape half the beaut}- which we might get by abolishing the needless patterns which disfigure so many gardens. Formalitj- is often essential to the plan of a garden but never to the arrangement of its flowers or shrubs, and to array these in rigid lines, circles, or patterns can only be ugly wherever it may be ! After we have settled the essential approaches, and levels around a house, the natural form or lines of the earth itself are in nearlj- all cases the best to follow, and it is often well to face an\- labour to get the ground back into its natural grade where it is disfigured by ugh- or needless banks, lines, or angles. But in the true Italian garden on t/ie hills we have to alter the natural line of the earth, or " terrace it,"' because we cannot otherwise cultivate the ground or stand at ease upon it, and in such ground the strictlj- formal is as right as the lawn is in a garden in the Thames valley. But the lawn is the heart of the true English garden, and as essential to it as the terrace to the gardens on the steep hills, and English lawns have been too often destroyed for plans ruinous both to the garden and the home landscape. Some- times on level ground the terrace walls cut off the landscape from the house, and, on the other hand, the house from the landscape I \\'e may get everj-^ charm of a garden and every use of a countrj- place without sacrificing the picturesque or beautiful ; there is no reason, either in the working or design of gardens, why there should be a false line in them ; ever\- charm of the flower garden may be secured by wholly avoiding the knots and scrolls which subordinate all the plants and flowers of a garden, all its joy and life, to a wretched conventional design. The true way is the opposite. With onh- the simplest plans to insure good working, we should see the flowers and feel the beauty of plant forms, and secure every scrap of turf wanted for play or lawn, and for ever}- enjoyment of a garden. Time and Gardens. — Time's effect on gardens is one of the main considerations. Fortress-town and castle moat are now without a THE EXGLISH FLOnSR GARDEX. further use. where in old days gardens were set within the walls. To keep a.E that remains of such gardens should be our first care — never to imitate them now. Many are far more beautiful than the modem gardens, which by a wicked pen ersitj- have been kept bare of plants or i! ; ver life. At one time it was rash to make a garden away from protecting w^dls ; but when safetj- came from ci^^l w^r, then arose the oflen beautiful Elizabethan house, free from all moat or trace Oi" v.-ar. In those days the extension of the decorative work of the house into the garden had some noveltj' to carr\- it off, while the kinds of evergreens were ver\- much fewer than now. Hence if the old gardeners wanted an evergreen hedge or bush of a certain height, they clipped a Yew tree to the form and size they wanted. Not- withstanding this, we have no evidence that an>'thing like the flat monotony often seen in our own time existed then. To-day the ever-growing cit\-. pushing its hard face over our once beautiful land, should make us wish more and more to keep such beautj' of the earth as may be still possible to us, and the horrible railway embankments, where once were the beautiful suburbs of London, cry to us to save all we can save of the natural beaut}- of the earth. Architecture and Fkzi-cr Gardeiung^ — ^The architect is a good gardener when he makes a beautiful house. WTiatever is to be done or considered afterwards, one is always helped and encouraged by its presence : while, on the other hand, scarcely any amount of skill in gardening softens the presence of an i^h" building. No one has more reason to rejoice at the presence of good architecture than the gardener and planter, and all stonework near the house, even in the garden, should be dealt with by the architect But when architecture goes beyond the strictly necessary- round the house, and seeks to replace what should be a living garden by an elaborate tracerj- on the ground, then error and \\-aste are at work, and the result is ugliness. The proof of this is at Versailles, at the Ciystal Palace in great part, in the old gardens in Vieima, and at Caserta, near Naples, where there is a far from beautiful stone garden- One may not so freely mention private places as public ones, but many ugly and extravagant things have been done by trj-ing to adapt a mode of garden design essential in a countrj- like Ital\-. where people often Uved for health's sake on tops of the hills, to gardens in the plains and \-alleys of England. I know a terrace in England built riglit against tk; Jwuse, so as to exclude the light from and make useless what were once the reception rooms. That deplorable result came about by endeavouring to adapt Italian modes to EngUsh conditions, and was the work of Sir Charles Barr>\ To any one ' Read before the -\rc":i;:iv;.:ri: .Vs^ijatioa on Fddaj-, December l6, 1S03. C 2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. deeply interested in the question, one of the best places to consider it is the upper terrace at Versailles, looking from the fine buildings there to the country beyond, and seeing how graceless and inert the whole vast design is, and how the clipped and often now dying, because mutilated, Yews thrust their ugly forms into the landscape beyond and rob it of all grace. To those who tell me this sort of work is necessary to " harmonise " with the architecture I say there are better ways, and that to rob fine buildings of all repose by a complex geometrical " pattern " in the foreground is often the worst way. Cost and care of stonework in gardens. — Where stone or stucco gardening is done on a large scale, its cost and maintenance are monstrous. Even with the wealth of France, the repair of elaborate stonework in gardens is a hopeless task, as any one may see at Versailles or at the Crystal Palace. Is it in the interest of archi- tecture that noble means should be so wasted? As the cost and difficulties of the finest work in building increase, the more the need to keep it to its true and essential uses, especially in face of the fact that half the houses in England require to be rebuilt if our architec- ture generally is to prove worthy of its artistic aims. I delight in walls for my Roses, and build \\'alls, provided they have any true use as dividing, protecting, or supporting lines. To take advantage of these and sunny sheltered comers in and about our old or new houses, and make delightful little gardens in and near them, as at Drayton or Powis, is quite a different thing from cutting off the landscape with vast flat " patterns " and scroll-work, as on the upper terrace at Versailles and at Windsor and many gardens made in our own day. " Design " not formal only. — I find it stated by writers on this subject that " design " can only concern formality — an error, as the artistic grouping and giving picturesque effect to groups and groves of Oak, Cedar, or Fir are far higher design than putting trees in lines. There is more true and subtle design in Richmond Park and other noble parks in England, where the trees are grouped in picturesque ways and allowed to take natural forms, than in a French wood with straight lines cut through it, which the first carpenter could design as well as anybody else. In our own day a wholly different order of things has arisen, because we have thousands of beautiful things coming to us from all parts of the temperate and northern world, and those who know them will not accept a book pattern design, instead of our infinitely varied garden flora. The trees of North America and Asia form a tree garden in themselves, and it is impos- sible to lay out gardens of any size or dignity without a knowledge of those and all other hardy trees not only in a cultivated but in a wild state. If anything demands special study, it is that of garden design .3 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. \\ith our present materials. If that art is to be mastered, the \\ork of a life must be given to it — more than that, a life's devotion, and no less is the sacrifice his own art requires of the architect. No one " style " right. — There is no such thing as a style fitted for every situation ; only one who knows and studies the ground well will ever make the best of a garden, and any " style " may be right where the site fits it. I never see a house the ground around which does not invite plans for itself only. A garden on the slopes about Naples is impossible without much stonework to support the earth, while about London or Paris there is usually no such need. But these considera- tions never enter into the minds of men who plant an Italian garden in one of our river valleys, where in nine cases out of ten an open lawn is often the best thing before the house, as at Bristol House, Roehampton ; Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames ; and in many gardens in the Thames valley. And there are right and wrong ways where we cannot have a lawn garden : — Haddon, simple, right, and charming on the one hand, and Chatsworth on the other ; Knole and Ightham and Rockingham without a yard of stonework not absolutely needed for the house and its approaches, and others with a fortune spent in vast display of costly stonework, only effective in robbing the fore- ground of a fine landscape of all repose. The idea that the old style of building in England was always accompanied by elaborate terrace gardening is proved to be erroneous by many beautiful old houses. The Elizabethan house had often an ample lawn in front or plenty of grass near, and such houses are quite as delightful in effect as the old houses and castles where terracing was necessary and right, owing to the ground, such as Berkeley, Powis, and Rockingham. The mosaic in flower-planting is a modern idea, and had nothing to do with old gardens, which, how- ever planned, had their flowers planted in simple ways. The idea that trees must be clipped to make them " harmonise " with architecture is a mere survival. In the old days of garden design, when in any northern country there were few trees in gardens, these trees were slashed into any shape that met the de- signer's view. But now that many beautiful trees and shrubs are coming to us from many countries, the aim of true gardening is, so far from mutilating them, to develop their natural forms. In by far the greater number of beautiful places in England, from Knole to Haddon, and from the fine west-country- houses to the old border castles, there are many of the fairest gardens where the trees are never touched with shears. Sutton Place, near Guildford, built in 152 1, is one of the most beautiful old houses in the home counties, and its architecture is none the less delightful because the trees near show their true 24 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. natural forms. It is also an example of a fine old house around which there is no terraced gardening. • It would be as hopeless to design a building without knowing anything of its uses or inhabitants as design a garden without full knowledge of its nobler ornaments — trees and the many things that go to make our garden flora vary so much in form, habits, and hardi- ness according to soils, situations, and districts. Errors of the most serious kind arise from dealing with such things without knowledge, and any attempt to keep the gardener out of the garden must fail, as it did in our own day in the case of the broken brick and stone flower beds at South Kensington. Except for what is mostly a very small area near the house, the architect and garden-designer deal with distinct subjects and wholly distinct materials. They should work in harmony, but not seek to do that for which their training and knowledge have not fitted them. On the Flower-Garden as a Show-Ground for Builder^ Sculpture and other Debased Forms of the Plastic " Art." — " In the last century there was a manu- factory of garden images in Piccadilly; in fact, there were four. Mr. John Cheece, the owner, did a splendid trade in cast lead figures — gods and goddesses, nymphs and shepherds. Pan with his pipes. Action with his hounds, mowers, shepherd- esses, and Father Time with his scythe ; these sweet suggestive figures still linger rarely in old-world gardens, almost living by associations of the many that have loved them." — R. Blomfield {Art and Life, p. 205). It is clear from the above that there are men who think of the garden, not as a living picture of beautiful natural forms, but as a place to show off one of the most worthless phases of human art. In a northern country like ours a statue of any high merit as a work of art deserves to be protected by a building of some kind. The effect of frost and rain in our climate on statuary out-of-doors is very destruc- tive, and the face of a statue of some merit put up only a few years ago opposite the Royal Exchange is now rotted away. The scattering of numerous statues of a low order of merit, or of no merit at all, which we see in some Italian gardens, often gives a bad effect, and the dotting of statues about both the public gardens of Paris and London is destructive of all repose. If a place be used for the exhibition of sculpture, well and good ; but let us not in that case call it a garden. In Britain statues are often of plaster material, and those who use a garden as a place to dot about such "works of art" do not think of the garden as the best of places to show the work of Nature, and as one in which we should see many fine natural forms. The earliest recollection I have of any large garden or country seat was one strewn with the remains of statues, but as my evidence as to effect and endurance might not be thought impartial, we may call as a witness Victor Cherbuliez, of the French Academy. " It was one of those classical gardens the planners of which prided themselves upon as being able to give Nature lessons in good behaviour, to teach her geometry DESIGN AND POSITION. 25 and the fine art of irreproachable lines ; but Nature is for geometers a reluctant pupil, and if she submits to their tyranny she does it with an ill grace, and will take her revenge The large basin no longer held any water, and the dolphins which in days gone by spouted it from their throats looked as if they asked each other to what purpose they were in this world. But the statues had suffered most ; moss and a green damp had invaded them, as if some kind of plague or leprosy had covered them with sores, and pitiless Time had inflicted on them mutilations and insults. One had lost an arm, another a leg ; almost all had lost their noses. There was in the basin a Neptune whose face was sadly damaged and who had nothing left but his beard and half his trident, and further on a Jupiter without a head, the rain water standing in his hollowed neck.'' As to the artistic value of much of our sculpture, Lord Rosebery, in his speech at Edinburgh in 1896, said — " If those restless spirits that possessed the Gadarene swine were to enter into the statues of Edinburgh, and if the whole stony and brazen troop were to hurry and hustle and huddle headlong down the steepest place near Edinburgh into the deepest part of the Firth of Forth, art would have sustained no serious loss." The Pall Mall Gazette, commenting on this speech, wishes for a like rush to the Thames on the part of our " London monstrosities," and yet this is the sort of rubbish that some wish us to expose in the garden, where there is rarely the means to be found to do even as good work as we see in cities. If the politician and the journalist ask to be delivered from the statues with which the squares and streets of our cities are adorned, our duty as lovers of Nature in the garden is. clear. In its higher expression nothing is more precious in art than sculp- ture ; in its lower and debased forms it is less valuable than almost any form of art. The lovely Greek sculpture in the Vatican, Louvre, or British Museum is the work of great artists, and those who study it will not be led astray by either Piccadilly goddesses in lead or New Road nymphs in plaster. If we wish to see the results of sculpture in the architect's own work we have but to look at the public build- ings in London where it is used, mostly to spoil any architectural grace such buildings should possess, as in the National Portrait Gallery, the Natural History Museum, and the Home Office build- ings, and then we may better judge how far we may go in our gardens with such art. Real artists in sculpture are not concerned with garden design, and sculpture is not the business of the builder or landscape gardener. A statue or two of any artistic value may be placed in a garden with good effect, never, however, forgetting that a garden is a place for beautiful life, not death. It is not that we despise other arts than our own, they may charm and even help us, as in the case of a landscape painting by a man of genius or even, serious student of the actual beauty of things. Even a drawing of a tree or flower may be a lesson in form and beauty ; but all debased " art " is as harmful in the garden as it is anywhere else. CHAPTER III. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS : MAIXLY CHOSEN FOR THEIR BEAUTY; COTTAGE GARDENS IN KENT AND SOMERSET; MOUNT USHER ; GREENLANDS ; GOLDER'S HILL ; PENDELL COURT ; RHIANVA ; SHEEN COTTAGE ; DRUMMOND CASTLE ; PENSHURST ; COMPTON WINVATES ; KETTON COTTAGE ; POWIS ; COTEHELE ; EDGE HALL ; SHRUBLAND ; CHILLINGHAM ; BULWICK ; OFFINGTON ; WILTON ; STONELANDS, AND OTHERS. These gardens should help us to get the most precious lesson as to design — that the best-laid-out garden is that which is best fitted for its situation, soil and climate, and without much considera- tion as to any " style." Once we make a rule and say, this is the best and only waj-, it is not only the good architect, and that still "rarer being, the good landscape gardener, who will carry it out, but any- body who has any influence in building or gardening will do the same thing in all sorts of positions with any kind of material, including the "young man in the office" and other persons who have never even given the slightest thought to any kind of artistic planting, let alone any serious study of garden design. Of the expression of this inartistic ruling we see painful evidence everywhere in the terraces like railway banks out of place and rampant through the land. On these stereotyped ideas is based another leading to greater evil, which is that, once you have got your patterned plateau, you cannot have your flowers in artistic or picturesque ways on it, and so the poor gardener has to go on trying to adapt ugly patterns in flowers to the ugly plan that is given him. The second idea is false too, as flowers ma>- be arranged in right and natural \\a>-s in any garden, but that fact has not killed the common error that we cannot throw formality overboard in arranging flowers. The really artistic way is to have no preconceived idea of any st\le, but in all cases to be led by the ground itself and by the many things upon it. Why should we in the plains or gentle meadows of 28 THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. England not give effect to the beautiful lines of the landscape, and make our gardens harmonise with them ? The right way is, to carry no style in one's head or pocket, and then, before saying much, go over the ground and see it from every point of \-iew, with a view to getting the best that the site, soil, and surroundings will give. If the idea of the bastard Italian garden ^\-ere the truest that could be expressed by man, it must inevitably lead to monotonj' and to stereo- typing of the garden, and it is only by respecting the site itself and letting the plan grow out of it that we can get gardens free from monotony, and suggestive also, as they should often be, of the country in \\-hich the\- occur. If all our efforts only go to stereotyping the home landscape, it is hardly worth while going for a change from the Midlands into Devon. Why should we not in these islands of ours, where there are so many different kinds of landscape and character- istics of soil and climate, have gardens in harmony, as it were, with their surroundings? Also the taste of the owner ought to count \\'hy should he be bound to the conventional style ? as no one is so likely to know the conditions of soil and climate, and the capabilities of a district as one who has lived amidst them ; and if we come to the aid of such an owner with an open mind as to style, we shall be much better able to gi\-e eifect to his views in the shape of artistic and distinct result. Everywhere the ugliest things are seen, especially in the larger places, but here and there one sees gardens that are beautiful, and nothing will help us so well to a clear view of what is best in the flower-garden as the consideration of such places, but we may first say something of the new and wrong way of having no flowers near the house. Those who notice the ground round country seats find now and then a house without any flower garden, and with the turf running hard into the walls — the site of a flower garden without flowers. This unhappy omission \\& ma>- suppose to result from the ugliness in summer, and nakedness in winter, of the common wa}- of planting a flower garden. But it is a mistake to suppose that the only alternatives to such nakedness are coarse perennials and annuals, that flower a short time and are weedy the rest of their days, or the ordinary summer- planting. Many delightful things may be grown near a house ; fragrant plants, too, plants beautiful not only in summer but in colour even in winter. The ceaseless digging about of the beds also may prejudice people against flowers in the garden as the bedding plants set out in June were taken away in autumn, and replaced by spring-flowering things. These had a short period of bloom in spring, and were, in their turn, pulled up, leaving bare beds 30 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. until the summer flowers were planted, sometimes very late ; so that in June, when we ought to have flowers or, at least, pleasant colour wholly over the ground, there was nothing but grave-like earth, but the spring flowers round a country house should be grown in a different way. They may be naturalised in multitudes, grown in borders, in special little gardens for bulbs, and in various other ways, without in the least disturbing the beds near the house, which should for the most part be planted permanently, so that the greatest amount of beauty may be had throughout the fine months, without disfiguring the beds during those months. But the permanent flowers should be hardy, and of the highest order of beauty, and such as require more than a few weeks or months for development; though here and there blanks might be filled with good, tender plants, like Heliotrope. Many of the hardy flowers, too, should be fragrant — Tea Roses, Carnations, and tufted Tansies ; all those, grown in large groups, give off" a grateful odour round a house. What is the soil in these gardens for ? Why do people make them ? Surely it is not to have them laid down to grass in a country like ours where grass in park, meadow, lawn, and playground is seen on all sides? The objection to the bare surface of beds in such gardens is a just one ; but it is easily got rid of by permanent planting ; and if the ground in the early state of the bed or from any other cause is bare below the flowers, it is quite easy to surface the beds with small rock and other plants of good colour nearly all the year. English Cottage Gardens are never bare and seldom ugly. Those who look at sea or sky or wood see beauty that no art can show ; but among the things made by man nothing is prettier than an English cottage garden, and they often teach lessons that " great " gardeners should learn, and are pretty from Snowdrop time till the Fuchsia bushes bloom nearly into winter. We do not see the same thing in other lands. The bare cottages of Belgium and North France are shocking in their ugliness ; even in Ireland and Scotland we do not see the same charming little gardens, nor are they so good in some parts of England ; as in Surrey, Kent, and the southern counties. I often pass a small cottage garden in the Weald of Sussex never without a flower for nine months in the year. It is only a square patch, but the beauty of it is far more delightful than that of the large gardens near, and it is often pretty when they are bare. What is the secret of the cottage garden's charms ? Cottage gardeners are good to their plots, and in the course of years they make them fertile, and the shelter of the little house and hedge favours the flowers. But there is something more and it is the VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 31 absence of any pretentious " plan " which lets the flowers tell their story to the heart. The walks are only what are needed, and so we see only the earth and its blossoms. A Cottage Garden in Kent. — Driving on one of the sunny days of autumn through the Weald of Kent from Charing to Ashford — a country strewn with pretty houses and gardens — an old house set in flowers was seen to the left just after passing the pretty village of Charing and the big woods above it. We turned from the --iiiigS 's^sBsg=== .4=S^s=iwsS3-S=^s- _:^ . - » ''± "■ - --.; - -- M^ "^^^^^^M ^^^ "Sv^^iS ^whI '- ""^^^K ^^^^^^' ^(Mii^BI 1*^ JjaS^^jX-'" *»C*(!i!(H^i - ' "^1 ^fc^^^^^i A west-country cottage with small open lawn. Engraved from a photograph sent by Mr. E. Brightman, Bristol. main road, and, looking over the low garden wall, were asked in to see the pretty old house, oak-panelled, and to stroll about the small garden, little more than a cottage garden in its simplicity of planting. No pretentious plan to consider, only the yellow Sunflowers of the season massed in their own way and running about inside the little wall, and by their profusion giving a unity as well as richness of colour. One lesson of these little gardens, that are so pretty, is that one can get good effects from simple materials and the absence of complexity and pretence of " design," aids these pictures very much. 32 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Many things are not needed for good effect, and very often we see gardens rich in plants, but not artistic because too much cut up into dots. There is no reason why gardens should not be rich in plants and pictures too, but such are rare. A precious thing in a garden is a beautiful house, and this, with its pretty, brown-tiled roof and oak- timbered walls, is an example of many in the Weald of Kent which have braved several hundred winters and are so beautiful in colour. If these cottage gardens are beautiful from such simple materials, how much more might we get by good hardy flower gardening round old country houses with lovely backgrounds and old walks. The Somersetshire cottage garden is in a milder climate than this, and in Somerset things seem to do so well and in all that delightful west-country. In Kent we must trust to the hardy things of which there are so many that no cottage garden can contain half of them ; but in Somersetshire we may have many things which seldom thrive on the eastern side — Myrtle, Bay, and Passion-flower, tall Fuchsias, and even things in the open air in winter which in many other districts we have to put in the greenhouse. Mount Usher, a Wicklow Garden. — A quaint creeper-laden mill-house at Ashford, with an acre or two of ground, partly wooded, through which the silvery Vartry River flows, gentle as it falls over its little rocky weirs in summer, but swollen and turbid after wintry storms. The place is really an island at the bottom of a valley ; the hilly country around is beautifully diversified, and is graced by the finest of native timber trees. The garden is quite unlike any other garden I have seen, and to see it in the time of Lilies, Roses, Pseonies, Poppies, and Delphiniums is to see much lovely colour amongst the rich greenery of the rising woodlands. In autumn the colour is less brilliant, but equally satisfying as the eye wanders from the Torch Lilies and Gladioli to the blue Agapanthus, and thence to the Pine and Fir-clad hills. An old Ivy-covered wall makes a good background for the brilliant Tropaeolum speciosum, which everywhere runs wild about the place, throwing its soft green wreaths over twig and branch, their tips scarlet with blossoms, or heavily laden with turquoise-blue berries. Here also the soft rosy Hydrangeas bloom, and you may see the big scarlet hips on the great Apple Rose of Parkinson (Rosa pomifera), with its large glaucous leaves scented like those of the Sweet Brier. Mount Usher is a charming example of the gardens that might be made in river valleys, especially those among the mountains and hills. In such places there is often delightful shelter from violent winds, while the picturesque effect of the mountains and hills around offers a charming prospect from the gardens. There is a distinct charm about many Irish gardens, and the country also is 34 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. excellent, at least in the shore districts, for the growth of many plants that soon perish out of doors in most parts of England. Greenlands is an example of a garden in which the river front of the house is a simple sloping lawn. Originally laid out by Mr. Marnock for Mr. Majoribanks, it has long been a garden showing good work. There are no terrace gardens, and one passes easily from the house to a pleasant lawn and the well-planted grounds around, studded with many fine trees, among which are beautiful groups of Cedars. A flower garden in front of the house is here avoided ; but Old mill-house garden at Mount Usher, Wicklow. at a little distance there are various flower gardens within easy reach, and this plan keeps the lawn immediately in front of the house unbroken, instead of, what it too often is, patched with brown earth or, not always happy, masses of flowers. It would not be the best plan to follow in every case ; the more variety the greater the charm and there are ways of delightful flower-gardening in which no bare earth can be seen, while there are many cases where the sunny and secluded side of the house aff-Qrd the best of sites for the flower garden. ' VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 35 Pendell Court. — It will be seen here that even where it is desired to have the flower garden, in part, against the house, it is by no means always necessary that the ground should be made " architectural." It is a great pleasure to see a beautiful old house, with no impedimenta to keep one away from the door. There are three good views of it : first, that of the lawn in front of the house, which was a flowery meadow yet uncut, with no beds or other obstructions to the view of the house, and with a fine group of trees on either hand. It was a poem in building and in lawn. Quite on the other side a border of flowers and a wall of climbers ran from the house. Looking along this border to the house, a shower of white climbing Roses were seen falling from the wall, and a quaint gable and a few windows and glistening rich Ivy behind formed, a lovely picture. Another view of the house from across the water, showing its west end, is also very beautiful. There is a Wild Rose bush on the right and a tuft of Flag leaves on the left ; before you, the water and its lilies ; then a smooth, gently rising lawn creeping up to the windows, which on this side are all wreathed with white climbing Roses. All these views of the same house, although distinct, show no frivolous patterns, fountains, statues, and such objects, which often destroy all repose. The view' from the house to the left is also free and charming — a wide meadow climbing up the hill through groups of trees, and in the woody part reminding one a little of Alpine pastures. Rhianva. — -We have not only to deal with ugly gardens, made in the wrong places, but with a false idea that all the flowers must be set out as smooth and as " hard " as tin plate, and that terraced gardens are not suited for our beautiful hardy flowers. But one may here and there see a a better way, and at Rhianva, the free growth of evergreens and climbers, and the delightful inter- lacements of hardy flowers, ferns, and creepers, make the garden beautiful. Again, I remember the garden at Ockham Park in Dr. Lushington's time, was formal and yet beautiful, through the freedom of the vegetation. So again in Italy, the stiffness of the stone is soon softened by the graceful forms of trees, shrubs, and trailers as at Verona and in many Italian gardens. Fifty years ago the site of Rhianva, on the banks of the Menai Straits, was a steep field, with the large gray rocks so characteristic of Anglesey, and was crossed by a small stream which lost itself in marshy ground by the shore, where stood a couple of old Apple and Thorn trees and a little white-washed cottage. The extreme steepness of the rocky ground made the site difficult to deal with, and a number of supporting walls were built to form terraces ; and, by the help of a protecting sea-wall, the flowers were carried D 2 36 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. down to the very edge of the water. Facing a little to the south-east, the garden was protected from the violence of the westerly gales, while the more tender plants were sheltered from the east winds of spring by the larger shrubs and trees. The climate is VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 37 mild in winter, and the garden being on a southern slope the trees and shrubs grew with great rapidity ; so that hedges of red Fuchsias and of blue and pink Hydrangeas soon hid the stone walls. Myrtles and Camellias, and some Acacias, were found to thrive out of doors ; and at the present time the only difficulty is to prevent the shrubs from injuring each other, through their rapid growth. In summer the luxuriant abundance of the Roses, climbing from bush to bush, the Cypresses, the Tamarisk and the Vines ; and the sea, and the purple mountains in the background, seem to belong rather to the Lake of Como than to Anglesey. All the borders are mossed over with small green plants ; large, hardy exotic Ferns are spread into groups ; and a lacework of Ivy, Vine, and creepers is seen in many parts. A mixed order of planting is pursued, but in many cases the shrubs and plants are allowed to spread as they will, and the climbers take picturesque shapes. Rhianva is an example of the error of the notion that a terraced garden should only be arranged as a "bedded-out" garden. We have here a terraced garden in a position that called for it, namely, a rocky slope, in which the only way of making a garden was by terracing the ground, but it is a garden that shelters every treasure of our garden flora, from the Cyclamen to the Tea Rose. It has been said that, however valuable the more beautiful hardy flowers, their place is not the parterre, but some out-of-the-way spot. Not only may any terrace garden be embellished with hardy flowers, but it is the best place for them. The odd notion that our fairest flowers must not show themselves in the flower garden might lead one to suppose that there never was anything in the flower garden before bedding-out was invented. Is it well to devote the flower beds to one type of vegetation only, whether it be hardy or tender ? We have been so long accustomed to forming flat surfaces of colour in flower beds that few think of better ways of filling them. In Nature vegetation in its most beautiful aspects is rarely a thing of one effect, but rather a union or mingling of different types of life often suc- ceeding each other in bloom. So it might often be in the garden. The most beautiful effects must be obtained by combining different forms so as to aid each other, and give us a succession of pictures. If any place asks for permanent planting it is the precious spot of ground near the house ; for no one can wish to see large, grave- like masses of soil frequently dug near the windows. It is easy to form beds that would look well in all seasons by the use of choice shrubs of many kinds — Rhododendron, Azalea, Dwarf Cypress, Heaths, Clematis, Honeysuckle, Weigela, Hydrangea, Skimmia, Rock Rose, Tamarix, Daphne, Yucca, Tree Peony. Why should \\& not use beautiful Andromedas or Kalmias or fine evergreen Barberries in the 38 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. flower garden in the same way as Camellias or Acacias or Tree Ferns in the winter garden to break and vary the surface ? (^ /jIjaxV'I f U O The shrubs should be arranged in an open way, the opposite to the crowding of American shrubs common in our beds. In these all VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 39 individual character and form are crushed away in the crowd ; yet there is scarcely a shrub that has not a charm of form it will show if allowed room. One good plan is to allow no crowding, and to place the finest hardy flowers in groups between the free untortured shrubs. Thoroughly prepare the beds ; put in the choicest shrubs, which, without being high enough to obscure the view, adorn the earth all the winter as well as all the summer, and give us a broken surface as well as a beautifu, one and far from leading to monotony, this \\ould lead to an infinite and varied succession of beauty. We should not then have any set pattern to weary the eye, but quiet grace and verdure, and little pictures, month by month. The beds, filled with shrubs and garlanded with evergreens and creepers, would everywhere afford nooks and spaces among the shrubs where we could grow some of the many fine hardy Lilies with the Gladioli, Phlox, Iris, tall Anemone, Peony, and Delphinium. The choice shrubs suited for such beds are not gross feeders, like trees, but on the other hand encourage the finer hardy bulbs and flowers. They also relieve the plants by their bloom or foliage, and when a Lily or Cardinal Flower fades after blooming it is not noticed as it might be in a stiff border. In this way we should not need the wretched and costly plan of growing a number of low evergreens in pots, to " decorate '' the flower garden in winter. To get artistic effects in such a flower garden we must not by any means adopt the usual close pattern beds, because no good effect can be got from beds crowded on each other like tarts on a tray. Repose and verdure are essential. Before making the change from the dwarf plants only, be they hardy or tender, it would be well to see that there is ample repose or room for the full expression of the beauty of each bed or group, and no complication or crowding, nc complex or angular beds. The contents of the beds and not their out- lines are what we should see. By this way of planting with beautiful flowering summer or evergreen shrubs, with abundant space for flowers to grow between, we might see beauty in our terrace garden beds on the dullest day in winter. Between the low bushes we could have evergreen carpets of Alpine plants and tiny hill shrubs, and through these the autumn, winter, and spring flowering bulbs could bloom, untarnished by the soil splashing of the ordinary border. Shelter, as well as the best culture, could be thus secured for many a fair flower, which, once well planted, would there come up year after year. Among the flowering shrubs we have many lovely wild and garden Roses to help us with our plans. Sheen Cottage. — The late Sir Richard Owen's garden is one of the most charming and simple in the neighbourhood of London. Many a visitor to Richmond Park enjoys the view of his cottage. 40 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. as it nestles on the margin of the sweep of ground near the Sheen gate,: but it is from the other or the garden side that the picture is best. A lawn, quite unbroken, stretches from near the windows to the boundary, and is fringed with numerous hardy trees. Here and VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 4' there are masses of flowering shrubs and an odd bed of Lilies, while numerous hardy flowers are seen among the Roses and Rhododen- drons. There is in the main part of the garden only one walk, which takes one round the whole, and does not show, as it glides behind the outside of the groups which fringe the little open lawn. Instead of coming quite close to the house it is cut off" from it by a deep border of evergreen shrubs, intermingled with Lilies and hardy plants, and their flowers look into the windows. Instead of looking out of the window, as usual, on a bare gravel walk, the eye is caught by Rhododendrons or Spiraeas, with here and there a Lily, a Foxglove, or a tall Evening Primrose. From the other side of the garden the effect of the border is quite charming, and the creeper- covered cottage seems to spring out of a bank of flowers. The placing of a wide border with Evergreens against the house is a pleasant change from the ordinary mode of laying out little gardens. Another agreeable feature of this garden is the grass walks, which ramble through a thick and shady plantation. Even in our coolest summers there is many a day on which such shady walks, carpeted with grass, are the most enjoyable retreats one can find. And their mcu-gins form capital situations for naturalising many beautiful hardy plants — Daffodils, hardy Ferns, Scillas, the tall Harebells, Snowdrops, and Snowflakes. Cawdor Castle. — The view of Cawdor shows the good of having some form and variety of shape in a garden, be the garden large or small. The trees, shrubs, and bushes give the light and shade and variety of form which is so often absent from our gardens. The hard effect which the ordinary garden shows results from the want of all m\-ster}' or variety of surface or form. In the case of Cawdor the beds are simple, so that we are less concerned with pattern or plan than with the flowers. This is as it should be. It is not a model to be followed e\-erywhere, but such freedom and variety is greath" to be desired in gardens. After all considerations of plan have been settled, we ought to abolish the too common practice of excluding all things of a bushy, upright nature from our flower gardens. Drummond Castle. — A house on a rock, graced with many Ferns and I\-}-, and \\ild flowers natural to the spot. It would not be easy to find a more graceful exaniple of " natural " rock gardening. It is onh-, howe\er, on going to the south side of the house, where the ground falls rapidly and is supported by terrace walls, that all gloom is dispelled bj- the brightest array of blossoming climbers that ever clad gray stones with beauty. To fancy one's self in some fairyland of sun-bathed flowers a thousand miles south in a lap of the mountains would be easy. No Italian gardens could probably show the same high beauty at the end of summer, whatever they VARIOUS FLOIVER GARDENS. 43 might do earlier, and the very coolness encourages and prolongs the bloom. The shelter of the terrace, with the house behind, helps many things ; but, beyond training, there is little artificial help. It is our pri\-ilege of growing so many plants from other countries that makes our open-air gardens so beautiful in the fall of the year : here, when the leaves begin to colour, and when even the Harebell is past its best on the banks, we ha\-e a very paradise of flowers. The fact tliat this fine plant beauty may be enjoyed by all who have a patch of ground and a wall makes it a precious gift, and the plants that here gi\-e most flowers are nearly all as easily grown as our common Hone3'suckle. Loveliest of all the climbers here is the Flame Nasturtium (Tropseolum speciosum), which drapes these stately walls, as it does those of many a cottage in Scotland. Admirable for walls as is this fragile and brilliant plant, it is seen to even greater advantage \\'hen a delicate shoot runs over a Yew-hedge, with its arrows of colour, and near it on the walls are many flowers of the older and once better-known Tropaeolums ; showy, climbing Nasturtiums of gardens grow high on the walls, and add to the rich glow of colours. Nothing could surpass the rich purple of the Clematis here — waves of colour, the flo\\-ers of great size, the cool hill air suiting them so well. In the warm or temperate south, in Madeira or the Riviera, the garden lover sometimes makes a pretty hedge of Oak-leaved Geraniums ; but, as one does not see them in the South of England, it is a surprise to see them happy on the walls here in Scotland, growing from four feet to seven feet high, with fresh foliage and many flowers. Their spicy fragrance and pretty foliage make them worth the trouble of storing in the winter, and placing in the open air in early summer. All the winter they are kept in the house on trellises, and, carefully trained in summer against the warm wall, soon make fresh growth and are in good bloom late in September. Large borders of the common river Forget-me-not remind us of its value as compared with the \\'ood and Alpine Forget-me-nots usually grown in gardens. It is beautiful in moist borders, flowering long through summer and autumn. The charm of the place almost ceases with the terraces, for below them is one of those wonderful displays of "bedding out" in its cruder forms, which attains its greatest " glor}^ " near large Scottish houses, — plants in squares, repeated by thousands, and walks from which all interest is taken bj- the planting on each side being of exactly the same pattern. Steps and Terrace in the Old Park, Axminster. — This engraving is instructive as regards the bare state of many gardens. For many )'ears past the rule in some of the most pretentious geometrical 44 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. gardens has been to allow no vegetation on the walls or balustrades, but the older and graceful way is to garland all wall surfaces with beautiful life, and not to wholly hide them in doing so. Dividing lines and walls may do their work without being as bare as if in a stonemason's yard. The idea of the terrace garden came from the steep slopes of Italy VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 45 and Greece. The rough wall of the peasant, which prevented the earth from being washed away, and gave a little depth on the stony hillside, became, in the garden of the wealthy man, the built terrace, — structurally right, and necessary whether men gardened for pleasure or for profit. Having got their ground level through terracing, it was the rule to plant with beautiful things — Olive-trees for profit, and Cypress for shade. If anybody will compare such effects with the common debased English planting of the flower-garden, where everything is hard and flat and nothing is allowed on the walls, he will at once see a vital difference. Penshurst. — There is no more essential charm for a garden than that it should be itself in character and not be a copy of gardens near it or elsewhere. This merit belongs to Penshurst, and the network of orchard trees and tall summer flowers beneath them which make up much of the flower gardening there. Much of the ground between the kitchen garden and the house is thrown into squares and strips, which shelter and divide the space, and most of this space between the hedges is planted with fruit trees, and walks — very often Grass walks — running between them. The remaining spaces are planted with flowers, from beds of Carnations to mixed borders of tall herbaceous plants and Lilies. Foxgloves are at home here, and in rather broad masses under the trees their effect is charming — the shade and mystery of the overhead growth give them something of the look they have in woods. The lines of border after border are broken by the trees, and the effect is very soft and different from what it so often is, while the colour tells splendidly in the case of masses of Orange Lily. The growth is free, and there is no such thing as prim- ness, which greatly helps the effect. Groups of Acanthus look well here, and Delphinium, Meadow Sweet, giant Scabious, and many a hardy flower are refreshing to see. But Penshurst is an example of the many gardens (new and old) where the reaction from the hardness of bedding out and the winter bareness of it have led people to do away with flower beds near the house. It is not the old way to clear everything away but shaven Grass near a beautiful old house, nor is it the true way, but it is now a common one, and it gets rid of much of the ugliness of beds. But there are ways of putting flowers in charming modesty about a house as well as that of digging up in early summer ugly grave-like beds for them. In the old days flowers clustered round the house, and were the better for its shelter, warmth, and colour. Long before the massing system, with all its garishness, was discovered, flowers were planted for many generations in quiet ways about old English houses. It is right that the main entrance and park side of a great house should be frank and open, but to make the house bare all round for the sake VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 47 of bare Grass, and to lose all the advantage of shelter and seclusion, is not the best way by far. Bays and warm corners, and high walls, and their shelter and variety of aspect, are delightful for flowers- flowers such as could not injure any building ; not even a suspicion of the injury that comes from Ivy betimes could attach to borders of Fern or Iris. If we lived in a country where close turf was not seen in the park, or hills, or fields, there would be a reason for having nothing but turf under the windows. In the park the short nibbled turf is often fringed by Bracken, Foxglove, and Wild Rose ; whereas, near the house, the way too often now is to let the turf run hard and straight into the walls, and the winds of heaven strike the house un- tempered by the breath of a Violet. The question of some degree of seclusion about country houses is bound up with this. Nothing is worse than planting that hides sun and air from a beautiful house, but dividing lines and little sheltered gardens are often needed. There are so many ways of screening off" such precious spaces, too — Vine, Sweet Verbena, Winter Sweet, and Jasmine for low walls ; Rose, Sweet Brier, and Honeysuckle for fragrant or blossoming hedges ; Clematis, Wistaria, and climbing Rose for arch or pergola. The very lines for shelter or privacy might be gardens of the most fragrant and beautiful things we have, from the winter Jasmine to the climbing Tea Rose. No, the Grass alone is not and never can be the artistic way on all sides of a house, and the common French way of a waste of gravel all round a house is still worse. The gray of the Carnation is welcome in winter seen from the windows, and there are many evergreen rock plants that take their deepest hues of green in winter, and they are a long way better, even for their green, than the winter- worn turf It is often well, too, to see a glimpse from the windows of the way the Crocus opens its heart to the sun— brilliant forerunner of crowds of fair blossoms. COMPTON WiNYATES. — Compton Winyates is one of the dearest of the old houses jewelled over the land of England, the most charming of countries for its houses. There are graceful old climbers and trees near, but not much showy gardening — almost none. There is also very little of what is called pleasure ground in the ordinary sense ; but that is too stereotyped a thing to make one regret it in the presence of such a beautiful home. None the less is it pleasant to wander over the high fields near and along the deep slopes of the coombe, especially in the autumn time with the tree leaves rich in colour, and the Barberry laden with a thousand coral boughs. Compton; Winyates is one of the old houses not surrounded by terraces, but sits quietly on the turf, and tells us, as other of our finest old houses, do, that each situation demands its own treatment as regards the: surroundings of the house. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 49 Ketton Cottage.— This is one of the Elizabethan farmhouses common in the villages round Stamford, with some recent' additions. It stands in the village, a short distance from the beautiful church of St. Mary, a few yards from the little river Chater, which, coming down from Leicestershire, falls into the Welland a mile or two below Ketton and as far above Stamford. As the position is sheltered from rough winds, the small space of ground between the road and the river has proved a home for such of the hardy shrubs and flowers planted in it during the last thirty years as find the lime in both soil and water congenial to them, The banks of the stream are in places fringed with Royal Fern and the large American Ferns, all of which bear patiently the floods which sometimes in summer and often in winter pass over their heads, lasting now and then for several weeks. All these Ferns thrive in a bed of rough leaf-mould, 6 inches or 8 inches above and below the usual water level, partly coated in the course of years with earth from the floods and partly denuded by the action of the water, which is prevented in the exposed portions from washing away the roots by a covering of heavy stones, between which there is just room for the crowns to appear. These conditions prevent the growth of seedling Royal Ferns, but the old plants are after more than twenty years as vigorous as their kindred in the Norfolk marshes the fronds of some in the shade being more than 6 feet in length. In a place rather more sheltered from the force of the stream the American Royal Ferns thrive equally well ; as also on a somewhat higher level a certain number of other strong Ferns which do not suffer by floods. On an open part of the bank a quantity of purple Loosestrife makes a good background for the Ferns, and a patch of Meadow Rue gives variety and a distinct autumn colour. For the rest the , engraving shows the distinct and very happy effect of the garden, which is a home for many and beautiful hardy flowers. H. PowiS Castle. — Of the many gardens I have seen, very few gave me the pleasure of Powis : first, because of its noble drive through great Oaks with breaks of Fern between, so unlike the dark mono- tonous avenue which .spreads gloom over so many country seats. The light and shade and the noble forms of the trees make the picture more beautiful than any primly set-out avenue. The flower garden is beautiful, partly owing to its position, which is that of a true terrace garden — i.e. the ground falls so steeply, that terracing is neces- sary. These terraces were wreathed with Clematis and beautiful with shrub, and flower, and life, a picture of what a flower garden should be. As the original name, " Castell Coch," signifies, the castle is built of red sandstone, and stands on the same rock, and the terraces are E VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 51 hewn out of this, which forms the walls, for the most part unaided by masonry. Glancing over a balustrading from the castle level on to the terraces beneath, the scene is charming, and we are struck at once with the harmonious blending of the flowers and their surroimdings. A happy idea is carried out in regard to colours by the three terraces having each its predominating colour — viz. the lowest white, the middle yellow, and the highest purple ; not that other colours are excluded, but these prevailing tones are maintained. A charm of this terrace has been for years a number of trellises, 8 feet to 10 feet high, covered with Clematis. Here and there the Flame Nasturtium suspends graceful festoons of brightest colour. Pyramids, Sweet Peas, good perennials and choice annuals are used ; the stiffness of hard lines being quite broken by the Clematis, Roses, Sunflowers, Hollies, Japanese Maples, and Tree Paeonies. The walls of the terrace are covered with Roses, Clematises, Pears, Peaches, Nectarines, Pomegranate, which flowers freely every season. Magnolia, and Wistaria. CoTEHELE, Cornwall. — This is one of the finest old houses in the west of England, and the quaint old terraces are laid out in old- fashioned beds and borders filled with hardy flowers. Very little masonry is seen in the formation of the terraces, and the old walls are mantled with various creepers, Vines, Myrtle, Clematis, Magnolia, Jasmines, and Ivy. The engraving gives a faithful representation of one side of the house, looking east. It is situated on the summit of a high hill on the Cornish side of the river Tamar, with views of its winding course, also of the distant ranges of hills in both Devon and Cornwall. The picturesque freedom of the planting is delightful, the house being prettily covered. Shrubland Park. — Shrubland Park, in Suffolk, illustrates the recent history of English flower-gardening as it was the great bedding- out garden, the " centre " of the system, and which provided many examples for other places in England. The great terrace garden in front of the house was laid out in scrolls and intricate beds, all filled with plants of a few decided colours, principally yellow, white, red, and blue, and edged with Box. In every spot in this garden the same rigid system of set beds was followed, and not a creeper was permitted to ramble over the masonry and stonework of the various terraces. Every bit of Ivy that tried to creep up the walls and cover the stonework had to be removed, to leave the stone in its first bareness. Where some particular colour was wanted in a certain spot, coloured stones were freely used — yellow, red, and blue — and in the summer, when the hedgerows and meadows are full of flowers^ there were no flowers in this large garden to cut for the E 2 52 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. house ! A few years ago, when Shrubland passed into the hands of the Hon. James Saumarez, the elaborate designs were swept away, and the terrace-garden planted with the flowers that every one loves — Roses, Lavender, and among them many of what are called common things, and climbers of many kinds clothed the walls. The self Carnation and the Tea Rose are the glory of this garden — the flowers filling the air with fragrance, the silvery hue of the large groups of fragrant Lavender, the broad masses of Carnations, and the groups of monthly Roses, make a delightful picture. Powis Castle, Welshpool. Of the Tea Rose, all the finest kinds for our climate are planted. There is an idea that it succumbs to the first frost, but all the varieties at Shrubland, and they include, we believe, every good kind in culti- vation, passed unharmed through 20 degrees of frost, and this without shelter. One of the most interesting spots of Shrubland is the Bamboo walk, a straight walk, planted at one time with smooth ribbon borders. These were swept away, and Bamboos and tall Lilies now fill their place, and we have never seen Bamboos make finer growth ; and there are fine hardy plants to relieve the foliage of the Bamboos and the Plume Poppy with its feathery plumes : Lilies, Funkias, or Plantain Lilies, and Evening Primroses. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 53 Chilungham Castle, — Chillingham is on a ridge of land nearly 1,000 feet above the sea in a rocky moorland district, intersected by deep and beautifully wooded glens. The illustration shows but a small part of the handsome terrace garden, with its beautiful retaining wall 120 yards in length, the wall a picture, with Clematises hanging in festoons, with Ivies, Vines, the climbing Hydrangea, and Pyracantha ; in front of the wall a long border was planted with some of the best hardy flowers. The flower beds, although somewhat too angular, are of sufficient size to permit of bold grouping, and this is so well done that the form of the beds is less seen, and the blending of the colours of the many flowers was well carried out. Many hardy plants are here well grown, wild Roses and hardy Fuchsias give height and boldness to the arrangement, and the terrace on summer and autumn days is gay with fine colour. The wall at the end of the terrace, which is partly overhung with trees, has its face in a great part hidden by a lovely veil of maiden hair spleenwort. From here, ascending a flight of rough Moss-covered steps. Grass slopes adorned with trees make pleasant shade, and we pass on to the south front of the castle, which has a broad gravel walk in the foreground and a lawn that merges into the park and the adjoining pastures. Wilton. — One of the glories of Wilton is its fine Lebanon Cedars, the tree having been extensively planted here at the time of its first introduction, and although later years have witnessed a great thinning of its ranks, enough remain to form the most prominent feature of the place. The Wilton Cedars are older than those at Goodwood or Warwick, and although mighty ones have fallen, some still remain, whilst numerous young ones are growing up to take the place of those that fall victims to the storms. Whilst the present wise poHcy of frequent planting is continued, there will be no break in the history of this tree at Wilton. The finest old specimen has a grand bole about IS ft. up to the point of branching and of fairly even diameter throughout its length of main stem, which girths fully 24 ft. A stem of greater girth entirely enshrouded in Ivy stands near by, the tree having perished in a storm some years ago. A noble evergreen Oak near the Cedars has a stem that girths 19 ft, and at one time it had a head of branches spreading quite 100 yards in circumference, but a giant Cedar in its fall broke away a large portion of this Oak on one side. It is a magnificent tree in perfect health, and bids fair to grow out of its present disfigured state. Near this tree, and on the west side or library front of the house, is an Italian garden, and beyond it a long vista terminated by a stone structure called Holbein's Porch. A fine Chamserops Fortune! stands near, this also being a plant out of the first introduced batch. It has been outside for seventy years, is not so tall as some younger specimens we have seen, but its stem is unusually thick and denotes great age. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. ' 55 The view shown is that of tlie south front of the house, show- ing a little garden of stone-edged beds set in gravel. Beyond, adorned only by the grand trees on it, the lawn spreads away to the river bank, the river itself being spanned by the " Palladian Bridge," built of stone and having a roof supported by rows of columns on either side. This leads to the deer park, in which the ground rises upwards to a considerable elevation, whilst along this slope another informal avenue of Lebanon Cedars is a fine feature amid the great beauty of native trees in abundance and of large size. An interesting fact gathered in regard to the Cedars is that on an average once in ten years they ripen a batch of good seed, which is sown for future planting about the place. Looking eastwards from the house, the ground stretches away almost as flat as a table, but this flatness has been delightfully broken up by a series of well-arranged groups, chiefly of coniferous or evergreen trees and shrubs margined in a pretty way with graceful masses of Savin. A broad gravel walk at right angles to the east front of the mansion, with lawn and fine trees on either side of it, extends for 300 yards, and is terminated by a seat hedged round with Yew. This bold walk and the shrub groups that break up the flatness of and give distance to the fine expanse of lawn that extends to the waterside are from the designs of Sir Richard Westmacott, who assisted the Countess of Pembroke in planning the grounds. The second engraving shows well that portion of the house com- manding the view of this broad walk, with its lawn and distant water, whilst between the trees in the distance is seen the spire of Salisbury Cathedral. Near the river a statue of Venus on the top of a column stands in the centre of a little square formed by trees of the Italian Cypress. The red Cedar was charming in some of the groups, its branches laden with glaucous fruits, that appeared as a silvery sheen cast over the tree. Yews, Hollies, and Evergreen Oaks, numerous and fine, give perennial verdure to the grounds. Coniferous trees in sheltered breaks and. nooks are equally fine, a tree of Picea cephalonica especially so, being nearly 100 ft. high, whilst many are growing with great vigour. H. Offington. — Offington is a very instructive garden, richly stored and pretty too. Large collections are rarely in the hands of those who have any thought for general effect, and no garden is more likely to be inartistic than the one rich in plants, and it is rare to find a pretty garden which is so full of beai^tiful things as this is. It is one of those shore gardens in which there is much gain in point of warmth and other conditions which allow the growing of plants we ' have no chance of keeping in inland districts. The southern and seashore district in one gives us all the conditions we could VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 57 desire for growing many more plants than are hardy in our country. In this garden Major Gaisford has gathered together a host of rare and beautiful trees, shrubs, and plants which, favoured by a genial ■climate, give to the garden a distinct aspect. There is here an entire absence of that conventional gardening which lays down hard, geometric patterns where we should see the free and graceful forms of shrubs and flowers. The house is nearly hidden by climbing plants, and a grand old Ivy-embowered Walnut standing on an airy lawn. BULWICK. — Rambling about Northamptonshire, and delighted with its beautiful old houses, many of them, unfortunately, as bare of flower-gardening as a deserted ship, it was pleaeant to come to a real garden at Bulwick, full of Carnations and many open-air flowers arranged in various pretty ways, even the house being full of large basins of Carnations some of them of one self-coloured kind — a rare pleasure. The flower garden was not one of those places which astonish us by a showy display, but modest at first sight as regards flower-gardening in immediate relation to the house, and the chief charm of the place was rather in various little side gardens and long and pretty borders backed with Holly and other hedges, and giving an opportunity for growing a great number of hardy flowers which bloom in the autumn. These formed picture vistas, of which the effect is very often better than a flower garden of the usual type. But, more than this, the excellent plan was followed here by the late Lady Henry Grosvenor of having what I do not think any garden can be right without, namely, a " square " or reserve garden in which things are grown well without reference to effect. It was a large square of the kitchen garden thrown into 4-feet beds, with little beaten alleys between, in which many thousand Carnations were grown in simple masses. One sees at once how much more beauty and variety can be got in such ways than where all the effort goes to help one scheme for effect in front of one's windows. What is the secret of beauty in such a garden, and what the lesson to be learnt from it ? It is that no one plan will give us a garden beautiful for any length of time even in the fine season, as any one way is so liable to failure from the weather or other causes ; that the main source of success is to have various ways with flowers, as there were at Bulwick. Hardy plants in beds and borders apart from the .flower garden proper (that, too, being pretty) are the source of the charms of this garden — the variety of situation, the variety' of plants, but of hand- some, well-chosen and well-grown plants, and even variety of level in the various gardens, such as occurs at Bulwick, are all good aids, and the nearness of an interesting kitchen garden with sheltering walls is a source of beauty and variety. EVERSLEY. — In the late Charles Kingsley's rectory garden at 1 1 58 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Everslfey, we get to see a modest, and simple as charming, type of garden. The walls and borders are full of flowers, while the Grass clothes the central space. When Canon Kingsley became rector of ^te^J^k:^>.. '" '"^'-^^i Steps and terrace, "The Old Park,'' Axminster. Terrace garden not stiffly planted. From a photograph by Miss Dryden, Canons Ashby. Eversley, in 1844, he found the garden at the rectory in as unsatis- factory a state as was, in other respects, the rest of his parish ; but its capabilities he used to the utmost. On the sloping lawn between the house and the road stood, and still stands, a noble group of three VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 5^ Scotch Firs, planted about the time that James I.— who was just then building the grand old house of Bramshill, hard by, as a hunting box for Prince Henry— planted the Scotch Firs in Bramshill Park, and the clumps on Hartford Bridge Flats and Elvetham Mount. Most of the garden consisted then of a line of ponds from the glebe fields, past the house, down to the large pond behind the garden and churchyard. The rector at once became his own landscape gardener, and the ponds were drained. Plane trees, which threatened in every high gale to fall on the south end of the house, were cut down, and masses of shrubs were planted to keep out the cold draughts, which even on summer evenings streamed down from the bogs on the edge of Hartford Bridge Flats. What had been a wretched chicken yard in front of the brick-floored room used as a study was laid down in Grass, with a wide border on each side, and the wall between the house and stable was soon a mass of creeping Roses, scarlet Honey- suckles, and Virginian Creeper. Against the south side of the house a Magnolia (M. grandiflora) was trained, filling the rooms with its fragrance. Lonicera and Clematis montana, Wistaria, Gloire de Dijon and Ayrshire Roses, and variegated Ivy hid the rest of the wall with a veil of sweetness. In front of the study window, on the lawn, an immense plant of Japanese Honeysuckle grows, and next to this the pride of the study garden lay in its double yellow Brier Roses. These grew very freely, and in June the wall of the house and garden was ablaze with the golden blooms, the rooms being decorated for two or three weeks with dishes of the yellow Roses. From the low, damp situation of the rectory, none but the hardiest plants could be grown out-of-doors ; but the borders were always gay with such plants as Phloxes, Delphiniums, Saxifrages, Pinks, Pansies, and, above all, Roses and Carnations. One bay in front of the house was well covered with Pyracantha, in which a pair of white-throats built un- disturbed for many years. Rhododendrons grew in the greatest luxuriance, and the neighbours alw-ays came to see the rector's garden when two beds, on either side of the front, were in blossom. An ancient Yew tree, and a slight hedge of Laburnum, Hollies, Lilac, and Syringa divide the rectory garden from the churchyard, and here, again, the rector turned his mind to making the best of what he had. The church, a plain red brick structure, was gradually covered with Roses, Ivy, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, &c., and, in order that his parishioners should look on beautiful objects when they assembled in the churchyard for their Sunday gossip before service, the older part of the churchyard was planted with choice trees, flower- ing shrubs. Junipers, Cypress, Berberis, and Acer Negundo, and the Grass dotted with Crocuses where it was not carpeted with wild white Violets. Wilton, locjdiis from bouse Wilton, another view. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 6i Edge Hall garden is one of those in which the hardy flowers of the northern world are grown in numbers for the owner's dehght and the good of his friends, and it is in such large collections that charming novelties for our gardens often make their appearance. Such gardens in our own day carry on the traditions, so to say, of very interesting English and Scottish gardens of the past, in which numbers of beauti- ful^open air things were grown — among those I have had the happi- ness to see were the late Mr. Borrer's at Henfield in Sussex, a garden museum of beautiful hardy plants and of rare British forms of plants and trees ; the Ellacombes' garden at Bitton ; Mr. Leeds' garden at Man-' Chester ; Stirling's at Edinburgh ; Comely Bank, a home for the rarest and most beautiful plants ; the Rev. Harpur Crewe's ; Mr. Atkins's garden at Painswick ; Sir George McLeay's at Pendell Court; Major Gaisford's at Offington, and many other delightful gardens. The riches of the collection in such gardens is a source of danger as to effect, the very number of plants often leading to a neglect of breadth and simplicity of effect ; but there is no real reason why a garden, rich in many plants, may not also be beautiful in its masses, airiness and verdure. A mile to the east the well-wooded and well-heathered range of the Broxton Hills give shelter, whilst from the south-west to the north-west the horizon- is formed by Welsh niountain ranges. A sunk fence of sandstone, easily jumped by a fox or a hare, and in other parts a line of movable hurdles, well wired against rabbits, separate three acres for house and garden from the surrounding grass fields and from a small park of eighty acres. About 200 yards from the house the sand rock comes through, forming a long terrace with an escarpment towards the west. The woods in spring are carpeted first with Prim- roses and wood Anemones, then with wild Hyacinths and Pink Campion, whilst later there is a tall growth of Campanula latifolia and large breadths of Japanese Knotwort, which has been planted to supersede Nettles, while overhead is abundance of Hawthorn, Crab, and wild Cherry. The hall stands on the side of a hollow watercourse worn in the stiff clay, which in Cheshire often lies over the sand rock. Down this watercourse runs a torrent in heavy rains, but it is quite dry in summer. On the sloping banks of this, close above the house, there formerly stood ranges of cow-houses and pig-sties, which drained into a stagnant pond in the bed of the watercourse within twenty yards of the bedroom windows. Twenty-five years ago it was drained, the watercourse confined within a covered culvert ; and the whole space is now covered all summer with a dense forest of herbaceous plants — every good kind which will thrive in the cold soil on which the house stands being cultivated there. Stonelands, Sussex. — It is pleasant to get out of the conven- tional and there are many ways of doing so, but gardens are often out 62 THE ENGLISH FLOW£,R GARDEN. of all sympathy with the surrounding country, whereas the landscape and sylvan beauty of a pretty country might often be reflected, so to say, in the home landscape. It might indeed often tell us what to do as regards grouping, and kinds of trees and the natural character of the ground even give hints as to ground work in gardens. Stonelands is characteristic of the small manor house of the woodland district of Sussex, with its groups of Scotch Firs behind the house and in intimate connection with the farm buildings near. The house, too, is of a good Sussex kind with bright sunny windows, stone, pretty in colour, big chimneys, and there is a small terrace necessary from the lie of the ground, which also cuts off the house from the road to the farm buildings near. Golder's Hill. — Places where the simple conditions for beauty Bulwick, covered way. in design and planting are rare, and it is all the more pleasing to meet with an example of artistic treatment of a garden almost in London, on the western border of Hampstead Heath. As regards design and views, it is the prettiest of town gardens, and the conditions of its beauty are so simple that there is little to be said about them, an open lawn rolling up to the house ; groups of fine trees, and wide and distant views over the country, the whole suggestive of good effect from simple hardy materials both in trees and flowers, but the elevation is such that no half hardy exotics are likely to succeed, and therefore hardy things give us our best chances of success. A sunken fence separates the lawn from some park-like meadow with fine Oaks and Firs ; and beyond, the country north of London opens up, without any building visible on either side or in the fore- ground. From almost every other point of view these trees seem to form a picturesque group, and afford a welcome shade in summer. VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 63 In front of the house is an open lawn, which one can get on to at once from any point. Being on a gentle rise, some would no doubt have urged this as a reason for making some kind of fortification in the shape of walls, which would have destroyed the repose, verdure, and the freedom of the spot. Now the only drawback — if drawback it be to such perfect freedom and breadth of airy foreground — is the fact that it offers a temptation to unthinking people to dot it over with shrubs, or evergreen trees, and many places, well laid out, are spoiled by this thoughtless dotting about of objects of poor form. The question of flowers is the greatest difficulty, because people are so well Lawn, Offington, Worthing. .Engraved from a photograph by Miss Gaisford. accustomed to have all their flowers gathered in front of the house, that if abundant provision is not made for them elsewhere, the carpet is apt, some day or other, to be dissected into a number of ugly flower- beds. The best way to guard against this in lawn gardens is to pro- vide abundance of simple beds elsewhere ; which half seen peeping through the trees, or met with in groups here and there at no great distance from the house, may afford better effects than if all the beds are under the winddws. Thus where the foreground is a pleasant lawn, it is often well to have another site for the flower garden ; and good large beds or groups of beds, in which fine things can be grown. To have in one spot a group of large beds, simple in outline VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 65 with Roses and smaller plants surfacing the ground ; next in some isolated nook, large beds of Lilies, separated by a group of low shrubs and flowering Yuccas from a few beds of hardy flowers ; then a varied flower garden partially cut off and embowered by trees — these and the like are in certain situations likely to give that variety of treatment which it is the aim of this chapter to secure. ToTLEV Hall, near Sheffield, Yorks. — This fine old country house stands beside the old coach road from Sheffield to Chatsworth and Haddon Hall, on an elevation with good and extensive views. Over the front door is the date 1623, about the time when Gerard's Herbhal was published, and six years before Parkinson's Paradisus of 1629. Built in such a flower-loving epoch it seems fitting that it should be a flowery place to-day. Inside the entrance hall there is some fine old oak carving and staircase, and there was formerly a quaint old gallery around the hall, but new additions necessi- tated its removal. The flower garden slopes rather suddenly from the fringe of the front lawn and is rich in well-grown Daffodils and other choice flowers, sheltered by winding hedges. There is a fine range of hills terminated by a bluff or headland in front of the house, and to the right are vast stretches of moorland. The elevated character and breezy freshness of the place is suggestive of the sea. Here, in spring, appear in great profusion the chaste flowers of the Daffodils, for Totley Hall is a home of the Daffodil. Standing at the lower end of the long flower borders — confined within hedges of Hollies, intersected by a winding path fringed with seedling Auriculas — there are seen a host of Daffodils. As one gazes upon them, with their delicate and fragile heads waving gently to and fro in the soft westerly breeze, there rush involuntarily to one's mind Wordsworth's words on his sudden view of the wild Daffodils at Ullswater — then my heart with pleasure fills And dances with the Daffodils. The deep golden yellows glow with a warmth that suggests the absorption of the sun's rays at their brightest moments. The chaste and beautiful whiteness of others appears as if they had quietly appropriated, in the stillness of the night, the silvery moonbeams that softly kissed their fragile petals, whilst the paler tints of cream, sulphur and primrose are suggestive of the soft-coloured mantle spread o'er the skies by the lingering rays of the setting sun. The Daffodil — fit emblem of spring — is here in all its forms and colours. — F. W. B. The Keep Garden at Farnham Castle. — In our own day when it has been stated that the only garden worthy the name is one within four square walls, it interests me to come upon gardens VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 67 of wholl)' different character, which show the folly of rules about a subject which admits of so much variety of position, form, and detail as a flower garden does. One of the most interesting I have lately seen is the little flower garden on the top of the old keep at Farnham Castle, which is as picturesque in situation and informal in outline as a garden can be, while it is extremely pretty with the broken walls on all sides clad with Ivy and Clematis, and in the centre many flowers. The variety of form from the walls surrounding it and the various climbers give it a singular charm. The hardiest flowers Stonelands (south side), Manor House garden. are grown, as is most fitting for such a garden — Irises in masses and evergreen perennials, which help to keep some grace in the garden towards the end of the year, and Tea and other Roses also help. Although I saw it on the verge of winter, it even then had much beauty of leaf and flower. It should be clear that in any such situation it is only possible through flower gardening of the free and picturesque kind to get a good result, and, happily, there are so many treasures in our gardens now, that while growing things for their beauty of form or flower of fragrance, F 2 VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. 69 we may have much variety as to contents, grouping, and succession of bloom in such a garden. Elderfield. — In Miss Yonge's garden we are again away from convention and free to enjoy the charm of trees and shrubs among the flowers, as in many beautiful British gardens somewhat larger than cot- tage gardens, but keeping the unstamped grace and variety of the cottage garden. One of the good points of such gardens is the freedom enjoyed to do or undo at any time of the year — there is always pleasant work to do and no violent effort at any one time — as is the case with gardens that depend on tender flowers only. The true flower-garden is one in which there is, as in nature and life, ceaseless change. " Elderfield has always looked an ideal home for an authoress. A little low white house — nothing but a cottage she calls it herself — covered with creepers, which keep up a succession of bloom to peep in at the windows. There is a very old Myrtle to the right, shorn of much of its height since the very cold winter of 1895 ; and round Miss Yonge's drawing- room window (the upper one to the left) a Banksian and a summer Rose are ever looking in at her as she writes steadily every morning at the writing table drawn close up to the window, or tapping at the glass when the curtains are drawn and they are in danger of being forgotten. M. ACTON." English Gardens Abroad and their Lessons. — Some of the most beautiful flower gardens are to be seen in the homes of English people living in Madeira, the Riviera, Algeria, and countries generally permitting of beautiful flower gardening during the winter and with a season of many flowers throughout the spring ; real gardens varied and full of beautiful colour, yet without any trace of the barren monotony characteristic of most gardens at home. The generally picturesque nature of the ground, the presence of graceful fruit and other trees, and the absence of any pretentious attempt to conform the whole to one set idea, lead to the simple and artistic garden. The garden of Mr. Arkwright at Mustapha, near Algiers, is a good example of the English garden in other lands, a garden full of beauti- ful things, and these so placed that pictures are seen at every turn. Noble Tea Roses like Chromatella are fountains of bloom, sometimes running up a tapering Cypress, and sending out of it far overhead graceful shoots laden with flowers. Lamarque, the noblest of white Roses, grows and blooms about as freely as the Elder bush does at home. Many Tea Roses of all sizes are here ; sometimes kinds are superb that rarely open well with us at home, such as Cloth of Gold. But it is not only the climate makes the garden beautiful, as the way of planting is the main source of beauty here. Borders are thick set with the foliage of the Iris in many forms, and particularly the winter-flowering Iris, which has its home in VARIOUS FLOWER GARDENS. Algeria. The Pelargoniums are in lovely bushes in light or shade, while Datura, Palm, Jasmine, Acacia, Fig, Lemon, and Magnolia are happy in the sun, with masses of Cineraria here and there in half- shade, with many Violets, and even wild flowers of the country. Bougainvilleas and handsome Bignonias grace the walls in free and pretty ways, while here and there the Algerian Ivy is seen, a noble climber, the fine qualities of which are not in the least affected by the hot sun in the summer here ; it ascends to high parts of the moun- tains there, which look arid enough and are terribly hot in summer. No one need despair of gracing a dry bank with a fine thing whio takes the Algerian Ivy for that purpose, and it may be its long sojourn in so dry a country has prepared it better for growth in the sun than the forms of the Ivy from the cooler northern woods of our Islands. Some of the most beautiful garden effects I have seen were here, all the finer from the background of high cliffs above clad with ever- green Oak, Pine, and wild Olive, but the best lesson is not from the varied life in the garden so much as from the happy and natural way the whole is disposed. In this wa}' also we have variety as well as pictures — as much variety as may be wished, of which there is an example in Mr. Hanbur}-'s \\ell-stored garden at La Mortola, in the Italian Riviera. The variety is not in itself so much worth seeking as beauty, which is just what \\'e lose when we commit ourselves to any one way of flower gardening. To be free to add or plant at almost any time of the year is a great ad^•antage ; whereas in the pattern flower garden the whole is set out and taken up at fixed times. The result is a dreadfully fixed one too, and if any beautiful bush, or bulb, or flower happens to come in our way that does not fit into the wretched systerh, so much the \\'orse for it. The fear of anything like a bush or low tree that governs the idea of many flower gardens at home at present does not exist here, so that we have light and shade, many bushes and even low trees that give chances for surprises and changes. This is partly owing to the warmth which allows of the growth of many prett)' bushes that may well grace a flower garden, but once free from the idea that a flower garden must be a flat surface seen at a glance, there would be no real difficulty in carrying out like ways of planting in our climate in which so many lovely bushes grow if ^\•e give them a chance. One minor charm of these English gardens abroad arises from the fact that any necessary stone-work is done in a simple way by the garden men. As the ground is often steep, steps and little walls or protecting corners are often \\anted ; but whenever the native gardener wants anything of this kind, he does not go through a circumlocution bureau for inspiration and drawings to scale, but builds what he wants in a who are ready with similar plans for all sorts of positions. In France, England, or Germany this could never happen, because owing to con- formity about style and the use of book plans, we can usually tell beforehand what sort of garden we are to see ! Totley Hall, Sheffield. CHAPTER IV. BORDERS OF HARDY FLOWERS. We now come to the flowers that are worthy of a place in gardens and to consider ways of arranging them. Their number and variety being almost without limit, the question is, how the garden lover is to enjoy as many of these treasures as his conditions allow of As during all time a simple border has been the first expression of flo\\er garden- ing, and as there is no arrangement of flowers more graceful, varied, or capable of giving more delight, and none so easily adapted to almost every kind of garden, some ideas of the various kinds of borders of hardy flowers mainly deserve our first consideration. Cost and Endurance.- — The difference in cost of growing hardy flowers or tender, should be thought of The sacrifice of flower gardens to plants that perish every year has often left them poor of all the nobler plants. We must take into account the hothouses, the propagation of plants by thousands at certain seasons, the planting out at the busiest and fairest time of the year — in June, the digging up and storing in autumn, the care in the winter. Perhaps the most striking effects from individual plants ever seen in England were Japanese Lilies grown for years in the open air by Mr. M'Intosh among his Rhododendrons at Weybridge Heath. And not only Lilies ; but many noble flowers may be grown in the same simple way. A few years ago we saw only dense masses of Rhodo- dendrons ; now the idea of growing this shrub with the finer hardy plants has spread. It means more room to show the form of the shrubs, and more light and shade ; mutual relief of shrub and plant ; colonies and groups of lovely plants among the shrubs. Good preparation and some knowledge of plants are needed, but no neces- sity whatever for any system that may not be called permanent. There are a number of things which, given thorough preparation at first, it would be wise to leave alone for some years at a time — as, for example, groups or beds of the various Tritomas, Irises, Lilies, Pseonies, the free-flowering Yuccas, Narcissi — these and many more, BOMDEJiS OF HAJiDY FLOWERS. 75 either grouped with others or in families. When all these exhaust the ground or become too crowded, by all means move them and replant, but this is a very different thing from moving all the plants in the flower garden twice a j-ear. It would be better every way if, so far as the flower garden is concerned, gardeners were to see what could be done unaided by the hothouse ; but meanwhile the wise man will reduce the expense of glass, labour, fire, repairs, paint, pipes, and boilers to something like reasonable proportions. In presence of the wealth of our hardy garden flora, the promise of which is now such as men never expected Flower-borders with grass path between. From a photograph by Mrs. Mai-tin, Bournbrook Hall, Birmingham. fair flower garden a few years ago, no one need doubt of making a from hardy plants alone. The True Way to make gardens yield a return of beauty for the labour and skill given them is the permanent one. Choose some beautiful class of plants and select a place that A\ill suit them, even as to their effect in the garden landscape. Let the beds be planted as permanently and as well as possible, so that there will remain little to do for years. All plants may not lend themselves to this permanent plan, but such as do not may be grown apart — for instance, the Poppy, 76 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Anemones, Turban and Persian Ranunculuses, Carnations, Stocks, Asters, and the finer annuals. But a great many delightful plants can be planted permanently, and be either allowed to arrange themselves, to group with others, or to grow among peat-loving shrubs which, in many places, are jammed into pudding-shaped masses void of form or grace, or light and shade. One of the best reforms will be to avoid the conventional pattern plans, and adopt simple beds and bordei's, in positions suited to the plants they are to grow. These can best be filled permanently, because the planter is free to deal with them in a bolder and more artistic way than if he has to consider their relation to a number of small beds. In this way, also, the delight of flowers is much more keenly felt as one sees them relieved, sees them at different times, and to more advantage than the flowers stereotyped under the window. Roses — favourites with everybody — grouped well together, and not trained as standards, would lend themselves admirably to culture with other things — moss Roses growing out of a carpet of double Primroses, and Tea Roses with Carnations, Then there are many groups made by the aid of the finer perennials them- selves, such as the Delphiniums and Phloxes, by choosing things that would go well together. Other plants, such as Yuccas, of which there are now various beautiful kinds, are often best by themselves ; and noble groups they form, whether in flower or not. The kinds of Yucca that flower very freely, such as Y. recurva and Y. flaccida, lend themselves to grouping with Flame Flowers (Tritoma) and the bolder autumn plants. No plan which involves expensive yearly efforts on the same piece of ground can ever be satisfactory. All garden plants require atten- tion, but not annual attention. The true way is quite different — the devotion of the skill and effort to fresh beds and effects each year. It does not exclude summer " bedding," but includes lovely and varied aspects of vegetation far beyond that attainable in summer " bedding," and attempts to make the garden artistically beautiful. It also helps to make the skill of the gardener effective for lasting good, and prevents its being thrown away in annual fireworks. There can be no garden- ing without care ; but is there not a vast difference between some of these beds and borders and those with flowers which disappear with the frosts of October, and leave us nothing but bare earth ? The main charm of bedding plants — that of lasting in bloom a long time — is really a drawback. It is the stereotyped kind of garden which we have to fight against ; we want beautiful and changeful gardens, and should therefore have the flowers of each season. Too short a bloom is a misfortune ; but so is too long a bloom, and numbers of hardy plants bloom quite as long as can be desired. Flower-borders at Broadway, Worcestershire. From a picture in possession of the author 78 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. There is nothing whatever used in bedding out to be compared in colour, form, or fragrance with many families of hardy plants. There is no beauty among bedding plants at all comparable with that of Irises, Lilies, Delphiniums, Evening Primroses, Pseonies, Carnations, Narcissi, and a host of others. Are we to put aside or into the back- ground all this glorious beauty for the sake of a few things that merely give us flat colour ? No one who knows even to a slight extent what the plants of the northern and temperate world are can admit that this sort of gardening should have the first place. There is nothing among " carpet" plants equal to Windflowers in many kinds, flowering in spring, summer, and autumn ; Torch Lilies, superb in autumn : Columbines ; Harebells ; Delphiniums ; Day Lilies ; Everlasting Peas ; Evening Primroses, Paeonies ; Phloxes ; Ranunculus, double and single, and the many fine species ; all the noble autumn-blooming. Daisy- like flowers ; Scabious ; plumy Spiraeas ; Globe Flowers ; Lilies, in noble variety ; Polyanthus ; Primroses ; Auriculas ; Wallflowers Meadow Saffrons ; Crocuses, of the spring and autumn ; Scillas Gladioli ; Snowflakes ; Grape Hyacinths ; Narcissi, in lovely variety Tulips, the old florists' kinds, and many wild species ; Yuccas ; Carna- tions and Pinks ; Dielytras ; Cornflowers ; Foxgloves ; Stocks ; Star- worts ; great Scarlet and other Poppies ; Christmas Roses, both of the winter and spring ; Forget-me-nots ; Pansies and many of the Rock plants of the mountains of Europe — from the Alps to the hills of Greece, cushioned with Aubrietia, and skyblue wind-flowers — all hardy as the Docks by the frozen brooks. Flower Borders Fringing Shrubberies.— A frequent way in \\'hich people attempt to cultivate hardy flowers is in what is called the " mixed border," often made on the edge of a shrubbery the roots of which leave little food or even light for the flowers. The face of a shrubbery should be broken and varied ; the shrubs should not form a hard line, but here and there they should come full to the edge and finish it. The variety of positions and places afforded by the front of a shrubbery so arranged is tempting, but it is generally best to use plants which do not depend for their beauty on high culture — which, in fact, fight their way near shrubs —and ther., are a great many of them, such as the evergreen Candy- tufts, the large-leaved Rockfoils, Acanthus, Day Lilies, Solomon's Seal, Starworts, Leopard's Banes, Moon Daisies, and hardy native Ferns. A scattered, dotty mixed border along the face of a shrubbery gives a poor effect, but a good one may be secured by grouping the plants in the open spaces between the shrubs, making a careful selection of plants, each occupying a bold space. Nothing can be more delightful than a border made thus ; but it requires knowledge BORDERS OF HARD Y FLO WERS. 79 of plants, and that desire to consider plants in relation to their sur- roundings which is never shown by those who make a " dotty " mixed border, which is the same all the way along and in no place pretty. The presence of tree and shrub life is a great advantage to those who know how to use it. Here is a group of shrubs over which we can throw a delicate veil of some pretty creeper that would look stiff and wretched against a wall ; there a shady recess beneath a flowering tree: instead of planting it up with shrubs in the common way, cover the ground with Woodruff, which will form a pretty carpet and flower very early in the year, and through the Woodruff a few British Ferns ; in front of this use only low plants, and we shall Ik. ^ • i '■ ■■-' -'■; ' -■"."^K:.,;*" ^,-M^ z m 1 <^^^K ^H r^M H i ■ I^E ^ ^B H ^ \??*''.*'' ■■■ f^;J.|;fl5 ^&^j_^ .^M ^s IS A flower-border at Fillingham Castle, Lincoln. thus get a pretty little vista, with shade and a pleasant relief Next we come to a bare patch on the margin. Cover it with a strong evergreen Candytuft, and let this form the edge. Then allow a group of Japan Quince to come right into the grass edge and break the margin ; then a large group of broad-leaved Saxifrage, receding under the near bushes and trees ; and so proceed making groups and colonies, considering every aid from shrub or tree, and never using a plant of which we do not know and enjoy the effect. This plan is capable of much variety, whether we are dealing with an established and -grown shrubbery, or a choice plantation of flowering Evergreens. In the last case, owing to the soil and the neat habit of the bushes, we have excellent conditions in which good culture is possible. One can have the finest things among So THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. them — if the bushes are not jammed together. The ordinary way of planting shrubs is such that they grow together, and then it is not possible to have flowers between them, nor to see the true form of the bushes, which are lost in one solid leafy mass. In growing fine things — Lilies or Cardinal Flowers, or tall Evening Primroses — among open bushes we may form a delightful garden, we secure sufficient space for the bushes to show their forms and we get light and shade among them. In such plantations one might have in the back parts " secret " colonies of lovely things which it might not be well to show in the front of the border, or which required shade and shelter that the front did not afford. Borders by Grass Walks in Shade or Sun. — It is not only in the flower garden where we may have much beauty of flower, but away from it there are many places better fitted for growing the more beautiful things which do not require continual attention. Unhappily, the common way of planting shrubberies has robbed many Grass walks of all charm. The great trees, which take care of themselves, are often fine, but the common mixed plantation of Evergreens means death to the variety and beauty of flower we may have by Grass walks in sun or shade. The shrubs are frequently planted in mixtures, in which the most free-growing are so thickly set as soon to cover the whole ground. Cherry Laurel, Portugal Laurel, Privet, and such common things frequently killing all the choicer shrubs and forming dark heavy walls of leaves. Some of these Evergreens, being very hungry things, overrun the ground, rob the trees, and frequently, as in the case of the Portugal Laurels, give a dark monotonous effect while keeping the walks wet, airless,- and lifeless. Light and shade and the charm of colour are impossible in such cases with these heavy, dank Evergreens, often cut back, but once one is free of their slavery what delightful places there are of growing all hardy flowers in broad masses, from the handsome Oriental Hellebores of the early spring to the delicate lavenders of the Starworts in October; Not only hardy flowers, but graceful climbers like the wild Clematis, and lovely corners of light and shade may be made instead of the walls of sombre Evergreens. If we want the ground green with dwarf plants, we have no end of delightful plants at hand in the Ivies and Evergreens like Cotoneaster. There is no need for the labour and ugliness of clipping. I have seen places with acres of detestable clipped Laurels, weary and so ugly! With all these grubbed and burnt, what places, too, for such beautiful things as the giant Fennels with their more than Fern-like grace, and all our strong, hardy Ferns which want no rocks, with Solomon's Seal and Foxgloves among them. Such walks may pass from open spaces into half-shady ones or through groves of old Fir or other trees BORDERS OF HARDY FLOWERS. and so give us picturesque variety apart from their planting with flowers. Flower Borders against Walls and Houses. — In many situations near houses, and especially old houses, there are delightful opportunities for a very beautiful kind of flower border. The stone forms fine background, and there are no thieving tree roots. Here we have conditions exactly opposite to those in the shrubbery ; here we can have the best soil, and keep it for our favourites ; we can have Delphiniums, Lilies, Pseonies, Irises, and all choice plants well grown. Walls may be adorned with climbers of graceful growth, climbing Rose, Wistaria, Vine, or Clematis, which will help out our beautiful mixed border. Those must to some extent be trained, although they may be allowed a certain degree of abandoned grace even on a wall. In this kind of border we have, as a rule, no back- Flower border against wall at Sidbury Manor. ground of shrubs, and therefore we must get the choicest variety of plant life into the border itself and we must try to have a constant succes- sion of interest. In winter this kind of border may have a bare look when seen from the windows, but the variety of good hardy plants is so great, that we can make it almost evergreen by using evergreen rock-plants. Where walls are broken with pillars, a still better effect may be obtained by training Vines and Wistaria along the top and over the pillars or the buttresses. The Flower Border in the Fruit or Kitchen Garden, — We have here a frequent kind of mixed border often badly made, but which may be excellent. A good plan is to secure from about eight to ten feet of rich soil on each side of the walk, and cut the borders off from the main garden by a trellis of some kind from seven feet to nine feet high. This trellis may be of strong iron wire, or, better G 82 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Still, of simple rough wooden branches. Any kind of rough permanent trellis will do on which we niay grow Climbing Roses and Clematis and all the choicer but not rampant climbers. Moreover, we can grow them in their natural grace along the wires or rough branches, or up and across a rough wooden trellis — Rose and Jasmine showing their grace uncontrolled. We fix -the main branches to the supports, and leave the rest to the winds, and we form a fine type of flower border in this way, as we have the graceful climbing plants in contrast with the flowers in the border. General Borders may be made in various ways ; but it may be well to bear in mind the following points : Select only good plants ; throw away weedy kinds ; there is no scarcity of the best. See good col- lections. Put, at first, rare kinds in lines across four-feet nursery beds, so that a stock of plants may be at hand. Make the choicest borders where they cannot be robbed by the roots of trees ; see that the ground is good and rich, and that it is at least two and a half feet deep, so deep that, in a dry season, the roots can seek their supplies far below the surface. In planting, plant in naturally dis- posed groups, never repeating the same plant along the border at intervals, as is so often done with favourites. Do not graduate the plants in height from the front to the back, as is generally done, but sometimes let a bold plant come to the edge ; and, on the other hand, let a little carpet of a dwarf plant pass in here and there to the back, so as to give a varied instead of a monotonous surface. Have no patience with bare ground, and cover the border with dwarf plants ; do not put them along the front of the border only. Let Hepaticas and double and other Primroses, and Saxifrages, and Golden Moneywort and Stonecrops, and Forget-me-nots, and dwarf Phloxes, and many similar plants cover the ground among the tall plants betimes — at the back as well as the front. Let the little ground plants form broad patches and colonies by themselves occasionally, and let them pass into and under other plants. A white Lily will be all the better for having a colony of creeping Forget-me-nots over it in the winter, and the variety that may be thus obtained is infinite. Thoroughly prepared at first, the border might remain for years without any digging in the usual sense. When a plant is old and rather too thick, never hesitate to replant it on a wet day in the middle of August any more than in the middle of winter. Take it up and put a fresh bold group in fresh ground ; the young plants will have plenty of roots by the winter, and in the following spring will flower much stronger than if they had been transplanted in spring or in winter. Do not pay much attention to labelling ; if a plant is not worth knowing, it is not worth growing ; let each good thing be so bold and so well grown as to make its presence felt. BOKDEKS OF HARDY FLOWERS. 83 Mr. Frank Miles on the Flower Border. — Among the first to see the merits of effectively carpeting borders, and who made the border suggested in my Hardy Flozvcrs, wzs, the late Frank Flower border against house. Miles, the artist, and an excellent flower gardener. His own account of his work I give here. If we are to have mixed borders of herbaceous plants, one thing is quite certain— we can never go back to the borders of our ancestors in which every G 2 84 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. plant had a bare space of ground round it. In the spot where once a plant had bloomed, there was an end for the year of any flowers. Now a yard of ground should have bloom on it at least eight months in the year, and this applies to every yard of ground in a really good mixed border. I am certain that, once a border is well made, it need not be dug up at all. But the question is— what is a well-made border ? I think a border is not well made, or suitable for growing the most beautiful plants to perfection, unless it is as well made as a Vine border in a vinery. Why we should not take as much trouble with the garden border as the border of a conservatory I cannot imagine, seeing that Lilies will grow 1 1 feet high in the open air, not less than lo^ inches across the flower, and Irises little less than that. The more I garden the deeper I get my drainage, and the fuller of sand and fibre my soil. I consider, first, that a border must have a bed of broken bricks or other drainage, with ashes over that, to prevent the drainage from filling up ; secondly, that that bed of drainage must have 2 feet of light soil over it ; thirdly, that that soil must have equal parts of sand, soil, and veget- able matter, A soil of these constituents and depth is never wet in winter and never dry in summer. During the dry weather I found soil like this, in which quantities of auratum Lilies were growing, to be quite moist an inch below the surface, and I know in winter it always appears dry compared with the natural garden soil. But, for all practical intents and purposes, every 6 inches of ground could contain its plant, so that no 6 inches of bare ground .need obtrude on the eye. Almost any kind of bai'e rock has a certain beauty, but I cannot say bare ground is ever beautiful. Well, supposing the back of the border filled with Delphiniums, Phloxes, and Roses, pegged down, and other summer and autumn-blooming plants, and supposing the border to be made as I have described it, I should carpet the ground at the back with spring-blooming flowers, so that when the Roses are bare and the Delphiniums and Phloxes have not pushed above ground, the border should even then be a blaze of beauty. Crocuses, Snowdrops, Aconites, and Primroses are quite enough for that purpose. The whole space under the Roses I should cover with the Common Wood Anemone, and the golden Wood Anemone, and early Cyclamens, and the earliest Dwarf Daffodils. And among the Roses and Pa^onies and other medium-sized shrubs I would put all the taller Lilies, such as require continual shade on their roots ; and such as pardalinum and the Californian Lilies generally, the Japanese, Chinese, and finer American Lilies. Now we come more to the front of the border, and here I would have com- binations, such as the great St. Bruno's Lily and the delicate hybrid Columbines, Primroses planted over hardy autumn Gladioli, so that when the Primroses are at rest the Gladioli should catch the eye : Carnations and Daffodils, planted so that the Carnations form a maze of blue-green for the delicate creams and oranges of the Daffodils. When the Daffodils are gone there are the Carnations in the autumn. A mass of Iberis correasfolia happens to have been the very best thing possible for some Liliuni Browni to grow through, for the Iberis flowered early and then made a protection for the young growth of the Browni, and then a lovely dark green setting for the infinite beauty of the Lily flowers. As for say- ing that this cannot be done, I say that it is nonsense, for the Iberis flowered beautifully under such circumstances, and the Lilies too. If once you get it into your head that no bit of ground ought ever to be seen without flowers or immediate prospect of flowers, heaps of combinations will immediately occur to those con- versant with plants and the deep-rooting habits of most bulbs and the surface rooting of many herbaceous plants— for instance, Colchicums and Daffodils, with a surface of Campanula pusilla alba. The big leaves of the Colchicum grow in spring, and there would be nothing but leaves were it not for the masses of BORDERS OF HARDY FLOWERS. 85 Daffodils. By and by the leaves of the Colchicums and Daffodils are dry enough to pull away, and then the Campanula, be it pusilla, pusilla alba, or turbinata alba, comes into a sheet of bloom. Before the bloom has passed away the Colchicum blooms begin to push up, and as some of my Colchicums are 5 inches across, of the richest rose colour, I do not exactly feel that this is a colourless kind of gardening, and as I have a hundred different kinds of Daffodils, this little arrangement will not be without interest in spring. The Daffodils and Colchicums root deeply and grow mostly in winter, requiring water then, and not in summer, when the Campanula carpet is taking it all. There are some, however, which one must be careful about — the common white Lily, for instance, which wants exposing to the sun in the autumn. I do not mind the exquisite French Poppies among these candidum Lilies, because the Poppies die about August, and then the Lilies get their baking and refuse to show the bare earth, soon covering it all with their leaves. For the extreme front of the border hundreds of combinations will occur — Pansies over Daffodils, Portulacas over Central Asian bulbs, Christmas Roses and Hellebores over the taller Flower border in fruit garden at Dunrobin Castle, N.B. Daffodils, with Gladioli, Tritomas, and giant Daffodils, Hepaticas, and autumn- blooming and spring-blooming Cyclamens, with Scillas and Snowdrops. When Anemone japonica is low, up come the taller Tulips, sylvestris for instance, and higher still out of the dark green leaves come the bejewelled Crown Imperials. As for the cultural advantages, I can imagine this system in the hands of a skilful gardener to be the best of all. In the first place, the plants suffer much less from drought, because there is so much less surface exposed to sun and wind. Examine, not right under the root, but under the spreading part of a Mignonette, and see if, on a broiling hot day, the ground is not much cooler and moister than on the bare ground. Irises are almost the only plants I know of that do require the soil bare about their rootstocks, but then Irises are a carpet of green always, and a few clumps of Tiger Lilies or Tiger Irises will not seriously injure their flowering prospects. And what cannot be done with an herbaceous border edge when that edge is the green Grass ? Crocuses and Crocuses all the autumn and winter and spring in the Grass. The tiniest Scillas, and Hyacinths, and Daffodils, 86 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. and Snowdrops are leading into the border without any break. So I believe, and I think many others will believe by and by, that every bulbous plant ought to be grown in combination with something else, as Amaryllis Belladonna, for instance, which I plant with Arum italicum pictum. In spring the Arum comes up extremely early and its leaves protect the far more delicate leaves of the Amaryllis till they are growing freely and the Arum dies down. The ground is surfaced with Violets, so that the Belladonnas are now coming into bloom, not with the bare ground but with a setting of Violet leaves in beautiful contrast with their pink blossoms. Christmas Roses of all kinds would probably be a more beautiful setting still, but the Belladonnas want a good deal of summer drying up, which the Hellebores could not stand so well. We can never go back to the mixed border of our ancestors ; we have been spoilt for such blank, flowerless spaces as they had by the gorgeousness of bedding out. But we have now a wealth of hardy plants, especially bulbs, which they never had, and this combination of bulbous plants and herbaceous plants will certainly lead to a preparation of the borders which has been hardly dreamt of by people who do not care what they spend on tropical flowers ; for it seems to be forgotten that we have Irises as big as a plate and Lilies as tall as a tree, all hardy and requiring little attention" when once they have been properly planted. The time that used to be spent year after year 'in digging acres of borders might now be' spent in properly making or re-making a few yards of border, till the whole outdoor borders are as exactly suited for the growth of plants to the utter- most perfection — as many as possible being put in the given space — as the borders of a large conservatory. It is in such a border as this that we attain the utmost variety, unceasingly beautiful, every yard different, every week vai-ying, holding on its surface at least three times the value of plant hfe and successional plant beauty ot any ordinary garden. The chief enemy to the system is the slug ; but while the Belladonna Delphinium, which is usually half eaten by slugs in most gardens, grows 6 feet high with me, I am not going to give up my system. The way so well described by Mr. F. Miles, and which he carried out admirably in his father's garden at Bingham — one of the few really lovely mixed borders I have seen — is to some extent that carried out in many pretty cottage gardens, owing to the plots being stored with all sorts of hardy flowers ; those are the cottage gardens where one often sees a charming succession of flowers and no bare ground! One of the prettiest garden borders I know is against a small house. Instead of the walk coming near the windows, a bed of choice shrubs, varying from 9 feet to 15 feet in width, is against the house. Nothing in this border grows high enough to intercept the view out of the windows on the ground floor, from which were seen the flowers of the border and a green lawn beyond. Among the shrubs were tall Evening Primroses, and Lilies, and Meadow Sweets, and tall blue Larkspurs, which after the early shrubs have flowered bloom above them. The ground is always furnished, and the effect is good, even in winter. Evergreen Borders of Hardy Flowers. — The plants of the older kind of mixed border were — like the Grasses of the meadows of the northern world — stricken to the earth by winter, and the border BORDERS OF HARDY FLOWERS. was not nearly so pretty then as the withered Grass of the plain or copse. But since the revival of interest in hardy and Alpine flowers and the many introductions of recent years, we have a great number of beautiful plants that are evergreen in winter and that enable us to make evergreen borders. The great white blanket that covers the north and many mountain ranges in winter protects also for months many Alpine plants which do not lose their leaves in winter, such as Rockfoils, Stonecrops, Primroses, Gentians, and Christmas Roses. The most delicate of Alpine plants suffer when exposed to our winter from excitement of growth, to ^\'hich they are not exposed in their own home, but many others do not mind our winters much, and it is easy Border of hardy flowers on open margin of lawn. (Newton Don, Kelso, N.B.). by good choice of plants to make excellent borders wholly or in greater part evergreen. These are not. only good as evergreens, but they are delightful in colour, many being beautiful in flower in spring, and having also-the charm of assuming their most refreshing green just when other plants are dying in autumn. Along with these rock and herbaceous plants we may group a great many shrublets that come almost between the true shrub and the Alpine flower — little woody evergreen creeping things like the dwarf Partridge Berry, Canadian Cornel, hardy Heaths, and Sand Myrtles, often good in colour when grouped. Among these various plants we have plenty for evergreen borders, and this is important, as, while many might object to the bare earth of the ordinary border of herbaceous plants near the house or in other BOIiDEJ^:S OF HARDY FLOWERS, 89 favourite spots, it is different with borders of evergreen plants, which may be charming and natural in effect throughout the year. Of garden pictures, there are few prettier than Crocus, Snowdrops, or Scilla coming through the green, Moss-like carpets in these ever- green borders, far prettier to those who love quiet and natural colour than more showy effects. Often narrow evergreen borders are the best things that can be placed at the foot of important walls, as the way of allowing Grass to go right up to the walls is a foolish one, and often leads to injury to the wall trees. A narrow border (i8 inches will do), cut off with a natural stone edging from the Grass or walk, is best : even a border of this size may have many lovely things, from early Cyclamen to the rarer Meadow Saffrons in the autumn. Besides the flowers already named, we have Violets, Periwinkles, Yuccas, Carnations, Pinks, white Rock Cress, Barren- worts, charming in foliage, purple Rock Cresses, Omphalodes, Iris, Acanthus, Indian and other Strawberries, Houseleeks, Thymes, Forget-me-nots, Sandworts, Gentianella, Lavender, Rosemary, hardy Rock Roses, and many native and other hardy evergreen Ferns in all their fine variety ; Bamboos, and Ruscus (dwarf savin), these are an essential aid in the making of evergreen borders. Hardy Border Flowers for British Gardens. From this list all families not pretty hardy in Britain are ex- cluded : whatever we may do with flower beds, mixed borders should be mainly of hardy plants, and we ought to be able to plant or refresh them at any time through the autumn or winter months. Well planned mixed borders covered as they mostly should be with rock plants, forming green carpets, should have few gaps in early summer, but where these occur they may be filled up with half-hardy plants as the stock of plants may permit, or with good annuals. It is important in making borders to use the finest species in each genus. Acanthus Achillea Acis Aconitum Adonis Agapanthus Agrostemma Allium Allysum Alstroemeria in var. Amaryllis Amberboa Anemone Anthericum Antirrhinum Arabis Arenaria Argemone Armeria Arnebia Arum Aster Aubrietia Bartonia Bellis Bocconia Brachycorae Brodicea in var. Calendula Calla CalHopsis Calochortus Caltha in var. Campanula Carnations Catananche Centaurea Cerastium Cheiranthus Chelone Chionodoxa Chrysanthemum Colchicum Convallaria Convolvulus Coreopsis Corydalis Crocus Cyclamen Cypriiiedium Delphinium Dianthus Dielytra Digitalis Dodecatheon Doronicum Dryas < Echinops Epilobium Epimedium Eremurus Erigeron Erodium Eryngium Erythronium Escbscholtzia Eutoca Fritillaria Fuchsia Funkia Gaillardia Galanthus Gallon ia Gentiana Geranium Geum Gladiolus Godetia Gypsophila Helenium Helianthemum Helianthus Helichrysum Helleborus Hepatica Hesperis Heuchera Hieracium Hollyhock Hyacinthus Iberis Iris _ Ixiolirion Kniphofia Lathyrus Lavatera Lavandula Leucojum Lilium Lin aria Linum Lobelia Lupinus Lychnis Lythospermum Lythrum Malorpe Malva Meconopsis Megasea 90 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Border Flowers for British Gardens — -con Michauxia Mimulus Mirabilis Monarda Montbretia Muscari Myosotis Narcissus CEnothera Onosma Orchis Ornithogaluin Orobus Omphalodes Oxalis Papaver pEBonia Pancratium Pansy Pentstemon Phlomis Phlox Physalis Portulacca Polemoniura Potentilla Plumbago Primula Puschkinia Pyre thrum Ramondia Rhodanthe Rockets Rudbeckia Ranunculus Salpiglossis Salvia Saponaria Saxifraga Scabiosa Schizostylis Scilla Sedum Sempervivum Senecio Sidalcea Spar axis Spirzea Statice Sternbergia Stocks Sweet Pea Sweet William Symphytum Thymus Tiarella Tigridia Tradescantia Trillium Triteleia Tritonia Trollius Tropeolum Tulipa Veratrum Verbascum Veronica Viola Waldsteinia Wallflower Zephyranthes Zinnia Borders : The Grove, Wisha English Iris. CHAPTER V. THE RESERVE AND CUT-FLOWER GARDENS. Nothing is worse in gardening than the way in which plants of all kinds are huddled together \\-ithout regard to fitness for associa- tion in stature, in time of blooming, or in needs of culture. The common scene of confusion is the shrubbery border, into which Carnations, annuals, Alpine flowers, and rampant herbs are often thrown, to dwindle and perish. There is no shrubbery border that could not be made beautiful by carpeting it with wood and copse plants of the northern world in broad groups, but many of our favourite flowers are not wood plants, and many — for example. Carnations — cannot maintain the struggle against the bushes and trees. Hardy plants should be divided into two broad series at least — those which thrive in and near woody growth, and those which must perish there. Solomon's Seal and the blue Apennine Anemone are types of plants that one may grow in any shady place : Carnation, Pink, Auricula are among the flowers which must have good soil and be kept away from tree roots, and though good borders, away from shrubby growth, grow many plants well, a further division of the work will be found wise in many places. One good plan that 'all can follow is the growing of certain plants without heed to their place in any design, but not in any kind of "mixed border" or in other mixed arrangements. Many hardy flowers are worthy of special culture, and good results cannot often be got without it, whether we grow Carnations, Pinks, Pansies, Phloxes, Lilies, Stocks, double Wallflowers, Cloves, or scarlet Lobelias. EVen a choice annual, such as Rhodanthe, of a beautiful Grass, it is not easy to succeed with unless it has a fair chance, away from the crowding of 92 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the ordinary mixed border. This special culture of favourite flowers may be best carried out in a plot of ground set aside for beds of the choicer flowers, in a piece of ground in or near the kitchen garden or any other open position, sheltered, but not shaded. Such ground should be treated as a market gardener would treat it — well enriched, and open, and thrown into four-foot beds ; the little pathways need not be gravelled or edged, but simply marked out with the feet- With the aid of such a division of the garden, the cultivation of many fine hardy plants, becomes a pleasure. When any plant gets tired of its bed, it is easy to make the Carnation bed of past years the bulb one for the next year, and so on. It would be easy to change one's favourites from bed to bed, so that deep-rooting plants should follow surface-rooting kinds, and thus the freshness of the garden would be kept up. If any edging is used, it should be of natural stone sunk in the earth, as such edgings are not ugly or costly ; but the abolition of all edgings, beyond one or two main lines, would tend to simplify the work. Such a plot is excellent for giving cut flowers in quantity, and is also a great aid as a nursery, while it would also be a help to exchanges with friends or neighbours, in the generous way of all true gardeners. The space occupied by it will depend upon the size and wants of the place ; but, wherever the room can be spared, an eighth of an acre might be devoted to the culture in simple beds of favourite flowers, and even the smalllest garden should have a small plot of this kind. What to grow iih the Reserve Garden. — Among the fair flowers which in this way may be cultivated, each separately and well, are the delightful old Clove Carnations — white, crimson, and scarlet, as well as many other kinds ; tall Phloxes, so fair in country gardens in the autumn ; scarlet Lobelias, splendid in colour ; Pinks of many kinds, Persian and Turban Ranunculus ; bright old garden Anemones, and the finer species of Anemone ; Lilies, and as many as possible of the splendid kinds introduced into our gardens within the past dozen years from California and Japan ; tall perennial Delphiniums, with their spikes of blue ; double Rockets ; beautiful Irises, English, Spanish, Japanese, and German ; Pansies in great variety ; Tiger Flowers ; the Columbine, including the lovely blue Columbine of the Rocky Mountains ; Pyrethrums, Chinese" Pinks, Scabious, Sweet Williams ; Stocks of many kinds ; Wall-flowers, double and single ; the annual Phloxes ; Zinnias, which, if grown as grown abroad that is to say, well and singly grown — are fine in colour ; China Asters, quilled and others ; the Sweet Sultan, in two or three forms ; showy tricolour Chrysanthemums ; Grasses for cutting in winter ; Grape Hyacinths ; rare Narcissus ; Meadow Saffrons ; Lilies of the Valley ; Crocuses, the autumnal as well as the vernal kinds ; Dahlias, cactus THE RESERVE AND CUT-FLOWER GARDENS. 93 and single ; Pzeonies ; Primroses, double and single ; Pentstemons ; Polyanthus ; Oxlips ; Tulips, many early and late kinds ; Sweet Violets ; American Cowslips ; Gladioli ; Christmas Roses ; and, lastly, Everlasting Flowers, which may be gro\\n with the pretty Grasses, and, like them, be gathered for the house in winter. All these fair flowers deserve care in the gardens, and should not be trusted to the too often ill-cultivated slips called " mixed borders," and many other plants which we wish to increase or take good care of In these special plots for hardy flowers are included the various hardy florists' flowers. The term " florists' flowers '' was once applied to flowers supposed to be popular with amateurs and florists, but it had never anj- clear meaning. A Rose is a florist's flower; but it is more — >^i#^.»-;Jp^' ^MS^jrm^^s^^Mmi^^^mm 'd. — __! — — -...i. — -::: — ii— I ; — -. — ".-.:\: ■-- — - -'• -.■•""-'•"■"• . ' ' ■" 'iT" Christmas Roses in bed in reserve garden. (Durie, Fife, N.B.). it is everj'body's flower, and we call it a Rose, having no use for any other term. The reserve garden is a good place to grow flowers for cutting for the house. The enemy in the way of plenty of cut flowers has hitherto been the gardener ; but he was limited in his cutting operations to glass-houses, which he naturally wished to keep gay. A supply equal to that of a dozen plant houses can be got from an open square in the kitchen garden or any piece of good ground. For eight months there is a procession of open-air flowers, which can easily be grown in sufficient quantit}- to allow the cutting of plenty for every \vant. A bed or a few lines of each favourite in a plot of good soil would give a great number of flowers, and these, aided by the Roses and other bush and tree flowers about the garden, would yield all the flowers that a large house would require, and many besides for hospitals and for those who have not gardens. Flowers 94 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. grown for cutting should be carefully selected as regards odour, form, and colour, and the gardener should do all he can to carry out an idea tending so much to give people pleasure at home, and the smallest country place can afford a plot of ground to grow flowers for cutting. Double Cropping of Beds. — We have had evidence of the good way in which inter-cropping suits plants in nursery beds, and there is reason to believe that the presence in rich ground of two plants wholly different in their nature is a good plan. A collection of Narcissi, with lines between of Delphiniums and hardy Fuchsias, that is to say, two lines of each in a 4ft. bed will thrive. The same is true of other hardy spring bulbs, which may be alternated with the choicer peren- nials that bloom in autumn ; and this way is a good one for people who live in their gardens chiefly in spring and autumn, as it secures two distinct seasons of bloom in the same ground. This applies to store beds as distinct from the regular flower garden, though some kind of inter-cropping would give an excellent result in the flower garden also ; as, for instance, if we have beds of Roses, we might have them carpeted with early bulbs, and be none the worse for it, and so also with Paeo'nies and many other flowers. It wants some care to find out which go best together ; but, given that, all is easy enough. Gardens of One Flower. Apart from the reserve garden, with its flowers in close masses, we may have gardens of a favourite flower and its forms, for the purpose of studying a family or adding to it by collecting or cross-breeding. Such gardens now and then owe their existence to the difficulty of cultivating a flower, as was the case of a charming garden of the lovely forms of our native Primrose formed by a friend of mine, who thus describes it : — " A Primrose Garden. — No flower better deserves a garden to itself than the Primrose. It is so old a favourite, and has been culti- vated into so many forms, that any one determined to have a Primrose garden may choose the kind he likes best, and set to work accordingly. There are the single-stalked Primroses, the earliest of all, flowering from the middle of March onwards, while some may be had in bloom as soon as the end of February. They range in colour from pure white to deep primrose, and from palest pinky-lilac through strong red-purples to a colour nearly approaching blue, and there are also rich reds of many shades. There is not as j'ct any Primrose of a true pink colour, nor, though the type colour is yellow, are there as yet any strong yellows of the orange class. There are also double Primroses in nearly all the same colourings. The Polyanthus, with its neat trusses of small flowers, though beautiful in the hand and indis- ft 96 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. pensable in the good garden of hardy flowers, is not a plant for the Primrose garden," as it makes no show in the mass. The grand Primroses for garden effect are the large bunch-flowered kinds, white, yellow, and orange-coloured, red, crimson, and rich brown ; of infinite variety in form, texture, habit, and colouring, easy to raise to any amount by seed, as also by division of the older plants. A Primrose garden (part of which is here illustrated), that for some years has been an ever-increasing source of pleasure and interest to its owners, was formed a few years ago by making an opening about 70 yards long, and varying from 10 yards to 15 yards wide, through a wild copse of young Birch trees. The natural soil was very poor and sandy, so it was prepared by a thorough trenching and a liberal addition of loam and manure, which has to be renewed every year. No formal ^\'alks are made, but one main track is trodden down about 2 feet wide near the middle of the space, dividing into two here and there, where a broader clearing makes it desirable to have two paths in the width. The older divided plants are put into groups of a colour together, from twenty to fifty of a sort. The groups of seedlings are of necessity more various, though they are more or less true to the parent colour, so that a patch of a hundred seedlings — from yellows, for instance — will give a general effect of yellow throughout the group. The whites and yellows are kept at one end of the garden, and the reds at the other ; the deepest yellows next to the reds. Seen from a little distance, the yellow and white part of the Primrose garden looks like a river of silver and gold flowing through the copse. The white stems of the Birches and the tender green of their young leaves help to form a pretty picture, which is at its best when the whole is illuminated by the evening sunlight." Some of the Plants for Reset-ve Garden and for Cutting Flowers. Carnations Pyrethrum Grasses, the more Campanula Phloxes Schizostylis graceful kinds Chrysanthemums Scarlet Lobelias Chinese Pinks Zinnias Meadow Saffrons Pinks Scabious Sweet Sultan Roses Double Rockets Blue Cornflower Ranunculus Crinum Iris Sweet Williams Anemone Crocus Pansies Stocks Lilies Dahlia Alstroemeria Wallflowers Delphiniums Pasonies Tigridia Grape Hyacinths Narcissus Pentstemon Columbines China Asters Primroses Polyanthus Oxlips Tulips Violets American Cowslips Gaillardia Gladiolus Everlastings Christmas Roses Lenten Roses ^^Hpi HBH ■HH^f^^iM W''^^?^^^mfK^ I^^^BIlK^^I^B^^SB'fii ^W'y-'-^Sf^ 'jivS5K|BB| |H|^H|H|^ ^^^^^Ph ^^^ CHAPTER VI. HARDY BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS FLOWERS, AND THEIR GARDEN USE. At no distant time lists of these things were mostly looked at for the sake of getting a few bulbs to force, but that day is past, at least, for all who now see the great part which hardy bulbous and tuberous plants must take in the outdoor gardens of the future, Since those •days the hills of California and of Japan alone have given us a noble lily garden, and the plants of this order in cultivation now form a lovely host. We are not nearly so likely to want novelties as know- ledge of how to make effective use of the nobler plants, such as the Narcissus, the glory of the spring, as the Lily is of the summer garden. We may indeed be often tempted with Zephyr flowers, and Ixias and other plants, beautiful in warmer countries than ours, but delicate here, and only living with us as the result of care which is quite needless, as there are so many lovely things from the mountains and plains of the northern world, and from the mountains in all parts, as hardy as the wild Hyacinths of British woods, so that our search will be more for the nobler materials and how to make artistic use of them than in quest of novelty as such. Lilies. — It would be fair to begin with the Snowdrop, but we will take the plants in the order of their value ; and, having regard to past service and the present beauty of the Lilies, they should take the first place among hardy bulbs. Who of those who remember the Orange and White Lilies of all English and Irish gardens would have looked for the splendid Lilies that have come to us within less than a generation ? For size, and form, and lovely colour they surpass all we had ever dreamt of even among tropical flowers. The variety is so, great that a volume would be required to describe them ; the catalogues give us many of their names. The main thing for all who H 98 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. care for them is how to possess their beauty with the least amount of care and disappointment ; and, happily, the question has been solved • for many handsome kinds by planting them in the peat beds that were made at first wholly in the interest of the American shrubs. Some of the finest Lilies thrive admirably in these, and by adding- here and there deep leaf-mould, rotten cow manure, and the like, other kinds may be grown, for some Lilies thrive best in such soil. Nor need we neglect the mixed borders because we have new ways for our Lilies, as several of the European Lilies thrive perfectly in ordinary borders. They may be naturalised too, or some of them, in deep moist peat bottoms ; for example, the American swamp Lily (L. superbum). The mania for draining everything might even lead ta evil in the case of some Lilies which inhabit the cold northern woods, and which do with a very different degree of moisture from that required by the Lilies of California, where the soil in summer is as road dust on a dry hill in summer. Lilies are so varied in their nature and stature that they may adorn almost any aspect in sun or shade. The new and rare among them will have special beds or borders, and we have Lily men and even Lily maniacs who will have Lily gardens. And as these lovely flowers tumble into our lap, as it were, from the woods and hills of Western China, Japan, and California, untouched by man until he found them made to his hand a few years ago, it is reasonable to suppose that some of them would take care of themselves, if trusted in likely spots, with us. I put some of the Panther Lily deep in a leafy hollow in a Sussex wood, just to see if it would survive in such conditions. Whether owing to a series of cold wet seasons and the want of the glorious sun of the hills in Nevada County, California, where I found it, we know not, but after the first season it did not come up. I thought no more of it, but a friend going into the same wood some years afterwards found a colony of it in bloom. So that we must not always cry out if Lilies do not come up, as they have a way of resting for a year now and then. Narcissus. — Next to the Lily in value as an outdoor flower is the Narcissus, though when we know the Iris better it may find a high place. But the wondrous development of the garden forms of Nar- cissus during recent years, and their fitness for our climate, give it great value. Mountain plants in origin, for the most part they are as hardy as riverside rushes, and those few southern forms that will only live in dry banks and at the foot of warm walls need not concern us who look for pictures of Narcissi in the open air. We have not to ask where the Narcissi will grow, as there are few places they will not grow in with the usual garden culture, and in some cool, loamy soils they take to the turf as ducks to water. Hence it is easy _.5 *i;«Pfi; ^5^' "v ■,,';'''>•. ;'■ rt''"'"'' --v-;-' ■' ,-;^'Sf ■ffi^HEIffil^tVHHISI - "■„• *-■■.■ K^m§SfA , *;: '^^^^^ MffBWPu ^" >^||5 2. MBWMjjiH|ff*WHiB*B ^^vS Group of Giant IndiM Lily in half-shady place (Surrey). H 2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. on many soils to have a spring garden of these flowers, naturally grouped and massed, set in turf, and giving us many flowers for the house as well as pictures in lawn and meadow. For this purpose what is chiefly wanted is that the bulb growers should offer the best hardy sorts for the wild garden by the thousand at low rates. These precious early flowers will also have their place in the garden for cut flower's or the nursery bed, where the many new forms of Narcissi raised in England must take their place until they become plentiful. The true hardiness of the flower allows of its being enjoyed in all parts of these scattered islands, from Scilly, where it is grown in quantities for the markets, to the north of Scotland. In Ireland the Narcissus is at home, and there are excellent collections in the College Botanic Gardens at Dublin and also at Glasnevin, while there ^tM '■■"-. '■' -^ ^': '^i^ 'T'^ r'^l-"'>%p Wt^J^ ki l- "oJ t*J [.:v ^s 1 'm ^|ffl**^-/~^- nn*VtfS ''*^T ^^pEvj^^i. ^ EUriH^UU ■,J:mg^. wW'^_^ jJaMlj Wk '"'" ^^^K.,. ^/ VkiBL!*. d.WIMIIM K^^^ ^K^H«^ ^'m^ P^'l mi* ^^ --J&^^^^i^V^^ ^^^^^"■leHMT .^1 d^sHnra wMSm-^J^k ^Mi ^^A o^in ^',''k l^ WR/' Narcissus princeps at St. Nicholas House, Scarborough. is a very well-grown one at Cork, and Miss Currie, of Lismore, grows many of the most precious kinds. In old days the white Narcissi grown in the gardens spread here and there into orchards and fields, and so it happens that now we have to seek in Ireland some of the graceful white Narcissi. Iris. — The Iris is one of the oldest of our garden flowers, in many forms too, but, like the Lily, it has come to us in greater novelty and beauty of recent years, and as districts in Central Asia and Asia Minor are opened to collectors, we must have our Iris gardens too. And what so fair as an Iris garden ? They are the Orchids of the north, many of them as hardy as reeds, and with more richness of colour than Orchids. The old Irises of our gardens are usually of the Germanica class ; there is much variety among these groups, and HARDY BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS FLOWERS. loi they are very hardy and precious, and excellent for the adornment of gardens and even walls and thatched roofs, as we see in France, the Iris of this great group having a valuable power of thriving on such surfaces as well as on good soil. There is a group of waterside and water-loving. Iris, much less seen in our gardens than the above, and some of them not yet come to us, but of great value. They are allied to the common yellow Iris of our watercourses, but are taller and richer in colour, the golden Iris (Aurea), Monnieri, and Ochroleuca being the best known so far, and very free, hardy, and beautiful plants they are, thriving, too, almost anywhere, but best in rich, moist soil. And we have the distinct gain of the splendid Japanese Iris, in its many strange forms, the Japanese surpassing all waterside Irises in its wide; range of colour, though most beautiful perhaps in its simple forms, white and purple. This plant, though its beauty suggests that of the tropics, will grow side by side with our great water dock by any lake side, or even in a clay ditch, where only the coarsest weeds live. The Siberian Iris and the forms near it are very graceful beside streams or ponds, either in open or copsy places, and far more graceful and charming in such positions than in set borders. All these water-loving Irises will do for the wild garden in bold groups when we can spare them. Then there are the brilliant purple and gold Iris reticulata and its allies, little bulbous Irises, for the spring garden, early and charming things, many beautiful ; Irises that flower in winter and early spring, like the Algerian Iris ; others happy in Britain on warm soils and warm corners, and Iris for the rock garden, like the crested Iris ; and the many pretty forms of Iris pumila, of some of which edgings were made in old gardens. The foliage of the evergreen Iris is so graceful and usually so nice in colour that artistic use may be made of it in that way. The most novel of all the groups of Iris, however, are the cushion Irises, which promise much beauty, but are yet too little known to see how far that beauty may be preserved in our gardens. The old Iris Susiana has been known for many years, and some of its allies like I. Lorteti and the Wolf Iris, seem more hardy and not less beautiful. Tulips. — The old garden tulip, a favourite for generations, grown in the so-called florist varieties, and the source once of severe mania, is but one of a large number of wild Tulipa, many of which have come to us of late years from Central Asia. The old tulips are the forms of an Italian species (T. Gesneriana), and these varieties are worthy of all the attention they ever had ; but the wild form is as good as any of its varieties for splendid effect, and a selection should be made of its simpler colours, including a good white and yellow. The bedding tulips, which are earlier in blooming, are forms of T. scabriscapa, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. though useful, are not nearly so valuable for their effect as the late tulips. The new species coming from Central Asia and other lands promise to be very valuable, too, for their effect, though our climate may not suit all of them, as it does the fine hardy Gesneriana. The colour of these tulips is too fine to be missed, and, as the bloom is too short-lived to give beds under the windows to it, the best way is to plant them in borders, and, when scarce, in the nursery ; when plenti- ful in the wild garden. I put some in new hedgerow banks a few years ago, and also the wood tulip in a meadow regularly mown, and now have a splendid bloom every spring. As wild tulips abound in the south of Europe — travellers might often get many roots which could be tried in this and other ways. Some of the bedding tulips have very ugly slaty colours, and there is much waste in planting them. The Dutch bulb raisers care more for variety than beauty of colour, but the aim in our gardens should be to get more of the fine simple colours, and the wild kinds planted so far as we may in effective ways; a few trials in that way will show that it is a much more effective one thqn setting out the plants in tile or other patterns. The later these wild tulips come into bloom the better, as it brings their nobler colour in when the harsh changes of the spring are nearly over, and in the north they will come in with the early summer days. These ideas of the more picturesque planting of the hardier Tulips need not take from the lover of the old florist kinds his Tulip garden, which was very charming with its long beds of good soil, and at its best in some sheltered — hedged in or walled — garden. Crocus. — If the Crocus has any fault it is courage in coming so early that it has to face every trouble of the spring, and green winters induce it to open too early. Yet what promise it brings us of the many-blossomed spring in border and in lawn ; for, in addition to the old and good way in garden borders, the Crocus, at least all the forms and series and the hardy and vigorous European kinds, is easily naturalised in lawns or meadow turf, and others even under Beech trees as in Crowsley Park. As regards this question, it should be remem- bered that the Crocus is wild in rich meadow grass in various parts of England, at Nottingham and in Essex. The autumnal kinds may be naturalised too, but they ask perhaps for a warmer soil than the vernal kinds. Recent years have brought us many new Crocuses. The effect of the old kinds is not surpassed, but their beauty may be more fully shown than in lines and dots by scattering them in natural-looking groups in grassy places among trees or in the open turf Snowdrop and Snowflake.— The old Snowdrop gives as good an effect as any other, but the many new varieties give the Snowdrop more value. Whether these new forms are species or varieties matters little ; their value as garden plants is the only question that concerns Tulip garden at the Castle, Dingwall, I04 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. flower-gardeners. Who would have thought a few years ago that our Snowdrop was only one of a large number taking care of them- selves in the mountains of Asia Minor and other regions ? Others are coming, and when these increase in our gardens we shall have fresh aids to make our spring gardens more beautiful. As these new kinds are mostly plants from cool regions, they will probably be easily naturalised in many soils. The snowflake must not be forgotten — few spring flowers are more free than the vernal and late snowflakes. SciLLAS, Hyacinths, and like Plants. — The lovely early group of plants allied to our Wood Hyacinth — Scilla, Chionodoxa,. and Hyacinthus (the more tiny and dwarf wild species are referred to- here under this last name) — ask for some thought as to their artistic use. The Scillas are well known, but the newer forms of Chionodoxa give an unlooked-for loveliness of blue very early in the spring, and show a pretty variety in their delicate colours ; and yet there is no more lovely thing among them than the Taurian Scilla, a large form of the long-neglected Scilla bifolia. It is so early and so deep a blue that one may get rich effects with it very early. The more tiny and select of all these plants are alpine, delightful for rock-gardens, and all the more so if we can use them in visible groups. The stouter kinds, such as the larger Chionodoxa, are coming in such numbers that we may try their effects in many ways ; it is impossible to omit them from what- ever kind of spring gardening we adopt. The common Hyacinth — in its double forms at least — is so stiff that we take little interest in it for the flower garden ; but the simpler colours of the single kinds deserve a place. Would it not be worth while growing the single Hyacinth provincialis from which these all come ? Hyacinths will come up year after year in flower beds, and throwing away the roots after once blooming, is a mistake. Other Lilies. — Apart from the true Lilies there are certain plants to which the name is also given betimes, such as the Torch Lily (Kniphofia), the Day Lily (HemerocalHs), the Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria), the African Lily (Agapanthus), the Belladonna Lily (Amaryllis), the Cape Lily (Crinum), the Plantain Lily (Funkia), the Wood Lily (Trillium), the Mariposa Lily (Calochortus), besides other Lilies that do not come under our present heading, or which do not ask for thought as regards their effective use. The Torch Lilies are brilliant in colour, and have been added to of recent years, but severe winters have thinned them, and they will always be best in dry soils and in sunny positions, protected in winter. They are best kept apart from flowers more refined in colour, such as the Tea Rose. The Day Lilies are a really hardy race, and most of them will grow anywhere. With their fine leaves HARDY BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS FLOWERS. 105 and showy, well-formed flowers, they may be used with good effect in various ways. The Peruvian Lily is valuable, but far more beautiful on warm soils. If on cool soils — and in cool districts it fails — we must prepare beds for it, but the best way in gardening is always to grow the flowers that thrive without great labour in the soil we have. The Belladonna Lily can be grown in no more effective way than the old one of planting it under south walls. The Cape Lilies have increased of late years from hybrids and otherwise, and are worth attention in deep soil in warm corners near walls that protect them from the north. The African Lily is most important for its unrivalled blue, but, save in the warmest parts of the south, where it may live in the open air protected, it is essential to give it greenhouse or like protection in winter. It is one of the plants for which the expense of tubs or large pots is worth indulging in, and there are new and handsome kinds, which make the culture more interesting. The Wood Lilies are valuable because they give us effects both distinct and beautiful in peat borders or bog gardens. Shade is not essential, though we think the best effects are attained in half-shady spots. The Mariposa Lilies are beautiful indeed, some of them almost surpassing any flowers of the old world ; but they come from one of the best climates and warmest soils in the world, and one can hardly hope that they will thrive in our climate without special care. Yet such charming flowers will always have a place in curious gardens, where they will thrive in frames and warm corners. Such plants, however, cannot be depended on for much effect in the open garden, though new kinds are being brought from Western America which may thrive in our climate, and help to show us the beauty of these singularly lovely things. Anemones and Ranunculus. — The Poppy Anemone has been a welcome flower in our gardens for hundreds of years, and it should never be forgotten, save in cold soils where it dwindles. Many now grow it well from seed, but the old way of planting the tubers of favourite kinds and colours should be carried out in the flower garden in Rose beds or in any beds to spare. The Scarlet Anemone and its varieties is also precious ; the Star Anemone, so charming in Italy and Greece in spring, is rarely seen happy in our gardens which are too cold for it, no doubt, so it may well be left out in favour of the hardier sorts. Valuable as the brightest Anemones are, the old Turban and Persian Ranunculus, and other forms were once a great charm of the flower garden, and should not be forgotten in warm soils, where they thrive, but they perish in severe winters, and require some care. Various. — The old Dog's-Tooth Violet of the mountains of Europe has been joined in our gardens of recent years by a number of lo6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. its American relations, graceful plants for peat borders, but as yet not so valuable as the European kind in its various forms, which are among the prettiest early spring flowers. They are, moreover, true wild garden plants, which thrive in turf, coming up every year even more faithfully than Crocus or Snowdrop. The Snake's-head, too (Fritillaria), is a charming wild garden plant, thriving in grass in rich or wet meadows ; where not native it may well be introduced. The new yellow Fritillaries give a greater interest to this group of plants, some of which are fitted for the wild garden, but we never could see the charms of the Crown Imperials, with their offensive odour. The Stars of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum) thrive in grass, and are pretty in it. Unfortunately the handsome Arabian kind is not hardy. The Montbretias are plants of somewhat recent appearance in, our gardens, and they have a vigour and hardiness we do not look for in Cape plants, and a tenacious way of growing and increasing even in cold poor soil, and are, therefore, valuable where we wish to have close tufts of graceful leaves and gay blossoms below flowering shrubs not set too closely on the ground. Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) are often very pretty, and nearly always hardy. I use them .freely in grass, where their blue is very pretty in spring. The choicer newer kinds will find a place in the nursery beds or rock-garden till more plentiful. Among the new plants we have one of fine distinction in the Giant Asphodels (Eremurus), plants of noble port and vigour, but which, though here and there grown and flowered well, are not as yet proved for our climate, with its often open, snowless winters. We must find out the kinds really hardy and that bloom handsomely with us before we can judge of their value in the flower garden. The old tiger flowers (Tigridia) should not be forgotten, especially on limestone or other warm soils, where they are most at home. There are several new kinds, which make the family of more value. Plants that give much pleasure from their good colours are the Triteleia and Brodioea. Some new and pretty effects will be given by the best of these as soon as plentiful. So noble a plant as the Gladiolus should not, perhaps, have been left to the end, but the fact that the finest class are only half hardy, and require care, makes them less important in our country than Lilies and Narcissi, that give so much beauty with little or no care. The years pass so swiftly, and are so full of cares, that things demand- ing two important attentions yearly — i.e., taking up and planting — must take a minor place, except in the case of growers who make a special care of them. The groups known as Lemoinei and Saundersi hybrids, being hardier, give better results, but generally our climate is against the older Gladioli, and disease very often comes with any large attempt to grow them. HARDY BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS FLOWERS. 107 Hardy Bulbs for Cut Flowers. — The special or reserve gar- den includes beds for hardy bulbs — a very good way of growing them, and for supplying flowers for the house. A curious habit of the flowers of bulbs is that, cut from the plants when just opening and put into water, they get larger than they would if left on the plants out of doors, and this should lead us to encourage many lovely flowers among hardy bulbs that are among the best for our rooms. Hitherto the horror of the gardener has been cutting flowers for the house ; but if cutting prolongs his bloom, strengthens his plants, and gives all who care for his flowers a fuller enjoyment of them, we may secure his powerful aid. Consider what one may escape in storms, frosts, and other dangers if a flower, cut just on arriving at maturity, lasts Eed of Italian Narcissus. longer indoors than out, and actually, as in the case of the Narcissus, gets larger ! Narcissi, through their hardiness and drooping heads, endure our climate better than any other flowers, and yet severe storms will beat them about and destroy flowers that might have lived for days in the house. Large showy flowers like Tulips, suffer with every heavy shower. Anything which makes it easier to have flowers in the house is a real gain ; their exquisite forms are best seen, and tell their story best when brought near to the eye. A flower of our yellow wood Tulip opening and closing, and showing its changing form in a room, gives ideas of beauty which cannot be gleaned by glancing at a bed of bulbs. A variety of hardy bulbs should therefore be grown for their value as cut flowers, apart from their use in the garden. Hardy Bulbs among Choice Shrubs. — One of the most io8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. marked improvements is the planting of handsome bulbs in masses of Rhododendrons and like bushes. These beds, as usually planted, are interesting only when in flower, and not always then, owing to the flat surface into which the shrubs are pressed ; Lilies, therefore, and the finer bulbs may with great advantage be placed among the shrubs. In many cases where this plan has been carried out, it has almost changed the entire aspects of gardens, and given various beautiful types of life instead of only one, and many fine rare bulbs find a home in such beds, which should be sacred from the spade. In placing choice, peat-loving shrubs, give the bushes room to fully attain their natural forms, and plant the interspaces with finer bulbs. Light and shade, relief and grace, are among the merits of this mode of planting. Beds of the smaller shrubs will do admirably for the smaller and more delicate bulbs, the shelter of low shrubs being an advantage to many little bulbs whose leaves are apt to suffer from cold winds. In this way we get relief, variety, and longer bloom, and the shrubs show their forms better when they have free play of light and air about them. Bulbs in Beds on Turf. — Bold beds of Lilies and the taller bulbs are admirable for the lawn, and for quiet corners of the pleasure- ground. The showy beds of bulbs which are to be seen in public and other gardens, and which come so largely into spring gardens, are familiar to all. The beds suggested here are of a higher and more permanent nature, and are intended to be placed where they will be let alone. At Moulton Grange some years ago I saw on the turf in a quiet corner a bed of Tiger Lilies which had no other flowers near to mar its beauty. It was a large oval bed, and the colour of the finely ; grown Lilies was brilliant and effective seen through the trees and glades.' In point of colour alone, nothing could be better ; the mass of bloom was profuse, and the plants,, about 6 feet high, told well in the garden landscape. The plants had a great advantage in habit, form, and colour over the usual dwarf type of showy " bedding " plant. Many hardy flowers of the highest beauty would have as effective colour if we took equal pains with them. Colour on a 6-foot plant is usually more effective than on a plant 6 inches or 12 inches high, and some hardy Lilies are well over 6 feet high. This Lily bed was on one of those little strips of turf which occur by most shrubberies, and within a few yards of a walk, so that it could be easily seen. Among the most lovely beds are those of the nobler Lilies, while Iris, and many beautiful Day Lily, Paeony, Gladiolus, and Cape Hyacinth may be grouped with them or near them. It may be as well to note that what is meant here is not wild gardening with bulbs, but very good cultivation of them, and surfacing and edging the beds with spring flowers. HARDY BULBOUS AND TUBEROUS FLOWERS. 109 Some Hardy Bulbous and Tuberous Plants for British Flower Gardens. Acis Calochortus Agapanthus AUium Chionodoxa Colchicum Alstrcemeria Convallai'ia Amaryllis Crocus Anemone . Cyclamen Anthericum. Erythronium Arum FritiUaria Calla Galanthus Gladiolus Galtonia Hyacinth us Ins Ixiolirion Leucojum Lilium Montbretia Muscari Narcissus Scilla Orchis Spar ax is Ornithogalum Sternbergia Oxalis Tigridia Pseonia Trillium Pancratium Triteleia Puschkinia Tritonia Ranunculus TropiBolum Schizostylis Tulipa Iris border (at Bui wick). CHAPTER VII. ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL PLANTS, AND HALF-HARDY PLANTS ANNUALLY RAISED FROM SEED. Whatever we may do with perennials, shrubs, or hardy bulbs, the plants in this class must ever be of great value to the flower-gardener ; and among the most pleasant memories of flower-garden things are often those of annual or biennial plants : tall and splendid Stocks in a farmhouse garden on a chalky soil, seen on a bright day in early spring ; Wallflowers in London market gardens and in cottage gardens, when not .cut down by cruel winters ; Snapdragons on old garden walls, and bright Marigolds everywhere ; Hollyhock lines. Sweet Pea hedges, and Mignonette carpets ; Evening Primrose, Poppies, Sweet Scabious, and Sweet-williams. However rich a garden may be in hardy flowers or bedding plants, it is wise in our climate to depend a good deal upon annuals. Although they do not last so long in bloom, and are not so fine in quality as Lilies or Roses, yet they can generally be depended upon for a very handsome show of flower in early autumn, particularly in northern and cool districts. In some cases it would not be wise to sacrifice the summer garden for autumnal flowering plants, but where people do not much enjoy their garden except in autumn, it is essential to make good use of these treated of herein. ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL PLANTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN, iir Where the choicest flowers are grown in beds near the house or in what sliould be the flower garden, autumnal annuals are not so good as more enduring plants, although useful as an aid. In many cases the best way would be to grow the annuals in separate borders, even in borders in the kitchen garden, as they are very well grown at Campsey Ash. Like most other plants, they enjoy fresh ground, and where they are grown in borders by themselves it is easy to enrich the ground, and make it fitted for them, easier than when grown among perennials, Roses and the like. With this precaution the culture is very simple ; in the south some attention to watering is essential in dry years, in the north the moist cool climate gives the best results. In wet seasons and in wet northern districts annuals surprise us by their vigour and beauty. In warmer counties the effect of the heat may in the case of the hardy kinds be met by autumn-sowing in good rich ground. The autumn sowings are the best. The plants not only flower much sooner, but, where the soil and climate suit them, they are stronger and more beautiful. The reason why they are so often seen in poor condition is that they are sown on hungry soil and are crowded. Concerning crowding, " Salmoniceps " writes : — "I have just measured a plant to-day (October 4) of Nemophila insignis, sown. more than a year ago. It has been in flower since May, and measures, now 4 feet by 3 feet 10 inches. It would take a long time to count the blossoms, although they are not so large as the earlier ones. The- plant grows in a new and rich border. According to the ordinary way of sowing annuals, this single plant occupies the space which is. usually allotted to a whole packet of seed." In nature, annuals are usually autumn-sown and gather strength in the winter. In growing a number of annuals from various countries, we must remember that our winters can be faced by the hardy ones only, such as the Sweet Pea, Corn-flower, Silene, Nemophila, Viscaria, Limnanthes, Larkspur, Poppy, and Scabious. Annuals are best in masses or groups, and they are never perhaps so full of colour and beauty as on an old rich vine border. In considering the best kinds we will look more at the important groups of plants, as there is a great number of curious kinds that might be named here, but they are not so important for effect. Among annual and biennial flowers we have the lovely Everlastings of Australia, which have an order of beauty quite distinct from those we see in gardens into which annuals do not enter. Carefully gathered, they have the additional charm that they may adorn our houses during the winter. The Pimpernels, which with their pretty blue flowers were once made charming use of in gardens, are much neglected. The Mexican Poppy is a pretty flower and quite distinct. Among annuals. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. we find plants of fine foliage or habit, such as the Hemp, Castor Oil Tree and other Mallows, Maize and other grasses, Cotton and Blessed Thistles. The annual Chrysanthemums of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, and indeed of our own fields, are charming in ■effect. The annual Convolvuli are pretty, and in southern gardens may be used charmingly. The annual Larkspurs are so little used in gardens that it is only in seed farms that we have the pleasure of seeing them now and then in all their beauty. The annual Chinese Pinks are very charming grown in sunny beds and good soil. Our native Foxglove, which takes such good care of itself in many of our woodlands, breaks in the hands of the gardener into beautiful varieties well worth growing, if not in the garden, in shrubberies and in copses -and woods. It is a good plan, when any ground is broken up for fence-making or rough planting, to scatter a few seeds of the white -and other pretty kinds and leave them to take care of themselves. There are many graceful grasses which may be treated as annuals, and their flowers, like the Everlasting flowers, be in bloom through the winter. The night-smelling Stocks will appeal to some, but are rather too strong in odour for others. The annual Hibiscus when well grown are effective plants, and the same may be said of the Hollyhock, for which probably the best way is to raise it from seed, as in that way we can fight better against the fungus which destroys it. The Single Hollyhock is worthy of much care and is often very effective. The Flaxes are very pretty annuals, red and blue, and even the common <:ultivated Flax is a beautiful plant. The beauty of the Ice plants, of which we see so little in our country, is fairly shown by the little annual one. In our day quite a series of beautiful forms of Mignon- ette have come to add to the charms of that always welcome plant. The annual and biennial Evening Primroses are often extremely valuable and showy. The Sweet Scabious are pretty and varied in colour and so fragrant. Of Sweet Peas there is a delightful series in our own day, when so many kinds have been raised that one could easily make a garden of them. No words can exaggerate their value, either in mixed or separate colours, and they should be both autumn and -spring sown, so as to get a chance of those fine tall hedges of Sweet Peas which come where we sow in autumn and get the plants safely through the winter, and they are doubly valuable owing to the many beautiful new kinds. Zinnia is extremely fine in colour, but in our country it wants warm soils and the best positions in order to do well. In Italy, Austria, and South Germany they are much more beautiful and vigorous than with us. Some annual plants, like the Cornflower, Sweet Sultan, Sweet Pea, Scabious, are precious for cutting for the house, and may be grown White Foxglove. Engraved from a photograph by H. Hyde of a self-sown plant in shrubbery at Gravetye Manor. I 114 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. with the hardy flowers for this purpose where there is room for it ; others are good for trellis-work, and others for surfaces we wish to adorn with pretty climbers, such as Canary Creeper, Maurandya, Adlumia, Gourds, Convolvulus. The various French and African Marigolds, and the prettier forms of the pot Marigold, are very showy plants, and, for those who love much colour, are almost essential, and the same may be said of the various annual Calliopsis. The China Aster used to be grown much better than it is generally now, and there is no doubt, where people do not get much colour from other plants, such as Roses and the finer perennials, the China Aster in its many forms is useful. But more important by far are the various kinds of Stock, which have the added charm of fragrance, and which do so well in many gardens with light and warm soils in the north and in Scotland. Cosmos are pretty plants worthy of a place, and the best of the annual kinds of Datura are picturesque and distinct. Chinese Pinks are very beautiful and charming in variety. The Gaillardias, which are such poor perennials in many soils, are in some cases better raised as annuals, and there are annual kinds of value. The Gilias are very pretty, varied, and hardy, and some very dwarf, forming a carpet for taller plants. The Godetias, allied to the Evening Primroses, are handsome when well grown, especially the white and simple coloured kinds, and where they live over the winter, from autumn sowing, they are very strong and handsome the following year. The many varieties of the annual Ipomae are graceful, there being much charming variety among the blooms, and with these may be named the various kinds of Convolvulus minor, which does not climb. Lavatera and Malope are handsome plants in the autumn garden, as are the Lupins, well grown, and the new Nemesia from the Cape is charming. The white Tobacco and the true Tobacco are handsome in warm soils. We thmk the various Nigellas very interesting, while every one should have the annual Phloxes, now to be had in such good colours, and the Portulacas, which are so showy on warm borders. The Salpi- glossis is a beautiful plant, especially where we take the trouble to select the simpler colours, the amber coloured one being very fine The Sweet Scabious has charming varieties, and is often very fine m colour, though not so good on heavy and cool soils. The Sweet Sultans are pretty, and useful for cutting for the house and Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus) and its allies are quaintly effective The snap-dragons, which are often treated as annuals, are frequently excellent when grown in their simple colours, the striped kmds not being nearly so good in effect. The annual Poppies are essential where a good display is hoped from annuals, also the ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL PLANTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 115 Mexican and Californian Poppies. Such handsome plants as the varieties of Tropaeolum are also many of them beautiful annuals. Among plants of, perhaps, less importance than some of the pre- ceding, the following may be mentioned : Bartonia, Brachycome, Calandrinia, Cosmidium, Nolana, Didiscus, Kaulfussia, Linum, Lobelia, Martynia, Mesembryanthemum, Nycterinia, Platystemon, Saponaria, Senecio, Stenactis, and Xeranthemum, as affording some good plants for those interested in flower gardening with annual and biennial plants. Half-hardy Plants treated as Annuals. — It is not every one who has the means to winter a large number of tender bedding Bed of "China Asters": showing effect of well-grown annual plants in garden. plants, and the keeping of a large stock _ involves much work, and takes up space that might be better occupied. But a garden may be made very gay in summer with half-hardy plants raised from seed, and without keeping a single plant over the winter in the greenhouse. In seedlings there may be differences in habit and colour, but this should be no objection. There are a few plants which come from seed true to the type through many generations, like \'erbena venosa. Seedling Verbenas make a handsome bed, and usually do much better so grown than from cuttings. Balsams, again, are not half so much used for open-air decoration as they deserve to be, and those who have onl}- seen them starving in small I 2 Ii5 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. pots cannot form an idea of their beauty when planted out in good open soil, away from trees and in warm soils. Take the border Pansies in various shades of purple, yellow, and white. Varieties may be raised in the early spring for planting out the same summer, and so of the Verbena, Pelargonium, Pyrethrum, Salvia patens, S. argentea, Heliotrope, and Snapdragons, which should be sown in heat in January ; to the Petunia, Phlox Drummondi, Dianthus, Indian Pink, Ageratum, and Lobelia, which in February should be sown in pans in heat, and, if kept growing, will be ready for planting out in May. Begonias for bedding may be grown from seed in the same year, but are more effective if raised during the preceding year, selected according to colour, and stored in winter ready for bedding out early in summer. Fuchsias sown in January flower well in August. Of fine-leaved plants which can be raised from seed for use in the open-air the same year, there are Amaranthus, Celosia, Centaurea, Cineraria Humea, Canna, Chamsepeuce^ Nicotiana, Ricinus, Solanum, and Wigandia. Old plants of Verbenas and like plants kept through the winter harbour the eggs of vermin always ready to eat up the collection if it is neglected for a week, but, starting with clean houses and frames, and with seeds in early spring, the gardener makes a better fight against his many insect enemies. As regards the plants one would like to raise in this way, seedsmen should select and fix distinct colours of different races of plants. It would not be difficult to select a bluish or purple Verbena which one might count on as coming pretty true from seed. We have so much relied upon cuttings and old plants that the raising of fine seedlings has seldom had fair attention. Many raise seeds, but few give the early thinning, the light, the sturdy growth, and the unchecked culture that seedlings require ; but now, when we may raise not only the annual pure and simple, but the half-hardy flower-garden plants, and the nobler hardy plants like Carnations and Hollyhocks, seed-raising for the flower- garden deserves much attention. Biennial Plants -are usually such as make their growth in one year and flower the next, but the line between biennial and annual is not a strict one, because in their native countries annual plants often spring up in one year, and flower the next. In countries with open winters and hot summers, annuals do so naturally, and begin to grow in the first rains through the winter, and flower strongly the next year— these often being kinds sown in spring in gardens. Hollyhocks, Foxgloves, Chimney Campanula, and Sweet Williams come under this head, but in some cases early raising in spring gives us a chance of blooming some of them the same year as they are sown. In any case it is better for simplicity ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL PLANTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 117 sake to group all annual and biennial plants together, and with them the half-hardy plants raised from seed for use in the flower garden, as the work of raising all is, to a great extent, the same. Some of the more important Families of Annual and Bienttial Plants, and oj Half-hardy Plants raised from Seed for the Flower Garden. Acrocliniuin Centranthus Hedysarum Mesembryan- Ricinus Adlumia Cheiranthus Helichrysum themum Salpiglossis Agathaea China Aster Heliophila Mignonette Salvia Ageratum Chrysanthemum Heliotrope Mimulus Saponaria Agrostemma Clarkia Hesperis Hibiscus Mirabilis Scabious Alonsoa Clintonia Myosotis Schizanthus Alyssum Convolvulus Hollyhock Nemesia Schizopetalon Amaranthus Coreopsis I her is _ Nemophila Senecio Amberboa Cosmidium Impatiens Nicotiana Silene Ammobium Cosmos lonopsidium Nierembergia Solanum Anagallis Crepis Ipomeea Nigella Sorghum Antirrhinum Cuphea Ipomopsis Nolana Specularia Arctotis Datura Isotoma Nycterinia Sphenogyne Argemone Delphinium Kaulfussia CEnothera Stenactis Artemisia Dianthus Lasthenia Onopordon Stocks Bartonia Didiscus Lavatera Oxalis rosea Sweet Peas' Begonia Digitalis Leptc siphon Oxyura Sweet William Boerkhausia Erysimum Leptosyne Papaver Tagetes Brachycome Erythrffia Limnanthes Pelargonium Tropseolum Calandrinia Eschscholtzia Linaria Pentstemon Verbascum Calceolaria Eucharidium Linum Petunia Verbena Calendula Eutoca Loasa Phacelia Viola Calliopsis Fuchsia Lobelia Pharbitis Virginia Stock Campanula Gaillardia Lophospermum Phlox Viscaria Cannabis Gilia Lupin Platystemon Waitzia Cape Marigold Glaucium Maize Podolepis Whitlavia Catananche Godetia Malope Polygonum Zea Celosia Gourds Malva _ Portulaca Zeranthemum Celsia Glasses Martynia Pyrethrum Zinnia Centaurea Gypsophila Maurandya Rhodanthe Zea: Knockdolian, Colmonell, N.B. CHAPTER VIII. FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES, AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. Spring comes to us wreathed in honeysuckle, and summer brings the Wild Rose and the May bloom, and these are but messengers of a host of lovely shrubs and low trees of the hills and plains of northern and temperate regions, and also of the high mountains of countries like India, where there are vast alpine regions with shrubs as hardy as our own, as we see in the case of the white Clematis that covers many an English cottage wall with its fair white bloom. If we think of the pictures formed in thousands of places in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by the May alone, we may get an idea of the precious beauty there is in the American, Asiatic, and European kinds, some of which flower later than our own and make the May bloom season longer. Nothing is lovelier among flowering trees than a group of the various thorns, beautiful also in fruit, and the foliage of some kinds is finely coloured in autumn. The Thorns are but one branch of, perhaps, the most important order of flowering trees, embracing FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES, AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 119 the Apples (a garden in their varied flowers alone) ; Pears, wild and cultivated ; Crabs, pretty in bloom and bright in fruit ; Quinces, Medlars, Snowy Mesipulus, Almonds, Double Cherries, Japan Quinces, Plums (including Sloe and Bullace), not to speak of a number of less important families. Among these, ' the larger and more important branches of this great order of plants, there is some likeness in habit and size, which allows of similar use. The Double Peaches are among the most precious of trees of this order, but for some reason we rarely see them in any but a miserable state in England. In France they are sometimes lovely not only in the flower, but in the mass of colour from healthy growth. It may be that the failure of the shoots to ripen in our cool climate is owing to some weakness through grafting on a bad stock. There is such a great and noble variety among these trees that there is room for distinct effects. An excellent point in favour of trees like Thorns, Crabs, Almonds, and Bird Cherries is that, in their maturity, they, in groups or single specimens, stand free on the turf — free, too, from all care ; and it is easy to see how important this is for all who care for English tree-fringed lawns — a- long way more beautiful than any other kind of tree garden. It is not only the flowers on the trees we have to think of, but also in the house — as cut flowers gathered when the buds are ready to open — gathering the branchlets and long twigs before the flowers are quite out and placing them in vases in rooms. In very bad weather this way will prolong the bloom for us, or even save it in the case of very hard frost, and in a cold spring it will advance the bloom a little, the warmth of the house giving a few days' gain in time of opening. As to the kinds of shrubs that may be cut for the house in this way, there are many of the same race, from the Sloe to the beautiful kinds of Apple. There is a good deal in putting them into the right sort of glass. The Japanese are very clever in fitting the flowers into vases so that each may show its form and beauty best. Mr. Alfred Parsons says he noticed that flowers seem to last longer in bronze, in which, it may be, the action of the light is less than in an ordinary vessel. While such trees as the Almond or Crab will usually be in the more distant parts of the garden picture, the variety of flowering shrubs is so great that we may choose from among them for the most precious of flower garden beds. Take an ordinary flower garden under the windows of the house, often with the beds in winter as bare as oilcloth. What beautiful groups of flowering evergreens we might plant in them ! Mountain Laurels (Kalmia), Japan and American Andromeda, Azaleas, choice Evergreen Barberries, alpine Cotonaster, Evergreen Daphne, Desfontainea, in the south ; the taller hardy Heaths, Escallonia, Ledum, alpine and wild forms of Rhodo- THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. dendron, Sweet Gale, Star bush, and various Laurustinus, leaving out not a few which thrive only in the warmer districts. Charming gardens might be made of such bushes, not lumped together, but in open groups, with the more beautiful American hardy flowers between them, such as the Wood Lily and Mocassin flower, many rare Lilies, and beautiful bulbous flowers of all seasons. The light and shade and variety in such beds of choice evergreens and flowers mingled are charming, and the plan would be a permanent one as it would tend to abolish the never-ending digging in the flower garden. Beds of flowering shrubs in the flower garden are not always so well suited for small gardens ; but in bold ones, now naked in winter, it would make them sightly even at that season, and much easier to deal with in early summer. The Rhododendrons of the hybrid sorts are too much used, and, as they are nearly always grafted, the common stock that bears them in the end kills the plant' it should support, and so we too often see the common pontic kind. Yet there are many beautiful things among these hybrids. The good colours are well worth picking out from them, and the aim of the planter should be to show the habit and form of the plant. This does not mean that they may not be grouped or massed just as before, but openings of all sizes should be left among them for light and shade, and for handsome herbaceous plants that die down in the winter, thus allowing the full light for half the year to evergreens. In the south and west the various Arbutus are charming for lawns and ravines, and for sheltering the flower garden, as is also the sweet Bay Laurel, but the common Cherry Laurel and the Portugal should not be planted near anything precious. The hardy Azaleas are, considering their great number and variety, perhaps the most precious flowering shrubs we have ; they are fine in form of bush, even when they get little freedom, and superb in colour, the foliage in autumn, too, being rich in colour in sunny places. The Hydrangeas are noble plants in warm valleys, and on soils where they are not too often cut down by the winter ; not only the common one of the markets, which, in soils where it turns blue, is so effective in the garden, but a variety of good kinds, among which should always be the oak-leaved Hydrangea, as old plants of it are so handsome. As these are plants that cannot be grown everywhere, this is a good reason why they should be made much of where the climate suits them. There are few garden sights more interesting than groups of Hydrangeas well grown and placed, and it is one we rarely see. The Brooms have many effective plants and none more so than the common and the Spanish Brooms, which should be massed on banks, or where they will come into the picture, and some of the smaller Brooms are excellent for rock-gardens. The Furze in all its FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES, AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 121 obtainable forms is just as precious, as it blooms so early, it will grow almost anywhere, and it brightens up a landscape as no other plant does. We have only to place it in any rough spots to enjoy it without care. Native shrubs should not be neglected ; the wild single Guelder Rose is as pretty a shrub as any from across the sea, while all the hardy kinds may give us good and bold effects grouped with or near such bushes as Deutzias, Weigelas, Mock Oranges — all plants of high \'alue and much variety. From an artistic point of view nothing is better than groups of our hardy Heaths in any open place where room can be found for them, including white heather and all other strong varieties of heather, as well as all other kinds of hardy Heaths. After planting they give little trouble, and they are good in colour even in wiriter, being generally happiest out of the garden proper, where any other wild plants may be allowed to grow among them. No doubt, the choicest and smallest of these Heaths deserve careful garden culture, but for effect the forms of our common Heather, the Cornish and Irish Heaths, are the best, and in bold masses not primly kept, but, once well rooted, allowed to mingle with any pretty wild plants. We might even assist this idea by sowing or planting other things, such as Foxgloves, Harebells, or the small Furze, among the Heaths. When Heaths are grown in this way their bloom is charming from the first peep of spring, when the little rosy Heath of the mountains of central Europe begins to open, till the autumn days, and even the mild winter ones, when the delicately tinted Portuguese Heath (E. codonodes) blooms in the south and west of England. We take little notice of such minor things as the Fire-bush, so lovely in Cornwall, and pretty also in other seashore districts, as it may not be enjoyed in the country generally, and we also leave out some others, like the Witch and Japan Hazels, the Winter-sweet, and the Allspice bushes, which, though pretty seen near at hand, do not give us those definite effects in the garden landscape which it is well to seek if we wish to get out of the fatal jumble of the common shrub- bery. The Escallonias, though very precious in seashore gardens and in the south on warm soils, are apt to go into mourning after hard winters elsewhere. So many of our island gardens are near the sea that \\-e must not undervalue these shrubs, but a constant source of waste is the planting of things not really hardy in districts where they perish in hard winters, such as the Arbutus about London and in the midlands. And, even where things seem hardy, some of them, like Fuchsias, never give the charming effects we get from them in the west of Ireland, in Wales, and in warm coast gardens, whatever care we take. Such facts should not discourage, because they only emphasise the lesson that the true way in a garden is for each to do THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. what soil and climate allow of, and in that way we arrive at the most important artistic gain of all, i.e. that each garden has its own distinct charms. A very lovely group is the Lilacs, much enriched of recent years by the introduction of new species and many charming varieties of the common old Lilac — lovely plants, worthy of the finest days of our English spring. Few of the forms found in France seem to thrive in our gardens, owing to grafting on the Privet, which often, after a year or two's poor bloom, kills the plant and begins to take care of itself How much evil has been done to English ideas of flowering shrubs by thrusting this Privet everywhere 1 Lilacs, being hardy in all parts of Britain, deserve our best care, and should always be grouped together in the open sun. They should always be bought from nurserymen who raise them from layers or suckers in the good old way, and should be, once grown up, always kept a little open and free by simple pruning, so that we may get handsome trusses. With these, too, must be grouped such lovely things as the Snow- drop tree, the Stuartias, and bush Magnolias. The Magnolias have recently become more numerous, and it will be easy soon to have a Magnolia garden, at least in favoured places. The tree Mag- nolias should come among the taller flowering trees in the distant parts of our flower grove — Horse Chestnuts, Buckeyes, Tulip Trees, Laburnums, Catalpa, and Yellow Wood. The Alpine Laburnum, so very beautiful in bloom, becomes a tall slender tree where not overcrowded, and the flowering Ash (Ornus) must not be forgotten among the taller flowering trees. For the Paulownia, so beautiful in France and Italy in spring, our climate is not warm enough to secure full size or health, save in the most favoured places in the south. Some shrubs of modest charm as to their flowers give very pretty effects in well-placed groups, such as the flowering Currant, Tamarix, and Ceanothus on walls. But none are more charming than the wild- Roses in summer, the Sweet Briar being taken as representing our native wild Roses ; the Glossy Rose (R. lucida), the American wild Roses ; the many-flowered Rose (Polyantha), and the Japanese (R. rugosa). These and others I have planted in hedgerows and rough fences, and have never planted anything that has given a more beautiful return. The Judas Tree is neglected in England, and rarely planted in an effective way. In the Pare Monceau in Paris there is a beautiful grove of it in which trees of various ages form one family party, so to say, showing some differences in colour and earliness. Such slight but often valuable differences arise when we raise trees from seed and do not slavishly follow the habit of grafting one thing on another. They are one of the gains of following a more natural mode of 124 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. increasing trees than is usual in nurseries, as those raised from seed have a chance of interesting variations, whereas grafting from the same identical form shuts out all chance of it. It is curious that a tree so effective in bloom, and so distinct in habit as the Judas Tree is, should be so little planted with us, and, when planted, so often left to the scant mercy of the shrubbery border. All such trees have their •own ways and wants, and should not be jumbled up in the common crowded and ignorant way of planting. I have never seen anything with greater pleasure than a bush of ■Citrus Trifoliata which I saw in the School Garden at Versailles — a sheet of large and beautiful flowers — on April 19. I had previously no idea that any Citrus could have borne such a beautiful and distinct bloom in the open air, and yet this was borne by a hardy shrub standing for years among Crabs, Almonds, and trees of that degree of hardiness. Of Indian Azaleas in the open air Mr. C. R. Scrase-Dickens writes : " The hardy Azaleas of the American races are very popular, but few know the value of the white Indian Azalea for the open garden in the south of England. Few plants give so little trouble when once established, even though the late frosts may now and again spoil the beauty of the flowers. When planted out and left alone, it is not much more than three or four feet in height, dense and spreading. The engraving shows a bush over ten feet across with a shadow thrown over the upper part by a tree of Magnolia which grows at the side. It gets shelter from cold winds and from too fierce a sun on the flowers. Any one who intends to plant this Azalea should remember that it flowers naturally at a time when there may still be late frosts and cold winds hovering about, and that it would be a mistaken kindness to choose any place, such as under a south wall, which would tend to make the blossoms open earlier in the season. We have some plants under a north wall which do admirably, but they seem to like association with other things. The variety which does best here is the old typical white. Overgrown plants of other colours from the greenhouse have been turned out sometimes, but they do not seem so happy or produce so good an effect." If one- tenth the trouble wasted on "carpet-bedding" plants and other fleeting and costly rubbish had been spent on flowering shrubs, our gardens would be all the better for it. There are no plants so much neglected as flowering shrubs, and even when planted they are rarely well grown, owing to the " traditions " of what is called the shrubbery. The common way is to dig the shrubbery every winter, and this is often carried out as a matter of form without giving the soil any manure, while much harm is done by mutilating the roots of FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES, AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 125 the shrubs. The labour and time wasted in this Avay, if devoted to the proper culture of a portion of the ground each year, would' make our gardens delightful indeed. Many shrubs, as fair as anj- flower requir- ing the shelter of glass, have been introduced into this country; but for the most part they have been destroyed b)- the muddle " shrubber}^" The idea of the murderous common shrubbery is so rooted in the popular mind that it is almost hopeless to expect much change for the better. The true way is to depart wholly from it as a mass of mixed shrubs and beautiful families should be grouped apart. Each family or plant should ha\-e a separate place free from the all-devouring Pri\et and Laurel, and each part of the shrubbery should have its own character, which may easily be given to it by grouping instead of mixing, which ends in the starvation of the choice kinds. We do not allow stove and green-house plants to be choked in this wa)-, j'et no plants are more worthy of a distinct place and of care than hardy shrubs. Low flowering trees, like Hawthorns, group admirably on the turf, but the finer kinds of flowering shrubs should be planted in beds- The shrubbery itself need no longer be a dark dreary mass, but light and shade may play in it, its varied life be well shown, and the habits and forms of each thing may be seen. Shrubs of high qualit)- or rare deserve to be well grown. Any one who thinks how much less trouble is given b}- hardy plants than by pot plants will not begrudge attention to outdoor things, and some may even consider a garden of beautiful shrubs as a conservatory in the open air, no kind of flower gardening being more delightful or enduring. We have often to re- arrange vigorous herbaceous plants, and constantly to work with the lovable Carnation, but shrubs give us little trouble. It is not only flowers that suffer from being stuck in lines and patterns ; our beautiful flowering shrubs are injured in the same way. The Rhododendron and the Azalea, and what are commonly called American plants, are often put in such close masses that their forms cannot be seen. We may get the flowers to some extent, but they are not so enjoyable as when the plants are allowed to show their individual forms. There is not the slightest reason why we should not have all the force of colour, too, because it is quite possible to have a number of beautiful Rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs together without putting them in the serried mass in which they are usually seen. So, without going into varieties or touching upon all the treasures within our reach, it is clear how much those who care to adorn their gardens in the most enduring way have to gain by planting flowering shrubs after their own tastes. Those who have given a fair chance to one half the groups of plants referred to in this chapter need not care much about garden coal bills, hot-houses, " contrasts of colour," and 126 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the many other considerations, as the beauty of the flowering trees and shrubs will come year after year as certainly as the wind through the Cherry-blooms. Some Flowering Trees and Shrubs Hardy in British Gardens. Abelia iEsculus Akebia Amelanchier Amygdalus Andromeda Aralia Arbutus Arctostaphylos Asimina Azalea Azara Berberidopsis Berberis Bignonia Buddie ia Calycanthus Camellia Caragana Ceanothus Cerasus Cercis Chimonanthus Chionanthus Cladrastis Clematis Clethra CoUetia Colutea Comptonia Cornus Corylopsis Cotoneaster Cra^jE^us Cydonia Cytisus Daphne Desfontainea Desmodium Deutzia Edwardsia Embothrium Erica Escallonia Eucrj^hia Euonymus Exochorda Fabiana Forsythia Fothergilla Garrya Gaultheria Genista Gleditschia Halesia Hamamelis Hibiscus' Hypericum Hydrangea lUicium Indigofera Jasminum Kalmia Kerria Kcelreuteria Laburnum Ledum Leiophyllum Lespedeza Leycesteria Liriodendron I^nicera Lupinus M^nolia Manonia Malus Mespilus Olearia Ononis Ornus Ozothamnus Paulownia Pavia Pernettya Philadelphus Phlomis Piptanthus Prunus Pterostyrax Pyrus Rapbiolepis •Rhododendron Rhodora Rhodotypos Ribes_ Robinia Rosa Rubus Sambucus Sophora Spartium Spiraea Staphylea Stauntonia Stuartia Styrax Syringa Tamarix Ulex Veronica Viburnum Vir^ilia Weigela Wistaria Xanthoceras ^*^. Some of the evergreens^ though thriving long in the southern and shore lands, may perish in severe winters in cold inland districts. Spiraea (Belmont, Carlow). CHAPTER IX. CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. The splendid squadrons of the Pine, with crests proud in alpine storm and massed in serried armies along the northern moun- tains : — the Oak kings of a thousand winters in the forest plain are lovely gifts of the earth mother, but more precious still to the gar- dener are the most fragile of all woody things that garland bush and tree with beautiful forms and blossoms, like Clematis, Jasmine and Honeysuckle, and the many lace-workers of the woods and brakes. It is delightful to be able to turn our often ugly inheritance from the builder almost into gardens by the aid of these, from great yellow Roses to Ivy in many lovely forms ; but it is well to take a wider view of these climbing and rambling bushes and their places in the garden and in the pleasure-ground. It is for our own con- venience we go through the labour of nailing them to walls, and though it is a charming and necessary way of growing them it is well to remember that many climbers may be grown in beautiful ways without such labor- ious training. The tendency to over-pruning of the climbers on walls ends often in a kind of crucifixion, and the more freely things are trained the better. Proof of this is in the handsome masses of climbers on the high walls of the Trinity College Gardens at Dublin and in many private places where climbers have been liberally and well planted on walls. But it should never be forgotten that many of these plants will grow b\' themsehes, like the Honeysuckles, which, while pleasant to 128 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. see on walls, are not less so on banks, or even on the level ground- Pretty fences and dividing screens may also be easily formed by hardy climbers. The wild kind of Clematis are charming, and, apart from their use in the garden, they should be encouraged lor trees and banks. The Ivy of our northern woods has broken into a number of beautiful varieties often distinct in form and even in colour ; they deserve far more attention for evergreen bowers, evergreen fences, and dividing lines, apart from their growth on walls and trees. The bush forms of these may form broken hedge-like garlands 2 feet to 3 feet high round little isolated flower gardens. Almost equally beautiful plants in form of leaf are the Green Briers (Smilax), some of which are hardy in England, but seen in few gardens, and rarely treated in an artistic way, though excellent for walls and rocks. In the easterni counties they may be seen doing well in the open ground, as in Cambridge. Of the beauty of the Jasmine of all climbers there is least need to speak, yet how rarely one sees the old white Jasmine made good use of in large gardens. It should be in bold wreaths or masses- where it thrives, and so also the winter Jasmine, which is a precious thing for our country, should not be put in as a plant or two in bad conditions, but treated as a fine distinct thing in masses round cottages and outhouses. The finest of hardy climbers, the Wistaria, is much more frequently and rightly planted in France than in our gardens^ though it thrives in the Thames valley as well as in the Seine valley. It should be, in addition to its use on walls and houses, made into bold covered ways and bowers and trained up trees, and even along Oak fences. Vigorous Climbers on Trees.— It is not only that stout climbers are more beautiful and natural, and show their form better growing, amongst trees, but it is the best way that many of them can be grown with safety owing to their vigour. The way the common Ivy wreaths- the trees in rich woods and the wild Clematis throws ropes up trees on the chalk hills shows what the larger hardy climbers do over trees or rough or open copses, or even now and then in hedgerows. Some vigorous climbers would in time ascend the tallest trees, and there is nothing more beautiful than a veil of Clematis montana running- over a tall tree. Besides the well-known climbers, there are species of Clematis which have never come into general cultivation, but which are beautiful for such uses, though not all showy. The same may be said of the Honeysuckles, wild Vines, and various other families with which much of the northern tree and shrub world is garlanded. Occasionally one sees a climbing Rose rambling over a tree, and perhaps among our garden pictures nothing is more lovely CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 129 than such -a Rose when in flower. By a selection of the hardiest of climbing Roses very beautiful pictures might be formed in our pleasure grounds and plantations, and we might often see as the result Climbers on the Vicarage, Odiham. of design what is now mainly an accident, as a number of wild Roses grow " freely " among trees and large shrubs. Climbers of Classic Beauty or Rarity are often found a K 130 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. home for on walls, and in our country some variety of wall surface is a great gain to botanic gardens and private -gardens like Offington, in which a great variety of shrubs from all countries is grown. In the milder districts of the country and in favoured spots round the coast some of the iinest exotics, such as Lapageria, and some greenhouse plants of great beauty, like Clianthus, which about London can only be enjoyed in a greenhouse, may be grown on walls in the open air. Some of the fine plants of Chili also may be grown on walls of various aspects. Abelia, Lardizabala, Berberidopsis and Rhyncho- spermum are among the plants sometimes so grown, but there is no limit as to selection. Many who have visited our best gardens will probably have stored away in their memories some of the pictures they have seen given by noble wall plants well grown in this way — as, for example, the New Zealand Edwardsia at Linton, so fine in form and colour, and the handsome Fremontia. Hard winters settle the fate of many beautiful things among these, but, happily, some of the loveliest things are hardy, like the Winter Sweet, Bignonia, Magnolia, and sometimes the splendid colour of the Pomegranate buds is seen among them. It may be noted here that among the unfortunate attempts of •certain architects who designed gardens to get rid of the gardener and his troublesome plants were instructions that no climbers were to be allowed on walls. There was not some years ago at Shrubland a single spray of any climber allowed to grow on the house or ■extensive terrace walls there, as if in a garden death were better than life. Fragile Climbers on Shrubs. — Apart from the vigorous climbers that we may trust in shrubberies, woods, and on rough banks, and which, once fairly started, take care of themselves, there are fragile things which deserve to be used in rather a new way as far as most gardens are concerned, namely, for throwing a delicate lace- work of flowers over the evergreen and other choice shrubs grown in our gardens — Rhododendron, Kalmia, Andromeda, Azalea, and even taller shrubs. A group of Hollies will not look any the worse for wreaths of fragrant Clematis in autumn. Often stiff, unbroken masses of Rhododendrons and Evergreen flowering shrubs will be more varied if delicate flakes of Clematis (white, lavender, or claret- red) or the bright arrows of the Flame Nasturtium come among them here and there in autumn. The great showy hybrid Clematises of our gardens are not so good for this use as the more elegant wild Clematises of N. America, Europe, and N. Africa, such as the Hairbell and others of the less vigorous Clematis. These are so fragile in growth that many of them may be trusted among groups of choice shrubs like Azaleas, training themselves and throwing veils over the CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 131 bushes here and there. Among these nothing is better than the various forms gf Clematis Viticella, and there is also a number of not very showy plants which might be used in this way, such as Apios and even the climbing Fern of N. America, and some Bomareas and the wild Nasturtiums. Two lovely twining shrubs must never be left out in any scheme of this kind, the Atragene or Alpine Clematis of the mountains of Europe, hardy as the Oak and tender in colour as the dove, and in all the warmer districts the winter-flowering Clematis of the islands of the Mediterranean and the North African coasts, where it garlands with the Smilax millions of acres of hyena- and jackal-haunted scrub. A Trumpet Flower (Bignonia grandiflora). Engraved from a photograph by Miss Willmott. Roses as Climbers. — It would be difficult to overpraise the value of the Rose in all arrangements of climbing plants. Many of the more vigorous Wild Roses of the northern world are naturally almost climbing plants, and some of them are seen 20 ft. high or so among trees. In gardens many varieties might be mentioned which in past years were a great source of beauty and gave a very showy effect when well used, but, in our own time, and within the past generation or two, since the raising of' Gloire de Dijon, a noble series of climbing Roses, wholly distinct from the old climbing kinds, have been raised in France, the most precious flowers that have ever adorned the Rose-garden. K 2 132 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. The old Climbers and Garland Roses were almost too vigorous for the garden, and their bloom did not last long enough to justify their getting a place there ; but now, with the great Climbing Tea Roses we have for the southern parts of these islands, we may count on a bloom for months. Hence we have in these Roses, where they thrive the best, the most precious of all ornaments for walls of houses, trellis work, pergolas. In southern parts of the country we even get fine results from these Roses on the north side of walls, where some Roses flower better than on the south side. Also, we can grow them in the open on trellises, or away from walls but in the northern parts of the country, where these great climbing Tea Roses may not thrive so well, walls come in to help us more and more by their shelter and warmth, and the encouragement they give to early bloom. Apart from these great Roses of garden origin, which will long be among the most precious, some Wild Roses are of the highest impor- tance in warm districts and good soils, particularly the Indian R. Brunonis and the Many-flowered Roses (R. polyantha) of Japan ; but in the presence of the need of so much wall space for the Garden Roses these Wild Roses will usually be best in the shrubbery or some place apart, where they may be let alone, and no good can arise from choice, garden ground being given to Roses like R. polyantha which are even more vigorous than our own wild Dog Rose. In Europe perhaps the country that pleases one most by its fitness for Rose culture is that along the shores of the Mediterranean, where the Banksian and other more delicate Roses may be seen up trees, forming hedges, and arranging themselves in other delight- ful ways. I remember being very much struck with the beauty of the single Banksian Rose in such positions, and often wondered why it was not secured for our own gardens, even though it might not grow so freely as there. Vines for their Beauty of Form.— Going back some thousands of years to the earliest sculptured remains of some of the oldest peoples, we see evidence that the Grape Vine was in common use, and it is no doubt much older than the monuments of Assyria. Among the Kabyle villages of North Africa I passed many Vines of great age trailing over very old Olive trees in the little orchard fields. In such countries there was the value of the fruit, but even in ours, where the Grape ripens rarely out of doors, the charm of the plant is so great that we see many cottages in Surrey and Norfolk set deep in Vine leaves. The Grape Vine, however, is but one of a large family, and though we may not see in our country its garlands from tree to tree purple with fruit we may see much of its fine forms of leaf The wild Vines are too vigorous for use on walls, though excellent for banks and trees and for any place outside the CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 133 flower garden. I have seen them clambering up forest trees, spreading into masses of fine foHage on the ground, and sending out long arms in search of the nearest trees — strong and handsome climbers, hardy, vigorous, and soon covering dry banks, rocks, and trees. To the Vines (Vitis) have now been joined by the botanists Virginian Creepers (Ampelopsis), and between the two groups it need not be said what noble things they offer for garlanding trees, walls, bowers, rocks, and banks. It cannot be said that we neglect these Virginian and Japanese creepers, but the Vines are so far seldom well used with us, although easy of cultivation. Wooden Pergola, with Clematis and other hardy Climhers. Pergolas. — Though our summer is often not sunny, there are seasons when shaded walks may be enjoyed, and numbers of free- growing climbing plants give an abundant and lovely choice of living drapery for them, Aristolochia, Wistaria, Virginian Creeper, rambling Roses, Honeysuckles, Jasmines and the free Clematises doing well over such. In Italy and warm countries one often sees in gardens the pergola — as the creeper-shaded walk is called — often serving the two- fold purpose of supporting Grape Vines and giving pleasant coolness during the summer heat. As a rule, these pergolas are rude trellis- work structures of wood, sometimes supported by stone posts where 134 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. these are at hand. In the gardens in the neighbourhood of Rome, Naples, and Florence there are beautiful examples of the pergola- stately structures, the supports of which were massive columns of stone covered and festooned with Banskian Roses, Wistaria, Periploca, Clematises, Honeysuckles, Passion Flowers scarlet Trumpet Flowers, and other climbers which form cool retreats in the hot days. But such pergolas seldom occurred outside the gardens of the great villas, and near humbler dwellings the pergola was usually a simple struc- ture made for the purpose of supporting the Grape Vine, and nearly always pretty. These creeper-clad covered ways should usually lead to somewhere and be over a frequented walk, and should not cut off any line of view nor be placed near big trees, especially such trees as the Elm, whose hungry roots would travel a long way to feed upon the good soil that the climbers should be planted in. A simple structure is the best. The supports, failing the Italian way of making posts of stone — also seen, by the way, in gate-posts in Northern England — should be Oak tree stems, about 9 inches in diameter, let into the ground about 2 feet ; the better if on a bed of concrete. The posts must be connected and firmly secured to each other by long pieces along the sides, while the top may be formed of smaller pieces to make a firm structure. On no account let the " rustic " carpenter begin to adorn it with the fantastic branchings' he is so fond of Trees Supporting Climbers. — Instead of trusting to wire and ugly posts or the many artificial ways for supporting climbers, why should we not do as the Italians and people of south Europe do, use living trees to carry the vine or climber. Weeping trees of graceful leaf and form might be used in this way with fine effect. Abroad they take for this purpose any kind of tree which happens to be near and keep it within bounds, and those who know our garden flora may select trees which, while beautiful themselves, will not be much trouble to keep in bounds, like the weeping Cherry, weeping Aspen, some Willows even, and any light leaved weeping tree would be charming for its own sake as well as for what it might carry. Some of them might even be beautiful in flower, and there would be no trouble in getting creepers to run over them. Light Arches over Walks. — When a quiet walk leads from one part of the garden to another, and that walk is spanned at intervals with slender iron or other light arches clothed with Honeysuckle, Clematis, or Jasmine, it gives an added grace to the walk. This also is a delightful way of framing, so to say, a flower border, the light arches springing up from the line of the trellis, which should be used to cut off the borders from the kitchen garden. Annual and Herbaceous Climbers.— However rich we may 136 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. be in perennial and shrubby climbers, we must not forget the climbing things among annual and like plants to help us, especially in the smaller class of gardens and those on which we depend more on annual flowers. Hedges of Sweet Peas there are few things to equal ; the fragile annual Convolvuli in many colours are pretty for low trellises, the vigorous herbaceous Bindweeds for rough places outside the flower garden. Most showy of all annual climbers are the many Gourds, which, treated in a bold way, give fine effects when trained over outhouses, sheds, or on strong stakes as columns. The showy annual climbing Tropseolums, as well as the brilliant herbaceous and tuberous rooted kinds, are most precious, andApios, Adlumia, Eccremo- carpus, Maurandya and Cobjea in mild districts are among the plants that help us to make walls into gardens. Nor must we forget the Hop, a vigorous, graceful, herbaceous climber, of much value where well placed. Among these climbers we may place the Passion Flower, because so often short-lived in the cold and more inland parts of our islands. It is best for sheltered and sea-coast places and is not quite hardy there in our coldest seasons ; still, if its base be sheltered with some dry Fern, it will spring up again. Covered Ways of Fruit Trees. — This way of growing fruit trees and shading walks is not often seen, though few things would be prettieror more useful in gardens if fruit trees of highquality were chosen. Although in our gardens the shaded walk is not so necessary as it is in Italy and Southern France, in hot seasons shade is welcome in Britain ; and, as in many gardens we have four times as many walks as are needed, there is plenty of room for covering some of them with fruit trees which would give us flowers in spring, fruit in autumn, and light shade. The very substance of which walks are made is often good for fruit, and those who know the Apricot district of Oxfordshire and the neighbouring counties may see how well fruit trees do in hard walks. It is not only in kitchen and fruit gardens that their shade might be welcome, but in flower gardens, if we ever get out of the common notion of a flower garden which insists on everything being seen at one glance and the whole as flat and hard as oilcloth. Plashed Alleys. — In some old gardens there was a way of ''plashing" trees over walks — trees like the Lime, which grew so vigorously that they had to be cut back with an equal vigour, this leading in the end to ugliness in the excessive mutilation of the trees. One result of the frequent cutting was a vigorous summer growth of shoots, which cast a dense shade and dripped in wet weather. The purpose of such walks would be well fulfilled by training fruit trees over them, as they are trees which much more readily submit to training and give the light and airy shade which is best in our country. The fruit trellis, whatever it was formed of, need not be CLIMBERS AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 137 ■confined to fruit trees only, but here and there wreaths of Clematis ■or other elegant climbers might vary the lines. Evergreens as Climbers. — Those who live in sheltered valleys •on warm soils, or among pleasant hills above the line of hard frosts, may be so rich in evergreens that they will keep their walls for the fairest of true climbers. But in cold, exposed, and inland parts people are often glad to have good evergreens on walls, even bushes not naturally climbers in habit, such as Garrya elliptica, the choicer ever- green Barberries, Camellias on the north sidesof walls, Azara,Escallonia, Cotoneaster, and evergreen Eno- nymus. The Laurustinus, too, is charming on many cottage walls in winter and may escape there when it would suffer in the open ; the Myrtle is happy on walls in southern districts, and even the poet's Laurel may be glad of the shelter of a wall in the north. The evergreen Magnolia, which in warmer Europe is a standard tree, in our country must usually be grown on walls, even in the south, and there is no finer pic- ture than a good tree of Mag- nolia on a house. The beautiful Ceanothus of the Californian hills ■often keep company with these evergreens on walls ; but even in the warmer soils of the home •countries they are tender, and their delicate sprays of flowers are much less frequently seen with us than in France, although we cannot resist trying them on sunny walls, and on chalky and sandy soils they have better chances. Apart from true shrubs used as evergreens, so frequently seen in Britain, we have some natural evergreen climbing plants for walls, first of all being our native Ivy, in all its beautifiil forms, and of varied use for walls, houses, borders, screens, and even summer-houses and shelters. How much better to make bowers in the garden of Ivy, as a living roof, than of rotten timber, straw, or heath ! If we make a strong and enduring framework, and then plant the Ivy well, we soon ^et a living roof, which, with little care, will last for many years and always look well. Wistaria on covered way. '38 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Some Climbing, Twining, and Wall Plants for British Gardens. — There is scarcely any limit to the different uses that plants of a climbing or rambling habit may be put to, for many of them are extremely beautiful when employed for the draping of arbours, pergolas, or even living trees, while for hiding unsightly fences or clothing sloping banks, the more vigorous kinds are well adapted. For draping buildings or furnishing walls there is a great variety of plants, either quite hardy or sufficiently tender to need the protection of a wall in order to pass through an ordinary winter without much injury. The majority of those enumerated below are hardy enough to succeed as wall plants in any part of England, while a few are adapted only for particularly mild districts. Those plants markea with an asterisk are either half-hardy or require some slight protection in cold districts or special care in some cases. Abelia Celastrus Exochorda Lycium Abutilon Chimonanthus Exogonum Magnolia Actinidia Choisya Forsyth i a *Mandevilla Adlumia Clematis , Fremontia Maurandya Akebia Cocculus Fuchsia Menispermum *AIoysia Clianthus Garrya *Mitraria Aplos Convolvulus Grevillea Muhlenbeckia Aristolochia Cotoneaster Hedera Myrtus Azara Crataa^us Cydonia Illicium Paliunis Berber is Indigofera *Pas5ifiora *Berberidopsis D'esfontainea Jasminum Periploca Bignonia Eccremocarpus Kerria Physianthus Buddleia Edwardsia *Lapageria Piptanthus Calystegia *Embothrium "Lardizabala *Pittosporum Camellia Escallonia Leptospermum, Pueraria *Carpenteria Eucryphia Lonicera *Punica Ceanothu Euonymus Ix)phospermum Rhus Ribes Rosea Rubus Schizandra Solanum Schizophragma Smilax *Sollya Staun tenia Stuartia *Thunbergia Tropieolum Vitis (now including Ampelopsis) Wistaria Xanthoceras Wreath of old Wistaria, EfFord Manor. CHAPTER X. ALPINE FLOWER- ROCK- AND WALL GARDENS. It was a common idea that the exquisite flowers of alpine plants could not be grown in gardens in lowland regions, and it was not con- fined to the public ; but propagated by writers whenever they have had to -figure or describe alpine flowers. So far from its being true, how- ever, there are but few alpine flowers that ever cheered the traveller's eye that cannot be grown in these islands. Alpine plants grow naturally on high mountains, whether they spring from sub-tropical plains or green northern pastures. Above the cultivated land these flowers begin to occur on moor land and in the fringes of the hill woods ; they are seen in multitudes in the broad pastures with which many mountains are robed, enamelling their green, and where neither grass nor tall herbs exist ; where mountains are crumbled into slopes of shattered rock by the contend- ing forces of heat and cold ; even there, amidst the glaciers, they spring from the ruined ground, as if the earth-mother had sent up her loveliest children to plead with the spirits of destruction. Alpine plants fringe the fields of snow and ice of the mountains, and at such elevations often have scarcely time to flower before they are again buried deep in snow. Enormous areas of the earth, in- habited by alpine plants, are every year covered by a deep bed of snow, and where tree or shrub cannot live from the intense cold, a 140 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. deep mass of down-like snow falls upon alpine plants, like a great cloud-borne quilt, under which they rest safe from alternations of frost and biting winds with moist and spring-like days as in our green winters. But these conditions are not always essential for their growth in a cool northern country like ours. The reason that alpine plants abound in high regions is because no taller vegetation can exist there ; were these places inhabited by trees and shrubs, we should find fewer alpine plants among them ; on the other hand, were no stronger vegetation found at a lower elevation, these plants would often there appear. Also, as there are few hard and fast lines in nature, many plants found on the high Alps are also met with in rocky or barish ground at much lower elevations. Gentiana verna, for example, often flowers very late in summer when the snow thaws on a very' high mountain ; yet it is also found on much lower mountains, and occurs in England and Ireland. In the close struggle upon the plains and low tree-clad hills, the smaller species are often overrun by trees, trailers, bushes, and vigorous herbs, but, where in far northern and high mountain regions these fail from the earth, the lovely alpine flowers prevail. Alpine plants possess the charm of endless variety, and include things widely different : — tiny orchids, tree-like moss, and ferns that peep from crevices of alpine cliffs, often so small that they seem to cling to the rocks for shelter, not daring to throw forth their fronds with airy grace ; bulbous plants, from Lilies to Bluebells ; evergreen shrubs, perfect in leaf and blossom and fruit, yet so small that a finger glass would make a house for them ; dwarfest creeping plants, spreading over the brows of rocks, draping them with lovely colour ; Rockfoils and Stonecrops no bigger than mosses, and, like them, mantling the earth with green carpets in winter, and embrace nearly every type of the plant-life of northern lands. In the culture of these plants, the first thing to be remembered is that much difference exists among them as regards size and vigour. We have, on the one hand, a number of plants that merely require to be sown or planted in the roughest way to flourish — Arabis and Aubrietia, for example ; and, on the other, there are some kinds, like Gentians and the Primulas of the high Alps, which are rarely seen in good health in gardens and it is as to these that advice is chiefly required. And nearly all the misfortunes which these little plants have met with in our gardens are due to a false conception of what a rock-garden ought to be, and of what the alpine plant requires. It is too often thought that they will do best if merely raised on tiny heaps of stones and brick rubbish, such as we frequently see dignified with the name of " rockwork." Moun- ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 141 tains are often " bare," and cliffs devoid of soil ; but we must not suppose that the choice jewellery of plant-life scattered over the ribs of the mountain lives upon little more than the air and the melting snow. Where else can we find such a depth of stony soil as on the ridges of shattered stone and grit flanking some great glacier, stained with tufts of crimson Rockfoil? Can we gauge the depth of that chink from which peep tufts of the beautiful little Androsace helvetica, which for ages has gathered the crumbling grit, into which the roots enter so far that we cannot dig them out ? And if we find plants grow- ing from mere cracks without soil, even then the roots simply search farther into the heart of the flaky rock, so that they are safer from drought than on the level ground. We meet on the Alps plants not more than an inch high firmly rooted in crevices of slaty rock, and by knocking away the sides from bits of projecting rock, and laying the roots quite bare, we may find them radiating in all directions against a flat rock, some of the largest perhaps more than a yard long. Even smaller plants descend quite as deep, though it is rare to find the texture and position of the rock such as ^\ill admit of tracing them. It is true we occasionally find in fields of flat hard rock hollows in which moss and leaves have gathered, and where, in a depression of the surface, without an outlet of any kind, alpine plants grow freely ; but in droughts they are just as liable to suffer from want of water as they would be in our plains. On level or sloping spots of ground in the Alps the earth is of great depth, and, if it is not all earth in the common sense of the word, it is more suitable to the plants than what we commonly understand by that term. Stones of all sizes broken up with the soil, sand, and grit prevent evaporation ; the roots lap round them, follow them down, and in such positions they never suffer from want of moisture. It must be remembered that the continual degradation of the rocks effected by frost, snow, and heavy rains in summer serves to " earth up," so to speak, many alpine plants. In numbers of gardens an attempt at " rockwork " has been made ; but the result is often ridiculous, not because it is puny when com- pared with Nature's work, but because it is generally so arranged that rock-plants cannot exist upon it. The idea of rockwork first arose from a desire to imitate those natural croppings-out of rocks which are often half covered with dwarf mountain plants. The con- ditions which surround these are rarely taken into account by those who make rock-gardens. In moist districts, where rains keep porous stone in a humid state, this straight-sided rockwork may support a few plants, but in the larger portion of the British Isles it is useless and ugly. It is not alone because they love the mountain air 142 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. that the Gentians and such plants prefer it, but also because the great elevation is unsuitable to coarser vegetation, and the alpine plants have it all to themselves. Take a patch of Silene acaulis, by which the summits of some of our highest mountains are sheeted over, and plant it 2,000 feet lower down in suitable soil, keeping it moist and free from weeds, and it will grow well ; but leave it to" Nature, and the strong herbs will soon cover it, excluding the light and killing it. Although huridreds of kinds of alpine flowers may be grown with- out a particle of rock near them, yet the slight elevation given by rocky banks is congenial to some of the rarest kinds. The effect of a well-made rock-garden is pretty in garden scenery. It furnishes a home for many native and other plants which may not safely be put in among tall flowers in borders ; and it is important that the most essential principles to be borne in mind when making it should be stated. The usual mistake is that of not providing a feeding-place for the roots of the plants. On ordinary rockwork even the coarsest British weeds cannot find a resting-place, because there is no body of soil for the roots to find nourishment sufficient to. keep the plant fresh in all weathers. , Position for the Rock-garden. — The rock-garden should ' never be near walls ; never very near a house ; never, if possible, within view of formal surroundings of any kind, and it should be in an open situation. No efforts should be spared to make all the surround- ings, and every point visible from the rock-garden, graceful and natural as they can be made. The part of the gardens around the rock-garden should be picturesque, if possible, and, in any case, be a quiet airy spot with as few jarring points as may be. No tree should be in the rock-garden ; hence a site should not be selected where it would be necessary to remove favourite trees. The roots of ' trees would find their way into the masses of good soil for the alpine flowers, and soon exhaust them. Besides, as these flowers are usually found on treeless wastes, it is best not to place them in shaded places. As regards the stone to be used, sandstone or millstone grit would perhaps be the best ; but it is seldom that a choice can be made, and almost any kind qf stone will do, from Kentish rag to limestone: soft and slaty kinds and others liable to crumble away should be avoided, as also should magnesian limestone. The stone of the neighbourhood should be adopted, for economy's sake, if for no other reason. Wherever the natural rock crops out, it is sheer waste to create artificial rockwork instead of embellishing that which naturally occurs. In many cases nothing would be necessary but to clear the ground, and add here and there a few loads of good soil. ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 143 with broken ^tones to prevent evaporation, the natural crevices and crests being planted where possible. Cliffs or banks of chalk, as well as all kinds of rock, should be taken advantage of in this way : many plants, like the dwarf Harebells and Rock Roses, thrive in such places. No burrs, ' clinkers, vitrified , matter, portions of old arches and pillars, broken-nosed statues, etc., should ever be seen in a garden of alpine flowers. Never let any part of the rock-garden appear fas if it had been shot ^out of a cart. The rocks should all have their bases buried in the ground, and the seams should not be visible ; wherever a vertical or oblique seam occurs, it should be crammed with earth, and the plants put in with the earth will quickly hide the seam. Horizontal_^§sures should be avoided as much as possible. No vacuum should exist beneath the surface of the soil or surface-stones, and the broken stone and grit should be so disposed that there are no hollows. Myriads of alpine plants have been destroyed from the want of observing this pre- caution, the open crevices and loose soil allowing the dry air to destroy the alpine plants in a very short time, and so one often sees what was meant for a " rock-garden " covered with weeds and brambles, and forgotten ! In all cases where elevations of any kind are desired, the true way is to obtain them by a mass of soil suitable to the plants, putting a " rock " in here and there as the work proceeds; frequently it would be desirable to make these mounds of earth without any strata. The i wrong and usual way is to get the elevation by piling up ugly masses ' of stones, vitrified bricks, and other rubbish. No very formal walk — that is to say, no walk with regularly trimmed edges — should come near the rock-garden. This need not prevent the presence of good walks through or near it, as by allowing the edges of the walk to be broken and stony, and by encourag- ing Stonecrops, Rockfoils, and other little plants to crawl into the Passage in rock-garden. Wrong way of forming rock-garden. Right. Alpine Plants growing at the bottom of a sloping ridge. Alpine Plant on border surrounded by half-buried stones. Corner of a ledge of natural rock with Alpine Plants. Steps from deep recess of Rock-garden, mossed over with Alpine Flowers. Ledge of Alpine Flowers (a Garden'_Sketch). ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 145 walk at will, a pretty margin will result. There is no surface of this kind that may not be thus adorned. Violets, Ferns, Forget-me- nots, will do in the shadier parts, and the Stonecrops and many others will thrive in the full sun. The whole of the surface of the alpine garden should be covered with plants as far as possible, except a few projecting points. In moist districts, Erinus and the Balearic Sand- wort will grow on the face of the rocks ; and even upright faces of rock will grow a variety of plants, ^^ular steps should never be in or near the rock-garden. Steps may be made quite picturesque, and even beautiful, with Violets and other small plants jutting from every crevice ; and no cement should be used. In cases where the simplest type of rock-garden only is attempted, and where there are no steps or rude walks in the rock-garden, the very fringes of the gravel walks may be graced by such plants as the •dwarfer Stonecrops. The alpine Toadflax is never more beautiful than when self-sown in a gravel walk. A rock-garden so made that its miniature cliffs oyerhang is useless for alpine vegetation, and all but such wall-loving plants as Corydalis lutea soon die on it. The tendency to make it with overhanging " peaks " is often seen in the cement rock-gardens now common. Soil. — The great majority of alpine plants thrive best in deep soil. In it they can root deeply, and when once rooted they will not suffer from drought, from which they would quickly perish if planted in the usual way. Three feet deep is not too much for most kinds, and in nearly all cases it is a good plan to have plenty of broken sandstone or grit mixed with the soil. Any free loam, with plenty of sand and broken grit, will suit most alpine plants. But peat is required by some, as, for example, various small and brilliant rock- plants like the Menziesia, Trillium, Cypripedium, Spigelia, and a number of other mountain and bog-plants. Hence, though the body of the soil may be of loam, it is well to have a few ijiasses of peat here and there. This is better than forming all the ground of good loam, and then digging holes for the reception of small masses of peat. The soil of some portions might also be chalky or calcareous, for the sake of plants that are known to thrive best on such formations, like the Milkworts, the Bee Orchis, and Rhododendron Chamsecistus. Any other varieties of soil required by particular kinds can be given as they are planted. It is noLwell to associate a small lakelet or pond with the rock- garden, as is frequently done. If a picturesque piece of water can be seen from the rock-garden, well and good ; but water should not, as a rule, be closely associated with it. Hence, in places of limited extent, water should not be thought of. In the planting of every kind of rock-garden, it should be 146 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. remembered that alt the surface should be planted. Not alone on slopes, or favourable ledges, or chinks, should we see this exquisite , plant-life, as many rare mountain species will thrive on the less trodden parts of footways ; others, like the two-flowered Violet, seem to thrive best in the fissures between steps ; many dwarf succulents delight in gravel and the hardest soil. In cultivating the very rarest and smallest alpine plants, the stony, or partially stony, surface is to be preferred. Full exposure is necessary for very minute plants, and stones are useful in preventing evaporation and protecting them in other ways. Few have much idea of the number of alpine plants that may be grown on fully exposed ordinary ground. But some kinds require care, and there are usually new kinds coming in, which, even Steps in a rock garden at Coneyhurfet. if vigorous, should be kept apart for a time. Therefore, where the culture of alpine plants is entered into with zest, there ought to be a sort of nursery spot on which to grow the most delicate and rare kinds. It should be fully exposed, and sufficiently elevated to secure perfect drainage. Ill-formed Rock Gardens.— The increased interest in rock gardening of recent years has led to much work of this kind being done throughout the country, and without good results from an artis- tic point of view. The rock gardens are not right in structure nor good for growing plants. If they were good for the life of plants one might pass over their other defects, but when made, as they often are, of cement, and even of natural stone so that the plants grow with great difficulty, owing chiefly to the stones overhanging so as to leave dry: and dusty recesses, the result is bad. 'No doubt rocks do in nature often have such recesses, but they very often ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 147 come out of the ground in ways that the flowers and moss grow well on them. In the present state of the art of garden design, rock gardens are formed mainly by nurserymen ; these are not men who, as a rule, by the very nature of their business, can give much attention to the study of rocks in natural situations, or learn how the different strata crop out in the ways most happy for vegetation, without which study we think no good work in this way is possible. The work we see now is often done better than the ugly masses of scoria and various rubbish of the earlier " rock works," but it is still a very long way from what is artistic. Simplicity is rarely thought of, or of the rock coming out of the ground in any pretty way, of which we may see numerous examples in upland moors in England, even without going to the mountains or the Alps. On the contrary, we see pretentious rickety piles of stone on stone, with pebbles between to keep the big ones up, and forty stones where SQven would be enough. A characteristic of these elaborate failures is a rocky depression, often an ugly one, in the ground. This is by no means the most likely thing in Nature to give the prettiest effects. If alpine and rock plants wanted shelter, we could see some meaning in these depres- sions, but the conditions that suit such plants are quite the opposite, and a rock garden should be for the most part made on a fully exposed rocky knoll. The fact that such bad work is usual is, however, no proof that we cannot get nearer to the truth, and there is a good opening for one who would devote himself to going on the hills and seeing the ways in which rocks and flowers meet. He would not have to study only the more imposing aspects of that charming subject, but also the simpler ones, because in gardens in all that concerns the rocks we can get only simple effects, and on a small scale. One of the commonest mistakes is piling stone upon stone in such a way that there is no room for grouping anything. If one were to take five or six of the stones one sees in a rock garden, and simply lay them with the prettiest and most_mossy sides showing out of the bank in the right kind of earth, one would get a better place for plants than a rock garden made, it may be, of hundreds of tons of stone could give, because then we should have room to group and mass them, without which no good effect is possible. The common " rockery," like the common mixed border, is an incoha;entjnuddle, and can scarcely be anything else so long as the present plan is followed. The plants hate it, and in effect it is very like the rows of false teeth in the dentists' shops in St. Martin's-lane. We should seek gardens of alpine flowers, with here and there a mossy stone showing modestly among them — not limiting one's efforts tc> L 2 ii^.'^Tl^ ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 149 any one idea, but beginning at least with simplicity of effect. Then groups and carpets of rock plants would be easy to form, and their culture would be easier in every way. Refuse Brick " Rockeries."— Whoever started the idea of the use of the refuse of the brickyard to form the rock-garden was no friend of the garden, as alpine flowers do not thrive on masses of vitrified brick rubbish. And these brick rubbish horrors are put up with overhanging brows so that a drop of moisture cannot get to the plants, and a dry wind can sweep through them as easily as through a grill. If the practice were confined to cottages near brickfields it would not much astonish us ; but in Dulwich Park several thousand tons of it have been put about under the pretence of making rock- gardens, and glso at Waterlow Park, Highgate, which was once a pretty and varied piece of ground. If the County Council waste money in this way, we cannot perhaps wonder so much at the owners of villas doing it, but in any case it is ugly and disgraceful in a garden, though we see it freely used in many large country gardens. No other ignoble materials should be seen in any rock garden, in which even stumps of trees are out of place. With some people any broken-nosed statue or other stony or vitrified rubbish is used in what should be the most beautiful and aatural of all gardens — the alpine garden. If we have not rock in its natural position, or cannot secure some pieces of natural rock to use even on a small scale, it is far better to grow the rock plants in simple ways, even on the level earth on which many of them thrive. It would be well to ask the cost of such a disfigurement in public and large gardens where it is done on as large a scale as this ; the rnere_ price of ^cartage would have made a model rock garden of natural stone. When these villainous banks of brick-yard refuse were first erected, anything more hideous in a public garden was not to be seen, but by piling on them common shrubs, evergreens. Tobacco, Stonecrops, China Asters, Begonias, Chrysanthemums, Beet- root, Heath, Elder, and higgledy-piggledy verdure of this nature, a sort of brick-rubbish_salad was the result, and the effect of the brick is less seen. It is not only the ugliness of this in itself that is bad ; it is such an injustice to the gardener, who has to adorn at all seasons such structures, to expect him to get any good results from the kind of thing a Brentford cobbler who happens to live near a brickyard makes a little " rockwork " of in his garden. Misplaced Artificial Rock. — Artificial rock is formed now and then in districts where the natural rock is beautiful, as in the country round Tunbridge Wells. Though why anybody should bring the artificial rockmaker into a garden or park where there is already 1 fine natural beautiful rock it is not easy to see. Also, in certain ; I50 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. districts, it is a mistake to place this artificial rock under conditions where rock of any kind does not occur in nature. It would be much better, as far as alpine and rock plants are concerned, to dispense with much of this ugly artificial rockwork, and take advantage of the fact that many of these plants grow perfectly well on raised borders and on fully exposed low banks. Alpine Plants in Groups. — Many vigorous alpine flowers will do perfectly well on level ground in our cool climate, if they are not overrun by coarser plants. Where there are natural rocks In the rock-garden at Batsford. or good artificial ones it is best to plant them properly ; but people who are particular would often be better without artificial " rockwork " if they wished to grow these plants in simpler ways. There is not the slightest occasion to have what is called "rockwork" for these flowers. I do not speak only of things like the beautiful Gentianella, which for many years has been grown in our gardens, but of the Rockfoils, the Stonecrops, and the true alpine plants in great numbers. Then, for the sake of securing the benefits of the refreshing rains, it would often be best, in the south of England at least, to avoid ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 151, the dusty pockets hitherto built for rock flowers. In proof of what may be done in this way there is a Httle alpine garden, made in quite a level place in the worst possible soil for growing the plant, the hot Bagshot sand, where the soil is always fit for working after heavy rain,; but in hot summer is almost like ashes. By making the soil rather i deep, and by burying a few stones among the plants to prevent' dryness, this flower, which naturally thrives in loamy soil, grew well, and the plan suits many alpine plants. The next point is the great superiority of natural grouping over ( the botanical or labelled style of little single specimens of a great ( number of plants. In a few yards of border, in the ordinary way, there would be fifty or more kinds, but nothing pretty for those who have ever seen the beautiful mountain gardens. Many rightly con- tend that, in a sense. Nature includes all, and that therefore the term " natural " may be misapplied, but is a perfectly just one when used in the sense of Nature's way of arranging flowers as opposed to the lines, circles, and other set patterns so commonly followed by man. Through bold and natural grouping we may get fine colour without a trace of formality. But most gardeners find it difficult to group in this natural way, because so used to setting things out in formal lines. But a little attention to natural objects will help us to get away from set patterns, and let things intermingle here and there and run into each other to form groups such as we may see among the rocks by alpine paths. After a little time the plants themselves begin to help us, arid an excellent way is, if a num- ber of plants are set out too formally — as in most cases they are — to pull up a number here and there replanting them on the outer fringes •of the groups or elsewhere. Wall Gardens. — Those who have observed alpine plants must have noticed in what arid places rnany flourish, and what fine plants may spring from a chink in a boulder. They are often stunted and small in such crevices, but iQnger-liyed than when growing upon the ground. Now, numbers of alpine plants perish if planted in the ordinary soil of our gardens from over-moisture and vyan^ o f re st in winter. But if placed where their roots are dr^jn_ winter, they may be kept in health. Many plants from countries a little farther south than our own, and from alpine regions, will find on walls, rocks, and ruins that dwarf, sturdy growth and which make them at home in our climate. There are many alpine plants nowj cultivated with difficulty in frames that may be grown on walls with ( ease. The Cheddar Pink, for example, grows on walls at Oxford much 1 better than I have ever known it do on rockwork or on level ground. ' A few seeds of this plant, sown in an earthy chink, and covered THE EXGLISU FLOWER GARDEN. with a dust of fine soil, soon grow, living for \ears on the wall and increasing. In garden formation, especially in sloping or diversified ground, what is called a drj- wall is often useful, and ma\' answer the purpose of supporting a bank or dividing off a garden quite as well as ma- sonr)-. \A'^here the stones can be got easil)-, men used to the work will often make gently "battered" walls which, while fulfilling their object in supporting banks, will make homes for many plants which would not live one winter ^^"^"^^^ on a level surface in the same place. In my Pans, on dry brick wall, own garden 1 built one such wall with large blocks of sandstone laid on their natural " bed," the front of the stones almost as rough as they come out, and chopped nearly level between, so that they lie firm and well. No mortar was used, and £is each stone is laid slender rooted alpine and rock plants are placed along in lines between with a sprinkling of sand or fine earth enough to slightly cover the roots and aid them in getting through the stones to the back, where, as the wall was raised, the space behind it was packed with gritt}- earth. This the plants soon find out and root firmh- in. Even on old walls made with mortar rock plants and small native ferns ver}- often establish themselves, but the " dry " walls are more congenial to rock plants, and one ma\" have any number of beautiful alpine plants in perfect health on them. One charm of this kind of wall garden is that little attention is required afterwards. Even on the best rock gardens things get over- run by others, and weeds come in ; but in a well-planted wall we may leave plants for years untouched beyond pulling out any interloping plant or weed that may happen to get in. So little soil, however, is put with the plants that there is little chance of weeds. If the stones were stuffed with much earth weeds would get in, and it is best to have the merest dusting of soil with the roots, so as not to separate the stones, but let each one rest firmly on the one beneath it. Among the things which do well in this way almost the whole of the beautiful rock and alpine flowers may be trusted, such things as Arabis, Aubrietia, and Iberis being among the easiest to grow ; but as these can be grown without walls it is hardh- worth while to put them there, pretty as some of the newer forms of the Aubrietia are. Between these stones is the very place for mountain Pinks, which thrive better there than on level ground ; the dwarf alpine harebells, while the alpine Wallflowers and creeping rock plants, like the toad flax (Linaria), and the Spanish Erinus, are quite at home there. ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 153 The gentianella does very well on the cool sides of such walls, and we get a different result according to the aspect. All our little pretty wall ferns, now becoming so rare where hawkers abound, do perfectly on such rough walls, and the alpine Phloxes may be used, though they are not so much in need of the comfort of a wall as the European alpine plants, the Rocky Mountain dwarf Phloxes being very hardy and enduring in our gardens on level ground. The advantage of the wall is that we can grow things that would perish on level ground, owing to excitement of growth in winter, or other causes. The Rock- foils are charming on a wall, particularly the silvery kinds, and the A Wall Garden. From a photograph sent by Mrs. Horace St. Paul, The Willows, Ripon. Httle stone covering sandwort (A. balearica) will run everywhere over such a wall. Stonecrops and Houseleeks would do too, but are easily grown in any open spot of ground. In many cases the rare and somewhat delicate Alpines, if care be taken in planting, would do far better on such a wall than as they are usually cultivated. Plants like Thymes are quite free in such conditions, though it may be too free for the rare kinds ; also the Alpine Violas, and any such pretty rock creepers as the blue Bindweed of North Africa. There is in fact no limit to the beauty of rock and alpine flowers we may enjoy on the rough wall so often and most easily made about gardens in rocky and hilly districts, dressed or expensive stone not being needed. In my own garden there are three wholly different kinds of walls thick set with plants ; and the easiest way to the enjoyment of the most interesting and charming of the mountain flowers of the north is by the aid of walls. 154 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Alpine and Rock-Plaxts for British Gardens. IVliere the name of a lar^e and varied family is given, as in Phlox, Iris, Rhododendron, Pentstemon, Salix, Antirrhinum, it is the alpine, or dwarf mountain kinds, that are meant. Acana Chimapbila Globularia Myusotis Sanguinaria Acantholimon Colcbicum Heliantbemura Narcissus Saponaria Achillea Comus Helleborus Nertera Saxifraga Ads Coronilla Houstonia CEnothera Scilla -tthionema Crocus Hutch insia Omphalodes Sedum Alyssum Cyclamen Hyacinthus Ononis >fcmper\-i\um Andromeda Cypripedium Iberis Onosma henecio Androsace Daphne Iris Ophr>s Silene Anemone Dianthus Isop>Tum Orchis Smilacina Antennaria Diapensia Jasione Orobus Soldanella Anthyllis Dodecatheon Leiophyllum Oxalis Spigelia Aquilegia Draba Leontopodium Papaver Statice Arabis Dracocephalum Leucojum Pamassia Thalictrum Arenaria Dryas Linaria Petrocallis Thlaspi Armeria Epigasa Linnsea Phlox Th>-mus Asperula Erigeron Linum Polemonium Trien talis Astral agus Erinus Lithospermum Polygala Trillium Aubrieda Erodium Loiseleuria Pocentilla Triteleia BelUs Erpetion Lychnis Primula Tulipa Bo'anthus Erysimum Lycopodium Puschkinia Tunica Bulbocodium Er3''thronium Mazus P>Tola Vaccinium Calandrinia Galanthus Meconopsis Pyxidantfaera Veronica Campanula Gaultheria Menziesia Ranunculus \'esicaria Cardamine Genista Mertensia Rhexia \'iola Cerastium Gentiana Muscari Rhododendron Waldsteinia Cheirantfaus Geranium Androsace. Ch^ddlewocd, Plympton. Poet's Narcissus in the grass at Belmont, Ireland. From a photograph sent by Mr. J. H. Thomas. CHAPTER XL THE WILD GARDEN. O universal Mother, who dost keep From everlasting thy foundations deep. Eldest of things, Great Earth, I sing of thee. In a rational system of flower-gardening one of the first things to do is to get a clear idea of the aim of the " Wild Garden." When I began to plead the cause of the innumerable hardy flowers against the few tender ones put out in a formal way, the answer sometimes was, "We cannot go back to the mixed border" — that is to say, to. the old way of arranging flowers in borders. Thinking, then, much of the vast world of plant beauty shut out of our gardens by the " system " then in vogue, I was led to consider the ways in which it might be brought into them, and of the " Wild Garden " as a home for numbers of beautiful hardy plants from other countries which might be naturalised, with very little trouble, in our gardens, fields, and woods — a world of delightful plant beauty that we might make happy around us, in places bare or useless. I saw that we could grow thus not only flowers more lovely than those commonly seen in what is called the flower garden, but also many which, by any other plan, we should have little chance of seeing. The] term " Wild Garden " is applied to the placing of perfectly 156 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. hardy exotic plants in places where they will take care of themselves. It has nothing to do with the "wilderness," though it may be carried out in it. It does not necessarily mean the picturesque garden, for a garden may be picturesque and yet in every part the result of ceaseless care. What it does mean is best explained by the winter Aconite flowering under a grove of naked trees in February ; by the Snowflake abundant in meadows by the Thames ; and by the Apennine Anemone staining an English grove blue. Multiply these instances by adding many different plants and hardy climbers from countries as cold as our own, or colder, and one may get some idea of the wild garden. Some have thought of it as a garden allowed to run wild, or with annuals sown promiscuously, whereas it does not meddle with the flo\Ver garden proper at all. I wish the idea to be kept distinct from the various important phases of hardy plant growth in groups, beds, and borders, in which good culture may produce many happy effects ; from the rock-garden or borders reserved for choice hardy flowers ; from growing hardy plants of fine form ; from the ordinary type of spring garden. In the smaller class of gardens there may be little room for the wild garden, but in the larger gardens, where there is often ample room on the outer fringes of the lawn, in grove, park, copse, or by woodland walks or drives, new and beautiful effects may be created by its means. Among reasons for advocating this system are the following : — I. Because many hardy flowers will thrive better in rough places than ever they did in the old border. Even small ones, like the Ivy-leaved Cyclamen, are naturalised and spread all over the mossy surface of woods. 2. Because, in consequence of plant, fern and flower and climber, grass, and trailing shrub, relieving each other, they will look infinitely better than in stiff gardens. 3. Because no ugly effects will result from decay and the swift passage of the seasons. In a semi- wild state the beauty of a species will show in flowering time ; and when out of bloom they will be succeeded by other kinds, or lost among the numerous objects around. 4. Because it will enable us to grow many plants that have never yet obtained a place in our " trim gardens" — multitudes that are not showy enough to be considered worthy of a place in a garden. Among the plants often thought unfit for garden cultivation are a number like the coarser American Asters and Golden Rods, which overrun the choicer border-flowers when planted among them. Such plants would be quite at home in neglected places, where their blossoms might be seen in due season. To these might be added plants like the winter Heliotrope, and many others, which, while interesting in the garden, are apt to spread so rapidly as to become a nuisance. 5. Because in this way we may settle the question of spring flowers, and the spring garden, as well THE WILD GARDEN. 157 as that of hardy flowers generally ; and many parts of the grounds may be made alive with spring flowers, without in the least interfering with the flower garden itself. The blue stars of the Apennine Anemone will be seen to greater advantage when in half-shady places, under trees, or in the meadow grass, than in any flower garden, and this is but one of many of sweet spring flowers that will succeed in like ways. Group of Mullein, near Scotch Firs, in Surrey Heath. Narcissi in the Wild Qarden. — Perhaps an example or two of what has already been done with Daffodils and Snowdrops may serve to show the way, and explain the gains of the wild garden, and there is no more charming flower to begin with than the Narcissus, which, while fair in form as any Orchid or Lily of the tropics, is as much at home in our climate as the Kingcups in the marsh and the Primroses in the wood. And when the wild Narcissus comes with these in the' woods and orchards of Northern France and Southern England it 158 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. has also for companions the Violet and the Cowslip, hardiest children of the north, blooming in and near the still leafless woods. And this fact should lead us to see that it is not only a garden flower we have here, but one which may give glorious beauty to our woods and fields and meadows as well as to the pleasure grounds. In our country in a great many places there is plenty of room to grow them in other ways than in the garden proper, and this is not merely in country seats, but in orchards and cool meadows. To chance growth in such places we owe it already that many Narcissi or Daffodils which were lost to gardens in the period when hardy plants were wholly set aside for bedding plants have been preserved to us, at first probably in many cases thrown out with the garden refuse. In many places in Ireland and the west of England Narcissi lost to gardens have been found in old orchards and meadows. There is scarcely a garden in the kingdom that is not disfigured by vain attempts to grow trees, shrubs, and flowers that are not really hardy, and it would often be much wiser to devote attention to things that are absolutely hardy in our country, like most Narcissi to which the hardest winters make no difference, and, besides, we know from their distribution in Nature how fearless they are in this respect. Three months after our native kind has flowered in the weald of Sussex and in the woods or orchards of Normandy, many of its allies are beneath the snow in the mountain valleys of Europe, waiting till the summer sun melts the deep snow. On a high plateau in Auvergne I saw many acres in full bloom on July 16, 1894, and these high plateaux are much colder than our own country generally. Soils that are cool and stiff and not favourable to a great variety of plants suit Narcissi perfectly. On the cool mountain marshes and pastures, where the snow lies deep, the plant has abundance of moisture — one reason why it succeeds better in our cool soils. In any case it does so, and it is mostly on dry light soils that Narcissi fail to succeed. Light, sandy or chalky soils in the south of England are useless, and Narcissus culture on a large scale should not be attempted on such soils. We must not court failure, and however freely in some soils Narcissi grow in turf, there is no law clearer than that all plants will not grow in any one soil, and it is a mercy, too, for if all soils were alike, we should find gardens far more monotonous than they are now. Gardening is an art dealing with living things, and we cannot place these with as little thought as those who arrange shells, or coins, or plates. At the same time we may be mistaken as to failures which now and then arise from other causes than the soil. I planted years ago some Bayonne Daffodils on the northern slope of a poor field, and thought the plants had perished, as so little was seen of them after the first year. Despairing of the slope, it was planted Narcissus in turf at Warley Place. t6o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. with Alder, a ' tree that grows in any cool soil. Years afterwards, walking one day through the Alder, I found the Bayonne Daffodil in perfect bloom. The roots had doubtless been weak and taken time to recover. Ten years ago I planted many thousands of Narcissi in the grass, never doubting that I should succeed with them, but not expecting I should succeed nearly so well. They have thriven admirably, bloomed well and regularly ; the flowers are large and handsome, and in most cases have not diminished in size. In open rich, heavy bottoms, along hedgerows, banks, in quiet open loamy fields, in every position they have been tried. They are delightful seen near at hand, and also effective in the picture. The leaves ripen, disappear before mowing time, and do not in any way interfere with the farming. The harrowing and rolling of the fields in the spring hurt the leaves a little, but the plants are free from this near wood walks, by grass walks and open copses and lawns which abound in so many English country places. As to the kinds we may naturalise with advantage, they are almost without limit, but generally it is better to take the great groups of Star Narcissi, the Poet's, and the wild Daffodil, of which there are so many handsome varieties. We can be sure that these are hardy in our soils ; and, moreover, as we have to do this kind of work in a bold and rather unsparing way, we must deal with kinds that are easiest to purchase. There is hardly any limit except the one of rarity, and we must for the most part put our rare kinds in good garden ground till they increase, though we have to count with the fact that in some cases Narcissi that will not thrive in a garden will do so in the grass of a meadow or orchard. The fine distant effect of Narcissi in groups in the grass should not be forgotten. It is distinct from their effect in gardens, and it is most charming to see them reflect, as it were, the glory of the spring sun. It is not only their effect near at hand that charms us, but as we walk about we may see them in the distance in varying lights, sometimes through and beyond the leafless woods or copses. And there is nothing we have to fear in this charming work save the common sin — overdoing. To scatter Narcissi equally over the grass everywhere is to destroy all chance of repose, of relief, and of seeing them in the ways in which they often arrange themselves. It is almost as easy to plant in pretty ways as in ugly ways if we take the trouble to think of it. There are hints to be gathered in the way wild plants arrange themselves, and even in the sky. Often a small cloud passing in the sky will give a very good form for a group, and be instructive even in being closer and more solid towards its centre, as groups of Narcissi in the grass should often be. The regular M i62 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. garden way of setting things out is very necessary in the garden, but it will not do at all if we are to get the pictures we can get from Narcissi in the turf, and it is always well to keep open turf here and there among the groups, and in a lawn or a meadow we should leave a large breadth quite free of flowers. Snowdrops naturalised. — The illustration is from a photo- graph taken by Mr. John McLeish at Straffan, Co. Kildare, and from it one may gain a glimpse of the pretty and natural way in which these flowers have grouped themselves on the greensward beneath the red-twigged Limes and on the soft and mossy lawns. Originally no doubt the Snowdrops were planted, but they have seeded themselves so long that they are now thoroughly naturalised, and one of the sights to see at Straffan Gardens is the Snowdrops at their best under the leafless trees. The common single and double forms are still the best for grouping in quantity and for naturalisation everywhere. There are finer varieties, but none grow and increase so well in our gardens as do these northern kinds. The best of the eastern Snow- drops are very bold and beautiful, they are unsurpassed for vigour of leafage and size of bloom if carefully cultivated, bflt they do not grow and increase on the grass as do G. nivalis and all its forms. For solid green leafage and size and substance of flower, G. Ikariae when well grown is, as I believe, the finest of all Snowdrops, but it is from Asia Minor, and does not really love our soil and climate, nor is it likely to naturalise itself with us as G. nivalis has done. The best of all the really hardy and truly northern Snowdrops is a fine form of G. nivalis, leaning to the broad-leaved or G. caucasicus group, which was found in the Crimea in 1856 and introduced from the Tchernaya valley to Straffan. It is called G. nivalis grandis, or the Straffan Snowdrop, or G. caucasicus var. grandis, and to see it at its best is a great pleasure. It is really a tall, vigorous-habited, and free-flowering form of the wild Snowdrop (G. nivalis) as found in the Crimea. The flowers are very large and pure in colour, and being borne on stalks a foot or more in length they bunch better than do those of the common type. G. plicatus is also from the Crimea, but is, as I have said, quite different, having much broader plicate leaves and smaller flowers. Snowdrops generally like deep, moist soils and half shade, as their flowers wither and brown quickly on dry, light soils in full sunshine. In damp woods, copses, and hedgerows they seem most at home, and, like Narcissi and many other early-flowering bulbs, they rather enjoy flooding or occasional irrigation after root and top growth have begun. At Straffan the lawn lies low down near the river Liffey, and it is sometimes submerged for a day or two after the snow melts in early spring or after heavy rains. From May until September, however the bulbs are dry among the tree roots with the dense canopy of Lime THE WILD GARDEN. 163 leafage . overhead, as are also the roots of the sky-blue Apennine Anemone that bear them company. We are beginning to perceive that, as a broad rule, some bulbous plants enjoy growing amongst the roots of other plants, or of trees and shrubs, or in the grass of lawn or meadow.. The wild Daffodil and Bluebells do this as well as the Snowdrop, and those who have tried to dig up bulbs of any kind abroad with a knife or even with a botanical trowel, will remember how tightly wedged they frequently are in roots of various kinds, or jammed tightly in both roots and stones. F. W. B. How TO Plant. — I usually plant Narcissi in grass by turning back the sod, making two cuts with the spade at right angles, and -then pressing up and back the sod, laying it back on a hinge, as it were, putting in a few bulbs, mostly round the sides of the hole, turn- ing the sod back and treading firmly upon it. The question is largely one of convenience and the ground one has to plant. If one could improve the subsoil it would be better for some soils, no doubt, but if the work is done in a bold way and .there is much other planting going on, it is not easy to get time to plant things in the^ grass with care. Sometimes in breaking new ground or carrying out changes one gets a chance of throwing in some bulbs before the surface is levelled up. Once in planting Grape Hyacinths in an uneven grassy slope they were placed oh the turf in the hpllows and then levelled up with earth, and both grass and bulbs soon came through. Once some bullocks passed an evening where they ''didn't ought to ^' in a grassy enclosure near the house, and their footmarks suggested a group of the Apennine Windflower, and a few of its roots were put in and the holes filled up. A wily man will see odd ways now and then of getting bulbs or seeds in. When the men are making sod banks for the only true field fence — a live one — is a very good time to put in Sweet Briars in the bank. In certain soils seeds may be sown be- times — seeds of Foxglove, Evening Primrose, and stout biennials. Fragile bulbs will want more care and less depth than the bolder Narcissi. Many ways are good, though far more important than any way of planting is thought as to the wants of the thing we plant, not only as to soil, but association with the things that will grow about it in grass, in hedgerows and rough places, for plants are not all garot- ters like the great Japanese Knotworts and the big Moon Daisies ; and little ducks must not be left among barn rats or we may not see them again. All planting in the grass should be in natural groups or prettily fringed colonies, growing to and fro as they like after planting. Lessons in this grouping are to be had' in the woods, copses, heaths, and meadows, by those who look, about them as they go. At first many will find it difficult to get out. of formal masses, but they .may M, 2 l64 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. be got over by studying natural groupings of wild flowers. Once established, the plants soon begin to group themselves in pretty ways. The Secret of the Soil. — In the cultivation of hardy plants and especially in wild gardening the important thing is to find out what things really do in the soil, without which much good way cannot be made. Many people make errors in planting things that are notoriously tender in our country and very often fail in consequence ; but apart from such risky planting perfectly hardy plants may disappear owing to some dislike of the soil. They flower at first or feebly and afterwards gradually wane in spite of all our efforts. I have made attempts to establish spring snowflakes in grass, none of which suc- ceeded, owing to the cool soil, yet one of the snowflakes in the Thames Valley grows with the vigour of a wild plant. I have put thousands of snowdrops in places where I could hardly see a flower a few y.ears later, yet in some places it establishes itself in friable soil by streamlets and in many other situations. So it is with the Crocus. I find it difficult to naturalise, taking but slowly, and gradually diminishing and yet I have seen it in placds cover the ground. The Narcissus, which is so free and enduring in cool damp soil does little good on warm, light or chalky soil. What will do or will not do is often a question of experience, but the point is when we see a thing doing well to take the hint. People often complain of the texture of the grass as a cause of failure. Yet I have thousands of the Tenby Daffodil for ten years in rich and rank masses of Cocksfoot and other coarse grasses in coverts — never mown or the old grass taken away at any time, and the Narcissus gets better year by year. So it is a question of finding out the thing the soil will grow, and we shall perhaps only arrive at that knowledge after various discouragements. Some things are so omnivorous in their appetites that they will grow anywhere, but some, the more beautiful races of bulbous and other early flowers, will only thrive and stay with us where they like the soil. So that it should be clearly seen that what may be done with any good result in the wild garden cannot be determined beforehand, but must depend on the nature of the soil and other circumstances which can be known only to those who study the ground. Flowers beneath Trees. — Where the branches of trees, both ever- green and summer-leafing, sweep the turf in pleasure-grounds many pretty spring-flowering bulbs may be naturalised beneath the branches, and will thrive without attention. It is chiefly in the case of deciduous trees that this can be done ; but even in the case of Conifers and Evergreens some graceful objects may be dotted beneath the outer- most points of their lower branches. We know that a great number of our spring flowers and hardy bulbs mature their foliage and go THE WILD GARDEN. 165 to rest early in the year. In spring they require light and sun, which they obtain abundantly under the summer-leafing tree ; they have time to flower and grow under it before the foliage of the tree appears ; then, as the summer heats approach, they are overshadowed, and go to rest ; but the leaves of the tree once fallen, they soon begin to reappear and cover the ground with beauty. Some Plants for the Wild Garden.. The following are the chief families of plants that may be used in the wild garden. Where families are named which are British as well as natives of the Continent of Europe, as in the case of, say, Scilla, the foreign kinds are meant. In considering what may be done in naturalising plants in a given position, it may be well to cast the eye over the families available. Success will depend on how the plants are chosen to go in any one position, and about country seats, soils are so much varied that it is not easy to generalise. Acanthus Aconite, Winter Asphodel Aiibrietia Barrenwort Bee Balm Bellflower Bindweed Blood Root Borage Broom Christmas Rose Clematis Columbine Comfrey Compass Plant Cornflower Coronilla Cotton Thistle Cow Parsnip Crane's-bill Crocus Cyclamen Daffodil Day Lily Dog's tooth Violet Ferns, Hardy Forget-me-not Foxglove French Willow Giant Fennel Giant Scabious Globe Flower Globe Thistle Golden Rod Grape Hyacinth Heath Heliotrope, Winter Hepatica Holly, Sea Honesty Narcissus Snapdragon Honeysuckle Omphalodes Snowdrop Houseleek Ox-eye Daisy Snowflake Iris Paeony Solomon's Seal Knotwort Pea, Everlasting Star of Bethlehem Lavender Periwinkle Starwort Leopard's-bane Phlox Stonecrop Lily Plantain Lily Sim Rose Lily-of-the-valley Pond-flower Sun flower (Peren Loosestrife Poppy nial) Lungwort Primrose, Evening Thyme Lupine Rest Harrow Tulip Mallow Rocket Viola Meadow Rue Rose, wild kinds Virginian Creepef Meadow Saffron St. Bruno's Lily Virginian Poke Meadow Sweet St. John's Wort Wallflower Mimulus Sandwort Water Lily Monk's hood Scabious Windflower Mountain Avons Scilla Wistaria Mullein Snake's head Wood Lily CHAPTER XII. SPRING GARDENS. The quickening year dissolves the snow. And grasses spring and blossoms blow : Through greener plains the river pours Its lessening flood by silent shores : Again th' awakening forests wear Their pendent wealth of wreathM hair. Horace, English by Sir E. De Vere. In our islands, swept by the winds of iceless seas, spring wakes early in the year, when the plains of the north and the mountains of the south and centre are cold in snow. In our green springs the flowers of northern and alpine countries open long before they do in their native homes ; hence the artistic error of any system of flower- gardening which leaves out the myriad flowers of spring. It is no longer a question of gardens being. bare of the right plants ; nurseries and gardens where there are many good plants are not rare, but to make effective use of these much thought is seldom given. Gardens are often rich in plants but poor in beauty, many being stuffed with things, but in ugly effect. If we are to make good use of our spring garden flora, we should avoid much annual culture, though it is not well to get rid of it altogether, as many plants depend for their beauty on rich ground and frequent cultivation. But many grow well without these, and the most delightful spring gardens can only be where we grow many spring blooming things that demand no annual care, from Globe flowers to Hawthorns. A common kind of " spring gardening " consists of " bedding out " of Forget-me-nots, Pansies, Daisies, Catchflies, and Hyacinths ; but this way is but one of many, and the meanest, most costly, and inartistic. It began when we had few good spring flowers, now we SPRING GARDENS. 167 have many ; and hence this chapter must deal with other and better ways. The fashion of leaving beds of Roses and choice shrubs bare of all but one subject should be given up. The half-bare Rose and choice shrub beds should be a home for the prettiest spring flowers — Pansies, Violets, early Irises, Daffodils, Scillas, and many other dwarf plants in colonies between the Roses or shrubs. Double Primroses are happy and flower well in such beds. The slight shade such plants receive in summer from the other tenants of the bed assists them. Where Rhododendrons are planted in an " open " way (and these precious bushes never ought to be jammed together), a spring garden of another kind may be made as the peat-loving plants (and there are many fair ones among them) will be quite at home there. The White Wood Lily of the American woods (Trillium), the Virginian Lungwort, the Canadian Bloodroot (Sanguinaria), the various Dog's- tooth Violets, double Primroses, and many early-flowering bulbous plants enjoy the partial shade and shelter and the soil of the beds for " American " shrubs. In the kitchen garden, in its usual free and rich soil simple beds of favourite spring flowers, such as Polyanthuses, Bunch Primroses in their coloured forms, self-coloured Auriculas, and Pansies of various kinds, is a good way of enjoying. such plants and more easily managed than the " bedding out " of spring flowers. That may follow the fashion of the hour, and with such plants as Forget-me-nots, Daisies, Silene, Pansy, Vidlet,. Hyacinth, Anemone, and Tulip showy effects may be formed ; but without any of these pattern beds under the windows, fair gardens of spring, flowers may be made in every place, and the problem of the design' for the few set beds of the "spring parterre " will not be so serious a matter as in the past, there being so many aids in other ways, as we shall see. Rock and Alpine Plants. — There are so many hardy plants ?tmong these that flower in spring (many alpine plants blooming as soon as the snow goes), that there is not room to name them all in an essay devoted to the more effective groups and their best garden use. We must omit any detailed rfotice of plants like Adonis, Cyclamen, Draba, Erodium, and the smaller Rockfoils and Stonecrops, Dicentra, Fumaria, Orobus, Ramondia, Silene, and many other flowers of the rocks and hills, which though beautiful individually do not tell so well in the picture as many here named. Rock Cresses and Wallflowers.— Among rock plants the first place belongs to certain mountain plants of the northern world, which, in our country, come into bloom before the early shrubs and trees, and among the first bold plants to cheer us in spring are those of the Wallflower order— the yellow Alyssum, effective and easy to i68 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN grow, the white Arabis, even more grown in northern France than in England (it well deserves to be spread about in sheets and effective groups), and the beautiful purple Rock Cresses (Aubrietia), lovely plants of the mountains of Greece and the countries near, which have varied into a number of varieties even more beautiful in colour than the wild kinds. Nothing for gardens can be more precious than these plants, the long spring bloom being effective in almost every kind of flower gardening — banks, walls, edgings, borders of evergreen, rock plants, carpets beneath sparsely set shrubs. The white evergreen Candytufts are also effective plants in clear sheets of white for borders, edgings to beds, tops of walls, and the rougher flanks of the rock garden. These are among the plants that have been set out in hard lines in flower gardens, but it is easy to have better effects from them in groups, and even in broken lines and masses, or as carpets beneath bushes, thus giving softer and more beautiful, if less definite, effects. Happy always on castle wall and rocks, the Wallflower is most wel- come in the garden, where, on warm soils and in genial climates, it does well, but hard winters injure it often in cold and inland districts, and it is almost like a tender plant in such conditions. Yet it must ever be one of the flowers best worth growing in sheltered and warm gardens ; and even in cold places one may have a few under the eaves of cottages and on dry south borders. It is where large masses of it are grouped in the open and are stricken — as the greens of the garden are stricken in cold winters — that we have to regret having given labour and a place to what might have been bettet devoted to things hardy everywhere. The various old double Wallflowers are somewhat tender too and rarely seen in good character, save in favoured soils, all the more reason for making the most of them where the soil and air favour them. Certain allies of the Wallflower, moun- tain plants for the most part, such as the alpine Wallflower also give good effects where well done and grouped on dry banks or warm borders. The Windflowers are a noble group among the most beautiful of the northern and eastern flowers, some being easily naturalised (like the blue Italian and Greek Anemones), while the showy Poppy Anemones are easily grown where the soils are light and warm, and in genial warm districts ; but they require some care on certain soils and are among the plants we must cultivate and even protect on cold soils in hard winters. The same is true of the brilliant Asiatic Ranunculus and all its varied forms— Persian, Turkish, and French, as they may be called, all forms of one wild North African buttercup, unhappily too tender to endure our winters in the open air. All the more reason why these plants should be abundantly grown on the warm limestone and other soils which suit them, as about our coasts ijo THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. and in Ireland. There is no more effective way of growing these than in simple 4-foot beds in the kitchen or reserve garden. The Woo*d Anemone is so often seen in the woods that there is rarely need to grow it ; but some of its varieties are essential, most beautiful being A. Robinsoniana, a flower of lovely blue colour, and a distinct gain in the spring garden grown in almost any way. The Hepatica is a lovely little Anemone where the soil is free, though slow in some soils, and where it grows well all its varieties should be encouraged, in borders and margins of beds of American bushes as well as in the rock garden. The Snowdrop Windflower (A. sylvestris) is most graceful in bud and bloom, but a little capricious, and not blooming well on all soils, unlike in this way our Wood Windflowers, which are as constant as the Kingcups. The Pasque-flower is lovely on the chalk downs and fields of Normandy and parts of England in spring, but never quite so pretty in a garden. It would be worth naturalising in chalky fields and woods or banks. Columbine, Marsh Marigold, Clematis, Lenten Rose, and Globe-flower. — Columbines are very beautiful in the early part of the year, and if we had nothing but the common kind (Aquilegia vulgaris) and its forms, they would be precious ; but there are many others which thrive in free soils, some of which are very graceful in form and charming in colour. The Kingcup or Marsh Marigold, so fine in wet meadows and by the riverside, should be brought into gardens wherever there is water, as it is a most effective plant when well grown, and there are several forms, double and single. The Clematis, the larger kinds, are mostly for the summer, but some (C. montana, C. alpina, C. cirrhosa) are at their best in the spring ; they should be made abundant use of on house walls and over banks, trees and shrubs. The Winter Aconite (earliest of spring flowers) naturalises itself in some soils, but on others dwindles and dies out, and it should not be grown in the garden, but in shrubberies, copses, or woods where the soil suits it Some kinds of hardy Ranunculus, the hardy herbaceous double kinds, are good in colour, and in bold groups pretty; and, though taller and bolder and finer in effect are the Globe-flowers, easily naturalised in moist, grassy places or by water, and also free and telling among stout herbaceous plants. The most distinct addition to the spring garden of recent years is the Oriental Hellebore in its many beautiful varieties, of which many have been raised in gardens. They are handsome and stately plants, with large flowers, often delicately marked. With the usual amount of garden shelter and fairly good soil they grow bold and free, and have a stately habit and fine foliage, as well as beautiful flowers excellent for cutting. They are most effective, sturdy, impres- sive plants for opening the flower year with, often blooming abun- SPRING GARDENS. ill dantly at the dawn of spring and have the essential merit of not requiring annual culture, tufts remaining in vigour in the same spot for many years. Dog's-tooth Violets, Snowdrop, Snowflake, Crocus,. SCILLA, Fritillary, AND HYACINTH. — The European Dog's-tooth Violet is pretty in the budding grass, where it is free in growth and bloom ; and the Fritillary is one of the most welcome flowers for grass, and is best in moist meadows ; the rarer kinds do well in good garden soil, those with pale yellow bells being beautiful. Every plant such as these, which we can so easily make at home in grassy places, makes our cares about the spring garden so much the less, and allows of keeping all the precious beds of the flower garden itself for the plants that require some care and rich soil always. The Hyacinth; which is often set in such stiff masses in our public gardens, gives prettier effects more naturally grouped, but it is not nearly so important for the open air as many flowers more easy to grow and better in effect, though some of the more slender wild species, like H. amethystinus, are beautiful and deserve a good place. The Snowdrop is of even greater value of late years, owing to new forms of it, some of which have been brought from Asia Minor and others raised in gardens. In some soils it is quite free and becomes easily naturalised, in others it dwindles away, and the same is true of the vernal Snowflake (Leucojum vernum), a beautiful plant. The larger Snowflakes are more free in ordinary soils, and easily naturalised in river bank soil. The Crocus, the most brilliant of spring flowers, does not always lend itself to growing naturally in every soil, but on some it is quite at home, especially those of a chalky nature, and will naturalise itself under trees, while in many garden soils it is delightful for edgings and in many ways. To the Scilla we owe much, from the wild plant of our woods to the vivid Siberian kind ; some kinds are essential in the garden, and some, like the Spanish Scilla (S. campanulata), may be naturalised in free soils. Allies of these lovely early flowers have come of recent years to our gardens — the beautiful Chionodoxa from Asia Minor, of about the same stature and effect as the prettiest of the Scillas, and some of them even more precious for colour ; these are among the plants which may be planted with best results in bold groups on the surface of beds planted with permanent flowers, such as RoSes — where Rosebeds are not surfaced with manure, as all Rose-growers unwisely advise. Iris, Grape Hyacinth, Narcissus, and Tulip.— In warm soils some of the more beautiful of the flowers of spring are the early Irises, but in gardens generally the most beautiful of Irises come in late spring with the German Iris, which are so free and hardy 172 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. throughout our country. Orchid-houses themselves cannot give any such array as these when in bloom, and they are often deserving of a little garden to themselves, where there is room for it, while they are useful in many ways in borders and as groups. About the same time come the precious Spanish Iris in many colours, lovely as Orchids, and very easily grown, and the English Iris. The Grape Hyacinths are pretty and early plants of Southern Europe, beautiful in colour. They increase rapidly, and some kinds do very well in the grass in free and peaty soils ; but the rarer ones are best on warm borders and groups in the rock garden. The Narcissus is worth growing in every way — the rarer kinds in prepared borders or beds and the many that are plentiful in almost any cool soil in the grass. In our country, where there are so many cool and rich soils allowing of the Narcissus being naturalised and grown admirably in many ways, it is, perhaps, on the whole, the most precious of all our spring flowers. But the Tulip is the most gorgeous in colour of all the flowers of spring, and for its effectiveness is better worthy of special culture than most — indeed, the florists' kinds and the various rare garden Tulips must be well grown to show their full size and beauty, and replanting now and then is almost essential with a Tulip garden if we are to keep the bulbs free from disease ; the wood Tulip and certain wild species may be naturalised, and in that state are as beautiful, if not so large, as the cultivated bulbs. The Tulip deserves a far better place among spring flowers than it has ever had, as, apart from the two great groups of early and late Tulips hitherto cultivated in European gardens, a number of handsome wild kinds are being introduced from Central Asia and other countries, many ot them early flowers of great beauty and fine colour, and if they will only take kindly to our climate the Tulip garden will soon leave all hot-house brilliancy a long way in the rear. P^ONY, Poppy and Lupin. — Paeonies are nobly effective in many ways. Where single or other kinds are plentiful they may be well used as broad groups in new plantations, among shrubs and low trees, and as to the choice double kinds, no plants better deserve a little garden or border to themselves, while the tree kinds make superb groups on the lawn and are safer from frost on high ground. The great scarlet Poppies are showy in spring, and best grown among trees and in the wild garden, and with them may be named the Welsh Poppy, a very effective plant in spring as well as summer, and often sowing itself in all sorts of places. The various garden forms of the opium Poppy and of the field Poppy, both double and single, are very showy where any space is given to annual flowers. The common perennial Lupin is a very showy, pretty plant grown in a free way in groups and masses, and may sometimes be SPJiING GARDENS. 173 naturalised, and, associated with Poppies and free-growing Columbines in the wild garden, it is very effective. Primrose, Tulip, Cowslip, Polyanthus and Auricula. — The Yulan (Magnolia conspicua) at Gunnersbury House. Primroses are a lovely host for the garden, especially the gardei^ varieties of the common Primrose, Cowslip, and Oxlip. Few things 174 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. deserve a better place, or are more worthy of good culture in visible groups and colonies or rich garden borders. Apart from the lovely races of garden forms raised from the Primrose, the Cowslip, and the Oxlip, and also the Alpine Auriculas, double Primroses should not be forgotten, as in all moist districts and in peaty and free soil they give such tender and beautiful colour in groups, borders, or slightly shaded among dwarf shrubs. Primroses and Polyanthus of native origin, are well backed up by the beautiful Indian Primrose (Primula rosea), which thrives apace in cool soils in the north of England and in Scotland, and which, when grown in bold groups, is very good in effect, as are the purplish Indian Primroses under like conditions. RocKFOiL, Gentian, and Alpine Phlox. — The large- leaved Indian Rockfoils (Saxifraga) are in many soils very easily grown, and they are showy spring flowers in bold groups, especially some of the improved varieties. Although it is only in places where there is rocky ground or large rock gardens that one can get the beauty of the smaller Mountain Rockfoils (Saxifraga), we cannot omit to notice their beauty — both the white, yellow, and crimson- flowered kind — when seen in masses. The same may be said of Gentians ; beautiful as they are in the mountains, few gardens have positions where we can get their fine effect, always excepting the old Gentianella (G. acaulis), which in old Scotch and English gardens used to make such handsome broad edgings, and which is easily grown in a cool soil, and gives, perhaps, the noblest effect of blue flowers that one can enjoy in our latitudes in spring. The tall Phloxes are plants of the summer, but there is a group of American dwarf alpine Phloxes of the mountains which are among the hardiest and most cheery flowers of spring, thriving on any dry banks and in the drier parts of rock gardens, forming mossy edgings in the flower garden, and breaking into a foam of flowers early in spring. Pansies. — The Viola- family is most precious, not only in the many forms of the sweet Violet, which will always deserve garden cultivation, but in the many forms of the Pansy, which flower so effectively in the spring. The best of all, perhaps, for artistic use are the Tufted Pansies, which are delightfully simple in colour — white, pale blue, or lavender, and various other delicate shades. Almost perennial in character, they can be increased and kept true, and they give us distinct and delicate colour in masses as wide as we wish, instead of the old " variegated " effect of Pansies. Though the separate flowers of these were often handsome, the effect of the Tufted Pansies with their pure and delicate colours is more valuable and these also, while pretty in groups and patches, will, where there be space, often be worth growing in little nursery beds. Forget-me-nots are among the most welcome flowers of spring. SPRING GARDENS. 175 Before the common and most beautiful of all — the marsh Forget-me- not — comes, there are the wood Forget-me-not (M. sylvatlca) and M. dissitiflora and M. alpestris, all precious early flowers. Allied to the ever-welcome Forget-me-not is the common Omphalodes, or creeping Forget-me-not, valuable for its freedom in growth in half shady or Rhododendron garden, Bidston, Cheshire. rough places in almost any soil — one of the most precious of the early flowers which take care of themselves if we take a little trouble to put them in likely places. Among Annual flowers that bloom in spring where the soil is favour- able, excellent results are often obtained by sowing Sweet Peas in Autumn. Where this is done, and they escape the winter, they give 176 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. welcome hedges of flowers in the early year. So, too, the Cornflower, a lovely spring flower, and perhaps the finest blue we have among annual plants ; but to have it good and early it should be always sown in Autumn, and for effect it should be in broad masses, some- times among shrubs or in recently broken ground which we desire to cover. Some of the Californian annuals are handsome and vigorous when sown in autumn, always provided they escape the winter. The White Godetia is very fine in this way. In all chalky, sandy, and warm soils the Stocks for spring bloom are handsome and fragrant, but it is a waste of time to attempt to grow them on cold soils. It would be taking too narrow a view to omit from our thoughts of spring gardens the many beautiful flowering Shrubs and trees that bloom in spring, as some of the finest effects come from the early trees and shrubs. Among the most stately are the Chestnuts, particularly the red kinds, fine in all stages, but especially when old. The snowy Mespilus is a hardy, low-sized tree, blooming regularly, and well deserves a place in the pleasure garden or the fringes of shrubberies. The Almonds, more than any shrubs, perhaps, in our country and in France, light up the earliest days of Spring, and, like most southern trees, are best in warm valley soils, growing more slowly in cool heavy soils. They should be in groups to tell in the home landscape. The double Peaches are lovely in France, but as yet rarely so with us, owing, perhaps, to some defect of the stock used. Perhaps of all the hardy shrubs ever brought to our country the Azaleas are the most precious for effect. They are mostly wild on the mountains of America, and many forms have been raised in gardens which are of the highest value. Many places do not as yet show the great beauty of the different groups of hardy Azalea, particularly the late kinds raised of recent years. A neglected tree with us is the Judas-tree, which is very handsome in groups, as it ought always to be grown, and not as a starved single tree. The various double Cherries are noble flower- ing trees, being showy as well as delicate in bloom, and the Japanese kinds do quite as well as the old French and English double Cherries, though the trees are apt to perish from grafting. The American Fringe-tree (Chionanthus) is pretty, but some American flowering trees do not ripen their wood well enough in England generally to give us the handsome effects seen in their own country. Hawthorns are a host in themselves ; those of our own country make natural spring gardens of hills and rocky places, and should teach us to give a place to the many other species to be found in the mountains of Europe and America, which vary the bloom and prolong the season of early-flowering trees, and there are many varieties of our native hawthorn— red, pink, double, and weeping. The old Laburnum has SPRING GARDENS. 177 for many years been a joy with its golden rain, and of late we are doubly well off with improved forms, with long chains of golden flowers. These will become noble flowering trees as they get old ; hence the importance of grouping Laburnum trees to get the varieties together. Among the early charms in the spring garden are the slender wands of the Forsythia, hardy Chinese bushes, pale yellow, delightful in effect when grown in picturesque ways ; effective also on walls or grouped in the open air on banks. Another plant of refined beauty, but too little planted, is the Snowdrop-tree (Halesia). Unlike other American trees, it ripens its wood in our country, and often flowers well. The Mountain Laurel of America (Kalmia) is one of the most beautiful things ever brought to our country, and as a late spring flower is precious, thriving both in the open and in half shady places. Broom and Furze. — There is no more showy plant or one more beautiful in effect in masses than the common broom and all its allies that are hardy enough, even the little Spanish Furze giving fine colour. The common Broom should be encouraged on bluffs and sandy or gravelly places, so as to save us the trouble of growing it in gardens, for in effect there is nothing better. The same may be said of the Furze, which is such a beautiful plant in England and the coast regions of France, and the double Furze deserves to be massed in the garden in picturesque groups. In country seats, especially those commanding views, its value in the foreground is very great, and it is so easily raised from seed that fine effects are very easily secured, though it may be cut down now and then in hard winters. Rhododendron and Magnolia. — The glory of spring in our pleasure grounds are the Rhododendrons ; but they are so over- mastering in their effect on people's minds that very often they lead to neglect of other things. It would be difficult to overrate their charms ; but even amongst them we require to discriminate, and avoid the too early and tender kinds. Many of the kinds raised from R. ponticum and the Indian Rhododendron, while they thrive in mild districts in the south of England and West of France, near the sea, they are not hardy in the country generally. Some of these tender hybrids certainly flower early, but we get little good from that. The essential thing, when we give space to a hardy shrub, is that we should get its bloom in perfection, and therefore we should choose the broad- leaved hardy kinds, which are mostly raised from the very hardy North American R. catawbiense, and be a little particular in grouping the prettiest colours, never using a grafted plant. For many years the Yulan Magnolia has, when well grown, been one of the finest trees in English southern gardens, and nothing is more effective than the Lily- N 178 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. tree in gardens like Syon and others in the Thames valley ; while of late years we have seen precious additions to this, the noblest family of flowering trees. Some of these, like M. stellata, have proved to be valuable ; all are worth a trial, and, as to the kinds we are sure of, the great thing is to group them. Even in the case of the common Lily- tree (M. Yulan) it rnakes a great difference whether there are four or five trees or one. Amongst the most beautiful of the smaller alpine bushes ever brought to our country is the alpine forest Heath, which is cheery and bright for weeks in spring. It is one of the plants that never fails us, and only requires to be grown in bold ways to be effective — in groups and masses fully exposed to the sun. Other Heaths, like the Medi- terranean Heath, are also beautiful in some favoured parts of the country', but not so hardy generally as the little alpine Forest Heath, which has the greatest endurance and most perfect hardiness, as becomes a native of the Alps of Europe. Pyrus japonica, a handsome old shrub often planted on cottage garden walls, may in many soils be used with good effect in groups and hedges. The evergreen Barberries in various forms are beautiful early shrubs, with soft yellow flowers, and excellent when grouped in some quantity. Two very important families are the Deutzias and Syringas which are varied and beautiful, mostly in white masses. They should never be buried in the common shrubbery, but grouped in good masses of each family. The flowering Currant (Ribes) of the mountains of N.W. America is in all its forms a very cheery and early bush, which tells well in the home landscape if rightly placed ; but perhaps the most welcome and important of all early trees and shrubs is the Lilac, which in Britain is often grown in a few kinds only, when there are many in France. Beautiful in almost any position, Lilacs are most effective when planted together, so as to enjoy the full sun to ripen their wood ; the danger of thick planting . can be avoided by putting Irises or other hardy flowers over the ground between the shrubs, which should never be crowded. Orchard Beauty.— We must not lose sight of the orchard-trees, as nothing made by man is so beautiful in spring as an orchard. If we see such fine effects where orchards are poorly planted with one kind of tree, as the Apple (and in many' country places in our island there are no orchards worthy the name), what might not be expected of an orchard in which the beauty of all our hardy fruit-trees would be visible ? If we consider the number of distinct species of fruit-trees and the many varieties of each, we may get some idea of the pictures one might have in an orchard, beginning with the bloom of the Sloe and wild BuUace in the fence. The various Plums and Damsons are beautiful in bloom where they are grown in quantity, as in the Thames SPJiING GARDENS. 179 valley and about Evesham. The Apple varies much in bloom, as may be seen in Kentish and Normandy orchards, where the flowers of some are of extraordinary beauty. The Pear, less showy in colour, the Medlar, so beautiful in flower and in foliage, and the Quince, so pretty in bloom in Tulip time, must not be forgotten. The Cherry is often a beautiful tree in its cultivated as well as wild forms, and the Cherry orchards in parts of Kent, as near Sittingbourne, are pictures when in bloom. There is no better work than choosing a piece of good ground to form an orchard ; and, considering the number of trees that are worth a place for their beauty as well as their fruit, a dozen acres are not too much in country places where there is land to spare. Crab Bloom. — Apart from the many orchard trees grown for their fruit, we have in our own day to welcome some of their allies^ lovely in flower, if often poor in fruit. Our country has never been without some of this kind of beauty, as the Crab itself is as handsome a flowering tree as are many of the Apples which are descended from it in all the countries in Europe, from Russia to Spain. And in our gardens there were for many years the old Chinese double Pyrus, a handsome tree which became popular, and the American Crab, which never became so. But of late years we have been enriched by Japan with other handsome Crabs— the Japan Crab, a lovely tree for some weeks in spring. Others are Parkman's Crab, which comes to us under more than one name, and the other a red form of the Japanese flower- ing Crab before mentioned. All these trees are as hardy as our native Crab, and differ much in colour and sometimes also in form. It is difficult to describe how much beauty they give where well grown and well placed ; they are not the kind of things we lose owing to change of fashion, and in planting them it is well to put them in groups where they will tell. Apart from these more or less wild species there are numbers of hybrid Crabs — raised between the Siberian and some com- mon Apples in America and in our country — that are beautiful alsa in flower, and remarkable too for beauty of fruit, so that a beautiful grove of flowering trees might be formed of Crabs alone. With these many fine things and the various Honeysuckles we are carried bravely down to the time of Rose and Lily — summer flowers, though Roses often come on warm walls in spring. Spring Flowers in Sun and Shade and North and South Aspects. — -It is worth while thinking of the difference in the bloom- ing of spring flowers in various aspects, as differences in that way will often give us a longer season of bloom of some of our most precious things. Daffodils do better in half shade than in full sunshine, and Scillas and other bulbs are like the Daffodils in liking half shady spots ; so also Crown Imperials, which, like the Scillas. bleach badly if fully exposed to the sun. We may see the Wood n 2 i8o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Hyacinth pass out of bloom on the southern slopes of a hill, and in fresh and fair bloom on its northern slopes. Flowering shrubs, creepers on walls, and all early plants are influenced in the same way. Such facts may be taken advantage of in many ways, especially with the nobler flowers that we make much use of If different aspects are worth securing for hardy flowers generally, they are doubly so for those of the spring, when we often have storms of snow and sleet that may destroy an early bloom. If fortunate enough to have the same plant on the north side of the hill or wall, we have still a chance of a second bloom, and a difference of two or three weeks in the blooming of a plant. Let all who love the early flowers look at this list — not of the kinds of spring flowers (which are innumerable), but of the families ; some of these, such as Narcissus and Rockfoil, comprise many species of lovely flowers, and the story of these, too, is the story of the spring. Some Spring and Early Summer Flowers Hardy in English Gardens. Adonis Convallaria Fritillaria Muscari ' Sanguinaria Alyssum Crocus Fumaria Myosotis Saponaria Androsace Cyclamen Galanthus Narcissus Saxifraga Anemone Dentaria Geum Omphalodes Ornithogalum Scilla Aquilegia Dianthus Gypsophila Sedum Arabis Dicentra Helleborus Orobus Silene Arenaria Dodecatheon Hepatica Paeonia Trillium Armeria Doronicum Hesperis Papaver Triteleia Asperula Draba Hyacinthus Phlox Trollius Asphodelus Epimedium Iberis Polemonium Tulipa Aubrietia Eranthis Iris Potentilla Uvularra Bellis Erinus Leucojum Primula Veronica Caltha Erodium Linum^ Pulmonaria Vinca Centaurse Erythroniuin Lychnis Ramondia Viola Clematis Ficaria Meconopsis Ranunculus Spring-flowering Trees and Shrubs, ^sculus Cratsegus Genista Mespilus Styrax Amelanchier Cydonia Halesia Philadelphus Syringa Amygdalus Cytisus Kerria Prunus Tamarix Andromeda Daphne , Laburnum Pyrus Ulex Azalea Deutzia Lonicera Rhododendron Viburnum Berberis Erica Magnolia Ribes Weigela Cerasus Exochorda Mahonia Spartium Wistaria Cerc'is Forsyth ia Malus Spirsea Climbing Rose on cottage porch, Surrey. THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL CHAPTER XIII. THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. Whatever may be thought of the reasoning in this chapter, of one fact there can be no doubt, namely, that the nobler flowers have been rejected as unfit for the flower garden in our own day, and first among them the Rose. Since the time when people went in for patterned colour many flowers were set aside, like the Rose, the Carnation, and the Lily, that did not lend themselves to flat colour ; and thus we see ugly, bare, and at the same time costly gardens round country houses ; and therefore I begin the summer garden with the Rose, too long left out of her right place, and put in the background. There is great loss to the flower-garden from the usual way of growing the Rose as a thing apart, and its absence at present from the majority of flower gardens. It is surprising to see how poor and hard many places are to which the beauty of the Rose might add delight, and the only compensation for all this blank is what is called the rosery, which in large places is often an ugly thing with plants that usually only blossom for a few weeks in summer. This idea of the Rose garden arose when we had a much smaller number of Roses, and a greater number of these were kinds that flowered in summer mainly. The old standard Rose had something to do with this separate growth of Roses, it being laid down in the books that 1 82 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the Standards did not " associate " with other shrubs, and so it came about that all the standards grafted were placed in the rosery and there held up their buds to the frost ! The nomenclature, too, in use among Rose-growers — by which Roses that flower the shortest time were given the name of Hybrid Perpetuals — has had some- thing to do with the absence of the Rose from the flower garden. Shows, too, have had a bad eff'ect on the Rose in the garden, where it is many times more important than as a show flower. The whole aim of the man who shows Roses, and who is too often followed as a leader, was to get a certain number of large flowers grown on the Dog Rose, Manetti, or any stock which enabled him to get this at the least cost ; so, if we go to any Rose-showing friend, we shall probably find his plants for show grown in the kitchen garden with a deep bed of manure on the surface of the beds, and as pretty as so many broomsticks. This idea of the Rose as a show flower leads to the cultivation of Roses that have not a high value as garden flowers, and Roses that do not open their flowers well in our country in the open air, and are not really worth growing, are grown because they happen to produce flowers now and then that look well on a show bench. So altogether the influence of the shows has been against the Rose as a garden flower, and a cause why large gardens are, in the flower garden, quite bare of the grace of the queen of flowers. The Rose not a "Decorative" Plant! — It is instructive to study the influence of rose books upon the Rose as well as that of the Rose exhibitions, as they brought about an idea that the Rose was not a "decorative" plant in the language of recent days. In these books it was laid down that the Rose did not associate properly with other flowers, and' it was therefore better to put it in a place by itself, and, though this false idea had less influence in the cottage garden, it did harm in all large gardens. In a recent book on the Rose, by Mr. Foster-Melliar, we read : I look upon the plant in most cases only as a means whereby I may obtain glorious Roses. I do not consider the Rose pre-eminent as a decorative plant ; several simpler flowers, much less beautiful in themselves, have, to my mind, greater value for general effect in the garden, and even the blooms are, I imagine, more difficult to arrange in water for artistic decoration than lighter, simpler, and less noble flowers. It must be remembered that the Rose is not like a bedding plant, which will keep up continual masses of colour throughout the summer, but that the flush of flowers is not for more than a month at most, after which many sorts, even of the Teas will be off bloom for a while, and the general effect will be spoiled. This is not a statement peculiar to the author as he is only em- bodying here the practice and views of the Rose exhibitors which most THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 183 unfortunately ruled the practice of gardeners, and it is very natural many should take the prize-takers as a guide. There was some reason in the older practice, because until, recent years the roses most grown were summer flowering, that is to say, like our wild roses, they had a fixed and short time of bloom, which usually did not last more than a few weeks ; but in our days, and within the last fift)-^ j-ears, there have been raised Tea Rose, Marie van Houtte (Sussex). mainly by crossing with the Bengal Rose and some others a number of beautiful Roses, which flower for much longer periods. There are, for example, the monthly Roses and the lovely Tea Roses, which also come in some way from the Indian Rose, and which, when well grown, will flower throughout the whole summer and autumn ; not every kind, perhaps, but in a collection of the best there is scarcely a week in which we have not a variety of beautiful flowers. So that, while our forefathers might have been i84 THB ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. excused for taking the view that Roses are only fit to plant in a place apart, there is no need for the modern grower to do so, who is not tied to the show bench as his one ideal and aim, and nothing could be more untrue and harmful than this ideal from a garden point of view. The Rose to Come Back to the Flower Garden.— The Rose is not only "decorative" but is the queen of all decorative plants, not in one sort of position or garden, but in many — not in one race or sort, but in many, from Anna Olivier, Edith Gifford, and Tea Roses of that noble type in the heart of the choicest flower- garden, to the wild Rose that tosses its long arms from the hedgerows in the rich soils of midland England, and the climbing Roses in their many forms, from the somewhat tender Banksian Rose to climbing Roses of British origin. And fine as the old climbing Roses were, we have now a far nobler race — finer indeed than one ever expected to see — of climbing teas which, in addition to the highest beauty, have the great quality of flowering, like Bouquet d'Or, throughout the fine summer and late into the autumn. Of these there are various climb- ing Roses that open well on walls, and give meadows of beauty, the like of which no other plant whatever gives in our country. See, too, the monthly Roses in cottage gardens in the west and cool coast country, beautiful through the summer and far into the cool autumn, and consider the fine China Roses, such as Laurette Messimy, raised in our own day, all decorative in the highest sense of that poor word. The outcome of it all is that the Rose must go back to the flower garden — its true place, not only for its own sake, but to save the garden from ugliness and hardness, and give it fragrance and dignity of leaf and flower. The idea that we cannot have prolonged bloom from Roses is not true, because the finer monthly and Tea Roses flower longer than any bedding plants, even without the advantage of fresh soil every year which bedding plants enjoy. I have Roses growing in the same places for seven years, which have the fine quality of blooming in autumn, and even into winter. And they must come back not only in beds, but in the old ways — over bower and trellis and as bushes where they are hardy enough to stand our winters, so as to break up flat surfaces, and give us light and shade .where all is usually so level and hard. But the Rose must not come back in ugly ways, in Roses stuck — and mostly starving — on the tops of sticks or standards, or set in raw beds of manure, and pruned hard and set thin so as to develop large blooms ; but, as the bloom is beautiful in all stages and sizes, Roses should be seen closely massed, feathering to the ground, the queen of the flower garden in all ways. The Rose is not only a " decorative " plant of the highest order. THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 185 but no other plant grown in European gardens in any way ap- proaches it in this quality. The practice of exhibitors of any kind is of slight value from the point of view of beauty of the garden, and not always of the very flower itself, as we see in the case of the Dahlia. Thirty years ago the florists, like the late Mr. Glenny, who had the law in their own hands as regards the Dahlia, would have knocked Climbing cluster Rose at Belmont. a man on the head who had the audacity to dissent from their lumpy standard of beauty. It was really a standard of ugliness as so many of these " florists' " rules are. Then came the Cactus Dahlias, of free and distinct form, and the single Dahlias, and now we see proof in cottage gardens even that the Dahlia is a nobler thing by a long way than the old florist's idea of it. And so we shall find with i86 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the Rose, that, brought back to its true place in the flower garden, it will be a lovelier thing than ever it has been on the show bench, seen set in the finely coloured and graceful foliage of the " Teas," and with their many buds and charming variations as to flower and bud, from week to week, until the first days of winter. The Standard Rose. — A taking novelty at first, few things have had a worse influence on gardening than the Standard Rose in all forms. Grown throughout Europe and Britain by millions, it is seen usually in a wretched state, and yet there is something about it which prevents us seeing its bad effect in the garden, and its evil influence on the cultivation of the Rose, for we now and then see a fine and even a picturesque Standard, when the Rose suits the stock it is grafted on, and the soil suits each ; but this does not happen often. The term grafting is used here to describe any modes of growing a Rose on any stock or kind, as the English use of the term budding, as distinct from grafting, is needless, budding being only one of the many forms of grafting. There is no reason why those who like the form of the Standard should not have them if they can but get them healthy and long-lived ; but in that case they should train hardy and vigorous Roses to form their own stems. While of the evil effect of the Standard , Rose any one may judge in the suburbs of every town, its other defects are not so clear to all, such as the exposure high in the air to winter's cold of varieties more or less delicate. On the tops of their ugly stick supports they perish by thousands even in nurseries in the south of England (as in Kent). If these same varieties were on their own roots, even if the severest winter killed the shoots, the root would be quite safe, and the shoots come up again as fresh as ever ; so that the frost would only prune our Rose bushes instead of killing them and leaving us a few dead sticks from the Dog Rose. Even if '' worked " low on the " collar " of the stock, grafted Roses have a chance of rooting and keeping out of the way of frost, which they never have when stuck high in the air. Then there is the fact of certain Roses dis- liking stocks, or certainly some stocks, as all buyers of Roses may see certain varieties always " growing backwards " so to say, and soon dying. This happens even where the first year's growth and flower are all we could desire. The question for the seller is how his stocks look the year of sale no doubt, but the buyer should see whether his Roses improve or not after the first year, and it is certain that many varieties do go back when " worked " as the term is. Another element of uncertainty is the kind of stock used. Even if the propagator knows the right stock for the sort he may not for some reason use it, as many have found to their cost who have bought Tea Roses grafted on the Manetti stock — a stock that in any case has THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 187 no merit beyond giving a few large blooms for a show the first year. And in many cases it paralyses all growth in the kind grafted on it. There is a way to solve the question as to any kinds we are really interested in — say Gloire Lyonnaise, Princess Marie d'Orleans and Bouquet d'Or, or any other hardy and good Roses we fancy, old or new. It is easy to try a few of each kind in the same soil in the natural way on own roots, and also grafted on the wild Dog Rose or any other stock that may be recommended for a given variety, using the "worked" kinds both as Standards and half Standards or dwarfs Rose garden (Surrey). as may be preferred. The first care should be to get plants on own roots about as strong as those worked, and it is not difficult to do this with a little patience, as some gardeners and even cottagers strike Roses from cuttings very successfully. But no trial would be of any use which did not go over the first year or two, because of the dread phase of the grafting humbug above alluded to, that the things are grown to sell, and although they look well when they come to us, after a year or two they perish, and we are as much in want of Roses as ever. This may look very "good for trade," but any practice which leads to the vexation and disappointment of the grower is not good for trade, as many people give the Rose up as hopeless on their soil when they get a poor result. i8S THE ENGLISH PLOWER GARDEN. If we go into the Rose garden of the Luxembourg at Paris or any of the regular roseries in England, we shall find more than half the plants in a sickly, flowerless state. So sickly are the bushes, or what remains of them, that it is common to see a rosery without any Roses worth picking after the first flush of bloom is past, and this is a great waste of time and temper. When we think of the number of beautiful things which this has to do with to their harm : — the flowers fairest of all in form, colour, and odour, from the more beau- tiful tea-scented Roses raised in our own days to the oldest Roses — the Moss and Provence Roses — these, too, being often seen in a miserable state in the rosery, though by nature vigorous and quite hardy, there is surely some reason for looking into ways of Rose growing that have led to this end. Even where the Rose thrives as a Standard, on deep, good loamy soils, there would be other things of interest to determine — length of bloom and endurance of the grafted plant, as compared with plants on their own roots — my own view being that own root plants generally would give the most continuous and finest bloom in the end, good cultivation and soil being understood in each case, and that in hot seasons, of which we have had severe examples of late years, the own root plants are far the best. The Manetti Stock. — Often I have reason to wish that Signor Manetti of Naples had never been born or given his name to the wretched Rose stock that bears it, as among my blighted hopes is a wall of Marechal Niel Rose, the plants on which have remained " as they were " at first for the last five years ; but this year beside one of them is in bloom the poor Manetti Rose, on which the Marechal was grafted, and, as the Tea Rose will not grow, the Manetti begins to take its place. In some soils and conditions, the Manetti may give some apparent advantages for the first year in making the plant grow rapidly, and perhaps giving one or two flowers to be cut off for a show, but afterwards it is all the other way ; the Rose fails on it. and Tea Roses do not grow on it at all. It is quite distinct in nature from them, and nurserymen who use the Manetti for Tea Roses do no good to their own art or to gardens. People ordering Tea Roses should be careful to order them never to be sent on Manetti stock. But even if they do so they may be disappointed, as the large growers have often to buy from others and so send out Tea Roses on the Manetti stock, an absolutely sure way to prevent the Roses growing or ever showing their extraordinary beauty. Why do trade-growers do this sort of thing to the injury of their own art and the loss to the buyer who supports them ? Unfortunately routine takes hold of every business and has taken deep hold of this to its real injury. Roses are not only propagated by the trade for o o C4 1 90 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the garden, but also for forcing, for sale, and for showing ; and it is the quickest way to make a presentable growth that is taken. In various cases the plant is only wanted for one year, as when florists want to get strong blooms and throw the plants away afterwards. Rose Garden (Surrey', In this case the life of the plant does not matter, but to the private grower the result could not be worse. Roses and Manure. — In most gardens where people pay any attention to Roses the ground in which they grow is in winter densely THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 191 coated with manure, often raw and ugly to see in a flower-garden — perhaps under the windows of the best rooms of the house. This is the regulation way of catalogues and books, but it is needless and impossible in a beautiful Rose garden. Most of our garden Roses being grafted on the Dog Rose of our hedgerows, which does best in the heavy, cool loams of the midlands, if we want the ordinary grafted garden Rose to do well we must give it not less than 30 inches in depth of like soil. This is often of a rich nature, and it is very easy to add, in putting the soil in, all the manure which the Rose may want for some years, so that the surface of the bed might be planted with light-rooting rock and like plants, one of the prettiest ways being to surface it with Pansies and Violets. I have beds of Tea Roses over which the Irish mossy Rockfoil has been growing for years without the roses suffering. Beautiful groups of mossy plants of all sorts, or pretty little evergreen alpine plants associated with the earliest flowers, show that the surface of the Rose garden itself might be a charming garden of another kind, and not a manure heap. In the old way of having what is called a " rosery " it did not matter so much about covering the surface with manure, but where we put our Rose beds in the centre of the very choicest flower garden or under the windows of the house it is a very ugly practice. The Rose can be nourished for six or eight years without adding any manure to the surface, and after six, eight, or ten years most beds will probably require some change, or we may change our view as regards them. If we free our minds from the incubus of these usual teachings and practices, many beautiful things may be done with Roses for garden adornment. What is wanted mainly is that the very finest Roses, and above all long-blooming ones like Monthly Roses and such Tea Roses as George Nabonnand, Marie Van Houtte, and Anna Olivier, should be brought into the flower garden in bold masses and groups to give variety and prolonged bloom, using the choicest Tea Roses in the flower beds, with wreaths of yellow climbing Roses swinging in the air, and on walls, especially the climbing Tea Roses. Perhaps it may be worth while, to encourage others, to tell the story of Mv Rose Garden, as a record of a trial that succeeded may be of more use to the beginner. My idea was to get the best of the Roses intO' the flower garden instead of bedding plants or coarse perennials, tO' show at the same time the error of the common ways of growing Roses, and also the stupidity of the current idea that you cannot near the house (and in what in the needless verbiage of the day- is called the " formal " garden) set flowers out in picturesque and beautiful ways. Another point was to help to get the flower garden more permanently planted instead of the eternal ups and downs of 192 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the beds in spring and autumn and tlie ugly bareness of the earth at these seasons, and to see if one could not make a step towards the beautiful permanent planting of beds near the house and always in view. Tea Roses only were used for the sake of their great freedom of bloom, and these were all planted in large groups, so that one might judge of their effect and character much better than by the usual way of mixed ineffective planting of one kind in a place. The success of the plan was remarkable both for length of bloom and beauty of flower and foliage, variety of kind and charming range of colour, and also curious and unlooked for variety in each kind. That is to say. Summer Roses on cottage wall (Surrey). each Tea Rose varied as the weather varied, and the days passed on : the buds of Anna Olivier in June were not the same as the buds of the same rose in September, and all kinds showing ceaseless changes in the beauty of bud or bloom from week to week. No Standards. — It was easy to abolish the standard as hopeless and diseased in many cases and ugly in effect, but not so easy to get out of the way of grafting on something else, which is the routine in nurseries, and here I had to follow the usual way of getting all the Tea Roses grafted on the common Dog Rose, but always getting the plants " worked " low either on the base of the stock or on the root, so THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 193 that it is easy in planting to cover the union of the stock with the more precious thing which is grafted on to it, and so protect the often somewhat delicate kind from intense cold. There is also a chance in this way of letting the plant so grafted free itself by rooting above the union. If we plant firmly in the earth, slightly inclining it to one side, and scrape a little off the lower part of the stems of the Rose, we may encourage the rose to root itself above the stock, and in any case we escape the ravages of frost. Certainly it is so in my garden in a cool and upland district. For ten years or so, of the many kinds we have planted we have had no losses from cold. The Tea Roses were often cut down by the frost, but they came up again, often vigorously ; some kinds undoubtedly go back or fail, but not, I think, because of cold, but rather through not liking the stock. Making all our beautiful and often tender roses grow on one wild stock only may have bad effects, just as grafting all the precious Rhododendrons on the wretched R. ponticum has bad effects. Some kinds flower, do well for a year or two, and then rapidly diminish in size and beauty ; some are very vigorous the first year but die off wholly in the second. The Wild Rose stock has the power to push the Rose into great growth the first year, and then, owing to the stock and graft being of a wholly different origin and nature, there is a conflict in the flows of the sap, and death quickly ensues. There has been such a number of beautiful Tea Roses raised and lost that it is worth while inquiring if we have not lost many of them from this cause. Some Roses that grew freely did not open their buds in our country, and others broke away into small heads and buds which made them useless. However, out of the thousands planted some kinds did admirably, and quite enough of them to make a true garden of Roses, lasting in beauty throughout the summer and autumn. Preparation of the Rose Beds. — Knowing that we had to face the fact of all the Roses being grafted on the Dog Rose it was important to give them a- deep, cool loam, and the beds in most cases were dug out to a depth of thirty inches below the surface. Although a somewhat rocky and impervious bottom no drainage was used, no liquid manure was ever given, and no water even in the hot summers. The beds were filled with the cool heavy loam of our best fields, mixed with the old dark soil of the beds and raised gently above the surface, say, to an average height of not less than 6 inches, so that there was about 3 feet of good rich soil. And this preparation was sufficient for years, the beds being in some cases quite vigorous after six and seven years' growth. Rose Beds and Alpine Flowers. — Instead of mulching the beds in the usual way, and always vexing the surface with attentions O 194 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. I thought dirty and needless, we covered them with Pansies, Violets, Stonecrops, Rockfoils, Thymes, and any little rock-plants to spare. Carpeting these rose beds with life and beauty was half the battle. Every one asks us how we mulch. Well, we do not mulch except with these living plants, many of which are so fragile in their roots that they cannot have much effect in a bed of 3 feet of moist, good soil. So that instead of the bare earth in hot days, the flower shadows are thrown on to soft carpets of green Rockfoil and Thyme, or any other fragile rock or mountain plant that we think worth growing for its own sake also. It may even be that these " mossy " plants prevent the great drying out of the soil in hot summers and autumns, such as we have had of recent years. Roses over pergola (Tresserve). Shelter. — The position was not at all protected in the direction of the prevailing winds, or by walls in any way, so that little was owing to the natural advantages of site. The first thing that occurred to people on seeing the Roses was that they were due to some peculiar merit of the climate or the soil ; but the same things were carried out in several gardens formed by me in quite different soils and districts — Shrubland Park, and Hawley, in Hants, for instance — and the results were equally good in every case, in some cases better than in my own garden. It is very likely that working in the same way all should be able to grow Tea Roses — that is, the best of all Roses — on many warm soils which are supposed to be useless to THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 195 grow Roses now. There is a limit no doubt as to how far north one would get these Roses to open, but over a large area of the country now roseless for half the summer, and in some dry soils with few or no roses at all, we could make a change towards a real Rose- garden. All who have hot and warm soils should enrich them as much as possible, but in view of the failure of the Rose in the brier they should never try any Standard Tea Roses, but grow these on their own roots or grafted low, and the point of the graft buried in the soil so as to allow of the plant rooting itself in a soil which it may be able to enjoy perfectly well without the aid of a horrid and corrupting " middle man " in the shape of a Dog Rose, longing all the time for its home in the clay. Climbing Roses. — In the sketch of Rose pillars taken by Miss Willmott in her garden at Warley Place, we see some of the grace of the Rose treated as a climber, in the flower garden. There are a great number of Roses that lend themselves to this, the old climbing Roses being now backed up by a splendid series of long-blooming climbing Tea Roses which are more valuable still, and much in want of planting in simple ways to break up the level of gardens and the chessboard appearance they usually have. Wreaths and gar- lands of this sort were very much more frequent before everything was cleared away for the flatness and hardness of bedding out, and this way of treating Roses ought to be practised more than ever. They should be trained abundantly over well-formed pergolas, covered ways, trellises, and fences. In countries a little warmer than ours we see what can be done with Roses as noble climbers ; in Algeria, and in Madeira, the climbing Tea Roses running up trees in the loveliest bloom,- all of the finest sorts, seeming as free as the Monthly Rose is in the West of England. In our country we have to face hard winters, but we have many Roses which will stand the test of our hardest, and there is little difficulty in getting good effects from the Rose as a bold climber, and better than anything else able to break lip the hardness and monotony too visible in flower-gardens. " Over Pruning Climbing Roses. — The way the unpruned Rose behaves is this : the plant, as soon as fairly established in a good soil, throws up plenty of strong shoots, and the following year these shoots break their buds freely along the stem, and ' each branch produces a mass of bloom, which, after a shower, weighs the branch almost down to the ground. They are often best let alone when among shrubs or in groups on the lawn, and it is the climbing Roses that show what the Rose is capable of when cultivated in this free and natural manner. •One of my best rose bushes is an old double white Ayrshire Rose growing in a shrubbery for more than thirty years — sending out a, shoot of white flowers sometimes on this side, and sometimes O 2 196 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. on that side of the clump of bushes, and sometimes scrambling up to the tops of the tallest branches, and draping them with blossoms throughout June and July. Some time ago I measured the ground covered by the plant and found it rather over 70 feet in circumference. It is growing in a deep dry loam, and this, together with head room, seems to be all it requires. There are far too few examples of this kind, for our efforts have not been in the direction of showing what could be done with the Rose as a tree or bush. The common Dog Rose teaches us a lesson in pruning and climbing. It forms a mighty mound of branches, the older stems dying down as the young ones grow till a large bush is formed, covered with flowers, and they are never the less for the absence of all pruning ! Climbing Rose, Warley, Essex. " Climbing and strong-growing Roses make handsome bushes in a few years on pleasure-ground lawns. I have seen bushes of this kind twenty years old in which the wood had accumulated about 2 feet or more deep, and yet nowhere was any dead wood to be seen, owing to the plants throwing out annually fresh shoots which covered the old ones. The plants, in fact, grow exactly in the same manner as the wild Brier, which keeps sending up from its centre long shoots, increasing its size every year. Except against walls and in similar situations, there is no occasion to prune climbing Roses. They make the finest display when left to themselves, and it is only THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. I97 necessary to provide them with a deep, strong soil, and to let them have light on all sides. Whether planting be carried out with the object above described, or for the purpose of covering naked tree- stumps or branches, or for draping any unsightly object whatever, good soil in the first instance is the main thing." — J. S. Wild and Single Roses. — Another way of attacking the monotony and barrenness of the " rosery " of the books, is to plant many of the wild roses, from which all the garden roses come. They do not, however, appear to advantage in shows ; but on cool grass in the hot summer days there is nothing more delightful, whether they be those of our own country like the Sweet Brier, Dog and Field Roses, or those of other countries, such as the beautiful Altai Rose, the Rosa gallica and many others. As to growing wild Roses, the best way is not to put them in the flower-garden, but rather by grass walks or rough banks, or in newly made hedgerows. If their beautiful bloom does not last long, the fruit is pretty, and though they are not of the things that repay us well for garden cultivation, as the best garden Roses do, the wild Roses may often be used with good effect. Among the wild Roses, not natives of Britain, that give us most pleasure there may be named the Needle Rose of Japan (R. acicularis) ; the Carolina Rose, charming for its distinct clusters and late bloom, the alpine Rose and its Pyrenean variety, excellent for rocky banks ; the glossy Rose (R. Lucida), one of the most excellent in marshy or almost any ground, pretty in colour too in winter ; the Austrian Brier, a native of Central Europe, and thriving even among wild Roses, R. macrantha, R. brunonis and the Musk Rose and all its forms, the many-flowered Rose R. multiflora, and the Japanese Roses (R. rugosa). The creeping Rose of China and Japan (R. Wichuriana) is quite distinct from any, and excellent for running about rocky banks and as a climber. These are but a small number of the Roses with which the northern and mountain world is clothed, and of which many have yet to come to our gardens. Apart from the wild Roses of which there are so many, there are also the single and other roses of garden origin which were thrown away by raisers so long as the show standard was the only one thought of, but a few of which are now coming into use, such as the Paul's Carmine, Bardou Job, the hybrid sweet Briers and Japanese and other hybrids, and to such roses we may hope for many additions. THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL {continued). CHAPTER XIV CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. The flowers of our own latitudes, when they are beautiful, are entitled to the first place in our gardens, and among these flowers, after the Rose, should come the Carnation, in all its brilliancy of colour, where the soil and climate are fitted for it, as is the case over a large area of our sea-girt land. Our flower-gardens have to a great extent been void of beautiful flowers and plaints ; but instead, acres of mean little sub- tropical weeds that happen to possess a coloured leaf — Coleus, Alternanthera, Perilla, &c. — occupy much of the ground which ought to be true flower- gardens, but which is too often set out with plants without fragrance, beauty of form, or good colour. It is not enough that the laced, flaked, and other varieties of D. Caryophyllus should be grown in frames or otherwise ; ^\'e should show the flower in all its force of colour in our flower-gardens, and this is an entirely distinct question from the growth of kinds hitherto known as " florists' flowers." Many who have not the skill, or the time, for the growth of the " florists' " flowers, would yet find the brilliant "self" Carnations delightful in their gardens in summer and autumn, and even in winter, for the Carnation, where it does well, has a fine colour-value of foliage in winter, which makes it most useful to all who care for colour in their gardens, adorning the garden throughout the winter and spring, and full of promise for the summer and autumn. What Carnations are the best for the open air ? The kinds ot Carnations popular up to the present day are well known by what is seen at the Carnation shows, and in the florists' periodicals, like the Floral Magazine, HarrisorH.s Cabinet, and, indeed, all similar period- CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. 199 icals up to our own day, when I began to insist that all flowers should be drawn as they are. The artist should never be influenced by any " rules '' or " ideals " whatever, but be allowed to draw what he sees. This all conscientious artists expect, and it is the barest justice. If we raise new forms, or what we consider " perfect " flowers, let the artist see them as they are, and draw them as he sees them, without the confusion of drawing impossible hybrids between what he sees and what he is told is perfection in a flower. It was the want of this artistic honesty which has left us so worthless a record in illustrated journals of the century, where the artist was always told to keep to the florist's " ideal " as to what the flower should be, and hence the number of plates of flowers of many kinds, all " drawn " with the compass. Behind the florists' plates of this century we have the pictures of the Dutch flower-painters contain- ing fine Carnations, well grown and admirably drawn after nature. These artists were not confused by any false ideal to which they were to make the flower approach, and so we have a true record of what the Carnation was 200 years ago. In these pictures we generally see the finer striped and flaked kinds given the first place, which is natural, as such varieties are apt to strike people the most ; and in those days little consideration had yet been given to the question of effect in open gardens, but in our own day this question has been forced upon us in very unpleasant ways by masses of crudely arranged, and not always pretty flowers. One of the aids in effect is the Carnation in its pure and lovely colours — colours which no other flowers possess. It would be a pity to use these lovely colours only for " button-holes " and for the house, when they may afford us such welcome colour in our summer and autumn gardens, in the days when people see and enjoy their gardens most. Hitherto the effect of the Carnation in masses has been mostly judged of from the Clove Carnation, but fine as this is, it is not so good as other varieties which are better, stronger, flower longer, and are finer in form, such as " Murillo," " Carolus Duran," " Comte de Melbourne," " Francois Lacharme," " Madame Roland," " Paix d'Amiens," " Marquis de Dampierre," " Mdlle. Rouselle," " Alice, Aline Newmann," "Countess of Paris," and "George Maquay." These represent the Carnation of our own day in its finest form, perfectly hardy, if layered in the summer, and planted early. Rooting well before winter in easy and bold groups, they afford pretty effects of colour from foliage alone, and even in winter time adorn the garden. Some varieties are very continuous in bloom, like the " Countess of Paris," and these should be added to as time goes on. Over a very large area of the United Kingdom Carnation culture may be carried out well, and perhaps most successfully near the sea. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. The gentler warmth of the shore in some way influences this, and in any case the best results I have seen from out-door culture have been in places like Scarborough, Edinburgh, Anglesea, the shores of Dublin Bay, and in sea-shore gardens generally where the soil is warm and good. It is wonderful what one may do in such places as compared with what is possible, say, in the Weald of Kent. At Scarborough we may see Carnations almost forming a bush ; near Edinburgh I have seen tufts of the Clove Carnation s feet in diameter, whereas in Sussex and Kent we have to plant annually. In our island the area for shore gardens being very large, we may see how important the flower in gardens in sea-shore districts may be, valuable as it is in any place where it happens to do well ; but some sandy and warm soils, like that of the Bagshot sands for example, are singularly adverse to the Carnation. In advocating an extension of ways of growing this noble flower, I may perhaps be permitted to state the results obtained in my own garden in Sussex, and in a garden in Suffolk, two districts widely different as regards soil and climate. In my own garden I collected all the kinds of Carnations of the self, or one colour, that could be got in France or England, and grew them in lines in a very exposed and quite unprotected situation, about five hundred feet above the sea ; and also in groups and masses in the flower-garden, generally with very happy and distinct results both as to colour and beauty of bloom, the failures being mostly from late planting. So far as hardiness is concerned, we had no trouble in proving the absolute hardiness of the plants — the harder the winter, the happier the flowers. An " open," changeable winter is more against them, by exciting growth, than a hard winter. They were planted in large and simple flower-beds near the house, between groups of Tea Roses, occasionally running into the more open groups. In mixed beds where there are many Tufted Pansies and other hardy and half- hardy flowers, it is easy to get places for groups of Carnations in early autumn, and it is best to get enough of each kind to give a fair expres- sion of its colour. On the margins of mixed borders the same Carnations may be used with excellent effect, especially for those who frequent their gardens late in the summer and autumn. Beautiful effects of colour may occasionally be had in such borders by associating with the Car- nations other grey-hued plants, such as Lavender and Rosemary, also planted in bold informal groups. The soil of my own garden was a deep unctuous loam, the rainfall of the district being rather higher than that of the surrounding country, and though successful, the ex- periment could not be said to have been made under the best condi- tions. CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. 201 The next made was at Shrubland Park, in Suffolk, under condi- tions totally different, where Lord de Saumarez entrusted me with the remodelling of this garden, which was for long perhaps the most famous " bedding-out " garden in England. I had to consider the question of its embellishment with beautiful hardy flowers, the carpet and bedding systems, white gravel and broken coloured brick, having been given up. The soil here is a light warm friable loam, delightful for gardening ; and so I determined to plant to a great extent with the Carnation, Tea Rose, Tufted Pansy, Lavender, Rosemary, and all Carnations and Roses in front of Tudor House. the beautiful and hardy plants obtainable. Many of the self Car- nations were used, and with excellent effect. The beds were simple and bold, and we had large masses, in groups, of the finest self •Carnations known. The climate, like that of the eastern counties generally, is colder than that of Sussex in winter, but brighter in summer, and a better result was obtained than in my own garden ; so that between these two very different districts we have evidence that the Carnation can THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. be used (not merely the Cloves, but many other handsome forms- ranging through the best colours) with in every way satisfactory effects in the flower garden. The hardiness of the flower is proved by the natural habitats of the plant, which is found in rocky upland places in many countries of Europe, and finds a substitute for its native rocks on Rochester Castle, and at Chateau Gaillard, in Normandy. It never suffers from cold,, though alternations of mild and hard weather will often affect it on cold soils by starting the plants into growth at a time when on the- mountains they are at rest under snow. Lily and Iris and the Nobler Summer Flowers.— The Lily had to go too from the flower-garden of our own day ; it was too tall, and no doubt had other faults, but like the Rose it must come back,, and one of the gains of a free way of flower-gardening is that we are able to put Lilies or any other flowers in it at any season that suits- their planting, and that their bloom is welcome whenever it comes,, and leaves us content with brown stems when it goes. If in the large flower-garden we get some diversity of surface through groups of the rarer flowering evergreen shrubs, we have for these the very soil that our Lilies thrive in, and we break up in pretty ways these groups by planting Lilies among them, gaining thereby two seasons of bloom, light and shade in the masses, and diversity of form. The Iris too, with its Orchid-like beauty and flower, and with a higher value of leaf than either Lily or Orchid, is in summer flowering kinds fit to grace the flower-garden with some permanent beds. Some will tell us that we may not do these things in the set flower- garden under the windows, but from an artistic point of view this is not true and very harmful. There is no flower-garden, however arid or formal in its plan, which may not be planted in picturesque ways and without robbing it of fine colour either. But to do that in the face of ugly plans we must be free to choose among all beauti- ful things of the open air, not forgetting the best of the half-hardy plants that enjoy our summer — Heliotrope, great Blue Salvia, not forgetting Scarlet Geranium— no more than Cardinal Flower ; annual summer flowers, too, from Sweet Pea to Stocks, Mignonette, and Pansy.. A true flower-garden is one which has a place for every flower its owner cai-es for. There is no reason for excluding the best of the summer flowers- from Hollyhocks to Sea Hollies, choosing always the best and those that give the most pleasure, and never coarse or weedy plants. For these the true place is the shrubbery and wild garden. It was the use of these coarse and weedy plants that did much harm in old mixed borders when they were allowed to eat up everything. In those days they had not the choice of fine plants we now have, many CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. 203 of the finest we have coming hi our day, like the Lilies of Japan and of Western America, and also the new Water Lilies. These last are above all flowers of the summer, and whenever there is any garden water, they add a distinct and enduring charm to the summer garden. We should not only represent them, but also the other water plants of the summer ; and as shown in the chapter on the water garden, many handsome plants can be grown in rich soil that often occurs near water, massed in picturesque groups, like Loose- strife, Meadow Sweets, and Japanese Iris. Basket of fine leaved pknts in the Gardens, Regent's Park. THE SUMMER GARDEN {continued). CHAPTER XV. SUMMER-BEDDING.l When the bedding system first came into vogue, it was no doubt its extreme brightness, or what we should now call its " gaudiness," that caused it to hold the position it did ; but it was soon done to death. Only scarlet Geraniums, yellow Calceolarias, blue Lobelias, or purple Verbenas were used ; and the following year, by way of a change, there were Verbenas, Calceolarias, and Geraniums, — the constant repetition of this scarlet, yellow, and blue nauseating even those with little taste in gardening matters, whilst those with finer perceptions began to inquire for the Parsley bed, by way of relief Such a state of things could not continue ; but yet the system could not be given up for several reasons — a very good one being that the great bulk of hardy flowers had been ruthlessly swept out of the garden to make room for bedding plants, and so — gardeners being, as it were, in desperate straits — the development of the bedding system began, and foliage plants of various colours were mixed with the flowers. Then followed standard graceful foliage plants and hardy carpeting plants ; and now dwarf-growing shrubs are freely associated with the commoner types of bedding plants. Indeed, the system improved so rapidly that its most relentless opponents admitted that it had some redeeming qualities. I think, however, that the strongest reason of all for its retention is its suitability to formal or geometrical parterres. Most people have their own notions as to what constitutes per- fection of colour in bedding arrangements. This perfection I have ' As the aim ot this book is to show in how many ways we can make a garden beautiful apart from the bedding system, that system is described by one who carries it out with great success. 5 UMMER-BEDDING. 205 not attained to, nor have I, perhaps, any decided preference for one colour over another ; but I have very decided notions that the various colours should be so completely commingled that one would be puzzled to determine what tint predominates in the entire arrange- ment. This rule I have followed for years, and have had a fair amount of success in working it out. I am even still learning, my latest lesson being that, if any colour at all may predominate, it is " glaucous," that is, a light gray or whitish green. Of this colour the eye never tires, perhaps because it is in harmony with the tints of the landscape, and particularly of the lawn. To carry out my rule as to colour successfully, there kre other rules which must be studied. Bed of hardy and half-hardy plants. The first is that high colours, such as scarlet and yellow, must be used in much less proportion than colours of a softer tint, for high colours overweigh all others ; the second is that there must be no violent transition from one colour to another — the contrast of colours must as far as possible be avoided in favour of their gradual inter- mingling or harmonising ; the third, that the most decided or high colours, being the heaviest, ought to occupy the most central part of the beds, or be distributed in due proportion over the entire garden, so as to ensure an even balance throughout. Further, when dealing with such colours, use them in necessary proportion, and no more, and, if you err at all, err on the side of niggardliness. By close 306 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. adherence to these rules, I have for years had no difficulty in pro- ducing a harmony of colour that has worn so well as to be as welcome at the end of the season as at the beginning ; for the quieter the colouring the more lasting is the enjoyment of it. And it is pleasant to observe the great advance yearly made in favour of the quieter tints — gaudiness, in bedding-out, having become the exception rather than the rule.' To fully carry out the ideal of colour here advocated, a great variety of plants is needed, though not more than is generally grown where bedding-out is practised to any extent. But there is colour a^nd colour ; and those who cannot have elaborate designs and variety in colour, may have an equivalent in graceful foliage and beautiful tinted shrubs of hues varying from deep green to bright yellow, and in habit tapering, weeping, or feathery. Cypresses, ECHEVERIA SECUNDA. QLAUCA " Carpet" bed. Yews, Yuccas, and many others, not only associate well with all kinds of bedding plants, but with the various kinds of hardy Sedums, Saxifrages, and Veronicas. These are all within the means of most owners of small gardens, and may be arranged in bedding-out form, the shrubs for centres and panels, and the dwarf hardy plants for massing and carpeting. Soil and Cultivation. — Next to position, soil is the most important element in the formation of a garden. In selecting a soil, two things should be kept in view — first, that an open or well- drained soil assists climate (that is, the more porous a soil is, the warmer is the ground, and the better able to \\'ithstand extreme cold are the plants) ; and secondly, that the soil should be deep. Unless there is depth, permanent things will not flourish satisfactorily. And for less permanent things, depth of soil is just as important, as it 5 UMMER-BEDDING. 207 renders unnecessary frequent dressings of fresh soil to maintain fertility. Wherever these conditions of soil exist, flower-gardening is easy ; but in many cases opposite conditions have to be dealt with, .and though it is hopeless to attempt to rival a naturally suitable soil, a very near approach can be made to doing so. The best soil is good loam, that is, soil of a clayey nature, but sufficiently sandy ■not to be sticky. Of the two states, light and heavy, the light is the better, because it is the warmer, and the more easily cultivated. In dealing with heavy soil, we must have drainage, deep tilth, and the working-in of material rendering it more porous, such as half- decayed leaves, mortar or brick rubble, charcoal, and ashes. If manure be needed, it should be used in the long straw state a;s it ■comes from the stables. One mistake frequently made with regard to soil is, that sufficient attention is not paid to the kind of plants that the soil of a given district is best suited for. Were this always remembered, we should see fewer garden failures, and the gardening in different districts would possess an interest from variety. If each possessor of a garden were to strike out a line for himself, the -question of suitability of soil would soon be settled, for a man would be too observant to plant a Rhododendron in chalky soil because he ■had admired a friend's Rhododendrons in peaty or vegetable soil. A healthy Yew or Box is infinitely preferable to a sickly Rhodo- 2o8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. dendron. The annual dressing of flower-beds is needed to get the best effects ; and by all means continue it, but not to the entire neglect of hardy flowers and shrubs. These, though they will do a long time without fresh food, enjoy rich top-dressings of good soil or manure ; it is only by so treating them that their best effects are developed. Flower-beds occasionally require to be deeply dug. Trenching is perhaps the proper term, but it scarcely expresses what I mean. The time to do it is when the beds are empty. I trench up my flower-beds once in two years — in autumn, after the summer bedders are removed, and before the spring-flowering plants are put in. Stirring flower-beds creates a wider field of action for the roots, and gives them an opportunity of getting out of the reach of drought in a dry season. Coloured Foliage. — The use of coloured and fine-leaved plants in the flower garden has increased, the causes being, the introduction of a number of suitable plants ; and the weather, which has often been so wet that, no sooner have ordinary bedding plants got into full flower, than they have been dashed to pieces by the rain. Hence the desire for plants that would withstand such washings, and yet give bright effects. As regards coloured-foliaged bedding plants- in particular, I do not think that if half of the bedding plants used were what are termed foliage plants, it would be out of proportion ; in such coloured foliage I would include the variegated Pelargoniums, together with hardy variegated plants, such as Japanese Honey- suckles, variegated Periwinkles, Ivies, and the hardy Sedums and Saxifrages. The effects to be had from this class of plants combined with variegated and coloured-leaved plants of the tender section, and with graceful-leaved plants, are better than any to be had from flowering plants alone, as they stand all weathers without injury. One of the brightest coloured beds I have ever seen planted in geometrical form for summer effect was composed of the following plants — viz. Sedum acre elegans, creamy white ; Sedum glaucum, gray ; Herniaria glabra, green ; Mesembryanthemum cordifolium variega- tum, light yellow ; and the bright orange and scarlet Alternantheras,. all dwarf plants ; the standard or central plants being Grevillea robusta and variegated Abutilons. Bedding and Fine-leaved Plants.— There can be no doubt that the use of the freer-growing green and graceful fine-leaved plants has done a great deal of good. In the South of England one may grow a great variety of plants of this kind. A number of greenhouse and even of stove plants may be placed in the open air without injury, and even with benefit to themselves. But some plants put out look sickly all the summer and make no good growth. S UMMER-BEDDING. ■2.CX) Others always look well, even in the face of damaging storms. Where the climate is against the tenderer plants, a very good selec- tion may be made from hardy things — from shrubs, plants like the Yucca, or young trees cut down and kept in a single-stemmed state. But there are errors in the system from which these things cannot save us. A geometrical bed is little the less geometrical because we place green-leaved or graceful plants in the middle of it. A more radical alteration is required, and that is the abolition of geometry itself, of formalism and straight lines, and of all the hateful gyrations which place the art of gardening on a level so much lower than it deserves to occupy. We can have all the variety, all the grace, all the beauty of form, all the glory of colour of the world of flowers and plants, without any of the pattern business which is now the rule. But we cannot make much progress in this direction except -jJTv ^J^ Succulents and coloured-leaved plants. by suppressing the elaborate pattern beds as much as convenient^ and by letting the vegetation tell its own story. The plants we must feed and the soil we must enrich ; but finicking beds, reminding one of the art on fire-shovels and such productions, are not necessary. Let us then begin by adopting a bold, large, and simple type of bed, from which the flowers will spring and make us think more of them than of the pattern. By way of variety, succu- lents are desirable plants for dry positions and under the shade •of trees, where other bedding plants do not flourish satisfactorily. From their power of withstanding storms of wind and rain, and even ■drought and cold, they are always in good form ; and they should have a place in summer flower-garden arrangements of any extent. They harmonise well with many hardy plants that may serve as cushions for them to display their quaintness on. The term " succulent " P THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. includes all plants of a fleshy character, the more common types being the Echeverias, Cotyledons, and Kleinias. Agaves and Aloes are more rare, but are none the less valuable for bedding. Vases. — In their proper place, and in due proportion, vases and baskets are useful in flower gardens, but they are frequently to a great extent out of all harmony with the style of the garden and its surroundings. Perhaps the tendency to over-decorate in this way is due to the geometrical plan of many gardens, when vases are placed on every pedestal and at every corner to square with many meaningless angles. Happily, this style of gardening is giving place to one in which vases and baskets can be used or not, according to the taste of the owner. When vases are used in large numbers, much may be done by planting plants of a drooping character in them ; indeed, vases look most natural when trailers or climbers droop over the sides. Basket-formed beds are well suited to almost any position in pleasure-grounds ; but the best of all spots is in an isolated recess on the turf, and next, in the central bed of a flower garden, where the surrounding beds are circles or ovals. I have one, the extreme length of which is i6 feet ; it is 8 feet wide in the middle, stands 2 feet 6 inches above the turf, and is made of Portland cement. The principal plants in it are Marguerites, Pelar- goniums, Heliotropes, Fuchsias, Marvel of Peru, Abutilons, Castor- oils, Cannas, Japanese Honeysuckles, and Tropseolums. More rustic- looking baskets would be better suited for isolation on the turf and for distant parts of the pleasure-grounds ; and very good ones can be formed of wirework, lined insidewith zinc, or made of barked Oak boughs instead of wirework. In baskets and vases of this kind permanent plants should be used, such as the variegated Ivies, Periwinkles, Japanese Honeysuckles, Clematises, and climbing Roses — space being reserved for flowering plants in summer and for small shrubs in \\'inter. Sub-Tropical Bedding. — There are four types of summer flower-gardening : i, the massing (the oldest) ; 2, the carpet ; \ the neutral — quiet and low in colour, mainly through use of succulents ; and 4, the sub-tropical, in which plants of noble growth and graceful foliage play the chief part. To my mind, a mixture of the four classes is the very ideal of flower-gardening. It is possible to plant a forrnal garden in such a manner that the severest critic could not complain of excessive formality ; for, after all, it is the abuse of carpet bedding that has brought it into dis- repute. And justly so, for when one sees bed after bed and arrange- ment after arrangement repeated without end, with no plants to relieve the monotony of flat surfaces, one has good reason to protest. I have charge of a terrace garden which has to be planted with a view to obtaining the best display from June to November, and I SUMMER-BEDDING. am therefore, compelled to adopt the carpet-bedding system ; but I supplement it by dotting over the surface, of necessarily formal arrangements, plants of noble or graceful aspect, such as Acacia, Dracaena, and Yucca. In such arrangements a judicious blending of beds of flowering plants, principally Pelargoniums, adds brightness to ' the whole ; but, save under exceptional circumstances, flowers, and even fine-foliaged and flowering plants, should never be put in the same bed as succulents. The colour-massing or grouping style of summer-gardening is best adapted to a terrace or parterre that is well backed up or surrounded by evergreens, as these afford relief from the glare of brilliant colours, and at the same time set them Stone basket of flowers and fine-leaved plants (Heckfield Place). off" to advantage. A few plants of fine form distributed apart over the garden, and especially in beds of glaring colours, will be found to enhance the beauty of the whole. My view of sub-tropical gardening is, that it is only suitable for positions where it can be associated with water, or for sheltered nooks and dells, where the force of the wind is broken before it comes in contact with the plants. Where such positions are not at command, it is best to choose the hardier class of noble or handsome foliaged plants, many of which may be permanently planted, such as Ailantus, Rhus, Arundo, Salisburia, Yuccas, and the hardy Palm (Chamaerops humilis). Of half-hardy plants that will withstand wind there are numbers, such as Araucaria, Acacia, Ficus, Cycas, Dracsna, Aralia. In planting P 2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. sub-tropical plants, care should be taken that the beds when fully furnished do not have a " bunchy " appearance. To avoid this, plant j||ill|l|!!|ll!|||||i||i|iili|ip: thinly, and use as undergrowth dwarfer plants, of which there are many suitable kinds. Summer and Winter Bedding.— Now that there is such a wealth of plants suited for furnishing the flower-beds in winter, there SUMMER-BEDDING. 213 can be no excuse for their remaining empty after the summer-bedding plants are cleared away. Much labour is required to carry out both summer and winter bedding ; but I strongly recommend this kind of decoration. There are reasons why winter bedding should be en- couraged. First, winter is the season when all around us is bleak, dull, and bare — leaden skies, leafless trees, flowerless meadows, and silent woods, all of which have a depressing effect on most temperaments. It therefore behoves us to endeavour to neutralise this prevailing dulness by making our gardens as cheerful as possible. Another reason — which to those fond of summer bedding should be the great reason for adopting winter bedding — is the short period during which summer bedding continues in perfection. The thought is continually haunting one that it will fade all too soon. The adoption of winter bedding, however, in my own case obliterates such thoughts, and one looks forward to real pleasure from both systems. Nor has this been the only result. It being necessary that summer and winter bedding should meet, ingenuity had to devise means to this end. This led to my using as summer bedders many hardy plants which otherwise I should not have thought of using, but which are just as effective as tender exotics ; nay, in some cases, more so ; and which, when planted in the spring, serve till the following spring, when they are taken up, divided, and replanted for another year. Principal Plants used for Bedding-out. Abutllon Cerastium _ Gladiolus Agathsea Cheiranthus ' Gnaphalium Ageratum Chrysanthemum Heliotropium Auga Cineraria Hollyhock A ternanthera Coleus Iberis Alyssum Convolvulus Iresine Amaranthus Cotyledon Lantana Anagallis Cuphea Leucophyton Anthemis Dahlia Lobelia Begonia Daisies Matricaria Blue Marguerite Dianthus Mese mbryan themum Brugmansia Echeveria Mimulus Calceolaria Erigeron Myosotis Canna Fuchsias Nertera Centaurea Gazania Nierembergia CEnotbera Oxalis Pachyphytum Pansies Pelargonium Pentstemon Petunia Phlox Plantain Lily Plumbago Polemonium Pulmonaria Pyrethrum Salvia Santolina Saponaria Sempervivum. Senecio Silene Solanum Stachys Stocks Tropaeolum Tussilago Verbena Veronica Viola Vittadena THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL {continued). CHAPTER XVI. PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. In old days and for ages it was not easy — not always possible to many — to have a garden in the open air. The need of mutual aid against the enemy threw people into closely-packed cities, and even small towns in what, might seem to us now the open country. In our own country, free for many years from external enemies, we have spread our gardens over the land more than others ; but in France farmers still go home to a town at night from the open, and often homeless and barnless plain, where they work. And so it came that the land of Europe was strewn with towns and cities, often fortified, and many of those most able to enjoy gardens had to do the best they could with little terraces, walls, tubs by the door, and even windows. And often in Italy and other countries of the south of Europe and north Africa we see beautiful plants in tubs, on balconies, on flat roofs, and every imaginable spot where plants can be grown in a house in a street. Happily, in our country, there is less need nowadays for the garden in tubs ; but the custom is bound up with ways of growing plants which are still essential to us in some cases. In many gardens plants in tubs are often used without good reason, for example, when hardy evergreen trees are grown in tubs, and in front of the Royal Exchange in London there are hardy Poplars in tubs ! But some may pursue this sort of gardening with advantage — first, those who have no gardens, and, secondly, those who have and who may desire to put half-hardy bushes in the open air, for example Myrtle or Oleander or Orange, which may not be grown out-of-doors throughout the year, and which yet may have fragrance or other charms for us. Many plants can be grown in the open air in summer PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 2I5 which will not endure our winters, but which placed in a cellar, dry room, or cool greenhouse would be quite safe, and might then be put out-of-doors in summer. This way is commonly the case abroad with large Datura, Pomegranate, and Myrtles, and a great variety of plants such as we see put out in tubs in certain old palace gardens, like those of Versailles. What was called the orangery, which has almost disappeared from English gardens, was for keeping such plants alive and well through the winter, and in old times, if not now, had a very good reason to be. Vase plants at Turvey Abbey. There are many charming plants too tender for the open altogether that are happy in tubs, and may be sheltered in an outhouse or greenhouse through the winter — such as the Pomegranate, the Myrtle, and Romneya (the White Bush Poppy). The blue African Lily is often happy in tubs, its blue flowers when seen on a terrace walk having a distinct charm, but in England, generally, it must be kept indoors in winter. Excellent use may be made of the great handsome oil-jars, which are used to bring olive oil from Italy to London, and the best things to put in them are half-hardy plants, which can be taken intact into 2i6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the cool greenhouse or conservatory at the approach of frost. Ever» Seakale-pots can be filled with half-hardy plants, as scarlet Pelar- goniums, which have a good effect in them. In some rich and moist soils the Pelargonium all grows to leaves and does not flower, and in such cases we can humour it into good bloom by growing it in pots- or vases in the light soil that suits the plants. Orange Trees in Tubs. — One of the most curious examples of routine and waste I saw in the Tuileries gardens on the last day of September, 1 896, when the Paris people were preparing for the Czar, and among their labours was the refurbishing of the old Orange trees in these gardens. There were a regiment of them set all along the gardens at regular intervals in immense and costly tubs, involving herculean labour to move in and out of the orangery. One might suppose this labour to be given for some beautiful end in perfecting the flower or fruit of the plant, but nothing of the kind ; the trees being trained into mop heads, and when the plants make any attempt to take a natural growth they are cut sharply back, and often have an uglier shape than any mop. The ground was strewn with shoots of the orange trees which had been cut back hard. When the tree was in poor health, as it was often, the dark stems were the most visible things seen against the blue sky. This costly and ugly work is a survival of the time when the " golden apples " were a novelty, and it was not so easy to go and see them growing in the open air as it now is, and so what was worth doing as a curiosity hundreds of years ago is carried out still. Since the idea of growing these trees in such an ugly fashion arose we have had a noble garden flora brought to us from all parts of the earth, and it would be easy to take our choice of different ways of adorning this garden in more artistic ways with things in the open ground, and of far greater beauty. If this thing at its best and done with great cost has such a result, what are we to think of the English imitations of it, such as those at Panshanger, in which hardy shrubs are used, like Portugal laurels, and sham tubs placed around them ? I saw the vast orangerie terrace at Sans Souci in July 1897, and was deeply struck by its "ornaments " in tubs ; the branches of the poor distorted trees like black skeletons against the summer sky showing that even with all the aids of artifice, no good result with tubbed oranges is got in northern Germany no more than in northern France. In the warmer south a little better result may be had from trees in tubs, but a few days' journey brings us to orange trees growing as freely and gracefully as willows in Tunis and Algeria and the countries round the Mediterranean. The Poet's Laurel in Tubs.— The Laurel is a winter-garden plant over a large area of northern and central Europe, where the true PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 217 Laurel (our gardeners and nurserymen erroneously give the name to the vigorous evergreen Cherry, of which we have too much in England) is a tender evergreen, requiring the protection of a house in winter, it is grown to a vast extent in tubs to place in the open The Blue African Lily {Aga;panthus umbellaius) in its summer quarters. garden, on terrace, or in courtyard during the summer. .The culti- vation of the Laurel for this purpose is carried on to such an extent that miles of handsome trees in various forms may be seen in one nursery. There is no plant more worthy of it than the true Laurel, 2i8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. which we usually call the Sweet Bay, and those who cannot enjoy the plant out of doors, as we may in many of the warmer districts of the British Isles, would do well to grow it in tubs, in which state they may enjoy it both in winter and summer. It would be worth while growing it in the same way in cold and northern districts, where it is killed or much hurt in winter, and this sometimes occurs in parts of southern England. Near the sea it may flourish, and twenty miles inland be cut down to the ground, or so badly hurt that it gives no pleasure to see. In gardens where one may have fine groups of the tree on sunny slopes, we should never think of it in any other way, and no evergreen tree gives us more beauty when old and untrained and undipped. Growing in tubs, the need of storing away in winter, often in a small space, and keeping the plant in health in boxes not too heavy make some training necessary, and the shapes common in Continental gardens are as good as could be obtained under the circumstances, while the health of the bush in these artificial conditions is singularly good. It is often surprising to see what fine heads arise in good health from small tubs, the soil being helped now and then by a little weak liquid manure water not oftener than once a week. Once the plants are stored for the winter, sometimes in sheds with little light, it is best to give no water during the winter months. In the same way we may also enjoy the Laurus- tinus in districts where it is killed by frost out of doors which in hard winters happens, even in the southern countries which is all the more unfortunate as this shrub and its varieties flower so prettily. If grown well in tubs, we may flower them in the cool house and place them out of doors in summer. Cultivation of Plants in Orangeries.— The old way of growing plants in the orangery is still much more practised' in France than with us, and a few words as to the mode of culture in use may be useful. Though the orange from which the structure gets its name is not often happy in it, other plants like the Myrtle, Pomegranate, African Lily, and Hydrangea may often be kept with safety through the winter in such a house. Among shrubs we have the Pomegranate, Oleander, Orange, Fuchsia, Myrtle, Camellia — in fact, all those that are commonly placed for shelter in greenhouses during winter. For shrubs like these the year has two seasons: (i) that during which they are placed for shelter in the orangery or the cool house, or, in the absence of these, some place where the conditions of temperature, air, light, and construction are similar ; and (2) the summer season, when they are taken out into the open air and set in variously exposed situations in order that they may mature, grow, and bloom. Winter Cultivation.— In October the shrubs are removed to PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 219 warm corners. The shedding of the leaf in some plants gets rid of one difficulty in their cultivation, that of their preservation during the winter, as the summer-leafing kinds are so easy to store away if the frost be kept out. Half-hardy evergreen shrubs require to be kept in a well-lighted house, but shrubs^ which, like Fuchsias and Pomegranates, shed their leaves in autumn, can during winter be conveniently kept in any dark place, such as a cellar or warm shed, and in their case watering will scarcely be required. As a general rule, for orangery shrubs, the temperature may be such as will exclude frost ; sorne kinds, however, will be found to withstand a hard frost like the Oleander. Although the summer-leafing shrubs scarcely need water at all during the winter, it is needed for evergreen shrubs Yet even here we shall have to make a distinction. For instance, the Orange-tree requires more water than the Myrtle, and the Myrtle more than the Proteads. In the majority of orangeries the plants are W' MxtonBc <»«Ap-^^ ~^-:r Orange-trees in tubs, Tuileries. watered every two or three weeks during winter, and daily after the month of April, and those who cultivate Orange-trees are able to tell us that want of water, which is always prejudicial to this tree, may even result in a complete loss of leaf. There are two plans for avoiding the ill-effects of too-abundant watering, the former of which is to plant in soils which allow the water to run away freely ; the second is to use boxes with sides that can be opened from time to time to enable the roots to be seen. Summer Cultivation.— In May, and, if possible, during cloudy weather, all plants in the orangery are transferred to sunny and sheltered places outside. The pots, if small, will have to be plunged, as this keeps the roots in good condition. In this, as in other cases, where the plants are in pots or boxes, we shall have occasionally to give some manure, and weak liquid-manure gives good results. This is the Belgian method, and one of its effects is that it enables us to postpone the repotting of the plants and permits of the employment THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. of smaller boxes and vases as compared with the size of the trees. So in the nurseries of Ghent and France, too, we often see Sweet Bays with heads more than a yard in width, whilst the tubs they are in scarcely measure twenty inches in diameter, and under such conditions the plants thrive for years without enlargement of the tubs or change of soil, thanks to feeding with liquid-manure. The Blue Throatwort {Trachelium axu-uhutit) in vase. The same things may be said of the plants in the cool house or any house in which we store almost half-hardy Palms, Cycads, Tree- Ferns, or other plants which may with advantage pass a few months in the open air in summer. All of these, in fact, may be treated much as the Blue African Lily is treated, allowing always for PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 221 the differences between evergreen shrubs, like the Orange, Eugenia, and Myrtle ; herbaceous plants, like the sweet-scented Plantain Lily- grown in pots and in courtyards in France, and summer-leaving shrubs like Fuchsia, Justicia, and Pomegranate. An Amateur on Plants in Tubs for the Flower Garden. — The need of the orangery strictly so-called, is now lessened by two causes ; (i) our rich, hardy garden-flora with many things as lovely as any that grow in the tropics ; (2) the nearly universal adoption of the greenhouse, in which many plants find shelter in Plants in Italian oil-jars, Woodlands, Surrey. ■winter that in old times would have been housed in the orangery. But notwithstanding these changes there are still some plants worth while to keep over the winter in any convenient way, and the following •extract from The Garden shows how a good amateur gardener manages them as an aid to her flower-gardening. " A great deal of real gardening pleasure is to be had from growing plants in pots and tubs or in vases and vessels of various kinds both in small and big gardens. I use large Seakale pots, when they are no longer wanted for the Seakale, by turning them over, putting two bits of slate in the bottom of the pot, some drainage, and a few lumps of THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. turf, and then filling up with gpod garden mould. Another useful pot is one called a Rhubarb pot. If you live near a pottery they will turn you out almost any shaped pot you fancy. Flat ones like those used by house painters, make a pleasant change, especially for small bulbs. Petroleum casks cut in two, burnt inside, then tarred and painted, are invaluable tubs. I use butter-casks treated in the same way, and have some little Oak tubs in which bullion came from America. These are very strong, and some water-loving plants do much better in wood, since the evaporation in summer is not nearly so rapid as from the earthenware. That is an important thing Half-hardy plants in Seakale-pots. Woodlands. to remember both as regards sun and wind. If the plants are at all delicate and brought out of a greenhouse, the pots, when standing out, ought to be either quite sunk into the earth or shaded. This cannot be done in the case of pots placed on a wall or terrace or on a stand, and so they must not be put out in the open till the end of May. Constant care about watering is also essential. Even in wet weather they often want more water if the sun comes out, as the rain wets the leaves, but hardly affects the soil at all. On the Continent, where all kinds of pot cultivation have been longer practised than in England, flower-pots are often glazed outside, which keeps the plants much moister because of less evaporation, and makes less necessity for PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 223 frequent watering. The large red jars in which oil is still conveyed from Italy, covered with their delightful coarse wicker-work, are use- ful ornaments in some gardens. They are glazed inside, and boring a hole in the bottom of them is not very easy work. They have to be more than half filled with drainage, and plants do not do well in them for more than one season, as the surface of the earth exposed at the top is so small. In old days the oil merchants in the suburbs of London used to cut them in two vertically, and stick them against their houses, above their shops, as an advertisement or ornament. The enthusiastic amateurs will find that they get two very nice pots by sawing them in half horizontally just below the sham handles. The top part when reversed requires the same treatment as was recom- mended for the Seakale pots." What to Grow. — The first rule, I think, is to grow in them those plants which do not grow well in your own local soil. To put into a pot what is flourishing much better in a bed a few yards off is, to my mind, a mistake. I grow large old plants of Geraniums in the open ground, and they are kept on in the greenhouse from year to year, their roots tied up in Moss, and crowded into a pot or box with no earth and very little water through the winter ; they can be kept in a cellar or spare room. Early in April they are potted up and pro- tected by mats in a pit, as I have no room for them in the greenhouse. This causes them to be somewhat pot-bound, and they flower splendidly during the latter part of the summer. Marguerites, the yellow and the white with large leaves, are good pot plants early in the year, far prettier than the narrow-leaved kinds. A double Pome- granate I have had for many years in a pot, and if thinned out in the summer it flowers well ; also two small Orange trees. The large old- fashioned Oak leaved, sticky Cape Sweet Geranium, which has a handsomer flower than the other kinds, makes a very good outdoor pot plant. Fuchsias, especially the old-fashioned fulgens, are satisfactory. Carnations Raby Castle, Countess of Paris, and Mrs. Reynolds Hole I grow in pots, and they do well ; they must be layered early in July, and answer best if potted up in September and just protected from severe frosts. In fine summers. Myrtles and Oleanders flower well with me in tubs, not in the open ground. I treat Oleanders as they do in Germany — cut them back moderately in October and dry them off, keep them in a coach-house, warm shed, or wherever severe frosts will not reach them. When quite dry they stand a moderate amount of frost. Then in March they are brought out, the surface is stirred and mulched, they are taken into a greenhouse and brought on a bit. In May they are thickly covered with good, strong horse manure and copiously watered. At the end of the month they are stood out in the open on a low wall. During May, June and July 224 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. they cannot have too much water ; after that they want much less, or the leaves turn yellow and drop off. Some years I grow Solanum jasminoides over bent wires in pots ; grown thus it is pretty. The American Aloe. Example of greenhouse plants set in open air in summer. Engraved from a photograph taken in Knightwick Rectory Garden, Worcestershire. variety of plants which can be tried for growing in pots out of doors insummer is almost endless. Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) is an annual, but if sown in January and very well grown on as a fine PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIK. 225 •single specimen plant, it looks handsome and uncommon in a green glazed pot or small tub. Nothing I grow in pots is more satisfactory than the old-fashioned Calceolaria amplexicauHs ; it does not grow to any perfection with me in the beds, the soil being too dry, but potted, it makes a splendid show through the late summer and autumn months. The shrubby Veronica speciosa rubra, and V. imperialis, I grow in pots because they flower beautifully in the autumn, and the drowsy bumble-bees love to lie on them in the sunshine when Sedum specta- bile is passing away. They are not quite hardy with me, as they can- not withstand the long, dry, cold springs. This in itself justifies the growing them in pots ; in mild, damp districts they are large shrubs. The blue Agapanthus everybody grows in tubs. The plants have to be rather pot-bound and kept dry in the winter to flower well, and as the flower-buds form they want well watering and a weekly dose of liquid manure. Hydrangeas I find difficult to grow when planted out ; the common kinds do exceedingly well in tubs in half shady places if they get a good deal of water. Large standard Myrtles I have had covered with bloom in August in tubs. My large old plant, which I had had many years, was killed last spring by being turned out of the room it had wintered in too early, because I came from London sooner than usual. The great difficulty in small places is housing these large plants in winter. They do not want much protection, but .they must have some, and the death of large old plants is grievous. Woodlands, Surrey. M. T. E. Sheltered dell, with tree ferns and stove plants placed out for the summer (Battersea). CHAPTER XVII. BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN, AND HEREIN ALSO> OF THE SUB-TROPICAL GARDEN. The use in gardens of plants of fine form has taught us the value of grace and verdure amid masses of flowers, and how far we have- diverged from artistic ways. In a wild state brilliant blossoms are often usually relieved by a setting of abundant green, and where mountain or meadow plants of one kind produce a sea of colour at one season,, there is intermingled a spray of pointed grass and leaves which tone down the colour masses. We may be pleased by the wide spread of colour on a heath or mountain, but when we go near we find that it is best where the long moss cushions itself beside the ling, and the fronds of the Poly- pody come up around masses of heather. If this be so on the hills, a like state of things is more evident still in the marsh or wood. We cannot attempt to reproduce such conditions, but the more we keep them before our eyes the nearer shall we be to success and we may have in our gardens (without making wildernesses of them either) all the light and shade, the relief, the grace, and the beauty of natural colour and form too. A recent demand for .£'2,000 for the building of a glass house for Palms for the subtropical garden of Battersea Park here throws- light on the costly system of flower gardening in this and other Hardy Palm in the open, Cornwall. Q 2 228 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. public gardens. It may be noted that this is only a small part of the cost of keeping the tender and half-hardy plants in a glass nursery and not a demand of money for a Palm-house which the public might enjoy ; but was to be part of the expenditure on some glass-sheds which they never see, and which were merely to grow the plants to be put out for a few months in summer. In our flower gardens Palms can only be seen in a small state ; nor can they, as shown in pots and tubs in Battersea, give one any idea of the true beauty of the Palm on the banks of the Nile or the Ganges. But, worse than this, the system leads to the neglect of the many shrubs and trees of the northern world, which are quite as beautiful as any Palm. The sum mentioned as the cost of the house for young Palms would go far to plant Battersea Park with the finest hardy shrubs and trees. The number of these public gardens that are being opened in all directions makes it all the more important that the false ideal they so often set out should be made clear. I do not say we should have none but hardy plants in public gardens, but the con- centration of so much attention, and of the greater part of the cost, on such feeble examples of tropical plants as can be grown in this country set out for a few months in the summer has a very bad effect. The lesson all connected with gardening in any way want most to learn is that the things which may be grown to perfection in the open air in any country are always the most beautiful, and should always have the first place in their thoughts. It would be much better in all ways to place a like artistic value on everything that stands in the open air in a garden, and regard all parts of the garden as of equal importance without wholly doing away with tropical plants, at least with those that can be grown with advantage in our country. Looking round the London parks we see much waste in trying to get effects of form from Palms and various tender plants, strewn in all directions in Hyde Park, often dotted about without good judgment, and marring the foreground of scenes that might be pretty. Where this is done there is rarely any attempt to get effects of fine form from hardy trees, shrubs, and plants, which is a much simpler and easier process than building costly glasshouses to get them. For our gardens, the first thing is to look for plants that are happy in our climate, and to accustom ourselves to the idea that form may be as beautiful from hardy as from tender things. [Many tropical plants, which we see in houses cut down close and kept small, would, if freely grown in the open air in their own country, be no more striking in leaf than the hardy Plane or Aliantus. Manj- plants that are quite hardy give fine effects, such as the Aralias, herbaceous and shrubby. Aristolochia among climbers ; Arundo' ■""■■■■V"'''-T^'' ■■ ■ ' "^b "" ^^i Pampas Grass in a Sussex garden (Chichester). 230 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. hardy and very pretty beside water ; Astilbes, rough herbaceous plants which can be put anywhere almost ; the hardy Bamboos of Japan and India, which are increasing in number, and are very distinct and charming, and often rapid growers in genial parts of the country, especially near the sea. A considerable number will probably be found hardy everywhere. The large leaved evergreen Barberries are beautiful in peat soils, and, grouped in picturesque ways, effective for their noble leaves as well as flowers. The Plume Poppy (Bocconia) is handsome for its foliage and flowers, even in ordinary soil. A great number of the larger hardy Compositae (Helianthus, Silphium, Senecio, Telekia, Rudbeckia) are tC^^^^.^ ^ .Vi< Bed of fine-leaved plants in Hyde Park. From a sketch by H. C. Moon. fine in leaf, as are some of the Cotton Thistles and plants of that family. The common Artichoke of our gardens and its allies are fine in form of leaf and flower, but apt to be cut off in hard winters in some soils. The Giant Fennels are most graceful early leafing things, thriving admirably in sandy and free soils. Plantain Lilies (Funkia) are important, and in groups their foliage is excellent. The Pampas Grass is precious where it grows well, but in many districts is gradually killed by hard winters. Where it has the least chance, it should be planted in bold masses. The great leaved Gunneras are superb near water and in rich soil. The giant cow parsnips are effective, but apt to take possession of the country side, and are not easily exterminated, and, therefore, BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 231 should be put in with a sparing hand in islands and rough places ■only. The large Indian evergreen Rockfoils are fine in form, and in their glossy foliage are easily grown and grouped in picturesque ways,- and they are very hardy. In sandy and free soils a handsome group of beautiful leaved things may be formed of Acanthus. The new water lilies will help us much to fine foliage, especially in ■■association with the many graceful plants that grow in and near water, as are also certain hardy ferns which may be grown near Croup of house plants placed out tor summer. Harrow Lodge, Dorking. "Water, like the Royal Fern, which in rich soil and shade makes leaves as fine as any tropical Fern. In southern districts the New Zealand Flax is effective in gardens, and the great Japan Knotworts (Poly- gonum) are handsome in rough places in the wild garden, and better kept out of the flower garden. Some of the Rhubarbs, too, are distinct and handsome, and very vigorous by the waterside, where the great water dock often comes of itself It is a stately genus, and though we may hot find room for many in the garden, it may be easy to do so by the water side or in rich ground anywhere. 232 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. With our many fine-leaved plants from temperate and cool climes- it is possible to have beautiful groups of hardy fine-leaved plants, for trees like the Ailantus and Paulownia make almost tropical growth if cut down close to the ground every year. We have also the hardy Palm (Chamaerops), the Yuccas, and graceful Bamboos, and Siebold's Plantain Lily (Funkia), and plants of a similar character. Amongst those annually raised from seeds, and requiring only the protection of glass to start them, we have much variety from the stately Castor- oil-plant to the silver Centaurea. Although tender plants in pots are effective in summer in special positions, plants that cannot stand out-of-doors from the beginning of June until the end of September Bamboos in garden, Kew. can hardly be called fit for summer gardening. Among the most suitable are several kinds of Palm, such as Seaforthia elegans, Chamaerops excelsa, and C. humilis ; Aralias, various ; Dracaenas, do. ; Phormium tenax and its variegated form ; Yucca aloifolia variegata, Ficus elastica, and some Eucalyptus. Erythrinas make fine autumn groups and are brilliant in colour, and useful for lighting up masses- of foliage. The hardiest Tree Fern, Dicksonia antarctica, looks well when plunged in shady dells with overhanging foliage for shelter ; and several varieties of dwarf Ferns, such as the Bird's-nest Fern, are admirable for undergrowth to this Fern. Plants raised from seed will, however, usually form the majority, owing to the lack of BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 233- room under glass for many large plants. Of plants raised from seed the most useful are Cannas, which may be taken up and wintered under glass, or securely protected in the soil. Most of the tall light green-foliaged varieties flower freely and make excellent centres for groups, \\\\\\& the dwarf bronze-foliaged sorts are good for \ases. Solanums have also been effective in the south. The spiny- leaved S. robustum, the elegant cut-leaved S. laciniatum, and S. Warscewiczi make good single specimens, or edgings to groups of Fine-leaved herbaceous plant (Plantain Lily). taller plants. Wigandias, Ferdinanda eminens, and Melianthus major are all useful ; and Acacia lophantha, Amaranthus, Cineraria maritlma. Bocconias, with their tall spikes of graceful flowers and noble foliage, are very effective and permanent plants and several varieties of Rhus or Sumach have good foliage, Rhus glabra laciniata among them. As to arrangement, the best beds or sets of beds are those of the simplest design. Shelter is a great aid, and recesses in shrubberies or in banks clothed with foliage form the most fitting background ;234 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. for beds or groups to nestle in. Avoid Musas or Caladiums, the leaves of which tear to shreds if winds cannot be shut out, and also plants that look unhappy after a cold night or two. Make the most of plants that grow under nearly all conditions, and use any ■dell overhung by trees for half hardy fine-leaved plants. A garden where each plant spreads forth its delicate foliage will form a pleasant ■change from brilliant bedding plants, or severely geometric carpet beds. — J. G. Better effects may be obtained from hardy plants only than from tender ones. There are the Yuccas, hardy, and unsurpassed by anything of like habit grown in a hothouse ; the Arundos, con- ^picua and donax ; fine hardy plants like Crambe cordifolia. Rheum in variety. Ferula and umbelliferous plants, as graceful as tenderest exotics. Then we have a hardy Palm that through all our recent hard winters has preserved its health and greenness wherever its leaves could not be torn to shreds by storms. As an example of fine form from hardy plants, I cannot do better than give the New Zealand Reed (Arundo conspicua). This handsome Grass produces its blossom-spikes earlier than the Pampas, and is more elegant in habit, the silky white tufts bending like ■ostrich plumes at the end of slender stalks. It is best adapted to a sheltered corner, where it is protected from rough winds, and does admirably in the cold and warmer districts, but, like the Pampas ■Grass, not very hardy in cool and inland districts. As to tender plants in the open air, it would be difficult to give a better illustration than the stately Musa Ensete in Berkshire. In sheltered nooks in the southern counties this plant makes a "very fair growth in the summer. In 1877 I was struck with its health and vigour at Park Place, Henley-on-Thames. Mr. Stanton, the gardener, raised a batch from seed, and it was surprising what fine plants they became in fifteen months. The plant is quite as effective in a conservatory in winter as out-of-doors in summer. In the illustration of a bold mass of fine leaved plants near Hyde Park Corner, we see some of the best features of recent fine-leaved gardening. It had a great Abyssinian Plantain in the middle, and was fringed by a few sub-tropical plants, and edged by an extra- ordinary fringe of the fine hardy Siebold's Plantain Lily, long- ■enduring in beauty. The reason of the success of this bed is clear ; it was not a finicking angle or a wormy scrawl, but a bold circle, and presented no confusion to the observer, who simply saw the plants rising in a well-defined group from the turf It was by itself, could be seen unopposed, and was not hedged in by a lot of other beds. Lastly, the plant forms were strong and well selected, and contrasted BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 235 -well with the ordinary tree vegetation near. The way in which the Plantain Lilies began early in the year to adorn the spot, and continued to do so throughout the whole summer and autumn, was a pleasure to see. The drawing was made about the end of September, shortly -after some heavy storms which tore the Musa a little, but the effect ;remained excellent till October. Yuccas in Groups. — Wherever space can be afforded, hardy Yuccas should be grown, for few hardy plants are so distinct in foliage and manner of growth ; but they appear to best advantage arranged in bold groups, near trees and shrubs, and forming a har- monious contrast to them. Perhaps the best situation is a sloping Gunnera and Bamboo (Fota, co. Cork). ground fully exposed to the mid-day sun, and backed by evergreens. If allowed space for development, they will every year add beauty to the place. The handsome spikes of their, large cream-coloured flowers are extremely effective, especially when relieved by a back- ground of verdure. Yuccas like a well-drained soil, and thrive on a subsoil of pure chalk, and they delight in full exposure to the sun, •and enjoy shelter from rough winds. Hence the advisability of plant- ing them near trees or shrubs. In grouping Yuccas, a better effect is obtained if some of the ^specimens have the head of their foliage from 3 feet to 6 feet above the soil. These tall plants should not, however, be placed in 236 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. a back line, but some should be allowed here and there to advance into the foreground, some of the smaller specimens nestling at their feet. The effect of a group thus arranged charms by its irregularity and quaint beauty. Among the more tender plants, we must choose such as grow healthily in sheltered places in the warmer parts of England. The kinds with stout evergreen foliage, such as the New Zealand Flax and the hardier Dracaenas, will be as effective here as they are around London and Paris, and to them the northern gardener should direct his attention. Even if it were possible in all parts to cultivate the softer-growing kinds to the same perfection as in the south of England, it would not be always desirable, as they cannot be used indoors in winter. The best are the many evergreen plants that stand out in summer without injury, and may be transferred to the con- servatory in autumn, to produce through the cold months as fine an effect as in the flower garden in summer. One kind of arrangement in particular must be guarded against. I mean the geometro-pictur- esque one, which is seen in some parts of the London parks devoted to sub-tropical gardening. The plants are often of the finest kinds and in the most robust health, and all the materials for the best results are abundant ; yet the result is not artistic, owing to the needless formality of the beds and the heaping together of many specimens of one kind in long masses straight or twisting, with high raised edges of hard-beaten soil. The first and the last word to say about form is, that we should try and see beauty of form everywhere among plants that suit our climate. The willows of Britain are as beautiful as the olives of Italy, or the gum trees as seen in Algeria and the South of France,, so that, although the sub-tropical as a system of flower gardening has failed throughout our country generally, and can only be carried out well in the south of England and the warmer countries of Europe, never- theless we need not deprive ourselves of the enjoyment of the finest forms near and in our gardens. The new Water Lilies take us to the waterside, and there are many good forms even among our native flowers and weeds. The new hardy Bamboos are also very graceful and most distinct, of which several of the highest value promise to be hardy in our country. What can be done with them, and a few other things, we can now see in the Bamboo garden at Kew, at Batsford Park, and other places. The common hardy Japan Bamboo- has thriven even in London, and it is not only waterside or herbaceous plants of all kinds we have to think of, but the foliage of trees,, which in many cases is quite as beautiful as that of the dwarfer plants. The hardy trees of North America are many of them beauti- ful in foliage, from the Silver Maple to the Scarlet Oak, and Acacias BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 237 from the same country have broken into a number of beautiful forms ; some are as graceful as ferns. These trees, if obtained on their own roots, will afford us fine aid as backgrounds. The Aralias of Japan and China are quite hardy and almost tropical in foliage, while the beauty that may be got from ferns is very remarkable indeed, our native Royal Fern being of noble proportions when well- grown in half-shady and sheltered places in deep soils, as at Newick Park, and the same is true of all the bold American ferns, plants too often hidden away in obscure corners, whereas the boldest of them should be brought out in our cool British climate to form groups on the lawn and turf This applies also to our larger native ferns, which, massed and grouped away from the old-fashioned fernery, Foliage of Bamboo, Cornwall. often tell better. In this way they are used in some German gardens. We do not illustrate them in this chapter, because the reader has simply to turn to the chapter on the Fern garden to see some of their fine forms. If any one objects that some of the plants mentioned in this chapter are coarse, such as the great leaved composite, the answer is that, on the other hand, many of them are refined and delicate, such as the Acacias, Acanthus, Asparagus, Bamboos, and Ferns. Great Reed, Pampas and Bulrush evergreen, Barberry, and graceful Cypress, Cedar and Fir. Plaintain-Lily and Adams needle — not forgetting the fine foliage of the Tea Rose. 238 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Plants hardy or half-hardy ^ %vithfine Foliage or Form^for use in British Gardens. Acacia Acanthus Agave Ailanthus Alsophila Amaranthus Andropogon Aralia Aristolochia Artemisia Arum, Arundo Asparagus Asplenium Astilbe Bambusa Berberis Bocconia Bup thai mum Caladium Calla Canna Cannabis Draceena Ligularia Ricinus Carduus Equisetum Megasea Rumex Carex Eryngium Melia Sagittaria Carlina Eucalyptus Melianthus Scirpus Carludovica Farfugium Molospermum Seaforthia Caryota Ferdinanda MontagnEea Senecio Centaurea Ferula Morina Silphium Chamsedorea Ficus Mulgedium Silybum Solanum ChamEepeuce Funkia Musa Chamxrops Gourds Nicotiana Sorghum Cordyline Gunnera Nuphar Struthiopteris Corypha Gynerium Onopordon Thalictrum Crambe Gymnocladus Osmunda Tupidanthus Cucurbita Hedychium Pauiownia Typha Cyathea Helianthus Petasites Uhdea Cycas Heracleum Phoenix Veratrum Cynara Inula Phormium Verbascum Cyperus Jubsea Polygonum Wigandia Datisca Kochia Polymnia Wood ward ia Dicksonia Koelfeuteria Rheum Yucca Dimorphanthus Latania Rhus Zea Dipsacus Torch lilies (Longleat), CHAPTER XVIII. THE FLOWER GARDEN IN AUTUMN. Now who hath entered my loved woods, And touched their green with sudden change ? Who blanched my Thistle's rosy face, And gave the winds her silver hair ? Set Golden-rod within her place, And scattered Asters everywhere ? Lo ! the change reaches high and wide. Hath toned the sky to softer blue ; Hath crept along the river side. And trod the valleys through and through ! Recent additions to our garden flora have made such a difference that the flower garden in the autumn may be even more beautiful than that of the spring, rich as that is in flowering trees and shrubs. The use of half hardy, or bedding plants, which are often showy in autumn, gives a certain amount of colour which is very precious ; and the introduction of many beautiful hardy flowers gives us the means of making the autumnal garden very fine in colour effects. It would be easy to give the names of many things that are to be found in flower in gardens in autumn, but that is not nearly so im- portant as getting an idea of many of the nobler class of plants which may be effectively used at that time, no matter almost what the- season may be. Half hardy plants for the garden depend very much on the weather of the summer, and certain seasons are so much 240 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ■against them that they make no show ; but this cannot be said of the hardy flowers of nobler stature and beauty, which are so well fitted for our climate, like the many Sunflowers. Certain plants may ■depend for success on soil and situation, or even climate, even when they are hardy as the Fuchsia, which is so much better in the coast and west country gardens ; but, when everything is left out that wants any extra culture or advantages of climate and soil, there remain for every garden many beautiful things for the garden in the fall. Of those that can generally be trusted for our country, I should say that, of all the gains of the past generation, the brilliant groups of plants of the Sunflower order were the finest, handsomest, and most generally useful for their disregard of any weather likely to •occur. The masses of fine form and colour one may have with these when grouped in picturesque ways are remarkable. With the Sun- flowers are included not only the Helianthus strictly, of which there are so many good kinds now, but also other showy prairie flowers of the same natural order, which approach them in character, such as Rudbeckia, Silphium, Helenium, and other vigorous families of this numerous tribe of plants. The best character of many of these is that they thrive in any soil, and make their way in rough places and among shrubs, or in parts of gardens less precious than those we keep for our best flowers. For delicate and fine colour, however, the first place belongs to Tea and monthly Roses, of which the best kinds should always be grown in the open air. Of the kinds which open best in England, a •delightful garden may be made in autumn, in fine seasons enduring right to the end. Until quite recently no one trusted the Tea Rose ■out in bold masses in the flower garden, and hence the ordinary red Rose, not generally flowering late, was kept by itself A greater mistake could not be, because these most precious of all Roses (the Teas) go on blooming throughout the summer and autumn, and very •often they vary in bloom ; that is to say, the flowers of September will not be the same as the flowers of June, the buds also varying. So we have not only lovely Roses throughout the fine season, but also variety every week, every shower seeming to influence the bloom. There is such great variety among them that every week seems to give us a new aspect of beauty. In my own garden were planted several thousands of Tea Roses in this way, not only for their beauty, but also with a view of testing the kinds best for our country! Some kinds which are fine abroad do not open well with us, but a number of beautiful kinds do, and we have never seen any picture of garden beauty equal to theirs in such a fine autumn as that of 1895 We had thousands of blooms open until the end of September almost .as showy as bedding plants, but far more refined in colour frao-rance THE FLOWER GARDEN IN AUTUMN. 241 and everything that makes a plant precious. Almost the same thing may be said of the neglected monthly Roses, which have this charm of late flowering, in many cases even in cold northern districts. But the most precious, perhaps, of all flowers of autumn for all parts of the country, grouped in an artistic way, are the hardy Asters of the American woods, which lived for ages in our gardens in mean bundles tied up in mixed borders like besoms. The best of these massed and grouped among shrubs or young plantations of trees, covering the ground, give an effect new and delightful, the colour refined and charming, and the mass of bloom impressive in autumn. Some kinds come in flower in summer, but nearly all the loveliest Asters in colour flower in September and October, and no such good colours of the same shades have ever been seen in the flower garden. It is not only the Asters of America we have to consider, but the still more precious Asters of Europe, which, by their extraordinary beauty, make up for their rarity.. Professor Green, of California, who knows the American Aster well, on seeing here a plant of Aster acris, said, " We have none so beautiful as that." This is the Aster with the beautiful blue purple flower, which is so effective when massed. Under different names this plant is grown in nearly allied forms, some having specific names, enabling us to enjoy plants of different stature but the same high beauty, flowering at slightly different times, but always at their best in autumn. With these should be grouped the handsome large Italian Aster, which also has its half-a-dozen forms, not differing much, but precious for their variety, and among the prettiest plants ever seen in our gardens. It is none the less valuable because as easily cultivated as the common Balm of the kitchen garden. For the last two years I have had several thousand plants of these European Asters beneath a group of half-grown Fir, just as they might be in their wild state, but rather thicker, as the spot is a cultivated one, and have never had the same return of beauty from anything else. Be the weather what it may, the lovely blue and purple was a picture, and landscape painters came to paint the scene. The Sunflowers and Starworts we give the first place to because they are almost independent of soil or cool climates. Hardy as the Chrysanthemum is, the same cannot be said for it, because, as an outdoor flower, it must have a sandy soil and warm positions, and cool soils, even in southern England, are against it ; whereas in warm and free soils, like that at Hazlemere, one may see delightful results from the cottage Chrysanthemums, which are very pretty where they can be grown against low walls or palings. Other plants which are of the highest value in endurance and freedom of bloom are the Heaths of our own islands. Their effect is good, summer and winter ; but in R 242 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. autumn some of them flower in a pretty way, particularly the Cornish and the little Dorset Heath, and the Irish Heath in its purple and white forms. Among the half hardy plants of the garden perhaps the first place belongs to the Dahlia, which was always a showy autumn flower, but of late has become more precious through the beauty of what are called Border of Michaelmas Daisies (Munstead), Surrey. Cactus Dahlias, which are so much better in form and colour than the roundheaded Dahlias. The hardy Fuchsia is in the warmer and milder districts often very pretty in autumn, especially where it is free enough to make hedges and form large bushes ; but in cold and midland places the growth is often hindered by hard winters. Gladiolus is a splendid flower of the south, but coming more into a class of flowers requiring care, and if they do not get it soon disappearing, liable also to disease, and, on the whole, not so precious as showy. Nurserymen are raising THE FLOWER GARDEN IN AUTUMN 243 kinds of a hardier nature, but we have more precious flowers. The last few years have brought us magnificent varieties of the Cannas through the crossing of some wild species with the old hybrid kinds. Unfortunately, although in warm valleys and under special care here and there they do well, our country is not generally warm enough to show their fine form and colour as in France and Italy. Their use in pots is another matter. The addition of Lilies to our garden flora within the past generation has had a good effect on the autumn garden. Where the finer kinds are well grown, the varieties of the Japanese Lilies, with their delicate and varied colours, are splendid autumn flowers for the open air. The Anemones, usually flowers of the spring, come in some forms for the autumn garden, particularly the white and pink kinds. The handsome Bignonia, or trumpet creeper, is precious on all warm soils, but generally it has not done so well with us as in France. ■ Several kinds of Clematis come in well in autumn, particularly the yellow and the fragrant kinds. The Penstemons are handsome and very valuable in warm soils and districts where they may live out of doors in winter, but in London districts they are not so good. A splendid autumn flower is the Cardinal Flower, and happy should be those who can grow it well. It fails in many gardens in loamy soil, and where there is insufficiency of water, being a native of the bogs, and thriving best in moist and peaty soil. A number of fine varieties have been raised, and are brilliant in suitable soils ; but without these they are best left alone. The Torch Lilies are extremely effective in autumn, and in warm soils they are often among the handsomest things, but, not being northern plants, are unable to face a northern winter. Happily this is not so with the beautiful new Water Lilies raised by M. Latour Marliac, which are hardy in the open air, even with such weather as that of the early part of 1895. Though perhaps the best bloom comes in summer, they flower through the autumn, varying, like the Tea Rose, according to the weather, but interesting always up to the end of September. We should also name the Hollyhock which is, however, so liable to accident from disease, and those who care for it will do well to use seedling plants. Seedsmen are now saving seed of different colours which come fairly true. A handsome group of vigorous perennials for the autumn are the Polygonums. Some of the large kinds, such as the Japanese and Indian, are not showy, but massed picturesquely on margins of a wide lawn, and on pieces of stiff" soil which are useless in any garden sense, are effective for many weeks in autumn, as the flower is pretty, and the foliage of one kind is often fine in colour. I have three kinds of them massed together, growing like great weeds, namely, P. R 2 244 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. cuspidatum, sachalinense, and complexum, and a very soft and good effect they gave together in a rough hollow where no garden plants less vigorous than these would have grown. Thus we have a noble array before coming to some old flowers of autumn, the Meadow Saffrons or "autumn Crocuses," many of the common kind of which fleck the meadows in autumn. There are other kinds, too, which of recent years have been added in greater numbers to our gardens, some of them pretty, and the double kinds prettier than most double flowers. As they grow naturally in meadows, in turf is a delightful way to have them in gardens, though new and rare kinds should be grown in nursery beds until they are plentiful. They are not difficult to grow, and should often be placed in moist grassy places. Then there are the true autumn Crocuses, which are very little seen in gardens,, but are most delicate and lovely in colour. Coming for the- most part from sunny lands, they do best in light soils ; but some, like C. speciosus, grow in any soil, and all are worth grow- ing. Among the best is C. nudiflorus, naturalised in Britain, in colour one of the most lovely flowers. To get little pictures from such plants we must have them happy in grass or among dwarf plants, and on sunny banks and grassy corners of the lawn, or pleasure ground. In mid-October they have often taken away large areas of bedding plants in the London parks ; while, at the same time, there are many lovely hardy flowers in perfect bloom. No doubt severe frosts may destroy any kind of flower soon, but for those who live in the country in the autumn it is something to have bright colours and beautiful plants about them late, and these are afforded as well by the Starworts and other hardy plants in October, as the fairest flowers that come in June. When we have a severe September about London, many gardens of tender plants are shorn of their beauty, whereas, the hardy flowers go on quite untouched for a month or six weeks later, and not merely bloom as do heliotrope and geranium, in a fine autumn, but as the meadow flowers in summer, with vigour and perfect health. Therefore, it is clear that, whatever the charms of tender" plants may be for the summer, those who live in the country in autumn are unwise to trust to anything but the finer hardy plants. Thus, without touching on rarities or things difficult to grow, we have a handsome array of beauty for the autumn garden, even leaving out of the question the many shrubs and trees which are beautiful in foliage or fruit in autumn, and there are many of these in any well- stored garden. THE FLOWER GARDEN IN AUTUMN. 245 Some Hardy and Half-hardy Plants blooming m British gardens September-^ October. Abutilon Aconitum Agapanthus Ageratum Amaryllis Anagallis Anemone Arnebia Aster Berberidopsis Bignonia Brugmansia Calceolaria Campanula Canna Cassia Ce¬bus Celsia Ceiltaurea Chrysanthemum Clematis Colchicum Convolvulus Coreopsis Crocus Cuphea Cyclamen Dahlia Delphinium Desmodium Dianthus Diplacus Diplopappus Eccremocarpus Erica Escallonia Fuchsia Gaillardia Geum Gladioli Godetia Gypsophila Helenium Helianthus Heliotrope Hieracium Hollyhock Honeysuckle Hyacinthus Hypericum Iberis Impatiens Lantana Lauristinus Lavender Liatris Lilium Linaria Linum Lobelia Lonicera Lupin Lychnis Lythrum Magnolia Marigold Matthiola Mignonette Mimulus Montbretia Nicotiana Nigella CEnothera Snapdragon Pampas Grass Solanum Pansy Solidago Papaver Statice Pentstemon Strawberry Petunia Sweet Peas Phlox Sweet William Phygelius Telekia Physalis Trachelium Physostegia Tradescantia Plumbago Tritoma Polygonum Tritonia Prince's-feather Tropaeolum Pyrethrum Tuberose Rose Valerian Rudbeckia Venidium Salpiglossis Verbascum Salvia Verbena Scabious Veronica Sedum Viola Senecio Yucca Silene Zephyranthes Silphium Zinnia A Meadow Saffron Winter Jasmine. CHAPTER XIX. THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. The idea that winter is a doleful time for gardens must not be taken seriously even by those who only grow hardy things out of doors ; because between the colour of the stems and leaves of trees, or shrubs, .there is much beauty left, even in winter, and in mild winters good things venture to flower. Mr. Moore, of Dublin, wrote to me in midwinter : After a very open winter we have had a sharp snap of cold, and to-day (Jan. 20) it is blowing a bitterly cold storm from the east. To-day has opened Winter Sweet and Winter Honeysuckle ; Iris Stylosa, blue and white, Christmas Roses and Winter Heliotrope are beautiful ; in fact, I never saw them so good. But even where, owing to hard winters, we cannot enjoy our flowers in this way, there is much beauty to be had from trees and shrubs, evergreen and summer-leafing. Hitherto we have been all so busy in planting evergreens in heavy masses, that the beauty one may realise by using a far greater number of summer-leafing shrubs and fine herbaceous plants among the evergreens is not often seen. But gardens are too often bare of interest in winter, and some of the evil arises from the common error that plants are not worth seeing in winter. The old poet's wail about the dismal winter is a false one to those who have eyes for beauty. Woods are no less beautiful in winter than in summer — to some, more beautiful from THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. 247 the refined colour, tree form and the fine contrast of evergreen and summer-leafing trees. In any real garden in winter there is much beauty of form and colour, and there are many shrubs and trees which are beautiful in the depth of winter, like the Red and Yellow Willow and Dogwoods, and even the stems of hardy flowers (Polygonum) ; the foliage of many alpine plants (Epimedium) are not only good in colour, but some of these plants have their freshest hues in winter, as the mossy Rockfoils of many kinds. In the country garden, where there are healthy evergreens as well as flowering shrubs and hardy plants, how much beauty we see in winter, from the foliage of the Christmas Roses (Helleborus) to the evergreen Barberries ! The flower gardener should be the first to take notice of this beauty, and show that his domain as well as the wild wood, might be interesting at this season. For the dismal state of flower-gardens in winter the extravagant practice of our public gardens is partly to blame. A walk by the flower beds in Hyde Park on Christmas Day, 1895, was not a very enlivening thing. One by the bent-bound dunes of the foam-dashed northern shore, on the same stormy day, might be more instructive — for here is a large garden carried out with the very extravagance of opulence, and not one leaf, or shoot or plant, or bush in it from end to end ; giants' graves and earth puddings — these and iron rails and the line of planes behind. The bare beds follow each other with irritating monotony — only five feet of grass between those in line. The southern division of this garden is nearly 500 paces long, and so even that those not in the habit of seeing this costly garden may imagine its ill effect in winter. Nearly 500 yards of a garden sacrificed for its kaleidoscopic effects in summer, and barer and uglier in winter than words can tell of. A more inartistic arrangement would be impossible ; and there is no chance of variety, breadth, or repose even in summer. How are we to break up such an arid space as this in winter ? One of the best ways would be to group families of the choicest flowering shrubs, which would be worth having for their own sakes, and at the same time would give relief to the wintry waste of desolation. At present any relief is only to be obtained by carrying out, in early summer. Palms and Bamboos from the hot-house, which is a very expensive and poor way in a country like ours. In forming groups of the more beautiful flowering shrubs, I do not mean anything like the present brutal treatment of shrubs in the London squares, where the surface is dug, and the shrubs are trimmed like besoms, ending in frightful ugliness ; but each group of plants grown well by itself and let almost alone when once established. They would give relief in the summer; they often flower beautifully; and here and there 248 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. they might form dividing masses, so as to throw the unwieldy space into parts, which would help to secure variety and contrast. The result of planting and placing rightly well chosen hardy shrubs would be a good background here and there ; a smaller area to plant with summer things ; less dependence on such feeble examples of tropical plants as one can grow in Britain ; light and shade, and a variety of surface as well as more variety of plants and bushes ; in short, all the life of the garden, instead of a dead waste. And not only would the winter effect be improved, but the summer also. The objection that some shrubs do not flower long enough is not serious, as we have their beauty of form and leaf, and delicate green and other fine colour of foliage. Moreover, the tropical plants put out to relieve the flowering plants do not, many of them, flower at all, and do not give such good relief as hardy shrubs and choice trees. This is not a question of town or public gardens only, as it arises in many private places, and especially in large gardens, where much of the surface is given to half-hardy summer flowers. As to the common plan for getting rid of the winter bareness of such beds by evergreens and conifers in pots, it is impossible on a large scale, and sticking potted conifers in a flower-garden to drag them away in spring, is at best a very inartistic and very costly business. Some permanent way of breaking up the flatness is the best way ; and this way would enable us to limit the excessive area of ground to be planted with tender things, the real root of evil. Keep the Stems of Hardy Plants. — The stems of all her- baceous plants, reeds, and tall grasses in winter, are very good in colour, and should always be allowed to stand through the winter and not be cut down in the fidgety tidy way that is so common, sweeping away the stems in autumn and leaving the surface as bare and ugly as that round a besieged city. The same applies to the stems of all waterside and herbaceous plants, stems of plants in groups often giving beautiful brown colours in many fine shades. Those who know the plants can in this way identify them in winter as well as in summer — a great gain in changing one's plantings and in increasing or giving away plants. Moreover, the change to all these lovely browns and greys is a distinct gain as a lesson in colour to all who care for refined colour, and also in enabling us to get light and shade, contrasts and harmonies in colour. If these plants are grouped in a bold and at the same time picturesque way, the good of letting the stems remain will be far more evident than in the weak " dotty " way generally practised, the seed pods and dead flowers of many plants helping the picture. There is no need to remove any stem of an herbaceous plant until the spring comes and THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. 249 the growing shoots are ready to take the place of the brown and dead ones, which then may be cleared away. Evergreen Plants. — Apart from our evergreen shrubs, so happy as these are in many parts of the British Isles, there are the oft- neglected evergreen rock and herbaceous plants, such as Christmas Roses, Barrenworts, Heuchera, Alexandrian Laurel, the bolder evergreen ferns, and the large Indian Rockfoils, Saxifraga or Megasea. In early winter these fine evergreen plants become a deeper green, some forms getting red. They have been in our gardens for years, but are seldom made a right use of; thrown into borders without thought as to their habits, and soon forgotten or overshadowed by other things ; so that we never get any expression of their beauty or effect in masses or groups. Yet, if grouped in effective ways, they would go on for years, giving us fine evergreen foliage in winter. In addition to the wild kinds, a number of fine forms have been raised in gardens of late years. Some thought should be given to the placing of the large Rockfoils, their mountain character telling us that they ought to be on open banks, borders, or banky places exposed to the sun, and not buried among heaps of tall herbaceous and miscellaneous vegetation. They are so easily grown and increased that a little thought in placing them in visible masses is the only thing they call for ; and the fact that they will endure and thrive under almost any conditions should not prevent us from show- ing how fine they are in effect when held together in any bold way> either as carpets, bold edgings, or large picturesque groups on banks or rocks. The Alexandrian Laurel (Ruscus racemosus) is a most graceful plant, somewhat shrubby in character, with glossy dark green leaves and Willow-like shoots. It is most free and happy on peaty and friable soils, growing 3 feet or 4 feet high ; in winter the effect is very good, and it is valuable for the house, to give a graceful and distinct foliage to accompany various flowers at this season. It grows very well in Ireland on the limestone. In clay soils it may want a little encouragement, and it thrives well in partial shade. The Christmas Rose is a noble winter flower where well grown, and is lovely in its wild state in the foot-hills of the Alps, in Italy and countries near ; and, happily, it flowers in our gardens very well also, varying a little in its ways. The stout kind (H. maximus) flowers in the early winter in front of walls and in sheltered spots, and is hardy and free in ordinary soil. The true Christmas Rose (H. niger) is a little more particular ; it thrives much better on chalky and warm soils, and grows best on a northern aspect or shaded place ; and even in its own country the finest plants are found in places where it escapes the sun. These are true winter flowers ; but hardly less so are 250 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the Lenten Roses, or forms of the Oriental Hellebores. In the southern counties, five seasons out of six, no weather stops them from being fine in flower before the winter is past ; they often bloom in January and make a handsome show in February, and they are the finest of all flowers to end the winter. The Winter Heliotrope (Tussilago fragrans) is not to be despised, although it is a bad weed, and hard to get rid of The way to deal with it is to put it on some rubbish heap, or gravel bank, right away from the garden, where a handful of it may be gathered when wanted. The Algerian Iris flowers in warm sandy borders in the country around London, and in mild winters is a great treasure, not merely for its beauty in warm sheltered corners, but also its precious qualities for the house, in which the flowers, if cut in the bud state, open grace- fully if placed in basins in moss. In warm and sheltered gardens, on warm soils, others of the winter blooming Iris of the East may be grown, while in such gardens, in the south at least, the good culture of the sweet Violet will often be rewarded with many flowers in winter. A beautiful Italian Crocus (Imperati) often flowers in winter in the southern counties at least, as, where people take the trouble to get them, do C. Sieberi, Dalmaticus Etruscus, Suaveoleus and others. This habit of some of the winter flowers of the south of Italy and Mediterranean region to open in our green and open winters should be taken advantage of. The fate of these Crocuses is interfered with by the common field vole, and the common rat is also a great destroyer of the Crocus. Where these enemies do not prevail, and the soil favours these charming winter and early flowers, we can grow them, not only in the garden, but on the turf of sunny meadows and lawns in which these beautiful Crocuses will come up year after year in winter and early dawn of spring. Shrubs and Trees in the Winter Garden. — The Winter- sweet (Chimonanthus fragrans) is in bloom often before Christmas in the country around London, and every shoot full of fragrant buds opening oh the trees against south and west walls. It is invaluble both for the open garden and the house. The many bright berries which adorn our country, both in the wild land and in well-stored gardens, are rather things of the autumn ; and by mid-winter the birds are apt to clear them off" Wild Roses, Briers, Barberry, and Thorns, American as well as British. The Pyracantha, however, stays with us late ; and Hollies, Aucuba, Cotoneaster, Snowberry, and the pretty little hardy Pernettya, from the Straits of Magellan, which has broken into such variety of colour in our country, are among those that stay late. But, however the cheery berries may fail us in hard winters, the colour of the trees and bushes that bear them never does ; and the red and THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. 25' yellow Willow, Dogwood, Thorns, Alders, Birch, and many Aspens and Maples, give fine colour when massed or grouped in any visible way. Still more constant are the flowering shrubs of winter, where in sheltered gardens and warm valleys any attention is given to them — Winter Jasmine, Wintersweet, Winter Honeysuckles, Wych- Hazel, Japan Quince in many forms, Laurustinus, several Heaths, Ar- butus, at least one variety of Daphne Mezereon, the pale South- ern Clematis (Calycina) happy in our warmer gardens, Eleagnus, the Nepal Barberry, a Chinese Plum (P. Davidiana), and Garrya. The Winter Honeysuckles are a bit slow in some districts, and a better result is got from them on free soils, and from walls in sheltered corners, an immense difference re- sulting if we can have them near the sea, with its always genial in- fluence in favour of things from climates a little warmer than our own. In heavy soils in the inland country and around London the Laurustinus often comes to grief or fails to flower well, but has great beauty in seashore districts, and often on sandy and gravel soils is charming, even in inland places. The hardy and beautiful Winter Jasmine, which is so free on cottage walls and wherever it gets a chance, is most precious, owing to the way it opens in the house, especially if gathered in the bud state. If we have it in various aspects, such a contingency as the sun scorching the shoots after a frost and killing the flowers may be avoided, and Winter Sweet, drawn by H. G. Moon from shoots gathered at Gravetye New Year's Day, 1895. 252 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the flowers will come later. The plant is so free that, if the shoots are allowed to hang down, they root in the ground like twitch, and therefore it can be increased very easily, and should be seen in visible groups and lines, and not only on the house or on walls, as in the milder districts it forms pretty garlands and bushes in the open. I have a little oak fence covered with it, which is usually very pretty about Christmas. In mild winters its beauty is extraordinary out of doors, and in the hardest winters the buds will open in the house. And when the Dogwood has lost all its leaves and is a deep red by the lake, and the Cardinal Willow has nearly taken its winter colour, the dwarf autumn blooming Furze flowers far into winter, and is in perfect bloom on the drier ground, telling us of its high value where dwarf vegetation not over a yard high is desired. It is seen in abundance on many hills and moors, but is hardly ever planted by design. A good plant for all who care for low foreground vegetation, it may be planted like common furze, but by far the best way is to sow it in spring in any bare or recently broken ground. The Common Furze, too, of which the season of bloom is spring and mild winters, often flowers at Christmas ; odd plants here and there in the colonies of the plant bearing quite fresh flowers; and if from the nature of these native shrubs they do not find a place in the flower garden, there are few country places where they may not be worth growing not far from the house, in covert, or by drives or rough walks, as no plants do more to adorn the late autumn and winter. The hardy Heaths are excellent for the winter garden in their brown and grey tuftiness. The forms of the common Heather and the Cornish Heath are best for rough places outside the flower-garden, but some kinds of Heath are among the best plants for the choicest winter garden of the open air, particularly the Portuguese Heath (E. Codonodes), which in mild winters is of great beauty ; also a hybrid between the Alpine forest Heath (E. carnea) and the Mediter- ranean Heath, with the port and dense flowering habit of the Alpine Heath and the earlier bloom of the Mediterranean Heath. The Alpine forest Heath, the most precious of all hardy Heaths, often flowers in mild winters, and in all winters is full of its buds ready to open. So far we are speaking of districts where there are few advantages of climate ; if we include others there might be more flowers in the winter-garden, and many varied flowers are seen in gardens in the Isle of Wight, Isle of Man and many other favoured gardens not always confined to the southern parts of England and Ireland : the Cornish, Devon, South Wales or Cork Coasts being far more favour- able. From these places Roses, Indian Daphne, and many other flowers, have often been sent to me in perfect bloom in January. THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. 2S3 And if the snow shrouds the land, all's well, as the leaves of ever- green plants, like Carnations, are at rest in it, and some plants are all the better for the peace of the snow for a time. And even if our eyes are not open to the beauty of the winter let us make the flower-garden a real one for spring, summer and fall, as if it were true that in winter The year On the earth her deathbed, in a shroud of leaves dead, Is lying. But it is not true : there is in winter no death, every root works and every bud is active with life ; the wooded land is tender with colour : — Alders by the busy wintry stream and Birch on the airy hill, Reeds fine in colour round the lake or marsh, and if even our wild marsh or rough woodland be beautiful in winter, our gardens, with the flora of three continents to gather from, should not then be poor in beauty. No 1 Winter, you are not a time of death, but of happy strife for plants and men. Until Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air). With living hues and odours plain and hill : Hazel catkins. From a drawing by H. G. Moon. CHAPTER XX. WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. It is not only from the mountain's breast, dyed with Violet and Gentian, the Sunflower-strewn prairie of the north, or the sunny fields where Proserpine gathered flowers, that our garden flora comes. River and stream are often fringed with handsome plants, and little fleets of Water Lily — silvery fleets they look as one sees them from the bank — sail on the lakelets far away in North America and Asia, even where the water is solid ice in winter. One need not go so far to see beautiful plants, as our own country rivers and back-waters of rivers possess many. Our gardens are often made about towns where there are few chances of seeing our native water plants, but by the back-waters of rivers and by streams in many situations, and by lakes like the Norfolk Broads one may often see as handsome plants in these places, and also in the open marsh land, as in any garden, and some that we do not often see happy in gardens, such as the Frogbit, the Bladderwort, and Water Soldier. Where, as often is -the case in artificially made ponds, the margin of the water is not the rich deep soil that we have by the Broads and by the sides of rivers, which themselves carry down deep beds of rich soil, a good way is to put the mud which we take out of the pond around its sides a little above and below the water line. This will encourage a rich growth of such Reeds as are found beside natural waters. Water with a hard, naked, beaten edge and little or no vegetation is not good to look at, and a margin of rich living plants is better for fish and game as well as for effect. The waterside plants one may establish in that way are worth having and give good cover for duck. Perhaps the most beautiful of all water gardens are the river and stream gardens, as their form is so much better than anything we can make and the vegetation is often good even without care. With a little thought we can make it much more so, and in our river- seamed land there are so many charming opportunities for water- garden pictures. I < g I o >> M .tt 2S6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Waterside Plants. — The water-margin offers to lovers of hardy flowers a site easily made into a fair garden. Hitherto we have used in such places aquatic plants only, and of these usually a very meagre selection ; while the improvement of the waterside may be most readily effected by planting the banks near with vigorous hardy flowers, as many of the finest plants, from Irises to Globe Flowers, thrive in moist soil. Bank plants have this advantage over water plants that we can fix their position, whereas water plants spread so much that some kinds over-run others. The repeating of a favourite plant at intervals would mar all ; groups of free hardy things would be best : Day Lilies, Meadow Sweets, tall Irises, which love wet places ; Gunnera, American swamp Lilies in peaty soil, the rosy Loosestrife, Golden Rods, Starworts, the Compass plants, Monkshoods, giant Knotworts, Moon Daisies, the Cardinal Flower, the common Lupine — these are some of many types of hardy flowers which would grow freely near the waterside. With these hardy plants, too, a variety of the nobler hardy Ferns, such as the Royal Ferns and Feather Ferns, would associate well. Water Plants of northern and temperate regions, associated with our native water plants, add much beauty to a garden. If the soil be rich, we usually see the same monotonous vegetation all round the margin of the water, and where the bottom is of gravel there is often little vegetation, only an unbroken, ugly line of washed earth. A group of Water Lily is beautiful, but Water Lilies lose their charm when they spread over the whole of a piece of water, and •even waterfowl cannot make their way through them. The Yellow Water Lily (Nuphar lutea), though less beautiful, is well worthy of a place, and so is the large N. advena (a native of America), which pushes its leaves above the water. The American White Water Lilies (Nymphaea odorata and N. tuberosa) are hardy and beautiful, and of recent years much beauty has been given our water plants in the hybrid hardy Water Lilies raised by M. Latour-Marliac, who has added the large and noble forms and the lovely colour of the Eastern Water Lilies to the garden waters of northern countries. The splendid beauty of these plants should lead people to think of artistic ways of planting garden waters. Our native Water Lily was always neglected and rarely effective, except in a wild state • but when people see that they may have in Britain the soft yellow and rose and- red flowers of the tropical Water Lilies throughout summer and autumn, they may take interest in water gardens, and even the wretched duck ponds which disfigure so many country seats will begin at last to have a reason to be. The change should be the means of leading us to think more of the many noble flowers and fine leaved plants of the water-side, apart from Water Lilies. The WATEH GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 257 new hybrid kinds continue blooming long after our native kind has ceased, and from the middle of May to nearly the end of October flowers are abundant. For many years, pond, streamlet, and lake to a very considerable extent were left very much to themselves, with scarce a thought bestowed upon them or the plants for beautifying their surface or margin. In a large London nursery nearly twenty-five years ago, where a very large and, perhaps, complete collection of water plants existed, I was surprised to find that so very few aquatic plants should be required year after year ; so few, indeed, that the cost of maintain- ing the whole was barely met. This was most discouraging, because even water plants, where a representative collection is grown, cannot Pond at Enys, Cornwall. From a photograph sent by Mr. F. W. Meyer, Exeter. receive the necessary space for their free growth in a nursery. This was even so in the case of that lovely and fragrant Cape Pond Flower (Aponogeton), that, seeding in such abundance, was floated hither and thither in thousands, and in consequence had to be kept in check. The rapid increase of this plant, however, is by no means common ; indeed, many instances are known where it cannot be induced to flourish in the open. But in the nursery referred to, by reason of the quantity and size of the plants, flowers of this Apono- geton were gathered the greater part of the year, in the wintry season even its flowers floating on the surface by hundreds. The water in this instance, supplied from an artesian spring, contributed to the success of the plant, as also its freedom of flowering. Gradually, s 2S8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. however, the aquatics are coming to the front, and an altogether fresh impetus, as well as a great one, has resulted from the introduction of the many charming new hybrid Nymphaeas which are fast making their appearance in some of the best-known gardens. As yet many of these hybrids are scarce, and care will be needed, and possibly protection required, on the larger pieces of ornamental water where water-fowl are encouraged. In planting these choicer kinds, some precaution is necessary when sinking them into their places. Very deep water is not essential, but if the pond be an artificial one, it will be found a good plan to take a few bags of heavy loamy soil to the spot by means of a punt and empty the soil over the side. Then the plant itself, well fixed by wire to the side of a basket already filled with similar soil, should be gradually lowered on to the mound of soil already deposited. In the natural lake no soil will be needed before sinking the plant in position, though similar means may be used to lower the plant, which will quickly take to the accumulation of earth and leaves that years have deposited. Many of the most lovely of aquatics may be grown with considerable success even where neither pond, lake, rivulet, nor ornamental water is found, some very good results having been derived by growing them in tanks 2 feet or 3 feet deep into which a depth of some 1 2 inches of clay earth has been placed. The recent hybrids are well worthy of attention in this way, and if a fair-sized tank be made and so placed that it will catch the rain water, so much the better for the plants. In this way also fountain basins on the terrace garden may be made to do some service. Besides the hybrid Nymphseas, such places are well suited if the water be fairly deep for such things as Orontium aquaticum, the Pontederias, and Arrowheads, all of which are perfectly hardy with their crowns 8 inches or 10 inches below the surface of the water, while Thalia dealbata, a rarely seen plant from Carolina, is quite safe with similar treatment. Indeed, it is to be regretted that this handsome plant is not more frequently seen in the water where its handsome leaves and heads of purple blossoms are very showy, but our country is too cool to show its fine form and stature. Forming the Water Garden. — Fortunate indeed are those through whose grounds runs a brook or streamlet. As a great many of our most effective and most graceful hardy plants can be grown either in the water itself or in the moisture-laden margin of a pond or brook, it is surprising that more advantage is not taken of this fact when the opportunity occurs. Even where natural ponds exist it frequently happens that the banks of the pond, as well as the water itself, are either perfectly bare, or are covered only by the rankest weeds. The ponds chiefly considered here are those mostly formed. WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 259 without cement, by natural flooding from a brook, streamlet or river. If the water supply is abundant and continuous, it matters little whether a portion of the water is wasted by percolating the sides of the pond, but when only a small supply can be had, the bottom and sides of the pond must be either concreted or puddled with clay. It often happens that when the excavations for a pond are completed, the bottom is found to consist of impervious clay, but the sides consist of ordinary soil, which would allow a large portion of the water to waste. In such cases the best way out of the difficulty is the cutting of a narrow trench, say i8 inches wide, to a depth a little beyond the surface of the natural clay subsoil. This trench, which should skirt the whole pond at some little distance from the actual Riverside plants in front of an old manor — Levens. edge of the water, is then filled with clay " puddle " till just above the water-line and forms an effective remedy against waste, while the watfer-soaked soil between the trench and the actual outline of the pond forms an excellent home for all kinds of marsh plants of the bolder type. The outline of a pond is of the utmost importance. Regular curves of circles or ovals are utterly out of place and look ridiculous in a landscape with irregular and naturally undulating ground. In order to be effective, the outline of the pond must not only be irregular, but it must be also in accordance with the laws of Nature, and as in most cases the natural pond or lake is merely an expanded stream or river, we must look to the shore-lines of the latter for guidance in the forming of artificial ponds. In a natural stream the curves are mostly due to the water meeting with some S 2 26o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. obstacle which caused a deviation in its course. We find invariably that where a promontory, a projecting rock, or some other obstacle caused an alteration in the course of the water, the latter is thrown against the opposite bank with greater force, and unless the ground be very hard a good portion of it is washed away by the force, and an extended recess is the natural result. In the same way an irregular pond to look natural should have the largest and boldest recesses opposite or nearly opposite the largest promontory on the other side. The shore-line should not terminate abruptly, but should form a slope continued below the water level. In planting the shore of a pond or lake it is the ground which projects into the water which should be furnished with the largest and boldest plants. This is not only perfectly natural, but has also the effeot of partially concealing some of the recesses of the water. A pond thus treated will appear larger than it really is, and a walk around the shore-line will reveal fresh surprises with every step. Aquatics. — Of all plants suitable for the water garden, none can surpass the Nymphaeas now that we have a variety of shades of colour undreamt of a few years ago. The delicate pink Nymphsea Marliacea carnea and the yellow N. M. Chromatella seem to make the most rapid progress in English water gardens, while the white Nymphsea pygmsea alba and the yellow N. p. Helvola are the Liliputians of the race. Perhaps the most exquisite of the newer kinds are N. M. Seignoretti (which is red, shaded with orange). N. M. Robinsoni and the deep carmine N. M. ignea. A little less expensive is the large deep red N. Laydekeri lilacea, while the following are now to be got : N. Laydekeri rosea, deep rose, changing to carmine ; N. odorata exquisita, rosy carmine ; N. o. rosacea, tender rose shade ; N. o. rubra, deep rose, and N. odorata sulphurea, deep yellow. Nuphar advena should not be used except in places where there is plenty of room, when, as shown in the picture, even the leaves alone produce a bold effect. The same might be said of our native Water Lilies, Nymphaea alba and Nuphar lutea. Stratiotes aloides (popularly known as the Water Soldier) is attractive, not so much for its flowers as for its long leaves, which form a striking contrast to other aquatics. Villarsia Humboldtiana and the native Villarsia nymhpaeoides, with its small round leaves and yellow flowers, form a good contrast to plants of a bolder type. Another interesting aquatic is Vallisneria spiralis, with very long, narrow leaves and small white flowers floatihg on the surface of the water. Aquatics for Shallow Water.— The common Sweet Flag (Acorus Calamus), the Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus), and the Bulrush or Reed Mace (Typha latifolia) are bold as well as graceful objects in shallow water, especially in a large lake, but in ponds WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 261 of only moderate size they should be used with caution, or they would soon shut out Nymphseas and other aquatics whose leaves and flowers float on the water. Much less robust in their growth are Typha angustifolia and T. minima. Very striking, too, are the arrow-shaped leaves and white spikes of blossom of Sagittaria sagittaefolia and the Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata). The flowers of the latter are very sweet-scented and arranged in racemes ; they are beautifully fringed, pure white, slightly tinged with pink outside. This also must be kept in check to prevent injury to other aquatics. A handsome American aquatic, quite hardy in shallow water, is Pontederia cordata, with handsome spikes of blue flowers and almost erect leaves on long stalks about 18 inches or more in height. The Natural grouping of waterside plants. From a photograph engraved by M. Louis Kropatsch, Imperial Gardens, Vienna. Bog Arum (Calla palustris), though only about 9 inches high, when planted in groups is most effective. The well-known Arum Lily (Calla aethiopica) may — in the west and south of England at all events — also be used as an aquatic for shallow water. Though a severe winter will cut it down, the roots below the surface of the water will push forth new leaves and flowers in great profusion. At Trelissick, near Truro, the pond was skated on for several weeks, and 16° and 18° of frost were registered during the severe winter two years ago, but in the following spring many thousands of Arum Lilies were cut from the very same pond. Margins of Water. — The water-soaked margins of our ponds and brooks would furnish a home for many graceful fine-foliaged and 262 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. flowering plants. One of the noblest of our plants with large leaves delighting in such a position is Gunnera manicata. Gunnera scabra also likes a similar position, but its leaves seldom attain a diameter of more than 5 feet, while Gunnera magellanica is quite a pigmy. Rheum Emodi from the Himalayas, Rheum palmatum from Northern Asia, and the Siberian Rheum undulatum are also effective plants for the waterside. Of an entirely different type are the noble Arundo donax and its variegated variety. In the south-west of England they are, as a rule, hardy without protection, and their elegant grace is most striking. The Pampas Grass (Gynerium argenteum) and its early-flowering companion, Arundo conspicua, from New Zealand, may also be mentioned as graceful plants for the waterside. Much dwarfer, but also effective, is the deciduous grass,' Elymus glauco- phyllus, with broad glaucous foliage contrasting well with the fine deep green foliage of Carex pendula or the still finer Carex riparia and its variegated form. Cyperus longus is another suitable com- panion from the same family. Juncus effusus spiralis, with its stems twisted like corkscrews, is perhaps more curious than pretty, but Acorus gramineus variegatus and Juncus zebrinus have an uncommon as well as a pretty effect in consequence of their variegated leaves. The plants just mentioned as suitable for the waterside are valued mostly on account of their foliage. But among flowering plants also handsome varieties may be found that might with great advantage be used for decoration at the waterside much oftener than is at present the case. Few things are brighter than the brilliant purple flowers of Lythrum salicaria var. roseum superbum, or the large yellow flowers of Inula Helenium and Telekia speciosissima. Groups of Iris Kasmpferi and the well-known Iris germanica, also look exceed- ingly well on the margin of a pond, and the "flowering" Fern (Osmunda regalis) delights in that position. Senecio japonica grows really well only when its roots can find abundance of moisture ; its large deeply-cut leaves are as handsome as its deep yellow flowers, 4 inches across, and borne on a stem 3 feet to 4 feet high. A similar position is required by Spirsea glgantea, which bears its flowers on stems S feet to 6 feet above the ground. Spiraea Aruncus, though not so tall, is, nevertheless, most suitable, as are also its smaller, but still more handsome companions, Spiraea palmata, S. alba, S. astil- boides, and Astilbe rivularis. Very bright and effective, too, in such a position are Chelone barbata and Lyoni, and the Globe Flowers (Trollius) show by the waterside a vigour they do not develop else- where. This might also be said of the double Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris fl.-pl.) and of several varieties of HemerocalHs. For a Shady Nook by the waterside we are by no means limited to Ferns. It is in such a position Primula japonica and sik- WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 263 kimensis delight. Here also the blue Himalayan Poppy (Meconopsis Wallichi), the tall yellow Gentian (Gentiana lutea), and the bright blue Mertensia virginica will flourish as well as Saxifraga peltata, Sanguinaria canadensis, Podophyllum Emodi, the handsome P. pel- tatum, and Rodgersia podophylla, while Trillium grandiflorum and Solomon's Seal will be at their best. There is, no doubt, a number of other suitable plants for the water garden, especially if we include the plants generally known as bog plants, which, however, are per- haps more suitable for the bog bed of a rock garden than the bolder margins of ponds or lakes, but enough plants have been enumerated to show that we have a great variety to pick from, and that certainly there is a great future for the water garden. — F. W. Meyer, Elmside, Exeter. It is now some fifteen or sixteen years since I planted the common white Water Lily in the pond here. Noting how well it grew, I was induced to try the pink or rose-coloured form of it which had been introduced from Norway — i.e., Nymphaea alba var. rosea. Finding, too, that this was thriving, I further extended the Lily culture by the addition of a dozen more varieties and species. Of these I have only lost N. flava, and that occurred during the severe frost of 1894-95. All that I gave in the way of protection then was laying a few mats upon the ice when it was sufficiently strong to bear one's weight, and that small amount of protection was more in the form of a prevent- ive against any skaters running over them where the ice was none too strong, and possibly cause injury should it have given way. Dur- ing that winter the ice was unusually thick ; so much so here must it have been as to almost, if not quite, reach the Lily roots, the depth of water over them then being only about 1 2 inches. No better test of their hardiness is, I think, needed than this, save in the case of N. flava. Last spring I added N. Robinsoni, the present winter being of course its first test, but of its hardiness I have not the slightest doubt. In addition to the foregoing I have three of the pigmy varieties, which, with a distinct form of the common white from Norway, make in all eighteen kinds or varieties. In the spring, when I added the twelve varieties (chiefly those of M. Latour-Marliac's raising), these being small tubers, I com- menced by putting them carefully into soil in large-sized punnets, the entire dozen coming to hand in one parcel by post. I mention this so that some idea may be formed of the then size of the tubers compared with the present time. During the summer of 1894 they grew well, making steady progress, and towards the autumn a few flowers appeared on the strongest plants. The following summer {Le., 1895) a most marked progress was made, the stronger-growing kinds beginning to give some indications of their true character, 264 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. whilst the flowering period was well prolonged and a considerable number of flowers produced. Seeing that more room was essential for their perfect development, I decided to provide for this by care- fully lifting the plants last spring when the first indications of growth were visible. This operation was performed about two years from the time of first planting them, but so well had they rooted in the case of the strong growing kinds, that it took three men to lift them with digging forks, several of the roots being as large as one's fingers and of considerable length. These came up with good balls, and were immediately transferred to large circular baskets which had been half- filled with good loam and leaf-soil, a few handfuls of bone-meal being allotted to each basket according to its size. When the roots were carefully spread out more soil was added to fill each basket, which was at once sunk again into the water, but at a greater distance apart than in the first instance. This time the strongest were placed at some 10 feet or so from each other, but lean see already, after only one more year's growth that they will require more room even than this. These plants were sunk in about 1 8 inches of water this time in order to be more in accord with their growth. The more moderate growers were arranged in front of these and in about 12 inches of water. No apparent check ensued even at the first, for they grew away most vigorously, and in most cases have flowered as profusely. By the autumn the strongest clumps were fully 6 feet across, and this season I shall not be surprised if they touch each other. The lake has a fair quantity of mud in it, about 6 inches perhaps where the plants are at present, the bottom being puddled with clay. The supply of water is from a spring which continuously discharges into the lake. These fine water plants as grown and bloomed here are singularly beautiful and effective ; either one or another is always producing the distinct and pleasing flowers. The flowers remain open, too, for a prolonged period each day, either one or another being in good condition from 9 a.m. to nearly dusk when the weather is bright. On more than one occasion I have also noted how beautiful they have been during showery weather ; the water then being clear added to their beauty, the flowers glistening and sparkling like diamonds when under a brilliant light. When seen in this state, scarcely any- thing in the way of flowers could be more beautiful. — Jas. HUDSON, Gunnersbury House, Acton. Arum Lilies as Aquatics in Britain.— Whether or not the common Arum (Richardia aethiopica) is naturally an aquatic it may be taken as proved that it is at least amphibious, as a friend of mine has for years past grown Arum Lilies in a fresh water lake by the banks of the river Fal within 20 feet of salt water, and his success has been WATER GARDENS BY VARIOUS WATER GARDENERS. 26 great, as may be imagined when I say that the plants now form a broad margin to a portion of the lalte about 300 yards in length and vary- ing in width from i yard to 3 yards. The flowers on this belt open, at one time in June last, were estimated at 10,000, and the annual number is not less than 50,000. After a mild winter, such as that of 1895-96, cutting commences in February; by Easter the number of flowers is immense, and their production is continued to the end of September. The hardiness of the plants was well tested in the winter of 1894-95, when ice sufficiently thick to be skated on was ■ formed on the lake, but this only served to check and not to destroy any of the plants, the check on those plants with crowns near the surface being sufficiently severe to prove that a good depth of water over the crowns is safest. The method adopted for planting is simple enough and involves but little labour. Plants which have been forced are taken direct to the water, carried in a boat to the position selected, and then simply dropped overboard, after which they soon commence to root freely in the pond mud. A large waggon-load was treated in this way last year, and this represents about the usual rate of annual increase by new plantings. The position chosen for the Arums by the lake-side is a sunny, but well-sheltered one, and here the plants revel to such a degree as to have induced owners of other estates in Cornwall to plant largely on the same lines, with, of course, greater climatic advantages than can be found in the country at large. But does not the proved well-doing of the plants in water 2 feet deep open up possibilities for their cultivation in colder climes ? — J. C. Tallack, Livermere. Enemies. — Many water plants will grow almost anywhere and bid defiance to game or rats, but the newer and rarer Water Lilies are worth looking after, as they will not show half their beauty if\ they are subjected to the attacks of certain water animals. They may, indeed, when young be easily exterminated by them, and even when old and established the common water rat destroys the flowers, and, taking them to the bank, eats them at its leisure, and I have often found the remains of half a dozen fine flowers in one spot. When the plants are small, the attacks of the common moorhen and other water- fowl may mean all the difference between life and death to a Water Lily. Perhaps, therefore, the first thing to be done in establishing these plants is to put them in some small pond apart from the rougher water-side plants, and especially where they will be safe from the attacks of the water rat and other creatures which cannot be kept out of ponds fed by streamlets. By these and river banks or back-waters water rats are hard to destroy, and guns, traps, ferrets, or any other means must be used. The common brown rat is not so fond of 266 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. these flowers as the true water rat, but it is so destructive to every- thing else, that it is essential to destroy it at the same time, as it often abounds near water. The water or moorhen is continuously destructive to all the Water Lilies, pecking at the flowers until mere shreds are left, and no one can fairly judge of the rare beauty of these plants where these birds are not kept down. Starworts by the side of a mill-stream (Glan Alyn, North Wales). CHAPTER XXI. THE BOG GARDEN. The bog garden is a home for the numerous children of the wild that will not thrive on our harsh, bare, and dry garden borders, but thrive cushioned on moss or in moist peat soil. Many beautiful plants, like the Wind Gentian and Creeping Harebell, grow on our own bogs and marshes, much as these are now encroached upon. But even those who know our own bogs have, as a rule, little notion of the multitude of charming plants, natives of northern and temperate countries, whose home is the open marsh or bog. In our own country we have been so long encroaching upon the bogs and wastes that some of us come to regard bogs and wastes as exceptional tracts all over the world, but when we travel in new countries in northern climes we soon learn what a vast extent of the world's surface was once covered with bogs. In North America, even by the margins of the railways, one sees, day after day, the vivid blooms of the Cardinal-flower springing erect from the wet peaty hollows ; and far under the shady woods stretch the black bog pools, the ground between being so shaky that you move a few steps with difficulty. And where the woody vegetation disappears the Pitcher-plant (Sarracenia), Golden Club (Orontium), Water Arum (Calla palustris), and a host of other handsome bog plants cover the ground for hundreds of acres, with perhaps an occasional slender bush of Laurel Magnolia (Magnolia glauca) among them. In some parts of Canada, where the painfully long and straight roads are often made through woody swamps, and where the few scattered and poor habitations offer little to cheer the traveller, a lover of plants will find beside the road conservatories of beauty in the ditches and pools of black water fringed with a profusion of stately ferns, and bog and water bushes. Southwards and seawards, the bog flowers, like the splendid kinds of herbaceous Hibiscus, become tropical in size and brilliancy, while far north and west and south along the mountains grows the 268 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. queen of the peat bog — the beautiful and showy Mocassin-flower (Cypripedium spectabile). Then in California, all along the Sierras, a number of delicate little annual plants continue to grow in small mountain bogs long after the plains are quite parched, and annual vegetation has quite disappeared from them. But who shall record the beauty and interest of the flowers of the wide-spreading marsh- lands of this globe of ours, from those in the vast wet woods of America, dark and brown, hidden from the sunbeams, to the little bogs of the high Alps, far above the woods, where the ground often teems with Nature's most brilliant flowers ? No one worthily ; for many mountain-swamp regions are as yet little known to us. One thing, however, we may gather from our small experience — that many plants commonly termed " alpine," and found on high Mocassin-flower in rocky bog. mountains, are true bog plants. This must be clear to any one who has seen our pretty Bird's-eye Primrose in the wet mountain-side bogs of Westmoreland, or the Bavarian Gentian in the spongy soil by alpine rivulets. In many country seats there are spots that with a little care can be made into pretty bog gardens. Where there are no natural sites a bog garden may be made by forming a basin of brickwork and Portland cement, about one foot in depth ; the bottom may be either concreted or paved with tiles laid in cement, and the whole must be made water-tight ; an orifice should be made in the side, at the height of 6 inches, to carry off the surplus water, and another in the bottom at the lowest point, with a cork, or, better still, with a brass, plug valve to close it. Five or six inches of stones and bricks are THE BOG GARDEN. 269 to be first laid in, and the whole must be filled with good peat soil, the surface being raised into uneven banks and hillocks, with large pieces of sandstone imbedded in it, so as to afford drier and wetter spots. The size and form of this garden may be varied at discretion ; it should be in an exposed situation ; the back may be raised with a rocky bank of stones imbedded in peat, and the moisture, ascending by capillary action, will make the position a charming one for Ferns and numberless other peat-loving plants. It is in every way desirable that a small trickle of water should constantly flow through the bog ; ten or twelve gallons daily will be sufficient, but if this cannot be arranged it may be kept filled by hand. Such a bog may be bordered by a very low wall of flints or stones, built with mortar, diluted with half its bulk of road-sand and leaf-mould, and having a little earth on the top ; the moisture will soon cause this to be covered with moss, and Ferns and all kinds of wall-plants will thrive on it. Where space will permit, a much larger area may be converted into bog and rockwork intermingled, the surface being raised or depressed at various parts, so as to afford stations for more or less moisture-loving plants. Large stones should be freely used on the surface, so as to form mossy stepping-stones ; and many plants will thrive better in the chinks between the stones than on the surface of the peat. It is not necessary to render water-tight the whole of such a large area. A channel of water about 6 inches deep, with drain- pipes and bricks at the bottom, may be led to and fro or branched over the surface, the bends or branches being about 3 feet apart. The whole, when covered with peat, will form an admirable bog, the spaces between the channels forming drier portions, in which various plants will thrive vigorously. Perhaps the best place for an artificial bog is on sloping ground. The water flows in at the top, and the surface must be rendered water-tight with Portland cement or concrete. Contour or level lines should then be traced on the whole surface at distances of about 3 feet apart, and a ridge, two bricks in height, should be cemented along each of the horizontal lines. These ridges, which must be perfectly level, serve to hold the water, and the surplus escapes over the top to the next lower level. Two-inch drain tiles, covered with coarse stones, should be laid along each ridge to keep the channel open, and a foot of peat should be thrown over the whole. Before adding the peat, ridges may be built on the surface, the stones being built together with peat in the interstices. These ridges need not follow the horizontal lines. The positions thus formed are adapted both to grow and to display Ferns and alpine bog plants to advantage. 2yo THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Perhaps the most charming plants to commence with are our own native bog plants — Pinguicula, Drosera, Parnassia, Menyanthes, Viola palustris, Anagallis tenella, Narthecium, Osmunda, Lastrea Oreopteris, Thelypteris spinulosa, and other Ferns ; Sibthorpia europsea, Linnaea borealis, Primula farinosa, Campanula hederacea, Chrysosplenium alternifolium and oppositifolium ; Saxifraga Hirculus, aizoides, stel- laris, Caltha, and Marsh Orchises. These, and a host of plants from our marshes and the summits of our higher mountains, will flourish as freely as in their native habitats, and may all be grown in a few Cyprifedinm. Trillium. Sarracenia, A bog garden. Helonias. Pinguicula. square feet of bog ; while Rhododendrons, Kalmias, dwarf Ferns, and Sedges will serve for the bolder features. One of the great charms of the bog garden is that everything thrives and multiplies in it, and nothing droops or dies, but the real difficulty is to prevent the stronger plants from overgrowing, and eventually destroying, the weaker. A small pool of water filled with water plants is a charming addition to the bog garden. The only precaution needed is to destroy the weeds before they gain strength— a single plant of Sheep Rot (Hydrocotyle), for example, would smother and ruin the entire bog in a season.— Latimer Clark. THE BOG GARDEN. In the bog garden many of our most beautiful plants, which in a summer like that of 1895 have been languishing for moisture in the borders, may be grown to perfection surpassing in beauty all our former impressions of them. Of primary importance, of course, is the position, and where this is naturally of a moist, boggy or swampy character, matters will be much simplified. We will assume there is such a spot at disposal, a swampy, treacherous, and, as we are wont to regard it, useless piece of land, under water the greater part of the year. Such a spot will be sure of its crop of naturally water-loving plants, such as Rushes, Sedges, or the like, and the first care must be to root them out one and all. In doing so, be careful that 12 inches or so of the margin be overhauled, as in all probability there will be here roots and seeds of all these wildlings. According to the nature of the boggy piece and also the depth of the water, it may be necessary for cleansing the ground to cut a deep trench and allow the water to pass away, as, without the moisture, the whole is much more convenient for preparation, and roots are more readily eradicated. The ground thoroughly cleansed at the outset attention should next be directed to the soil. This may be variable, according to the variety of plants it is intended to introduce. For instance, strong growing subjects like the Astilbes and Meadow Sweets are all at home in a fairly stiff and moist soil. On the other hand. Iris KEcmpferi, Trilliums, Cypripediums, Lilium pardalinum, L. superbum, and other such things have a decided preference for soil of a vegetable character, such as peat, leaves, and the like. These latter, again, have a preference for the drier parts of the bed, while such as the Calthas and Menyanthes trifoliata revel in wet mud. To meet the varied degrees of moisture which the plants prefer will be quite an easy matter in an artificially constructed bog by the adoption of an undulating surface throughout. Slightly raised mounds are by far the most convenient, and certainly the most economical, way of providing for the greatest number of plants. Formation. — The shape, of course, should be irregular, and, unless a depression of the whole exists, let this receive the next attention, and in such a way that the highest part will be 9 inches below the average surrounding soil. The paths should next be dealt with, excavating these nearly a foot deep in the central parts and gradually rising at the entrances. The soil taken from the paths may, if good, be used to form the raised beds for the planting of moisture-loving plants, such as are content if their roots only reach water. The sides of these beds may need rough support, such as rude sandstone blocks, to keep the soil in its place. These, or similar things, may also form stepping-stones in the wetter parts, as by this means the plants may be viewed without inconvenience. Beds of various sizes will be needed in proportion to the kind of plants that shall hereafter occupy them. For instance, the sloping banks at the edge, which may also take the form of a slightly projecting mound, would constitute excellent positions for some of the hardy Bamboos. Similar opportunities may occur at intervals throughout the margin for planting with such things as Acanthus, Yuccas, Eulalias, Astilbe rivularis, Spirrea Aruncus, Bocconia cordata, and others of similar proportions, while the lower slopes and depressions between these would make excellent places for Osmunda regalis, Lilium giganteum, L. pardalinum, L. canadense, and L. superbum in peaty beds. The latter three of these are really swamp-loving by nature, and it is scarcely possible to see them in anything approaching perfection elsewhere. In the moisture so close at hand such things simply revel, and the owner of them may for years see them towering far above his head in their day of flowering — a picture of health and beauty: With such things it should always be borne in mind that constant saturation is not absolutely essential, though, indeed, they receive it more or less in their native habitats. 272 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Where space for bog gardens is limited, a very charming carpet to the Lilies just named would be the Wood Lily of North America (Trillium grandiflorum). The two things may be planted or replanted at the same season when necessity arises. The Trillium, moreover, would come in spring-time and would protect the growth of the Lilium against our late spring frosts. For the Liliums a foot deep of peat, leaf-soil, and turf, with sharp river grit, would form a good bed, and with a mulch each year of leaf-soil and a little very rotten manure would serve them for many years. It may surprise many to know that under such conditions these Trilliums would in a few years, if left alone, attain to nearly 2 feet and be lovely in the size and purity of their flowers. In another of these depressions Cypripedium spectabile could easily be established, or a bed may be devoted to the more showy hardy species, giving 6 inches of peat or more, with leaf-soil added. The species named is rather late in sending up its growth, and affords plenty of time for a carpet of Trillium to flower before much headway is made. Other beautiful carpeting plants for these would be found in the American Mayflower (Epigasa repens or Pratia angulata), and if the position be shaded, as it should be for the Cypripediums, a charming, yet delicate, fringe may be found in Adiantum pedatum. Besides C. spectabile, C. pubescens and C. parviflorum are well deserving attention, together with Orchis fdliosa, the beautiful " Madeira Orchis," and the Habenarias, especially H. ciliaris and fimbriata ; all delight in moisture and require but little root room. Then if a glow of rich colour was needed in such places it could be supplied in Spiraea venusta or S. palmata, both delighting in moist soil. Another fine effect may be had by grouping Lobelia fulgens, or indeed any of the scarlet Lobelias. In wet parts may be planted Osmunda regalis, Onoclea sensibilis, Struthiopteris germanica, and Astilbe rivularis, allowing room for each. Groups of the herbaceous Phloxes in their best and most distinct shades, particularly of salmon scarlet and the purest white, would find their natural wants completely satisfied in the bog garden and give fine colour. In English gardens it is only in a moist season that we see the Phlox in even fair condition, for the reason that the original species is a native of wet meadows. This condition we can best imitate by deep digging and heavy manuring, and so much the better if the beds of these be saturated with water. Only in the constant cooling moisture of the bog can Primula japonica be seen in perfection, for here will it produce rosettes of leaves i\ feet across, and giant whorls of its crimson flowers, attaining to nearly the same height. Another charming Primrose is "that from the swampy mountain meadows of the Himalayas, P. sikkimensis, essentially moisture-loving ; but to get the best results this must be treated as a biennial, grown on quickly, and planted in the bog as soon as large enough to handle. Other species of Primula suited to the higher and drier parts of the bog would be found in P. cashmeriana, capitata, denticulata, rosea, farinosa, involucrata, viscosa, and others, all alike beautiful in their way, and attaining greater vigour with the abundant moisture. Some of the smaller kinds of the viscosa type are better for slight shade, such as may be provided by Dielytra spectabilis (a really delightful plant in boggy ground) and various Spiraeas. It should be noted that many shade-loving plants delight in full sun when given abundant moisture at the root. Particularly noticeable is this with the Liliums I have noted previously. In the early part of the year the bog garden should be aglow with such things as Marsh Marigolds, in single and double forms. In the wet mud in the lower parts and about the stepping stones these would appear quite natural, and in like places Ficaria grandiflora, a plant too rarely seen, with its blossoms of shining gold ; then Senecio Doronicum, with golden orange flowers, Dielytra eximia, Trollius : any of the Dentarias and Dodecatheons likewise are all well suited for the raised THE BOG GARDEN. 273 parts where the roots will touch the moisture. The Dodecatheons in peat, loam, and leaf soil in equal parts, particularly D. Jefifreyanum, grow to a large size : Hepaticas, too, are greatly improved in company with these last, while the charming effects that may be produced are almost without end. Corydalis nobilis in peat and loam, C. lutea, together with the Water Mimulus (M. luteus), all pro- vide rich masses of yellow. Gentiana asclepiade.1, G. Andrews!, as well as G. verna, grow charmingly in the bog. Nor is the list of plants exhausted ; indeed, they are far too numerous to give in detail, but yet to be mentioned as among the grandest are many Irises, I. Ktempferi in particular. Meconopsis Wallichiana (the blue Poppy of the Himalayas) produces quite a unique effect in the moister parts. Saxifraga peltata, S. Fortune!, S. Hirculus, S. granulata plena, Soldanellas, Senecio pulcher, Sisyrinchium grandiflorum, and many more are all benefited by the varying degrees of moisture to be found in the bog garden. In gardens where no moist piece of ground exists, such as those with gravel or sandy subsoils, it will be necessary to select a low part and mark out an irregular outline. Next dig out the soil 18 inches or 2 feet in depth, so as to allow of at least 6 inches of clay being puddled in the bottom to retain the moisture. For bog plants clay is far better than concrete, because it supplies food for many moisture-loving plants. To keep the clay in position, sloping sides will be best, and for the soils named it will scarcely be necessary to have more than a small outlet for excessive moisture, and this at about 12 inches high from the deepest part. For this a narrow clinker or rough brick drain will suffice, so placed that the outlet may be blocked, if necessary, for affording greater moisture. By digging a shallow trench around the upper margin of the bog- bed, and using Bamboos, such as Metake or glaucescens, or Bocconia cordata — the last two valuable for their rapid annual growth — such things would give the needful shade in summer. In large gardens and cool, hilly districts the bog garden should always be found. Some years ago I had charge of just such a garden : in the flower garden was a fountain basin wherein water plants were grown ; the overflow from this went tumbling in many ways over a series of rocks into the rock garden pond containing Orontium aquaticum, Nymphseas, and Sagittarias. In turn the over- flow from the rock garden was conducted to the bog garden proper, where many masses of Cypripedium spectabile, with fully a score of spikes of its beautiful flowers to each tuft, grew in luxuriance in peat and leaves under a welcome shade. In the swampy watercourse, before the bog was entered, the Marsh Marigold in variety abounded, being very conspicuous. Here, too, Osmundas were rampant, together with Primula japonica and a variety of plants already mentioned, arid Ourisia coccinea, tightly pressing the surface of a stone, flowered splendidly. — E. J. CHAPTER XXII. THE HARDY FERN GARDEN. The marriage of the fern and flower garden is worth effecting, our many hardy evergreen Ferns being so good for association with hardy flowers. There are many varieties of our native Ferns which would be excellent companions to evergreen herbaceous plants suited for sheltered, half-shady nooks, and there are hardy and vigorous exotic kinds. Graceful effects may be had in fore-grounds, in drives through glades, through the bold use of the larger hardy Ferns, whether ever- green or not. The Bracken is everywhere ; but there are Ferns of graceful form which delight in the partial shade of open woods and drives, and succeed even in the sun. Ferns have, as a rule, been stowed away in obscure corners, and have rarely come into the garden landscape, though they may give us beautiful aspects of vegetation not only in the garden, but by grassy glades, paths, and drives. In countries where hardy Ferns abound, they are often seen near water and in hollow and wet places, and it will often be best to group them in such localities, but without any of the ugly aspects of " rockwork " too often supposed to be the right thing in a hardy fernery. In the home counties there is probably not a better fernery than that at Danesbury. It is on a sloping bank in a rather deep dell, overhung with trees and Ivy, in the shade of which the Ferns delight. As regards the planting, the various families are arranged in distinct groups, and each group has a position and a soil favourable to its requirements. The best way to grow Ferns, however, is with flowers, as in Nature, and a hardy fernery may be very beautiful. As a rule. Ferns have in their natural state both soil and locality exactly suited to their requirements ; and, the soil is yearly enriched by the decaying foliage of surrounding trees, which protects them in winter. In arranging a fernery, study the habits and requirements of each species, and allot to it the position most likely to give the best results. At Danesbury the most T 2 276 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. sheltered, moist spot is given to the evergreen ' Blechnums, which delight in a damp atmosphere, and to the delicate forms of Asplenium. Osmunda, which thrives amazingly, is in a low swamp. The soil used for these Royal Ferns is a mixture of good loam and fibrous peat. The better deciduous kinds of Polypodium, such as P. Phegopteris and P. Dryopteris, have sheltered positions ; and in quiet nooks may be found charming groups of the Parsley Fern, and Cystopteris fragilis, a most delicate and graceful Fern. Lastrea Filix-mas and its varieties occupy the more exposed positions in company with fine colonies of the evergreen kinds, comprising some unique varieties of the Polystichums, Scolopendriums, Polypodiums, etc. A plentiful supply of water is available. The Fern-lover will remember that not only have we our own beautiful native Ferns for adorning our gardens, but also the hardy Ferns of America, Asia, and the continent of Europe. As to the hardiness of exotic Ferns, Mr. Milne-Redhead writes from Clitheroe : — Is it not strange that we so seldom see, even in good gardens, any well-grown plants of exotic Osmundas, Struthiopteris, &c. ? Here, after a long spell of hot, dry weather, we had on May 20, 1896, a sharp snap of frost which completely cut off the more than usually beautiful flowers of Azalea mollis, and seriously injured the young growths of some Japanese Pines, such as Abies firma, A. sachalinensis, and others. This frost turned the young fronds of our English Filix-mas and Filix-foemina quite black. Close by these plants, and under similar conditions of soil and exposure, the American Adiantum pedatum, i foot high, and the tender- looking Onoclea sensibilis were quite unhurt, and Osmunda interrupta and O. cinnamomea entirely escaped and are now very fine. Our English O. regalis was slightly touched, but the Brazilian O. spectabilis brought by myself from dry banks in the Organ Mountains was not even browned in its early and delicate fronds. All the Ferns I have named are great ornaments to any moist and rather shady place in the shrubbery. In a sheltered nook in the rock garden I find, to my surprise, that Gymnogramma triangularis has survived the perils not only of a frosty spring, but the still greater ones of a wet autumn and winter, and is now throwing up healthily its pretty triangular fronds, whose under surface is quite white with the powder peculiar to the genus — in fact a hardy sih'er Fern; A visit to Mr. Sclater's Fern garden at Newick shows us the good effects that may be had by using the nobler hardy Ferns — both native and foreign — in a bolder way, and often in the open sun. The idea that a fernery is best in a dark corner has had unfortunate results in keeping the grace of such plants out of the garden picture. Hardy Ferns are being used in bold and simple ways at Kew, where at one time they were in an obscure fernery, and even if some Ferns require shade, many do not in our cool climate. Shade is, moreover, an elastic term ; the bold hardy Ferns one sees in the American wood- THE HARDY FERN GARDEN. 277 lands would not have too much sun in the open in Britain, provided they were in the right soil. Many hardy Ferns are excellent for association with hardy flowers, and many may be grouped with evergreen rock and hill plants in Native Ferns massed by shady walk (Devon^. forming borders and groups of evergreen plants. Though we have enough native Ferns in these islands to give us very fine effects, as we see at Penrhyn, or wherever Ferns are boldly grouped, some of the finest Ferns we see at Newick, and also at Rhianva and other gardens. 278 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. are natives of North America. Foremost among the strong-growing hardy exotic kinds, there are the handsome North American Osmunda cinnamomea, and O. Claytoniana, O. gracilis, a very pretty species of particularly slender habit ; the Sensitive Fern (Onoclea), Dicksonia punctiloba, the beautiful Canadian Maiden-hair, the American Ostrich Feather Fern, Lastrea Goldiana, Woodwardia virginica, all of North American origin and attaining between 2 feet and 3 feet in height. Among the smaller ferns are Aspidium nevadense, novaboracense A hardy fernery at Broomfield, Caterham. and thelypteroides, Asplenium angustifolium, Athyrium Michauxi and Woodwardia angustifolia, all of which grow from 18 inches to 24 inches. Allosorus acrostichoides, the handsome Polypodium hexa- gonopterum, Woodsia obtusa, oregana and scopulina, and also two pretty Selaginellas, viz., oregana and Douglasi. All these are of small dimensions, varying as they do from 6 in. to 1 2 in. in height. The pretty Hypolepis anthriscifolia of South Africa; the robust Lastrea atrata, from India; the Japanese Lastrea decurrens, the THE HARDY FERN GARDEN. 279 massive Struthiopteris orientalis, also a native of Japan, and the pretty Davallia Mariesi are all equal in hardiness to any of our British deciduous Ferns. Evergreen Hardy Ferns. — Some of the evergreen Ferns, whether British or exotic, which stand the severity of our climate, are as hardy as those which lose their leaves in winter, and no Fern could be hardier than the various small-growing Aspleniums, which grow in old walls exposed to severe frosts, such as the black-stemmed Spleen- wort (several), and its pretty crested and notched forms, the little Wall Rue or Rue Fern, the forked and other native Spleenworts. All these are small, seldom exceeding 8 in. in height, while the black Maiden-hair Spleenwort Blechnum and its several beautiful forms usually average from 9 in. to 12 in. in height. Polypodium also contains some handsome evergreen plants ; even the common Polypody is a fine plant in its way, and is seen at its best when growing on a wall, on the branches of a tree, or on the roof of a low house. But by far the handsomest of its numerous forms are the Welsh Polypody, the Irish and the Cornish, and its handsome, finely- cut varieties in which the fronds are of a light and feathery nature. Then there are the more or less heavily crested forms, all of larger dimensions than the species from which they are issue. The common Hart's-tongue, also perfectly hardy, supplies us with many forms giving fine effect and free growth. As regards strong-growing evergreen hardy Ferns, however, none can compare with the Prickly Shield Fern and the soft Prickly Shield Fern and its beautiful varieties which produce massive fronds 18 ins. to 24 ins. long. Then there is an extensive section of varieties in which the fronds in many instances are as finely cut as those of the Lace Fern, and infinitely finer in effect. The soft Prickly Shield Fern has also produced some remarkably crested forms, all of which are equal in vigour and in dimensions to the typical species. The Holly Fern is also perfectly hardy, and is one of those plants which are usually killed with kindness, through being grown in a temperature higher than is required. As regards Exotic Evergreen Kinds, North America supplies the greatest part of those hardy in England. The larger-growing kinds from that country are Aspidium cristatum Clintonianum, A. floridanum, Asplenium angustifolium, Lastrea marginalis, Polystichum munitum and P. acrostichoides, all of which sorts attain from 18 ins. to 24 ins. in height. Not less effective and quite as interesting as the above, though of smaller dimensions, are the North American Asplenium ebenum, Phegopteris alpestris, Pellaea atropurpurea, Woodsia alpina and W. 28o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. glabella varying in height from 6 ins. to 12 ins. There are also some remarkably handsome strong-growing sorts, native of Japan, the most decorative as also the most distinct among these being Lastrea Standishi, with fronds 24 ins. to 30 ins. long, and of a lovely and cheerful green colour; Lastrea erythrosora, with fronds 18 ins. to 24 ins. long, of a beautiful bronzy red colour when young, and of a deep dark green hue when mature. Lastrea opaca is another hand- Ferns and flower border, some Japanese form, broad and massive, of a fine metallic colour when young, and of a deep velvety green when mature. In Lastrea Sieboldi we have a totally distinct plant, having the general aspect of a somewhat dwarf Polypodium aureum and of the same bluish colour. This and Diqtyogramma japonica, which have somewhat bold and broad fronds, are also quite hardy, and so are the Japanese Lastrea prolifica, a species with finely-cut fronds, bearing numerous small THE HARDY FERN GARDEN. 281 plants ; the handsome Polystichum setosum, with beautiful dark green, shining foliage ; Polystichum Tsus-simense, Lastrea corusca and L. aristata. Lomaria chilensis is a large-growing Fern with fronds 24 ins. to 30 ins. long and of a particularly deep green colour. Nipho- bolus lingua is a very distinct Fern with entire fronds of a very leathery nature, dark green above and silvery beneath, having some- what the general appearance of our common Hart's-tongue, but in this case the fronds, instead of starting from a single crown, are pro- duced along a slender rhizome of a wiry nature. Perhaps one of the prettiest of the hardy evergreen Ferns is the violet-scented Lastrea fragrans. This charming little plant, seldom more than 4 ins. in height, succeeds well when planted outside, as it is on the outside rockery in Kew Gardens, where its crown is simply protected by a handful of dry leaves during the winter. Rock and sun-loving Ferns. — It is a mistake to consider all Ferns as plants requiring shade and moisture. There are, on the con- trary, ferns which like full sunshine and bright light. Without count- ing Cystopteris alpina and fragilis, which grow in our walls as well in sun as in shade, there is one class of Ferns which actually requires sunshine. Cheilanthes from the Old World, as well as those from the New, only do well in a sunny aspect. I could not succeed at Geneva in cultivating Cheilanthes odora, lanuginosa and vestita. In spite of every care given to them, they suffered from general weakness, ending in decay. At last I one day saw Woodsia hyperborea, that delicate and fragile plant, in full sun along an alpine road in Italy, and on re- turning I planted all my Cheilanthes in sunshine on a south wall. The result was good, and I recommend the plan to Fern growers. But it was necessary also to change the soil in which these plants were cultivated, and I set them in soft porous mould composed of Sphagnum Moss, peat and sand ; good drainage and frequent water- ing ensured an immediate and excellent result. That which proved satisfactory for Cheilanthes I then tried for Woodsia hyperborea and ilvensis (the treatment did not do for W. obtusa) ; then for Scolopen- drium Hemionitis, that pretty and curious Fern from the south so rarely met with in gardens, where it is considered difficult to grow. Then I gave the same treatment to Nothochlena Marantas ; and this lovely Fern,, which formerly did not do with me, turned out marvellously well. It is, then, certain that many species of Ferns require siin and plenty of air. — H. CORREVON, in Gardeners' Chronicle. The following exotic Ferns may be grown in the open air if the more tender ones are protected in winter by a covering of old fronds or soft hay pegged down over the crowns. These would be better in sheltered nooks in the rock garden in good peaty earth. Those 282 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. kinds marked with an asterisk should receive protection in this form. Unless otherwise mentioned, the Ferns are native of North America, and this list is contributed by Mr. Birkenhead, Sale, an experienced cultivator of these plants. Exotic hardy Ferns, Adiantum peadtum AUosorous acrosti- choides Aspidium cristatum Clintonianum fragrans nevadense novaboracense rigidum argutum spinulosum thelypteroides Asplenium angustifor Hum ebenum *fontanum (Europe) thelypteroides Athyrium Filix- fcemina ameri- canum Michauxi Botrychium virgini- cum *Cyrtoiniuin caryoti- deum (E. Indies) •falcatum (Japan) *Fortunei (Japan) Cystopteris bulbifera fragilis (American var). Dennstaedtia puncti- lobula Hjrpolepis mille- folium (N. Zea- land) anthriscifolia (S. Africa) Lastrea (Nephro- dium) *atrata India) *decurrens (Japan) fragrans Lastrea (Nephro- d i um) — con tinued. Goldiana intermedia marginalis *opaca (China) prolifica (Jamaica) Sieboldi (Japan) *varia (China) Lomaria alpinafNew Zealand) chilensis (Chili^ crenulata (Chili) Onoclea sensibilis Osmunda cinna- momea Osmunda Claytoni- ana gracilis japonica *Pellaea atro- purpurea *gracilis Phegopteris alpestris Dryopteris hexagonoptera polypodioides Polystichum acros- tichoides a, grandiceps a. incisum Brauni concavum fjapan) munitum (Califor- nia) m. imbricans poly blepharum (Ja- pan) *proliferum ('Austra- lia) *setosum (Japan) Selaginella Douglasi- denticulata (hd. vetica) Struthiopteris ger- manica (Europe) *orientalLs (Japan) pennsylvanica p. recurva Woodsia glabella obtusa oregana scopulina Woodwardia angusti- folia ^japonica (Japan) orientalis (Japan) radicans ('S. Europe) r. americana virgin ica CHAPTER XXIII. COLOUR IN THE ^LO^yER GARDEN. One of the first things which all who care for gardens should learn, is the difference between true and delicate and ugly colour — between the showy dyes and much glaring colour seen in gardens and the beauties and harmonies of natural colour. There are, apart from beautiful flowers, manj' lessons and no fees : — Oak woods in winter, e\en the roads and paths and rocks and hedgerows ; leaves in man}' hues of life and death, the stems of trees : many birds are lovely studies in harmony and delicate gradation of colour ; the clouds (eternal mine of divinest colour) in many aspects of light, and the varied and infinite beauty of colour of the air itself as it comes between us and the distant view. Nature is a good colourist, and if \\'e trust to her guidance we never find wrong colour in wood, meadow, or on mountain. " Laws " have been laid down by chemists and decorators about colours which artists laugh at, and to consider them is a waste of time. If we have to make coloured cottons, or to " garden " in coloured gravels, then it is well to think what ugly things will shock us least ; but dealing with living plants in their infinitely varied hues, and with their beautiful flowers, is a different thing ! If we grow well plants of good colour, all will be right in the end, but often raisers of flowers work against us by the raising of flowers of bad colour. The complicated pattern beds so often seen in flower gardens should be given up in favour of simpler beds, of the shapes best suiting the ground, and among various reasons for this is to get true colour. When we have little pincushion-beds where the whole " pattern " is seen at once through the use of dwarf plants, the desire comes to bring in colour in patterns and in ugly ways. For this purpose the wretched Alternanthera and other pinched plant rubbish are grown — plants not worth growing at all. When dwarf flowers are associated with bushes like Roses, and with plants like Carnations and tall Irises, having pointed and grace- ful foliage, the colours are relieved against the delicate foliage of 284 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. the plants and by having the beds large enough we relieve the dwarfer flowers with taller plants behind. In a shrubbery, too, groups of flowers are nearly always right, and we can follow our desire in flowers without much thought of arranging for colour. But as the roots of the shrubs rob the flowers ; the best way is to put near and around shrubberies free-running plants that do not want much cultivation, like Solomon's Seal and Woodruff, and other plants that grow naturally in woods and copses, while with flowers like Pansies, Carnations, Roses, that depend for their beauty on good soil, the best way is to keep them in the open garden, away from hungry tree-roots. By having large simple beds we relieve the flowers, and enjoy their beauty of colour and the forms of the plants without " pattern " of any kind. Instead of " dotting '' the plants, it is better to group them naturally, letting the groups run into each other, and varying them here and there with taller plants. A flower garden of any size could be planted in this way, without the geometry of the ordinary flower garden, and the poor effect of the " botanical " " dotty " mixed border. As, however, all may not be ready to follow this plan, the following notes on colour, by a flower gardener who has given much thought to the subject, will be useful : — " One of the most important points in the arrangement of a garden is the placing of the flowers with regard to their colour-effect. Too often a garden is an assemblage of plants placed together hap- hazard, or if any intention be perceptible, as is commonly the case in the bedding system, it is to obtain as great a number as possible of the most violent contrasts ; and the result is a hard, garish vulgarity. Then, in mixed borders, one usually sees lines or evenly distributed spots of colour, wearying and annoying to the eye, and proving how poor an effect can be got by the misuse of the best materials. Should it not be remembered that in setting a garden we are painting a picture, — a picture of hundreds of feet or yards instead of so many inches, painted with living flowers and seen by open daylight — so that to paint it rightly is a debt we owe to the beauty of the flowers and to the light of the sun ; that the colours should be placed with careful forethought and deliberation, as a painter employs them on his picture, and not dropped down in lifeless dabs. "Harmony rather than Contrast.— Splendid harmonies of rich and brilliant colour, and proper sequences of such har- monies, should be the rule ; there should be large effects, each well studied and well placed, varying in different portions of the garden scheme. One very common fault is a want of simplicity of in- tention ; another, an absence of any definite plan of colouring. Many people have not given any attention to colour-harmony, or have COLOUR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 285 not by nature the gift of perceiving it. Let them learn it by observing some natural examples of happily related colouring, taking separate families of plants whose members are variously coloured. Some of the best to study would be American Azaleas, Wallflowers, German and Spanish Iris, Alpine Auriculas, Polyanthus, and Alstroemerias. "Breadth of Mass and Intergrouping. — It is important to notice that the mass of each colour should be large enough to have a certain dignity, but never so large as to be wearisome ; a certain breadth in the masses is also wanted to counteract the effect of fore- shortening when the border is seen from end to end. When a definite plan of colouring is decided on, it will save trouble if the plants whose flowers are approximately the same in colour are grouped together to follow each other in season of blooming. Thus, in a part of the border assigned to red. Oriental Poppies might be planted among or next to Tritomas, with scarlet Gladioli between both, so that there should be a succession of scarlet flowers, the places occupied by the Gladioli being filled previously with red Wallflowers. " Warm Colours are not difficult to place : scarlet, crimson, pink, orange, yellow, and warm white are easily arranged so as to pass agreeably from one to the other. " Purple and Lilac group well together, but are best kept well away from red and pink ; they do well with the colder whites, and are seen at their best when surrounded and carpeted with gray-white foliage, like that of Cerastium tomentosum or Cineraria maritima ; but if it be desired to pass from a group of warm colour to purple and lilac, a good breadth of pale yellow or warm white may be interposed. " White Flowers. — Care must be taken in placing very cold white flowers such as Iberis correaefolia, which are best used as quite a high light, led up to by whites of a softer character. Frequent repetitions of white patches catch the eye unpleasantly ; it will generally be found that one mass or group of white will be enough in any piece of border or garden arrangement that can be seen from any one point of view. " Blue requires rather special treatment, and is best approached by delicate contrasts of warm whites and pale yellows, such as the colours of double Meadow Sweet, and CEnothera Lamarckiana, but rather avoiding the direct opposition of strong blue and full yellow. Blue flowers are also very beautiful when completely isolated and seen alone among rich dark foliage. " A Progression of Colour in a mixed border might begin with strong blues, light and dark, grouped with white and pale yellow, passing on to pink ; then to rose colour, crimson, and the strongest scarlet, leading to orange and bright yellow. A paler yellow followed by white would distantly connect the warm colours with the lilacs and 286 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. purples, and a colder white would combine them pleasantly with low- growing plants with cool-coloured leaves. "Silvery-leaved Plants are valuable as edgings and carpets to purple flowers, and bear the same kind of relation to them as the warm-coloured foliage of some plants does to their strong red flowers, as in the case of the Cardinal Flower and double crimson Sweet William. The bright clear blue of Forget-me-not goes best with fresh pale green, and pink flowers are beautiful with pale foliage striped with creamy white, such as the variegated forms of Jacob's-ladder or Iris pseudacorus. A useful carpeting plant, Acsena pulchella, assumes in spring a rich bronze between brown and green which is valuable with Wallflowers of the brown and orange colours. These few examples, out of many that will come under the notice of any careful observer, are enough to indicate what should be looked for in the way of accompanying foliage — such foliage, if well chosen and well placed, may have the same value to the flowering plant that a worthy and appropriate setting has to a jewel. " In Sunny Places warm colours should preponderate ; the yellow colour of sunlight brings them together and adds to their glowing effect. "A Shady Border, on the other hand, seems best suited for the cooler and more delicate colours. A beautiful scheme of cool colouring might be arranged for a retired spot, out of sight of other brightly coloured flowers, such as a border near the shady side of any shrubbery or wood that would afford a good background of dark foliage. Here would be the best opportunity for using blue, cool white, palest yellow, and fresh green. A few typical plants are the great Larkspurs, Monkshoods, and Columbines, Anemones (such as japonica, sylvestris, apennina, Hepatica, and the single and double forms of nemorosa), white Lilies, Trilliums, Pyrolas, Habenarias, Primroses, white and yellow, double and single, Daffodils, white Cyclamen, Ferns and mossy Saxifrages, Lily-of-the- Valley, and Woodruff". The most appropriate background to such flowers would be shrubs and trees, giving an effect of rich sombre masses of dusky shadow rather than a positive green colour, such as Bay Phillyrea, Box, Yew, and Evergreen Oak. Such a harmony of cool colouring,, in a quiet shady place, would present a delightful piece of gardening. " Bedded-OUT Plants, in such parts of a garden as may requft-e them, may be arranged on the same general principle of related, rather than of violently opposed, masses of colour. As an example, a fine effect was obtained with half-hardy annuals, mostly kinds of Marigold, Chrysanthemum, and Nasturtium, of all shades of yellow, orange, and brown. This was in a finely designed formal garden before the prin- cipal front of one of the stateliest of the great houses of England. It was a fine lesson in temperance, this employment of a simple scheme COLOUR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 287 ^ S fci "S 6 -S 13 ^ ^ 288 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. of restricted colouring, yet it left nothing to be desired in the way of richness and brilliancy, and well served its purpose as a dignified ornament, and worthy accompaniment to the fine old house. " Contrasts — How to be Used.— The greater effects being secured, some carefully arranged contrasts may be used to strike the eye when passing ; for opposite colours in close companionship are not telling at a distance, and are still less so if interspersed, their tendency thfen being to neutralize each other. Here and there a charming effect may be produced by a bold contrast, such as a mass of orange Lilies against Delphiniums or. Gentians against alpine Wallflowers ; but these violent contrasts should be used sparingly and as brilliant accessories rather than trustworthy principals. '"Climbers on Walls. — There is often a question about the suitability of variously coloured creepers on house or garden walls. The same principle of harmonious colouring is the best guide. A warm-coloured wall, one of Bath stone or buff bricks, for instance, is easily dealt with. On this all the red-flowered, leaved, or berried plants look well — Japan Quince, red and pink Roses, Virginian Creeper, Crataegus Pj'racantha, and the more delicate harmonies of Honeysuckle, Banksian Roses, and Clematis montana, and Flammula, while C. Jackmanni and other purple and lilac kinds are suitable as occasional contrasts. The large purple and white Clematises harmonise perfectly with the cool gray of Portland stone ; and so do dark -leaved climbers, such as White Jasmine, Passion Flower, and green Ivy. Red brickwork, especially when new, is not a happy ground colour ; per- haps it is best treated with large-leaved climbers — Magnolias, Vines, Aristolochia — to counteract the fidgety look of the bricks and white joints. When brickwork is old and overgrown with gray Lichens, there can be no more beautiful ground for all colours of flowers from the brightest to the tenderest — none seems to come amiss. " Colour in Bedding-out. — We must here put out of mind nearly all the higher sense of the enjoyment of flowers ; the delight in their beauty individually or in natural masses ; the pleasure derived from a personal knowledge of their varied characters, appearances, and ways, which gives them so much of human interest and lovableness ; and must regard them merely as so much colouring matter, to fill such and such spaces for a few months. We are restricted to a kind of gardening not far removed from that in which the spaces of the design are filled in with pounded brick, slate, or shells. The best rule in the arrangement of a bedded garden is to keep the scheme of colouring as simple as possible. The truth of this is easily perceived by an ordinary observer when shown a good example, and is obvious without any showing to one who has studied colour effects ; and yet the very op- posite intention is most commonly seen, to wit, a garish display of the COLOUR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 289 greatest number of crudely contrasting colours. How often do we see combinations of scarlet Geranium, Calceolaria, and blue Lobelia — three subjects that have excellent qualities as bedding plants if used in separate colour schemes, but which in combination can hardly fail to look bad ? In this kind of gardening, as in any other, let us by all means have our colours in a brilliant blaze, but never in a discordant glare. One or two colours, used temperately and with careful judg- ment, will produce nobler and richer results than many colours purposely contrasted, or wantonly jumbled. The formal garden that is an architectural adjunct to an imposing building demands a dignified unity of colouring instead of the petty and frivolous effects so com- monly obtained by the misuse of many colours. As practical examples of simple harmonies, let us take a scheme of red for summer bedding. It may range from palest pink to nearly black, the flowers being Pelargoniums in many shades of pink, rose, salmon, and scarlet ; Ver- benas, red and pink ; and judicious mixtures of Iresine, Alternanthera, Amaranthus, the dark Ajuga, and red-foliaged Oxalis. Still finer is a colour scheme of yellow and orange, worked out with some eight varieties of Marigold, Zinnias, Calceolarias, and Nasturtiums — a long range of bright rich colour, from the palest buff and primrose to the deepest mahogany. Such examples of strong warm colouring are ad- mirably suited for large spaces of bedded garden. Where a small space has to be dealt with it is better to have arrangements of blue, with white and the palest yellow, or of purple and lilac, with gray foliage. A satisfactory example of the latter could be worked out with beds of purple and lilac Clematis, trained over a carpet of Cineraria maritima, or one of the white-foliaged Centaureas, and Heliotropes and purple Verbenas, with silvery foliage of Cerastium, Antennaria, or Stachys lanata. These are some simple examples easily carried out. The principle once seen and understood (and the operator having a perception of colour), modifications will suggest themselves, and a correct working with two or more colours will be practicable ; but the simpler ways are the best, and will always give the noblest results. There is a peculiar form of harmony to be got even in varied colours by putting together those of nearly the same strength or depth. As an example in spring bedding, Myosotis dissitiflora, Silene pendula (not the deepest shade), and double yellow Primrose or yellow Poly- anthus, though distinctly red, blue, and yellow, yet are of such tender and equal depth of colouring, that they work together charmingly, especially if they are further connected with the gray-white foliage of Cerastium. — G. J." CHAPTER XXIV. EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS ; DIVIDING LINES ; HEDGES ; SHELTER ; AND TOPIARY WORK. " Oh the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree, They flourish at home in my own country.'' — Old Ballad. The above lines might be worth thinking of by those bent on planting evergreens for any of these uses, as if it were borne in mind that the evergreens we plant have to face winters in an Oak and Ash land, we should have less of the frightful waste owing to the planting of rampant but not hardy evergreens which perish in numbers after hard winters. There are no background hues prettier than afforded by some evergreens like the Yew, Box, and Ilex ; but their use requires care ; we may have too many of them, and they should not take the place of flowering shrubs and flowers of many kinds. It is outside the flower garden that evergreens are most useful gene- rally, and in a cold country like ours, especially on the eastern coasts and in wind-swept districts. Holly banks and hedges of other hardy evergreens are often a necessity. In our country we have the privilege of growing more evergreen shrubs and trees than continental countries, species resisting winter here which have not the slightest chance of doing so in Central Europe. The use of evergreens in old times was frequent, and in modern garden design the tendency is to overplant them. It should never be forgotten that in old gardens there was usually a clear motive for their use, and it is well to remem- ber that in some circumstances there are serious drawbacks to the use of many evergreen lines. Very often the surface of the ground is too much cut up by them for repose, and this is sometimes carried to the point of absurdity, as when they cut up a once beautiful level lawn, as in recent years at the Ranger's house at Greenwich. Frequently, too, they hide or mar a view of a fine old house from important points, and then their effect is often bad. It is almost impossible to grow EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, El'C. 29 1 delicate flowers and climbers in soil which is occupied by the roots of vigorous evergreen trees. Where clipping is done on^a large scale for no very good reasons, the expense of shearing acres of surface has to be thought of, and its tendency also to produce ugly forms, and U 2 292 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. lead to the death of the trees as we may so often see at Ver- sailles. Where a dividing line is a real need, it is often best to have a wall, because while a stone wall is good in colour at first, we may in time make its surface a garden, while a wall does not rob the ground as the evergreen tree roots do, but, on the contrary, a wall often is the best home we can give to a flower. Noble Native Evergreens. — Into our brown and frozen northern woods come a few adventurers from southern lands that do not lose their green in winter, but take then a deeper verdure — Ivy, Holly, and Yew enduring all but the very hardest frosts that visit our isles, some bright with berries as well as verdure ; giving welcome shelter to northern and wind-swept gardens, and in our own time each varying into many noble varieties. These native evergreens and their varieties are, and for ever must be, the most precious of all for the British Isles. When after a very hard winter we see the evergreen trees of the garden in mourning, and many of them dead, as happens to Laurels, Laurustinuses, and often even the Bay, it is a good time to consider the hardiness and other good qualities of our British ever- greens and the many forms raised from them. If we are fortunate enough to have old Yew trees near us, we do not find that a hard winter makes much difference to them, even winters that brown the evergreen Oak. We have collected within the past 200 years ever- green trees from all parts of the northern world, but it is doubtful if any of them are better than the common Yew, which when old is often picturesque, and which lives for over a thousand years. Of this great tree we have many varieties, but none of them quite so good as the wild kind when old. In the garden little thought is given to it and it is crowded among shrubs, or in graveyards, where the roots are cut by digging, so that one seldom sees it in its true character when old, which is very beautiful. The Golden Yew is a variety of it, and there are other forms one of which, the Irish form, is well known, and too much used. After the Yew, the best of our evergreen shrubs is the Holly, which in no country attains the beauty it does in our own ; certainly no evergreen brought over the sea is so valuable not only in its native form, often attaining 40 ft. even on the hills, but in the varieties raised from it, many of them being the best of all variegated shrubs in their silver and gold variegation ; in fruit, too, it is the most beautiful of evergreens. Not merely as a garden tree is it precious, but as a most delightful shelter around fields for stock in paddocks and places which want shelter. A big wreath of old Holly undipped on the cold sides of fields is the best protection and a grove of Holly north of any garden ground we want to shelter is the EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, ETC. 293 best evergreen we can plant ; the only thing we have to fear being rabbits, which when numerous make Holly difficult to establish by Evergreen trees in natural forms (Cedars : Gunnersbury), barking the newly-planted trees, and in hard winters even barking and killing many old trees. As to the garden, we may make beautiful evergreen gardens of the forms of Holly alone. 294 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Notwithstanding the many conifers brought from other countries within the past few generations, as regards beauty it is very doubtful if more than one or two equal our native Fir. In any case few things in our country are more picturesque than old groups and groves of the Scotch Fir ; few indeed of the conifers we treasure from other countries will ever give us anything so good as its ruddy stems and frost-proof crests. Again, the best of evergreen climbers is our native Ivy, and the many beautiful forms that have arisen from it. This in our woods arranges its own beautiful effects, but in gardens it might be made more use of, and no other evergreen climber comes near it in value. The form most commonly planted in gardens — the Irish Ivy — is not so graceful as some others, and there are many forms varying even in colour. These for edgings, banks, screens, covering old trees, and summer-houses, might be made far more use of In many northern countries our Ivy will not live in the -open air, and we rarely take enough advantage in such a possession in making both shelters, wreaths, and screens of it. It requires care in trimming on our houses and on cottage roofs or it will damage them ; but there are many pretty things to make of it away from buildings, and among them Ivy clad and IVy-covered wigwams, summer-houses, and covered ways, the Ivy supported on a strong open frame-work. Box, which is a true native in certain dry hills in the south of England, is so crowded in gardens, that one seldom sees its beauty as one may on the hills full in the sun, where the branches take a charm- ing plumy toss. To wander among natural groves of Box is pleasant, and we should plant it in colonies by itself full in the sun, so that it might show the same grace of form that it shows wild on the chalk hills. It is, I think, the best of our native evergreens for garden use, making pretty low hedges as at Panshanger, and for that purpose and it is better for dividing lines near the flower-garden than Yew or Holly. Also among our native evergreens is the common Juniper, a scrubby thing in some places, but on heaths in Surrey, and favoured heaths elsewhere, often growing over twenty feet high and very picturesque, especially where mingled with Holly. There is an upright form, called the Irish Juniper, in gardens not nearly so good as the wild Juniper though more often grown. The Arbutus, which borders nearly all the streams in Greece ventures into Ireland, and is abundant there in certain parts in the south. This beautiful shrub, though tender in midland counties, is very precious for the seashore and mild districts not only as an evergreen, but for the beauty of its flowers and fruit. Still, it is the one British evergreen which must not be planted where the winters EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, ETC. 295 are severe in inland districts, and usually perishes on the London clay. It is the best of our native evergreens that deserve the prefer- ence instead of the heavy Laurels, and various evergreens not even hardy, so that after a hard frost y^o. often see the suburbs of country towns black with their dead. Ugly Evergreen Trees and Shrubs. — One of the most baneful things in our gardens has been the introduction of distorted and ugly conifers which often disfigure, the fore-grounds of beautiful houses. These are often sports and variations raised in modern days, as is the case with the too common Irish Yew. It is not only that we have to deplore the tender trees of California, which in their own country are beautiful, though, unhappily, not so in ours, but it is the mass of distorted, unnatural, and ugly forms — the names of which disfigure even the best catalogues — that is most confusing and dangerous. In one foreign catalogue there are no less than twenty-eight varieties of the Norway Spruce, in all sorts of dwarf and monstrous shapes — some of them, indeed, dignified with the name monstrosa — not one of which should ever be seen in a garden. The true beauty of the pine comes from its form and dignity, as we see it in old Firs that clothe the hills of Scotland, California, or Swit- zerland. It is not in distortion or in little green pincushions we must look for the charm of the Pine, but rather in storm-tossed head and often naked stems ; and hence all these ridiculous forms should be excluded from gardens of any pretence to beauty. Another most unfortunate tree in this way, as helping to fill out gardens with graceless things, is the western Arbor vitas (Thuja occidentalis). This, which is a very hardy tree but never a dignified one, even where it grows in the north about Lake Superior and through the Canadas, is, unhappily, also hardy in our gardens, and we may see in one catalogue no less than twenty-three forms of this tree all dignified with Latin names. There are plenty of beautiful things, new and old, worthy of the name, without filling our gardens with such monstrosities, many of which are variegated. Of all ugly things, nothing is worse than the variegated Conifer, which usually perishes as soon as its variegated parts die, the half dead tree often seeming a bush full of wisps of hay. Evergreen Weeds. — In many once well-planted pleasure grounds the Pontic Rhododendron almost runs over and destroys every other shrub, and hides out the most beautiful tree effects, growing often a little above the line of sight. Even where people have taken the greatest trouble to plant a good collection of trees, the monotony of it is depressing ; always the same in colour, winter or summer, except when dashed by its ill-coloured flowers. The walk from the 296 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ruins at Cowdray to the new house is an example that might be mentioned amongst a thousand others of a noble bank of trees, varied and full of beauty, but, in consequence of this shrub spreading beneath them all along the walk, showing nothing but a dank wall of evergreen. How this ugliness and monotony come about is through the use of the Pontic kind as a covert plant, and also owing to its facility of growth, the beautiful sorts of Rhododendron are usually grafted on it. In a garden where there are men to look after plants so grafted and pull away the suckers, this plan may do, but when planting is done in a bold way about woods, or even pleasure grounds, this is not attended to, nor can it always be, so that the suckers come upland in time destroy the valuable sorts ! The final result is never half so pretty as in the most ill-kept natural wood, with Bracken and Brier in fine colour and some little variety of form below the trees ; therefore everybody who cares for the beauty of undergrowths should cease this covering of the ground with this poor shrub, not so hardy as the splendid kinds of American origin often grafted on it to die. With the Cherry Laurel and the Portugal Laurel it is the main cause of the monotony and cheerless air of so many pleasure grounds. The nurseryman who grows rare trees or shrubs very often finds them left on his hands, so that many nurseries only grow a few stereotyped things, mainly those that grow freely, and, owing to the over-use of weed-evergreens like Privet, which are without beauty, and offensive in odour when in flower. The presence of such things is one of the causes of the miserable aspect of the shrubberies in many gardens, which might be very beautiful and interesting with a varied life. Many shrubs of little or no beauty in themselves very often destroy by their vigour- the rare and beautiful garden vegetation, so that we have not only the ugliness of a brake of Laurel, or half-evergreen Privet, or Pontic Rhododen- dron to survey, but often the fact that these shrubs have overrun and killed far more precious things. And this nursery rubbish having killed every good thing begins to eat up itself, and hence \\e see so many shrubberies worn out. The Nobler Evergreen Flowering Shrubs. — It is not only the ill-effect of these all-devouring evergreens we have to consider, but what they shut out : — the evergreen flowering shrubs and trees of the highest beauty of colour as well as of foliage, and the manj^ hardy Rhododendrons of finest colour. In early times when people wanted backgrounds or shelter their only resource was to clip some common evergreen into lines, and the practice is too often resorted to now, when we can get flowering evergreens in their natural form like these splendid Rhododendrons if we would only EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, ETC. 297 cease to graft them and get them from layers, or on their own roots when we should not be overcrowded with the R. ponticum of the present system. They are not only hardy in the sense that many of our popular evergreens are hardy, i.e. in favoured districts or by the sea, so kind as it is to evergreens, but everywhere in England. I mean the many broad-leaved Rhododendrons which have mostly come to us from the wild American species, and are hardy in North and Eastern America. Apart from the use of such things, by care- full}- selecting their colours we may have not merely an evergreen background of fine and varied green, but also the most precious flowering shrubs ever raised by man and in their natural forms, often varying in fine colour and form too if we will only cease to compel them to li\e on one mean and too vigorous shrub. As to the kinds of Rhododendron that are raised from the Pontic kind or even from the Indian Rhododendrons, so far as tried they are not in any way so good as the varieties raised from the North American kinds, and which have the fine constitution of R. Catawbiense in them, and of which many are hardy not merely in Old England but in the much more severe winters of New England. Apart from plants of these kinds from layers we may also have them as seed- lings, though the named kinds from layers give us the means of group- ing a finely coloured kind which may often be desirable. It is also verj^ probable that we shall, as various regions of the northern world are opened up, introduce to cultivation other fine wild species, and get precious races from them, so for many reasons the sooner we get out of the common routine of the nurseries in sticking every fine kind we already have on, R. ponticum, the better. And if this plan be wrong with the varieties, what are we to say to grafting any of the fine wild species that come to us on the same Pontic kind kept in every nursery for the purpose ? For however \igorous the growth at first, the stock is sure to get its head in the end, and then good-bye to the precious natural species it has borne — for no sound reason. The Nobler Evergreen Trees. — Apart from trees of poor forms, there are others which are stately in their own country but a doubtful gain to ours, like the Wellingtonia and other Californian trees, and the Chili Pine. Sometimes the foregrounds of even fine old houses are marred by such trees, and unfortunately people use them in the idea that they are by their use doing something old-fashioned and " Elizabethan," whereas they are marring the beauty of the landscape and of our native trees, often so fine beyond the bounds of the garden. We ought not to spoil the beauty of our home landscapes by using such things, which are so abundant in many places that the Nobler Exotic Evergreen Trees like the evergreen Oak are forgotten. This European tree from Holkar in Norfolk to thewest of England and in many gardens 298 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. round the coasts of our islands, is a noble evergreen tree and a fine background and shelter. Then there is the Cedar of Lebanon, which is perhaps the finest evergreen tree ever brought to our country and as hardy as our own trees. If we use evergreen trees they ought to be the noblest and hardiest. The loss of this tree by storms could not happen to anything like the same extent if people went on planting young trees. The many catalogues issued, help towards the neglect of the really precious trees by " bringing out " novelties from all parts of the world — absolutely unproved trees ; whilst the planting of such grand trees as the Cedar of Lebanon and the Ilex of Europe are often forgotten. A mistake in Cedar planting is the fashion of only planting isolated trees with great branches on all sides on enormous surface exposed to strong wind. In their own country, where Cedars are naturally massed together, although the gales are severe, the trees are not destroyed by wind in anything like- the same degree. The Cedar of Lebanon is beautiful in the " specimen " way, but it is at least equally beautiful massed in groups. In their own countries, in addition to being massed and grouped together, the soil is often stony and rocky, the growth is slower, and the trees take a firmer hold, whereas in our river valleys, where the Lebanon Cedar is often planted in an isolated way, the growth is softer and the resistance to wind less, and a more artistic and natural way of planting would lessen the accidents to which this noblest of evergreen trees is exposed. Clipping Evergreens. The Yew in its natural form is the most beautiful evergreen of our western world — finer than the Cedar in its feathery branching, and more beautiful than any Cedar in the colour of its stem. In our own day we see trees of t^ same great order as the Yew gathered from a thousand hills — from British Columbia, through l^orth America and Europe to the Atlas Mountains, and not one of them has yet proved to be so beautiful as our native Yew when un- dipped root or branch. But in gardens the quest for the exotic is so active that few give a fair chance to the Yew as a tree, while in grave- yards, where it is so often seen in a very old state, the cutting of the roots hurts the growth, though there are Yews in our churchyards that have seen a thousand winters. It is not my own EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, ETC. 299 idea only that I urge here, but that of all who have ever thought of the beauty of trees, foremost among whom we must place artists who have the -happiness of always drawing natural forms. Let any one stand near the Cedar-like Yews by the Pilgrim's Way on the North Downs, and, comparing them with trees cut into fantastic shapes, consider what the difference means to the artist who seeks beauty of tree form ! What right have we to deform things so lovely in form? No cramming of Chinese feet into impossible shoes is half so foolish as the wilful and brutal distortion of the beautiful forms of trees. The cost of this mutilation alone is one reason against it, as we see where miles of trees cut into walls have to be clipped, as ■ at Versailles and Schonbrunn, and this shearing is a mere " survival " of the day when we had very few trees, and they were clipped to fit the crude notion of " garden design " of the day. The fact that men when they had few trees made them into walls to make them serve their ways of " design " is no reason why we, rich in the trees of- all the hills of the north, should go on mutilating them too. Thus, while it may be right to clip a tree to form a dividing-line or hedge, it is never so to clip trees grown for their own sakes, as by ■clipping such we only get ugly, unnatural forms. In November 1891, in Hyde Park, I saw a man clipping Hollies at the " Row " end of the Serpentine, and, asking him why it was done, he said that it was to " keep them in shape," though, to do him justice, he added that he thought it would be better to let them alone. Men who trim with shears or knife so fine a tree as the Holly are dead to beauty of form and cannot surely have seen how fine in form old Holly trees are. To give us such ugly forms in gardens is to show one's self callous to beauty of tree form, and to prove that one cannot even see ugliness. For consider, too, the clipped Laurels by which many gardens are disfigured. Laurel in its natural shape in the woods is often fine in form ; but it is planted everywhere in gardens without thought of its fitness for each place, and as it grows apace, the shears are called in, and its fine leaves and shoots are cut into ugly banks and formless masses, spoiling many gardens. There is no place in which Laurel is clipped for which we could not get shrubs of the right size that would not need the shears. In the old gardens, where from other motives trees were clipped when people had very few evergreens, or where they wanted an object of a certain height, they had to clip. It is well to preserve such gardens, but never to imitate them. If we want shelter, we can get it in various delightful ways without clipping, and, while getting it, we can enjoy the natural forms of the evergreens. Hedges and wall-like lines of green living things are useful, and even may be artistically used. 30O THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN Occasionally we find clipped arches and bowers pretty, and these,, when very old, are worth keeping. Besides, there is much difference between evergreen archways or bowers, hedges, and shelters, and the fantastic clipping of living trees into the shapes of bird or beast or coffee-pot. It is well to keep any interesting specimens of the toparian art when we find them, but clipping is better not carried out with our lovely evergreens on a large scale. Now and then we see attempts on the part of those having more knowledge of some half-mechanical grade of decorative "design" to galvanise the corpse of the topiary art Such an idea would not occur to any one knowing the many beautiful things now within our reach, or by any one like a landscape painter who studies beautiful forms of earth or trees or flowers, or by any lover of Nature in tree or flower. Sometimes these puerilities are set into book form, as in the case of Mr. J. D. Sedding's Garden Craft. For this author there is no art in gardening, but cutting a tree into the shape of a cocked hat is " art," according to him : he says : — I have no more scruple in using the scissors upon tree or shrub, where trim- ness is desirable, than I have in mowing the turf of the lawn that once represented a virgin world . . . and in the formal part of the garden my Yews should take the shape of pyramids, or peacocks, or cocked hats, or ramping lions in Lincoln green, or any other conceit I had a mind to, which vegetable sculpture can take. After reading this I thought of some of the true "vegetable sculpture " that I had seen ; Reed and Lily, models in stem and leaf ; the Grey Willows of Britain as lovely against our British skies as Olives are in the south ; many-columned Oak groves set in seas of Primroses, Cuckoo flowers and Violets ; Silver Birch woods of Northern Europe beyond all grace possible in stone ; the eternal Garland of beauty that one kind of Palm waves for hundreds of miles throughout the land of Egypt — a vein of summer in a lifeless world ; the noble Pine woods of California and Oregon, like fleets of colossal masts on mountain waves — thought of these and many other lovely forms in garden and wood, and then wondered that any one could be so blind to the beauty of the natural forms of plants and trees as to write as this author does. From the days of the Greeks to our own time, the delight of all great artists has been to get as near this divine beaut}' as what they work in permits. But this deplorable vegetable sailptor's delight is in distorting beautiful forms ; and this in the one art in which we have the happiness of possessing the living things themselves, and not merely representations of them. The old people from whom he takes his ideas were not so foolish, as when the Yew was used as a hedge or \\'as put at a garden gate it was necessary to clip it to keep it in bounds. Apart from the ugliness of the cocked-hat tree or other 302 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. pantomimic trees, the want of life and change in a garden made up of such trees, one would think, should open the eyes of any one to its drawbacks, as in it there is none of the joy of spring's life, or summer's crown of flowers, or winter's rest. It would be absurd to call such things " architects' gardens," and no gardener would claim them as gardeners' gardens. In seeking a name for them, perhaps " barbers' gardens " would be the most fitting, although there is some injustice in it, as there is some need for barbers' work, while these poor trees do not ask us to cut them into ignoble shapes. The plea that such work gives variety does not hold, because wherever labour and time are wasted upon such things the true work of the garden does not, and very often cannot, get the attention it needs. In not one of the places where such work is done, from Elvaston to Minley, is seen much of beauty in the garden — that Example of old topiary work. is, beauty of flower and form and fine colour such as an artist would put in a picture, and which is a picture in itself to begin with. Clipped Evergreen Shrubs in the beds of the Flower Garden. — A gardener with shears in his hand is generallj^ doing fool's work, but there is much difference between his clipping old or sheltering lines of Yews, or even the Peacock in box, and the clipping which goes on in some gardens where beds are filled with small evergreen bushes instead of flowers. We may see it practised in gardens laid out by Paxton and his followers, their object being no doubt to get rid of the trouble of real flower-gardening, and also to have evergreen beds in ^\'inter. This effect may be obtained in a way, but the bushes usually get far too thick, and then the shears are used to keep them in bounds, and what ought to be graceful groups of flowers or shrubs of good form becomes flat, hard, ugly and sharp-sided. The clipping may be designed at first, but oftener it is done to repress overgrowth. EVERGREENS AS BACKGROUNDS, ETC. 303 A more stupid way of filling the beds of a flower garden could hardly be imagined, because we lose all the grace and form of the shrubs, and also the chance of seeing flowers growing among them, which is one of the prettiest phases of flower gardening when Lilies Gladioli, and other graceful plants spring from groups of choice evergreens. The end of all this laborious mutilation is to cause disease and overcrowding, and the best thing is to clear the deformed things away and plant in more natural ways. If we want flower beds, let us have them ; by doing so we can have varied life for more Plan of Maze. than half the year. If we want beds of choice evergreens we can have them without destroying their forms by the shears. There is a wide choice of beautiful things like Rhododendrons and Azaleas, and if we set these in open ways we can have flowers among them, thus doubling the variety of bloom obtainable from the surface, getting light and shade and the true forms of shrub or flower. . The Maze is an inheritance from a past time, but not a precious one,^being one of the notions about gardening which arose when people had very little idea of the dignity and infinite beauty of the 304 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. garden flora as we now know it Some people may be wealthy enough to show us all the beauty of a garden and at the same time such ugly frivolities as this, but they must be few. The maze is not pretty as part of a home landscape or garden, and should be left for the most part to places of the public tea-garden kind. One of its drawbacks is the death and distortion of the evergreens that go to form its close lines, owing to the frequent clipping ; if clipping be neglected the end is. still worse, and the whole thing is soon ready for the fire. Some Genera of Evergr.ee?i Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles?- Rbododendron Rosmarinus Ruscus Seguoia Skimmia Smilax Taxus Thu^a Thujopsis Ulex Veronica Viburnum Vinca Yucca 1 Some of those marked * are hardy only in seashore districts or warm soils, and in some genera named few species are evergreen. Abies Choisya ■•Cistus Araucaria Cotoneaster *Arbutus CratCEgus Arundinaria Cupressus Aucuba Daphne Azara Dapbniphyllum Bambusa *Desfontainea *Benthamia Diplopappus Berberis Elceagnus Buxus *Embothrium ■Camellia Ephedra Cedrus Erica CrypEomeria *Escallonia ■Chamoerops Euonymus Magnolia ■ Fabiana Myrica Garrya Olearia Gaultheria Osmanthus Hedera Pernettya Ilex Phillyrea Juniper us Phlomis Kalmia Phyllostachys Laurus Pieris Ledum Pinus l^iophyllum Quercus Leucothoe Rhamnus Libocedrus Raphiolepis Ligustrum Retinospora The Poet's Laurel. CHAPTER XXV. FRAGRANCE. A MAN who makes a garden should have a heart for plants that have the gift of sweetness as well as beauty of form or colour. And what a mystery as well as charm — wild Roses sweet as the breath of heaven, and wild Roses of repulsive odour all born of the earth-mother, and it may be springing from the same spot. Flowers sweet at night and scentless in the day ; flowers of evil odour at one hour and fragrant at another ; plants sweet in breath of blossom, but deadly in leaf and sap ; Lilies sweet as they are fair, and Lilies that must not be let into the house ; with bushes in which all that is delightful in odour permeates to every March-daring bud. The Grant Aliens of the day, who tell us how the Dandelion sprang from the Primrose some millions of years ago, would no doubt explain all these things to us, or put long names to them — what Sir Richard Owen used to call " conjectural biology," — but we need not care where they leave the question, for to us is given this precious fragrance, happily almost without effort, and as free as the clouds from man's power to spoil. Every fertile country has its fragrant flowers and trees ; alpine meadows with Orchids and mountain Violets ; the Primrose-scented woods. Honeysuckle-wreathed and May-frosted hedgerows of Britain ; the Cedars of India and of the mountains of Asia Minor, with Lebanon ; trees of the same stately order, perhaps still more fragrant in the warmer Pacific breezes of the Rocky Mountains and Oregon, where X 3o6 THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEX. the man\- great Pines often spring from a carpet of fragrant Ever- greens, and a thousand flowers which fade away after their early bloom, and stand withered in the heat, while the tall Pines overhead distil for ever their grateful odour in the sunny air. M}rtle, Rosemarj-, and Lavender, and all the aromatic bushes and herbs clothing the little capes that jut into the great sea which washes the shores of Greece, Itah", Sicily, and Corsica ; garden islands scattered through vast Pacific seas, as stars are scattered in the heavens ; enormous tropical forests, little entered by man, but from which he gathers on the out- skirts treasures for stove and greenhouse ; great island gardens like Java and Ceylon and Borneo, rich in spices and lovelj- plant life ; Australian bush, with plants strange as if from another \\-orld, but often most delicate in odour even in the distorted fragments of them we see in our gardens. It is not only from the frs^ile flower-vases these sweet odours flow ; they breathe through leaf and stem, and the whole being of many trees and bushes, from the stately Gum trees of Australia to the sweet \'erbena of Chili. Many must have felt the charm of the strange scent of the Box bush before Oliver Wendell Holmes told us of its " breathing the fragrance of eternity." The scent of flowers is often cloying, as of the Tuberose, while that of leaves is often delicate and refreshing, as in the budding Larch, and in the leaves of Balm and Rosemary, while fragrance is often stored in the wood, as in the Cedar of Lebanon and manj- other trees, and even down through the roots. It is given to few to see many of these sweet plants in their native lands, but we who love our gardens may enjo}- many of them about us, not merely in drawings or descriptions, but the li\'ing, breathing things themselves. The Geraniums in the cottc^e window bring us the spicy frs^rance of the South African hills ; the Lavender bush of the sunny hills of Provence, where it is at home ; the Roses in the garden bring near us the breath of the wild Roses on a thou- sand hills ; the sweet or pot herbs of our gardens are a gift of the shore-lands of France and Italj- and Greece. The Sweet Bay bush in the farmer's or cottage garden comes with its stor>- from the streams of Greece, \\here it seeks moisture in a thirsty Ismd along \\ ith the wild Olive and the Arbutus. And this Sweet Bay is the Laurel of the poets, of the first and greatest of all poet and artist nations of the earth — the Laurel sacred to Apollo, and used in many ways in his worship, as we maj- see on coins, and in many other things that remain to us of the great peoples of the past. The Myrtle, of less fame, but also a sacred plant beloved for its leaves and blossoms, was, like the Laurel, seen near the temples of tlie race who built their temples as the Lily is built, whose song is deathless, and FRAGRANCE. 30^ the fragments of whose art is Despair to the artist of our time. And thus the fragrant bushes of our gardens may entwine for us, apart from their gift of beauty, living associations and beautiful thoughts for ever famous in human story. It is not only odours of trees and flowers known to all we have to think of, but also many delicate ones, less known, perhaps, by reason of the blossoms that give them being without showy colour, as the wild Vine, the Sweet Vernal, Lemon, and other Grasses. And among these modest flowers there are none more delicate in odour than the blossoms of the common white Willow, the yellow-twigged and the other Willows of Britain and Northern Europe, which are all the more grateful in air coming to us O'er the northern moorland, o'er the northern foam. What is the lesson these sweet flowers have for us ? They tell us — if there were no other flowers to tell us — that a garden should be a living thing ; its life not only fair in form and lovely in colour, but in its breath and essence coming from the Divine. They tell us that the very common attempt to conform their fair lives into tile or other patterns, to clip or set them out as so much mere colour of the paper- stainer or carpet-maker, is to degrade them and make our gardens ugly and ridiculous, from the point of view of Nature and of true art. Yet many of these treasures for the open garden have been shut out of our thoughts owing to the exclusion of almost everything that did not make showy colour and lend itself to crude ways of setting out flowers. Of the many things that should be thought of in the making of a garden to live in, this of fragrance is one of the first. And, happily, among every class of flowers which may adorn our open-air gardens there are fragrant things to be found. Apart from the groups of plants in which all, or nearly all, are fragrant, as in Roses, the annual and biennial flowers of our gardens are rich in fragrance — Stocks, Mignon- ette, Sweet Peas, Sweet Sultan, Wallflowers, double Rockets, Sweet Scabious, and many others. These, among the most easily raised of plants, may be enjoyed by the poorest cottage gardeners. The garden borders of hardy flowers bear for us odours as precious as any breath of tropical Orchid, from the Lily-of-the-Valley to the Carnation, this last yielding, perhaps, the most grateful fragrance of all the flowering host in our garden land. In these borders are things sweeter than words may tell of— Woodruff, Balm, Pinks, Violets, garden Primroses, Poly- anthuses, Day and other Lilies, early Iris, Narcissus, Evening Prim- roses, Mezereon, and Pansies delicate in their sweetness. No one may be richer in fragrance than the wise man who plants hardy shrubs and flowering trees — Magnolia, May, Daphne, Lilac, Wild Rose, Azalea, Honeysuckle — names each telling of whole X 2 3o8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. families of fragrant things. From the same regions whence come the Laurel and the Myrtle we have the Laurustinus, beautiful in our sea- coast and warmer districts, and many other lovely bushes happy in our climate ; one, the Wintersweet, pouring out delicious frag- rance in mid-winter ; Sweet Gale, Allspice, and the delightful little Mayflower that creeps about in the woodland shade in North America. So, though we cannot boast of Lemon or Orange groves, our climate is kind to many lovely and fragrant shrubs. Even our ugly walls may be sweet gardens with Magnolia, Honey- suckle, Clematis, Sweet Verbena, and the delightful old Jasmine, still clothing many a house in London. Most precious of all, however, are the noble climbing Tea Roses raised in our own time. Among the abortions of this century these are a real gain — the loveliest flowers ever raised by man. Noble in form and colour, and scented as delicately as a June morn in alpine pastures, with these most precious of garden Roses we could cover all the ugly walls in England and Ireland, and Heaven knows many of them are in want of a veil. The old way of having an orchard near the house was a good one. Planted for use, it was precious for its beauty, and not only when the spring winds carried the breath of its myriad blossoms of Cherry, Plum, Apple, and Pear. There were the fruit odours too, and the early Daffodils and Snowdrops, with Violets and Primroses on the banks, and overhead the lovely trees that bear our orchard fruits. Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, Medlar, Damsons, Bullace, and Quince. To make pictures to last round the years, I should ask for many of these orchard trees on a few acres of good ground, none the worse if too hilly for the plough ; a belt of Hollies, Yew, and Scotch Fir on the cold sides to comfort trees and men ; with careless gar- lands of Honeysuckle, Rose, and fragrant Clematis among them here and there, and in the grassy fence bank plenty of Sweet Brier, and May, and Sloe. The fence should not be cut in every year to a hard line, but Sloe, and May, and Sweet Brier, and Wild Rose left to bloom and berry, the hedge a shelter as well as a fence ; and not trimmed oftener than every ten years or so. Then it should be cut down woven together in the strong way seen in parts of Kent on the hills, that is to say, stout enough to keep back an elephant. On the cool side of the bank, Primrose and Oxlip would bloom long and well, and on all sides of it Daffodils, Snowflakes, Snowdrops, wild Tulips, or any like bulbs to spare from the garden ; and from the garden trimmings too, tufts of Balm and Myrrh to live for ever among the Grass of the bank. The robin would build in the moss of the bank, the goldfinch in the silvery lichen of the trees, and the thrush, near winter's end, herald the buds with noble song. FRAGRANCE, 309 Some Fragrant Plants for British Gardens, Abelia Abronia Allspice Almond Alyssum Apples Auricula Azalea Balm Balm of Gilead Bee Balm Belladonna Lily Blue Bells Brugmansia Burning Bush Carnation Clematis Clethra Columbine Cowslips Crinum Cyclamen Datura Day Lily Deutzia Evening Primrose Forsythia Grape Hyacinth Hawthorns Heartsease Heliotrope Honeysuckles Horse Chestnut Hyacinths Ins Jasmine Lavender Lilac Lily Lily-of-the-Valley Lupins Magnolias Marvel of Peru May-flower Meadow Sweet Mexican Orange Flower Mezereon Mignonette Mock Orange Musk Myrtle Narcissus Night-scented Stock Pseony ^some) Pancratium Pansy Pelargonium Phlox Polyanthus Pondflower Plantain Lily Primroses Rhododendrons Rock Rose Rockets Rose Rosemary Scilla Stocks St. Bruno's Lily Snowflake Southernwogd Styrax Sweet Bay Sweet Cicely Sweet Fern Bush Sweet Flag Sweet Gale Sweet Pea Sweet Scabious Sweet Sultan Sweet Verbena Sweet William Thyme Tuberose Tulip Tree , Tulips Twinflower Vine Violets Wallflower Water Lilies Willows Winter Green Winter Heliotrope. Winter Sweet Wistaria Woodruff" Yarrow Honeysuckle (Baeres, Henley-on-Thames). From a photograph by Miss Maud Grenfell. Type of complex parterre, copied out of- books for all sorts of situations. CHAPTER XXVI. SniPLER FLOWER GARDEN PLANS AND THE RELA- TION OF THE FLOWER GARDEN TO THE HOUSE. A GREAT waste is owing to frivolous and thoughtless "de- sign " as to plan and shapes of the beds in the flower-garden. What a vision opens out to any one who considers the design of the flower garden when he thinks of the curiosities and vexations in the forms of beds in almost e\-ery land where a flower garden exists ! The gardener is the heir — to his great misfortune — of much use- less complexity and frivolous design, born of applying con- ventional designs to the ground. These designs come to us from a remote epoch, and the design- ing of gardens being from very early times in the hands of the decorative " artist," the garden was subjected to their will, and in our own da}s we even see gardens laid without the slightest relation to garden use, difficult to plant, and costly to form and to keep in order. At South Kensington the elaborate tracery of sand and gra\el was attractive to some when first set out. SIMPLER FL WER GARDEN PLANS. 3 1 1 but it soon turned to dust and ashes. It was, indeed, to a great ■extent formed of broken brickdust, in a vain attempt to get rid of the gardener and his flowers. The colours were supplied from the building sheds, where boys were seen pounding up bricks and slates, and beds were made of silver sand, so that no gardener could dis- figure them. The Box edgings of beds a foot wide or smaller soon got out of order, and after a few years the whole thing was painful to see, while good gardeners were wasting precious time trying to plant paltry beds in almost every frivolous device known to the art of con- ventional design. Even where such extravagances were never attempted we see the evil of the same order of ideas, and in many gardens the idea of adapting the beds to the ground never occurs to the designer, but a design has been taken out of some old book. If the ground does not suit the plan, so much the worse for the ground and all who have to work on it. The results of this style of forming beds the cottage gardens escaped from, the space being small and the cottage gardener content with the paths about his door. To some people this objection on my part to intricate design is mistaken for an objection to formality altogether. Now there are bold spirits who do not mind setting their houses among rocks and heather, but we must cultivate a flower garden, and simplicity as to form of the beds should be the rule in it. There are many ways of growing flowers and all sorts of situations fit for them, but the flower garden itself near the house must be laid out with formal beds, or else we cannot cultivate the flowers or get about the ground with ease. It is a question of right and wrong formality. The beds in my own work are, as will be seen by the plans here given, as formal as any, but simpler, and are made on the ground and to the ground. Our object should be to see the flowers and not the beds, so that while we have all the advantage of mass and depth of soil, and all the good a bed can give for con- venience of working or excellence of growth, we should take little pride in its form, and plant it so that we may see the picturesque effects of the plants and flowers, and forget the form of the bed in the picture. The relation of the beds to each other is often much too complex and there is little freedom. Designs that were well enough for furniture or walls or panels when applied to the garden gave us a new set of difficulties. Carried out in wood or in the carpet they answer their purpose, if we like them ; but a flower bed is a thing for much work in cultivating, arranging and keeping it, and it is best to see that we are not hindered by needless complexities in deal- ing with the beds. In good plans there is no difficulty of access, no small points to be cut in Grass or other material, no vexatious 312 THE EXGLISH FLOU'EK GARDEX. obstruction to work, but beds as air}- and simple as possible and giving us much more room for flowers than beds of the ordinarj- type. The plans given are those of wholh- different kinds of gardens. GOLDER'S Hill. — This at Hampstead, is, perhaps, the best and most interesting example of a London garden one could find for its beautj-, airiness, repose, and fine distant view, in which one can scarcel}' see a house, although near London. This plan is also instructive in various other \\aj-s, as showing that where it is desirable to keep a lawn open and quiet for view, plaj", or any other like reason, it is often easy to do this without interfering with the flower-gardening or anj- other charm of the place. The lawn is so open and air}% that any number of people maj- assemble on it without inconvenience or injury to anything. The lawn falls gently from the house, so that any walled terracing is needless, and, excepting a few steps for the convenience of level, little has been done in that direction. The plan also disproves the thoughtless assertion of certain writers that landscape gardening means twisting the walks about It is seen here that nothing of the kind is done in this most picturesque garden. The flower beds are rather few and bold, and, made large for the sake of ease of cultivation and breadth of effect The next plan is that of the gardener's house at Uflfington, near Stamford ; it is an example of the older-fashioned garden not un- common before nearly all old gardens were altered for the sake of the Perilla and its few companions. At one end of the little garden is the gardener's house, and high walls surround the rest of the garden,, so that there is shelter and every comfort for the plants. The garden is simply laid out to suit the ground, the plants — Roses and hard\- flowers in great variet)-, a plan which admits of delightful effect in such walled gardens. Picturesque masses of \\"istaria covered one side of the wall and part of the house — the whole was a picture in the best sense ; and it would be difficult to find in garden enclosures anything more delightful during more than half the year. The main drawback in gardens of this sort in the old days w as the absence of grouping or any attempt to hold '• things together ' — a fault which is easily got over. It is easy to avoid scattering things one likes all over the beds at equal distances, and, without "squaring" them in any stupid way, to keep them rather more together in natural groups, in which thej- are more effective., and in \\ inter it is much easier to remember where they are. In this waj-, too, it is easy to give a somewhat distinct look to each part of the garden. Box edgings ma}- be used in such a garden, and where the}- thrive and are well kept they are ver}- prett}- m effect, but ah\ays distinctly inferior to a stone edging because I0OJ.S' , ^ I G3S0H 314 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. more troublesome, and also because dwarf plants cannot grow over them here and there as they can over a rough edging of natural stone, the best of all edgings. 32 feet Oird^ri^T ^ H..U-- in.J 0\Fragrant Hard!/ Flowers \':*lSi/" Dapime *V Z' Alpine \ , / Rhododendron B and nd'-omeda\ /^ Heaths \ ai'cl 1 and hoicc Btilhs / V Bulbs. J Eaergteen Border. x. „ . f Verbena and Red Honeysuckle. ^O' '0/ Scale of Feet, 10 IS 20 S9 Euergreena and Hardy Flowers. Wail of Winter Sweet and Ceanothus . Flower garden of Surrey villa on peaty soil for choice evergreen shrubs with hardy flowers between. of Shakespeare." The garden at Bitton Vicarage is no new garden, for it was famous more than half a century ago, when Haworth and Herbert, Anderson, Falconer, Sweet, Baxter and others took such an interest in bulbs and hardy flowers. By the same token it is by no means a new-fangled garden ; there is all due and proper keeping, but it is patent to any plant-lover that its owner thinks more of seeing his plants happy and healthy than he does of any unnecessary trimness.— F. W. B. -^ / Reserve garden for the choicer families of hardy plants, grown in beds without reference to general effect, and serving also ,as a garden for cut flowers and a nursery. Y 2 324 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Reserve Garden. — We have an example in this plan of what is meant hy a reserve garden. An oblong piece of ground having the walls of the kitchen garden for two of its boundaries, and a Yew hedge sheltering it from the east winds, while the other is screened by evergreen trees, with which are intermingled hardy plants of tall growth. The plants are set in beds without reference to the general effect, and all the borders being edged with stone dug on the place, give no trouble after the stones are properly set ; when old and moss- grown the stones look better than anything else that could be used — the dwarfer plants being allowed to run over them and break the lines. Every year the plan of such a garden may be varied as our tastes vary and as the flowers want change. A similar garden ought to be in every place where there are borders to be stocked and maintained in good condition, and particularly where there is a demand for cut flowers. Such a garden may be made in any shape which is convenient for cultivation, for access and for cutting ; but some general throwing of the ground into easily worked beds is desirable. The more free and less hampered with gravel, permanent edgings, and the like, the better it will be for future work. The gardener is often hindered by need- less impedimenta in the flower garden, but in the reserve garden, where only the cultivation of flowers has to be thought of, he should be able to get to work at any time with the least possible difficulty, and in dry and good soils it would not be necessary to have much more than a beaten walk for the foot. It would be possible to do without edgings ; but where edgings are used they should be of a kind that might be removed at any time, the best for this end being of natural stone. The drainage should be good, and if possible the place should be not too far to the manure heap, while the soil should in all cases be good, as very often it has to give two crops a year ; in the case of bulbs that perish early it is easy to get after crops of annuals or ornamental grasses. CHAPTER XXVII. AIR AND SHADE. The glorious sun of heaven, giver of life and joy to the earth, gives, too, the green fountains of life we call trees to shade her, and this beautiful provision might often be borne in mind in thinking of our often hard and bare gardens ! Air and shade, as we cannot, near houses in hot weather, enjoy the shade without free air, and shade may be often misused to cultivate mouldiness and keep the breeze away from a house, though it is very easy to have air and shade in a healthy way. To overshade the house itself with trees is always a mistake, and sometimes a danger, though even against a house, by the use of climbers, like Vines, pretty creeper-clad pergola, and by the wise use of rooms open to the air, creeper-shaded, flat spots on roofs, so often seen in Italy and France, it is easy to have welcome shade even forming part, as it were, of the house. We have the gain, too, of the grace and bloom of the climbers, from climbing Tea Roses to Wistaria, and we get rid of the bald effect of such houses as Syon and the excruciating effect of the newer French chateaux, often on the warm side without gardens or shade of any kind, and hard as a new bandbox. A little away from the house, shade of a bolder kind is always worth planning for. In planting for shade it is well to select with some care and avoid things that have a bad odour when in flower, like the Ailantus and the Manna Ash and ill-smelling undergrowth like Privet. In many places there is a fine field for cutting groups of pleasant shade trees out of the crammed shrubbery, neglected as that so often is, with dark barriers of Laurel, Privet, and Portugal Laurel. Nothing is easier than sweeping off and burning much of this evergreen rubbish, and getting instead shade over cool walks, or over paths leading through Ferns and Foxgloves ; such woodland plants allow us to get light and shade and do not weaken the trees. Vain attempts are often made in our gardens, public and private, to get grass to grow under certain trees which it would be much better 'to frankly accept as they are and gravel the spaces beneath 326 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. them for use as playground or for seats. In dealing with such trees we must be unsparing in cutting off the lower boughs, which are rarely of much use to the tree and often impede the air and movement underneath ; they should be cut carefully to an airy but not hard line. Wych Elm on Lawn at Oak Lodge, Kensington. Where the flower garden is small we may rightly object to much shade in it, and must get as much as we can outside it. In many cases in open lawn gardens, where we may pass easily from the flower beds into grassy, open ground near, we may have delightful groups of shade trees not far from the flowers, and this sort of garden, of which AIR AND SHADE. 327 there are so many in the level country, is that which is perhaps the most easy of all to keep cool, airy and sunny too. But in large open flower gardens, which are often bare and hard, it is better to have some light shade. Great areas of gravel and flat beds everywhere are most tiresome to the eye, and in many large flower gardens, it would be an improvement to have covered ways of Rose and Jasmine or wreaths, of Clematis and alleys of graceful trees such as the Mimosa-leaved Acacia, or other light and graceful trees. In that way we should get some of the light and shade which are so much wanted in these large chessboard gardens, and in getting the shade we might also get trees beautiful in themselves, or carrying wreaths of Wistaria or other climbers. Among the most beautiful shade-giving trees are the weeping ones, which in our own day are many and beautiful, among them, the Weeping Ash, of which we see • many trees even in the London squares. We are all so busy with wonders from many parts of the world, that the native tree does not always get a fair chance, and yet no deciduous tree ever brought to our country is for form and dignity finer than the mountain or Wych Elm. Trees over twenty feet round are not rare, and, being a native of the mountains of Northern England, its hardiness need never be in doubt. This tree is the parent of the large-leaved Weeping Elm (of which there are so many good trees to be .seen), and the wild tree itself in its old age has also a weeping habit. But the weeping garden form is quite distinct and a tree of remarkable character and value, and like other weeping trees, it increases in beauty with age, like the grand old Weeping Beeches,at Knaphill. The various Weeping Willows afford a welcome shade, and the White Willow and any of its forms give a pleasant light shade. A fine kind of shade is that given by a group of Yews on a lawn near the house on a hot day — a living tent without cost, and this is almost true of any spreading tree giving noble shade, as the great Oak in the pleasure ground at Shrubland. There are many noble Horse Chestnuts which give great shade, as at Busbridge, and the Plane tree in Southern England gives noble shade. There is no more beautiful lawn tree than the Tulip tree, and nothing happier in our country on an English lawn, in which its delightful shade and dignity are very welcome in hot weather, as at Esher place and Woolbeding. Petworth also has a fine tree, but rather closed in by others. Owing partly to the attractive catalogues of conifers and other trees not of half the value of this from any point of view, young trees of these fine deciduous things are not so often planted as they used to be ; and why should not a tree like this be grouped now and then, instead of being left in solitary state ? 328 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GAliDEN. Trees with light shade might be welcome in certain districts, among the last being various Acacias, of which the common old American is good, while several beautiful varieties have been raised in France, light, elegant trees, especially the Mimosa-leaved one. In warm soils this would grow well and give very light shade. There are so many rapid-growing trees that in places devoid of shade trees it would not be difficult to establish some soon. Those who have small gardens and cannot have them robbed by the roots of trees may get shade from climbers and often great beauty of flower from the climbers that give the shade. It is curious how little use is made of the Vine, with its beauty of leaf and form, for covered ways, loggias, and garden houses, not only in the country, but in town also. It is one of the best of plants for covering the fronts of houses, and good Vines spring out of London areas far below the level of the street, where it would be difficult to imagine worse conditions for the aeration of the soil or its fertility. These remarks apply not only to the common Vine, valuable though it is with all its innumerable varieties, but to the wild Vines of America and Japan, some of which are fine in foliage and colour. The last few years we have seen so many hot seasons that one turns to the Continental idea of shade in the garden with more interest ; and why should we not have outdoor loggia and Vine- covered garden rooms ? We do not only neglect the outdoor shaded structures, but the even more essential loggia forming part of the house. A garden room entered from the house and part of it is a great comfort and may be made in a variety of pretty ways, though never without provision for a few light graceful climbers. After all is said . about shade, the most essential thing about it in British gardens is not to have too much of it. Most of us plant too thickly to begin with ; the trees get too close and we neglect to thin them, the result being mouldy, close avenues, dripping, sunless groves, and dismal shrubberies, more depressing than usual in a wet season. It is only when we get the change from sun to shade with plenty of movement for air that we enjoy shade. We cannot feel the air move in an over-planted place, and there are in such no broad breadths of sunlight to give the airy look that is so welcome. Over- planting is the rule ; the regular shrubbery is a mixture fatal to the play of light and shade and air, and not only the sun is shut out, but often many beautiful views also. Very harmful in its effect on the home landscape is the common objection to cutting down or ill-placed trees crowded to the detriment of the landscape and often to the air and light about a house. The majority of the trees that are planted in and near gardens are planted in ignorance of their mature effects, the landscape beauty of half the ^ti-ir ri„~--LJOT\TJ . i )ffi g ^ Air and shade : Type of weeping native lawn tree. 330 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. country seats in England being marred by unmeaning trees and trees out of place. I have known people who wanted to remove a solid Georgian house rather than take down a tree of moderate dimensions which made the house dark and mouldy and obscured the view of far finer trees beyond it, and it is not long since a man wrote to thq Times after a storm to say that one of his Elm trees had fallen through the dining-room ceiling when he was at luncheon, and that Elms were not good trees to put over the house ! Where without the limits of the garden there are drives through old mixed or evergreen woods, it is like the Long Cover at Shrubland or the drive at Eastnor, it is important not to let the undergrowth close in on each side, as trees are very apt to do. It is difficult to give an idea of the difference in the effect of such a drive when " light and shade" are let into it, and when, as is commonly the case, the, Yew, Box, and other things are clipped back to hard walls, good views, fine trees, and groups being all shut out by this neglect. It is better never to clip in such cases, but always to work back to a good tree or group, cutting encroachers clean out of the « way, and so getting room for the air to move, the shade of the trees above being sufficient in each case. The pleasure of driving or walking is much greater when the air is moving, and when one can see here and there into the wood on each side, with perhaps groups of wild flowers and beautiful views into the country beyond. The old fashion of having pleached alleys near the garden, of which there are good examples at Hatfield, Drayton, and other old gardens, was a pretty one, but as done with vigorous Lime trees it was troublesome and laborious work to keep down the vigour of such forest trees which, in point of looks, were not in any way the best to use for the purpose. However charming those old pleached walks are it is well to remember that we have much nobler things for forming them now, that do not want cutting back, and that are beautiful in foliage and bloom. It is also well in planting such things to see that the pleached alley is sufficiently high and airy. There is no reason why it should not be made reasonably big, especi- ally as we have noble climbers to cover it that do not keep rushing up in the air like the Lime and other forest trees which were used for this purpose in old times, when there were few trees to select from, and when probably the quick growth of the Lime was the cause of its selection. Its shade in this cut-down form is not so pleasant as the nobler climbers, which will cause no trouble in springing above the surfaces we wish them to cover. Planting in Light and Shade.— This helps to get us out of the hard ways in which flowers are set in gardens. There is too sharp a line between the open parterre and the shady grove. AIR AND SHADE. 331 There are no gardens surrounded by more pleasant groves than English gardens generally, even small gardens having their belt of Air and «hade : Shaded walk, Belvoir. trees, with opportunities for flower grouping in light and shade, but now for the most part occupied by heavy evergreens, massed together 332 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. and preventing all chance of light and shade, and even shutting out air and beauty. We cannot do much good, in such cases, unless we first destroy the Privet and facile evergreens, like Laurels, which overrun every- thing, and then comes the question of the plants which will grow best in such places, as shade in gardens varies whether it comes from light-leaved or heavy-leaved trees, and there are so many different degrees of shade. We should think of the plants that grow in woody places naturally, as in our woods we may see handsome tall Grasses, Foxgloves, large Ferns, herbaceous plants like the French Willow and the Ragwort, tall Harebells, and many ground plants like Primroses and Bluebells. There is not any hard and fast line between plants that grow in shady places and other herbaceous plants, although some difference exists, and there are so many varieties of climate, elevation, and conditions of soil that the plants often vary in their ways. Foxgloves and Bracken, which are seen happy in the woods of the south, thrive on sunny rocky places in the north, so that there is an interplay among these things which helps us in making our gardens more varied. Not only we have to consider wood plants, but the fact that a great many plants of the northern world grow in partial shade, and we could arrange our borders, if we get out of stiff ways, so as to let the plants often run from the light into the shade. In making borders through groves or shrubberies, it would be easy to have no hard line at the back of the border, but simply let the plants run in and enjoy the shade here and there. Where there might be some doubt of choice herbaceous plants thriving in shade, there need be no doubt as to the larger woodland ferns and such plants as Solomon's Seal. Among the interesting plants that thrive in shade are alpine and mountain plants. Many of these, being shrouded in clouds and enduring much rain in cool gorges, very often rejoice in shady places, as the varieties of the Irish Rockfoil (Saxifraga Geum), which carpet the ground in places that the sun never touches. Other Rockfoils have the same habit, including the large Indian kinds and their varieties. The Irises are often very beautiful in half-shady places, German Irises especially. By planting, too, in various aspects, shade and open, we get a succession of favourite flowers, that under a hot sun last but a short time. In the cooler light their colours have a greater charm— the blues more tender, the deeper colours still richer. PjEonies are never handsomer than in subdued light, their colours richer and longer lasting than when bleached by the sun. This ' is true especially of the frailer single forms, which open out quickly under a hot sun and are gone all too soon. Many beautiful plants are happiest in the shade— not too dense— but where the sun's rays filter AIR AND SHADE. 333 through the tree-leaves. Gardens of great beauty may be made in the shade — gardens of greater charm than those who know not the ■store of plants for this purpose little dream of, and not confined to the hardy plant alone, but including also shrubs as well — as the hardy Azaleas. These are never so fine as when seen in shady or half shady places in a wood, as at Dropmore and Coolhurst, their colours more intense from the subdued light, and the flowers more lasting in the shade. Air, shade, and light are a trinity essential about a country house, and we cannot enjoy any one of them unless some thought is given to all. Weeping Evergreen Tree (Weeping Hemlock Spruce). CHAPTER XXVI II. WALKS AND EDGINGS. Our gardens are often laid out in a complex way : with so many- needless walks, edgings, and impediments of many kinds that work cannot be done in a simple way, and half the time is lost in taking care of or avoiding useless or frivolous things. Efforts thus wasted should be turned to account in the growth of flowers. In many large places there is no true flower-gardening ; wretched plants are stuck out in the parterre every year, and a few stunted things are scratched in round the choke-muddle shrubbery, but little labour or love is bestowed on the growth of flowers. In others there are miles of walks bordered by bare stretches of earth, as cheerful as Woking Cemetery in its early years. The gardener is impotent to turn such a waste into a paradise ; his time and his thoughts are often eaten up by keeping in order needless and often ugly walks. The gardeners, owing to the trouble of this wasteful system, have little time for true flower-gardening — forming a real garden of Roses, or groups of choice shrubs, or beds of Lilies, or of other noble hardy plants, so that the beds may fairly nourish their tenants for a dozen years. Instead of the never-ending and wearisome hen-scratchings of autumn and spring, we ought to prepare one portion of the flower garden or pleasure ground each year, so that it will yield beauty for many years. But this cannot be done while half the gardener's time is taken up with barber's work. Our own landscape gardeners are a little more sparing of these hideous walks than the French ; but we very often have twice too many walks, which torment the poor gardener by needless and stupid labour. The planning of these walks in various elaborate ways has been supposed to have some relation to landscape gardening ; but one needless walk often bars all good effect in its vicinity. Flower- beds are often best set in Grass, and those who care to see them will approach them quite as readily on Grass as on hard walks. For the three or four months of our winter season there is little need of frequent resort to flower-beds, and for much of the rest of the year the WALKS AND EDGINGS. 335 turf is better than any walk. I do not mean that there should be no walk to the flower-garden, but that every walk not necessary for use should be turfed over. Few have any idea how much they would gain, not merely in labour, but in the beauty and repose of their gardens, by doing away with needless walks. Gravel Walks. — -For hard work and general use the gravel walk is the most important of all for garden and pleasure grounds. The colour of walks is important ; that of the yellow gravels being by far the best. Of this we have examples in the country around London, in the gravels of Croydon, Farnham, and also those of Middlesex. These walks are not only good in colour but also excellent in texture, consolidating thoroughly. It is a relief to see these brownish-yellow walks after the purple pebble walks of the neighbourhoods of Dublin and Edinburgh. After the sound formation of these walks the main point is to keep them to the essen- tial needs of the place, and when this is done their effect is usually right. Even this excellent gravel is sometimes improved about London by the addition of sea shells, cockle shells mostly gathered from the coasts of Kent ; and, after the walk is formed and hardened,, this is lightly scattered over the surface and rapidly breaks down and gives to the walk a clean smooth surface. In public gardens and parks large areas of gravel are sometimes necessary, and in some ways of" laying out," such as those round French chateaux, wide arid areas of gravel are supposed to have a raison d'itre ; but in English gardens they are better avoided. English roads, lanes, and pathways are often pictures, because consecrated by use and often beautiful in line, following as they often do the line of easiest grade or gentle curves round hills ; but in gardens, roads and paths are often ugly because overdone, and nothing can be worse than hot areas of gravel, not only without any relation to the needs of the place, but wasting precious ground that might be made grateful to the eye with turf, or of some human interest with plants.. Stone Walks in Small Flower Gardens. — A walk which is much liked is the stone walk, suggested by the little stone paths tO' cottages. In large open gardens such walks would not be so good, but in small inclosed spaces and flower gardens, where we have to plant very closely in beds, stone walks are a gain. In some districts a pretty rough, flat stone is found, of which there is a good example at Sedgwick Park. In cities, when renewing the side-walks, it is some- times easy to get old flagstones, which are excellent for the purpose. I use such old stones and mostly set them at random, or in any way they come best. The advantages are that we get rid of the sticky surface of gravel in wet weather or after frost, avoid rolling and weeding for the most part, the stones are pleasant to walk on at all 336 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. times, we can work at the beds or borders freely in all weathers without fear of soiling gravel. The colour of the stones is good, and in sunny gardens in hot summers they help to keep the ground moist, while the broken and varied incidents of the surface gets rid of the hard unyielding lines of the gravel walk and helps the picture. They should never be set in mortar or cement of any kind, but carefully in sand or fine sandy soil, and the work can be done by a careful man with a little practice. If in newly-formed ground there is a little sinking of the stone, it can be corrected afterwards. Small rock plants, like Thyme, the fairy Mint, and little Harebells, may be grown between the divisions of the stone, and, indeed, they often come of themselves, and' their effect is very pretty in a small garden. Another point in favour of the stone walk is that it forms its own edging, and we do not need any living edging ; and if for any purpose, in a wet country or other\ a beautiful book, wril by the finger of God : ever)' flower and every leaf is a letter. Vou have only to learn them — and he is a poor dunce that cannot, if he will, do that — to learn them and join them, and then to go on reading and reading. And you will find yourself carried away from the earth by the beautiful story you are going through. . . And then there are some flowers that seem to me like overdutifiil children : tend them but ever so little, and they come up and flourish, and show, as I may say, their bright and happy face^ to you." — Doiolas jERRrnii. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN ABELIA. — Beautiful shrubs, of the Honeysuckle order, little grown in our country, only in warm districts. The best known is the Rock Abeha (A. ru- pestris), a Chinese shrub, delicate pale pink in autumn, is always best planted in a raised bank in light soils, as it is then less liable to injury during winter. A. uniflora, also from China, is of like habit. The Three-flowered Abelia {A. iriflora) comes from N. India, is less hardy than the Chinese kinds, but will clothe a wall in a few years. It bears fragrant pink flowers in clusters at the end of summer. A.floribu7tda is rather too tender for the open air, except in the mildest parts of the country ; it is ever- green, with cluster of rose-purple flowers, and makes a good wall shrub. In mild districts in the southern parts of England and Ireland Abelias sometimes do well on the open lawn. ABRONIA {Sand Verbena). — Small Californian annuals or perennials of a trailing habit, with showy blossoms in dense Verbena-like clusters. A. arettaria {A. latifoUd), a honey-scented perennial, has trailing stems and dense clusters of lemon-yellow flowers ; A. timbellaia, also an annual with succulent trailing stems and clusters of rosy-purple, slightly fra- grant flowers ; A. /ra£'rans, forming la.rge branching tufts from ij to 2 ft., and white flowers which expand late in the afternoon, and then emit a delicate vanilla-like perfume ; A. villosa is a fine species with violet flowers, and A. Crux Mastce a pretty species with white scented flowers. A. arenaria and A. umbellata should be planted in rather poor, light, and dry soil, on an open, well-drained border or rockwork. The seeds often remain dormant some time before vegetating ; those oi A. umbellata germinate more readily. A. fragrans, which does not ripen seed in this country, is best in friable soil, and is larger than the others. Abronias flower in summer and autumn, and are pretty and effective when well planted. Nyctaginece. ABUTILON— Plants mostly requiring greenhouse tenjperature in winter, but growing freely out-of-doors in summer, and a graceful aid in the flower garden, at least in the southern counties. A^ Darwini and its forms, as well as the varieties related to A. striatum, under favourable conditions, grow from 4 ft. to 8 ft. in height. They can be made bushy by stopping, and they flower better than Abutilon, Boule de Neige. they do in pots. They are useful among the taller and more graceful plants for the flower garden, and are easily raised! from seed and cuttings. A, vitifolium is a very handsome wall-plant in mild districts. A. Sellowianum marmoratum is a fine variety. Among the best in cultivation, are the following, and new varieties are often raised : Admiration, Anna Crozy,. Buisson d'Or, Darwini majus, Elegan- tissimum,Grandiflorum, Lemoine., Lady of the Lake, Leo, Orange Perfection, Boule de Neige, Delicatum, Pactole, Darwini tesselatum, Thompsoni variegatum, vexil- larium variegatum, Brilliant, King of Roses, Canarybird, Golden Queen, and Scarlet Gem. ACACIA {Tassel 7>tf£). — Beautiful' shrubs of the Pea order, mostly thriving^ in warmer countries than ours, but some- few may be grown in the warmer parts, of our country only. 378 ACACIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. acanthopaxax. A. Julibrissin {Silk Rose).—V>y con- fining this to a single stem and using young plants, or those cut down every year, one gets an erect stem covered with leaves as graceful as a Fern, and pretty amidst low-growing flowers. The leaves are slightly sensitive : on fine sunny days they spread out fully and afford a pleasant shade ; on dull ones the leaflets fall down. It is better raised from seed. A. lophantha. — This, though not hardy, grows freely in the open air in sum- mer, and gives graceful verdure among flowers. It may easily be raised from seed sown early in the year to give plants fit for putting out in early summer. Plants a year old or so, strong and well hardened off for planting out at the end of May, are best. A. dealbata. — This beautiful kind may he grown in gardens in the south, and against walls. AC.SNA. — Alpine and rock plants be- longing to the Kose family. Though not pretty in their flowers, if we except the crimson spines that give a charm to the little New Zealand A. microphylla, these plants have a neat habit of growth that fits them for very dwarf carpets in the Acaena microphylla. Tock garden, and now and then, to cover ■dry parts of borders and tufts on the margins of borders, they are very useful ; arnong the most useful being argentea, Tnillefoha, pulchella, ovalifolia, and sar- mentosa, all of free growth and increase. ACANTHOLIMON {Prickly Thrift). —Dwarf mountain herb plants of the Sea Lavender order, extending from the east of Greece to Thibet, and having their headquarters in Persia. The flowers re- semble those of Statice and Armeria, but the plants form branching, cushion-like tufts ; the leaves are rigid and spiny. They are dwarf evergreen rock-garden and choice border plants. We have had the following species for years, but have not been very successful in propagating any except A, glumaceum, which is the freest in growth, the others being very slow. Cuttings taken off in late summer and kept in a cold frame during winter make good plants in two years, but by layering one gets larger plants sooner. All are hardy, and prefer warm, sunny situations in sandy loam. There are only a few kinds in cultivation, such as A. glumaceum, venustum, and androsaceum. A. Kotschyi\% handsome, with long spikes rising well above the leaves and white flowers ; A. melananthum has short, dense spikes, the limb of the calyx being bordered with dark violet or black ; and other pretty species, not all in cultivation perhaps, art cephalotes, acerosum Icixi- florum, libanoticum, and Pinardi, and so far as we know them, thriving best on the sunny rock-garden, in light deep soil. Where large plants of the rare kinds exist, it is a good plan to work some cocoa-nut fibre and sand, in equal parts, into the tufts in early autumn, but before doing this some of the shoots should be gently torn so as to half sever them at a heel ; water to settle the soil. Many ot the growths thus treated will root by spring. Cuttings made in the ordinary way are uncertain, but when tried August or September is the best time. — E. J. ACANTHUS {Bear's-breech).—.\ long- neglected group of stately perennials with fine foUage, mostly coming from the countries round the Mediterranean, and are hardy, though the foliage may suffer now and then. On rocky banks, about ruins, or on terrace gardens of the less formal kind, they look well, and will live in shade, yet to flower well should have full sun. Acanthuses succeed best on warm, deep soil — a free sandy loam, or any deep and open soil, though they will grow in almost any garden soil. They are easy of increase by division of the roots in winter, and may be raised from seed. Acanthacece. There are several hardy kinds.— ^. hispanicus, A. longif alius, A. mollis, A.m. latifolius{A. lusitanicus), A niger, and^i. spinosissimus, the finest being A. mollis latifolius, which varies in height from i^ ft. to 4 ft. according to the soil. ACANTHOPANAX EICINIFO- LIUM. — Next to Aralia spinosa, this is the most striking of the shrubby Araliads, and is hardy and grows freely at Kew. Professor Rein, of the University of Bonn, mentions trees go feet high, with stems 9 feet to 12 feet in circumference in the ACANTHOPANAX. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ACONITUM. 379 forests of Yezo, the great northern island of Japan. A. sessiliflorum. — Anewspecies, a native of China, Manchuria, and Japan. It has rugose, dark green leaves, consist- ing of three to five leaflets, the midribs having a few scattered bristles. A. spino- sum. — A small shrub with leaves divided into five segments (sometimes only three"). Acanthus. The stem armed with a few sharp prickles. This plant is more frequently grown in a greenhouse than out of doors, more especially the variegated form. They are both hardy in sheltered positions, although they do not grow so freely as indoors. A palmatum atro-sanquijteum, p. san- quineutn, which have very rich crimson foliage, and pinnatifidum, in which the leaves are much divided, are the finest of the Japanese kinds. The plants should be upon their own roots to give satisfaction. W. J. B. ACER {Japanese Maple). — In this great family of forest trees > the varieties of the Japanese Maple {A. palmatum) and its numerous forms, often very fine in colour, have been found of much interest for the garden. For groups on warm banks in the pleasure ground they are often effective, but it is doubtful if they are hardy enough for the country generally, and to show their full beauty require a warmer sun than ours. ACHILLEA {Milfoil, Yarrow). — Hardy herbaceous and Alpine plants spread through Northern Asia, S. Europe, Asia Minor, and varying in height from 2 in. to 4 ft, their flowers being pale lemon, yellow, and white, but rarely pink or rose. Achilleas grow freely in most garden soils, and, with the exception of the dwarfer mountain species, increase even too freely in any soil. Some of the large kinds are fine plants for groups, as A. Eupatorium. The alpine kinds, such as A. tomeniosa, are for the rock-garden, or margins of choice borders, while the coarser white kinds, though unfit for the flower garden, are effective in flower when naturalised in rough shrubberies. The best of the larger kinds are ex- cellent for large groups in mixed bordei's and also in shrubberies ; among the best being A. Eupatorium, A. Fili-pendula, A. tnillifolium roseuin (a rose-coloured variety of a native plant), A. Ptarmica (the Sneezewort), of which the double variety is one of the best perennials. The variety known as the " iPearl " is an im- provement and a ' larger form. A. /Egeratum (Sweet Maudlin) is a distinct old kind, about 2 feet high. The dwarfer species, on the other hand, come in for groups for the rock garden or the margins of rock borders, and, occa- sionally, as edging plants, most of the kinds growing freely and easy of increase ; but some of the higher Alpine kinds are not very enduring in our open winters. Among the best of the Rock and Alpine kinds are A. aurea, A. rupesiris, A. tomentosa, and A. Clavennce. ACIPHYLLA.— A small and not im- portant group of New Zealand plants, suitable for the rock-garden in sandy soil. They may be raised from seeds or by division. A. Colensoi\% quite a bush with bayonet-like spines, the better-known A. squarrosa being called the Bayonet plant for this reason. ACIS, see LeuCOJUM. ACONITUM {Monkshood).— i:2X\ and handsome herbaceousplants, of theButter- cup order, dangerous from their poison- ous roots. There are many names — not so many species, — the best are of some value for our gardens. Few would risk their being planted where the roots could be by any chance dug up by mistake for edible roots, as they are so!" deadly, but almost all the kinds may be easily natur- alised in copses or shrubberies away from the garden proper, or beside streamlets or in openings in rich bottoms. The best kinds are A. Napellus and its 380 ACORUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ADENOPHORA. forms, versicolor and others ; A. chinense, A. autumnale, A.japonicum, and A. tauri- Aconitum Napellus (Monkshood). cicm ; A. Lycoctonum is a yellow-flowered and vigorous species. AUare tall plants, from 3 ft. to 5 ft. high ; flowering from July to September. A. Forttinei, the old A. chmense of gardens, is the best for late blooming. ACORUS {Sweet i^a^).— Waterside or marsh plants of the arum order, easily cultivated, and of wide distribution. A. Calamics (Sweet Flag) is a marsh or water- side plant, now naturalised in most parts of Europe. A variety has gold-striped leaves. A. gratnineus (Grass-leaved Acorus) has a slender creeping rhizome covered with numerous Grass-like leaves, from 4 in. to 6 in. in length, and there is a variety with white-streaked leaves. This plant is often seen in the little bronze trays of water-plants in Japanese gardens and houses. China. ACROOLINIUM.— ^.raj«;«,the only species, is a pretty half-hardy annual from Western Australia, growing over I foot high with rosy-pink flowers, which, owing to their chaffiness, are used as " everlasting " flowers. Seeds should be sown in frames in March, and the seedlings planted at the end of April or early in May in a warm border ; or the seeds may be sown in the open ground in fine rich soil at the end of April. If the flowers are to be dried as everlast- ings, it will be well to gather them when fresh and young — some when scarcely out of the bud state. It does best in a warm sunny border, in good open and well-enriched soil. This annual might be made graceful use of in mixed beds. There is a white variety. Cojnposita. jLOTJEA {Baneberry). — Vigorous perennials of the Buttercup order, 3 ft. to 6 ft, thriving in free soil; flower spikes, white and long, with showy berries. The white Baneberry has white berries with red footstalks. The var. rubra of A. spicata has showy fruit ; the plants are best suited for rich bottoms in the wild garden, as the foliage and habit are good, the flowers being short- lived in the ordinary border, and they are somewhat coarse in habit. A. spicata (common Baneberry or Herb Christopher), A. racemosa (Black Snakeroot), A. alba (white Baneberry), having white berries with red stalks, and one or two American forms of the common Baneberry are the kinds in cultivation. ACTINELLA. — North American com- posites of which there are three kinds in gardens, dwarf-growing plants with yellow- flowers. The finest s A. ffrandiflora (Pigmy Sunflower), a native of Colorado, an alpine plant with flower-heads 3 in. in diameter, and grows from 6 in. to 9 in. high. The other species, A. acaulis, A. Brandegei, and A. scafosa, are somewhat similar. They are all perennial, and thrive in an open light soil. ACTINIDIA.— Climbing summer-leaf- ing shrubs of the Camellia order from Japan and China,thriving in warm rich soil. Three species are grown now, A. Kolo- mikta,polygama, and volubilis. They all have climbing or twining stems and bear waxy white flowers. A. Kolomikta should be grown against a wall or against a but- tress or tree trunk placed against the wall, on which the stems support themselves. The leaves are brightly tinted in autumn, and the flowers of A. polygama are fra- grant. A. volubilis is free-growing and has small white flowers. ADENOPHORA {Gland Bellflower).— Hardy perennials of the Bellflower family, not many of which are grown. They are mostly from Siberia and Dahuria, and the flowers generally blue in colour. Some of the most distinct species are A. corono- pi folia, A. denticulata, A. Lamar cki, A. liliifolia, A. polymorpha, A. stylosa, and A. pereskiafolia. In these occur slight \ariations in colour and size of flower.^ ADIANTUiM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 3«i The thick fleshy roots of the Adenophora revel in a strong rich loam, and like a damp subsoil ; they are impatient of removal, and should not be increased by division. Unlike the Platycodons, they produce their seeds freely, and are easily raised. They vary in height from. 1 8 in. to over 3 ft., and are well suited for the mixed border. ADIANTUM {Maidenhair Fern).— Elegant ferns, some of which are hardy, and grow best in a rough fibry peat, mixed with sand and lumps of broken stone or brick. A. pedatum, the fine American kind, is charming among shade- loving plants in the wild garden with the more beautiful wood-flowers, such as Trillium, Hepatica, blue Anemone, and the like, where it is not likely to be disturbed. Like all Adiantums, it is fond of moisture while growing, but requires ample drainage, as stagnant moisture around its roots is fatal. A. Capilliis veneris., the British Maidenhair Fern, is best in a sheltered, warm position, as a little nook at the foot of a shady wall. It would be easy to protect it with some portable covering during severe winters. Its native habitat is among the sheltered rocks of Cornwall, Devon, and Wales, and in various parts of Ireland ; there- fore some idea may be formed of the sort of climate in which it thrives. There are several varieties or forms of this Maiden- hair. ADLUMIA (Climbing Fumitory). — Climbing biennial plants. One species only {A.cirrhosa) is known, a rapid grower. Its Maidenhair-Fern-like leaves are borne Adlumia cirrhosa. on slender twining stems, and the blos- soms, which are white and about \ in. long, are also abundant. There is a variety with purple flowers. It thrives in a warm soil, and its place is trailing over a shrub or twiggy branch, placed either against a wall or in the open. ADONIS.— Beautiful Alpine and bien- nial plants, belonging to the Buttercup order. They are chiefly natives of corn- fields in Southern Europe and Western Asia, are dwarf in stature, with finely divided leaves, and red, yellow, or straw- coloured flowers. There are about fifteen V I Adonis pyreuaica. or sixteen species, most of which are annuals, and not very attractive, and, with the exception of two or three fine kinds, they are seldom seen in gardens. A. autumnalis (Pheasants-eye). — A British annual I ft. or more high, flower- ing in summer or early in autumn ; bright scarlet. They are pretty in masses with other autumn-flowering annuals. Sow in the open ground in autumn or spring. A. vernalis (Ox-Eye). — A handsome Alpine herb, forming dense tufts 8 in. to 15 in. high of finely divided leaves in whorls along the stems. It flowers in spring, when the tufts are covered with large, yellow. Anemone-like flowers 3 in. in diameter, a single flower at the end of each stem. Of A. vernalis there are several varieties, the chief being A. v. sibirica, which differs from the type only in having larger flowers. A. apennina 382 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AGAPANTHUS. {A. distortd) is a later-blooming form, and is a charming plant for moist spots on the rock-garden. A. pyrenaica is a fine form from the Eastern Pyrenees, with large deep-yellow flowers resembling those oiA. vernalis, but with broader petals, flowering in spring. A. amurensis is a new kind from Manchuria, with finely cut leaves, blooming with the snowdrop, and seems to be of easy culture. The rock-garden or a choice border of rock-plants suits the handsome perennial kinds well, and if the soil is poor it may be enriched with leaf-mould or any other decayed manure. Increased by careful division, or by seed sown as soon as gathered. .SSCULUS I^Horse Chestnut, Buckeye). — The Horse Chestnuts are mostly me- dium-sized trees, hardy, thriving in nearly every soil, and excellent for park and garden. The common Horse Chestnut is an exception as to size, and one of the most beautiful of flowering trees. There is at least one handsome variety of it with very long spikes. The red Buckeye {JE. Pavia) is a handsome small tree, with dense and large foliage, together with bright red flowers in large loose clusters in early summer. Sometimes it rises from 15 to 20 ft. high, but often not above shrub height, some of its varieties being only low-spreading or trailing shrubs. Al. humilis, pendula, arguia, and laciniata are forms oi jE. Pavia, and the plants being of low growth are useful for group- ing with taller trees, ^.flava (the yellow Buckeye) is common, and sometimes 40 ft. high. It has something of the habit of the red Horse Chestnut {jE. rubicundd), but smoother leaves. A variety called ■purpurascens (sometimes ^. discolor) has much showier flowers, larger, and of a reddish tint. The ^sculi, named in gardens and nurseries as AL. neglecta, hybyida, pubescens, Lyoni, rosea, and pallida, may be included in one of the foregoing species, and some differ but slightly from them. They are all low trees or large shrubs, coming into leaf early and losing their foliage in early autumn, especially in light or dry soils. One of the best of all the forms is the brightly-coloured jE. Brioti. A distinct species is the Califomian Buckeye {^. californica), which in this country does not usually rise above shrub height. It has slender-stalked leaves, broad leaf- lets, and in early summer dense erect clusters of white or pinkish fragrant flowers ; a valuable hardy tree. Quite different from the rest is the North American ^. parviflora (dwarf Horse Chestnut), a handsome shrub, 6 ft. to 10 ft. high, and one of the few that flower in late summer. Its foliage is much like that of other ^sculi, and its small white fragrant flowers are in long, erect, plume- flowers. This tree is not particular as regards soil. A variety of the preceding, y£. macrostachya, is an August-blooming North American shrub of great beauty. The growth is spreading and bushy, the creamy white flowers in dense plumy spikes. A specimen on the outskirts of the lawn is effective. We have grouped the Pavias with the ^sculus. .aJTHIONEMA.— A beautiful group of Alpine and rock plants found on the sunny mountains near the Mediterra- nean. The little plants grow freely in borders of well-drained sandy loam, but their true home is the rock-garden. The tall ^. grandijlorum forms a spread- ing bush about i ft. high, from which spring numerous racemes of pink and lilac flowers. It grows well too in bor- ders in ordinary soil, and, when in flower in summer, is among the loveliest of alpine half-shrubby plants. As the stems are prostrate, a good effect will come from planting them where the roots may descend into deep earth, and the shoots fall over the face of rocks at about the level of the eye. Easily raised from seed, and thrive in sandy loam. There are many species, but few are in gardens. All the cultivated kinds are dwarf, and may be grouped with alpine plants. The best known are A. coridifolium, A. pul- chellum, A. persicmn and gratidiflorum. AGAPANTHUS(4/rzfa«Zz-/j/).— Beau- tiful bulbous plants from the Cape,\\ith blue or white flowers in umbels on stems 18 in. to 4 ft. high. A. umbellatus, the old kind, is hardy in some mild seashore districts, and a fine plant in rich warm soil, but even in such places the better for protection of leaves or cocoa fibre round the root in winter. It is worth growing for the flower garden and vases in summer, but should be protected in winter by storing under stages, in sheds or cellars. The fleshy roots may be so stored without potting. Enjoysplenty of water during out-of-door growth, and is easily increased by division. Various new kinds have been introduced, but their out- of-door value has not been so well tested as the favourite old African Lily. Of the best-known kind, A. umbellatus, there are several varieties ; major and maximus are both larger than the type, and of maximus there is a white-flowered variety. There is also another with white flowers, but smaller, and one with double flowers, and variegated-leaved kinds. A. Saunder- AGATH^A. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. agrostemma. 383; sonianus is a distinct variety with deeper- coloured flowers than the type. The largest of all is A. umbellatus giga?iteus, the flower-spikes of which attain a height of from 3 ft. to 4 ft., with the umbels of flowers very large, bearing from 1 50 to 200 flowers. The colour is a gen- tian blue, while the buds are of a deeper hue. A. u. pallidus is a pale porcelain blue, a short-leaved variety. A. u. minor is a dwarf variety. Of A. umbellatus there is a double-flowered variety, a dis- tinct plant. There is, moreover, A. u. atrocosruleus, a dark violet variety. A. u. inaxintus is a form with flower-stalks 4 ft. long, and full heads of flowers, one set opening while a second is rising to fill up the truss as the first crop fades. A. u. Mooreanus is a deciduous and hardy form ; it grows from 12 in. to 18 in. high, has narrow leaves, and comes true from seed. A. u. albiflorus, a pure white kind, also is deciduous, the leaves turning yellow in autumn and dying off'. It forms a stout root-crown. AGATHJEA CCELESTIS {BlueDaisy). — A tender spreading Daisy-like plant, with blue flowers, useful for the margins of beds. There is also a pretty golden variegated form. It is among the prettiest of the half-hardy bedding plants, but is not effective on moist soils or in moist districts. Cuttings or seed. AGAVE. — Tropical-looking succulent plants of the Amaryllis order, of which the common kind, A. americana and its variegated varieties are useful for placing out-of-doors in summer in vases or pots plunged in the ground, and also for the conservatory in winter. When the plant flowers, which it does only once, and after several years' growth, it sends . up a flowering stem, from 26 ft. to nearly 40 ft. high. The flowers are a yellowish- green, and are very numerous on the ends of the chandelier-like branches. It will grow in winter in any moderately dry greenhouse or conservatory, or even in a large hall ; it may be placed out-of-doors at the end of May, and should be brought in in October. Large plants in tubs have a good effect out-of-doors in summer. Easily increased from suckers. A. Deserti, utahensis, ccerulesceni, and Shawi have lately come into cultivation, and are supposed to be hardy, in which case they will be interesting for the rock- garden. North America. AGEEATUM {Floss Flower).— UaXf- hardy herbaceous Composites, much used for the flower garden, varying in height from 6 in. to 24 in., with pale-blue, laven- der, or white blossoms. The dwarf Agera- tums are among the best summer flower- garden plants, but the tall old kinds are as well deserving of culture as the dwarfs raised from them. They are among the most lasting of summer bedding plants, a point in their favour being that they will withstand a few degrees of frost, and may be planted out earlier than most of the bedding plants. The flowers of all the varieties are not readily injured by rain, and do not fade in colour, but continue the same- throughout the long flowering season. There are numerous varieties of varying merit, both as to flowering properties and habit, some in good soil attaining a height of 2 ft., and others not more than 6 in. The mean between the two heights will be found the best for bedding out, and the variety named Cupid has not yet been excelled. Its average height is 9 in. ; it has bluish flowers of great size, well set off with bright green foliage, and flowers till severe frost clears off all bedding plants. Countess of Stair is nearly equally good, but of taller habit, and paler blue- colour. Queen is also excellent, distinct in colour — a gray-blue ; it grows about I ft. in height, and is fine for massing, or for boundary lines to scarlet Pelargoniums. Swanley Blue is a dwarf kind, about 8 in. high ; the flowers are a dark lavender- blue, and very pleasing when arranged as a belt to variegated Pelargoniums. Other good kinds are Tapis Blanc, Johannis Pfitzer, and The Zoo. The very dwarf kinds are disappointing ; they flower so freely, and the growth of the plants is so sparse, that they always appear stunted. For back lines in borders, or for grouping in mixed flower borders, there is no variety equal to the oldest kind, A. mexi- canum. AH the kinds are easily increased from cuttings at any season. They strike best when placed on a gentle bottom-heat, and will winter in any position where there is plenty of light, and the temperature does not go below 40°. — W. W. AGKOSTEMMA GORONARIA {Rose Campion). — A beautiful old flower, of the Pink family, hardy and free, most at home in chalky and dry soils. It is a woolly plant, 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, with many rosy- crimson flowers, flowermg in summer and autumn, easily raised from seed, excellent for borders, beds, and naturalisation on dry banks. It is biennial, or often perishes on some soils. There is a white variety and a double fed one ; the last is a good plant. The name is sometimes given to the annual Viscanas. A. Githago is a large annual, occasionally grown in botanic gardens. A. PFal^eri is a. hybrid 384 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AJUGA. between A. coronaria and A. Flos-Jfovis, very compact, free flowering, and rich in •colour. Young Ailantus tree with Cannas. AGROSTIS {Cloud Grass).— 1\ large family of Grasses, the best of which in the garden are the annual kinds so useful when dried and for preservation with " everlasting " flowers. There are some half-a-dozen annual kinds grown, the best A. nebulosa, which forms delicate tufts about 15 in. high, and is useful for rooms. If cut shortly before the seed ripens and dried in the shade, it will keep for a long time. The seed may be sown either in September or in April or May, and lightly covered. A. Steveni, multi- flora, and plumosa require the same treatment. A. Spicaventi is very grace- ful, especially if it is grown as it is in the corn-fields, i.e. from self-sown seeds. A. pulchella is also useful for the same pur- pose, dwarfer and stiffer than A. nebulosa. AILANTUS ( Tree of Heaven).— .\ well- known Chinese hardy tree, young plants of which cut down every year give a good effect. The Ailantus should be kept when young with a single stem clothed with its fine leaves. This can be done by cutting down annually, taking care to prevent it from breaking into an irregular head. Vigorous young plants and suckers in good soil will produce handsome arching leaves 5 ft. or more long, not surpassed by those of any stove plant. Cuttings of the roots. AIBA {Hair Grass).— Graceful grasses, of which one of the prettiest is A.pulchella, with many hair-like stems, growing in light tufts 6in. high. It isusefulforforming grace- ful edgings, amongst plants in borders, or for pots for rooms. Its delicate panicles give a charm to the finest bouquets. Seed may be sown either in September or in April. This comes from South Europe, and the British A. ceespitosa is handsome. A. c. vivipara, with its innumerable panicles of graceful viviparous awns, re- sembles a miniature Pampas Grass. A. flexuosa (the Waved Hair grass) is a pretty and graceful pereimial. Of easy culture in ordinary garden soil. AJUGA {Bugle). — A small family of dwarf herbs of the sage order, flowering in spring and early summer, and having blue flowers. They grow on mountain or lowland pastures, are easily cultivated, and increased by division. A. getievensis is among the best, and is distinguished from the Common native Bugle (A. reptans) by the absence of creeping shoots. Br---" '■^^^lanaBH 4 m tefe ^^ ' ^^i2^» I^J m ^ Ajuga genevensis. The flower-stems are erect, from 6 in. to 9 in. high ; the flowers being deep blue, and in a close spike. It is suitable for the front of mixed borders or for the margin of shrubberies, and also for naturalising. There is a white variety of ^. reptans, also THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 38s a form with \ariegated leaves, and another with purplish ones, this being finer than the type. AEHBIA. — Of these climbing or twin- ing shrubs of the Barberry order, A. quinata is best known. It is a twining evergreen shrub from China, often grown in greenhouses, but hardy. It is a good plant for a trellis, pergola, wall, or any such place in cold districts, growing 12 ft. or more high. In southern localities it does not need this, but rambles like a Clematis. It is best to let it run over an Evergreen, because then better protected against cold winds, which may injure its flowers. It has long slender shoots, and fragrant claret purple flowers of two kinds — large and small, which are produced in drooping spikes. The Japanese v4. lobata is a climber of elegant growth, and, although the flowers are small and dull, they are very fragrant. ALCHEMILLA {Lady's Mantle).— Silky-leaved hardy herbs, well adapted for rock gardens, although the drooping panicles of flowers are not beautiful. The hardy species are A. alpina, A. pubescens, A pentaphylla and A. sericea — all natives of Europe. ALISMA {Water Plantain). —Water plants, of which two are fitted for growing with hardy aquatic plants. A. Plantago, a common waterside plant, is rather stately in habit, having tall panicles of pretty pink flowers. When once planted it sows itself freely. The other Icind is A. rannnculoides, a few inches high, in summer bearing many rosy blossoms. Both ai-e adapted for wet ditches, margins of pools, and lakes. A. natans is a small floating pretty British plant. There are one or two Chinese kinds, single and double. ALLIUM {Garlic, Chive, Onion). — Usually hardy Liliaceous bulbs. Not im- portant in a garden sense, and often with an unpleasant odour when crushed ; but to growers of collections there are some in- teresting kinds, of which a few like tteapoli- tanum, ciliatum, pedemontanum, pulchel- lum, and the American rose-coloured kinds, are rather pleasing. One or two of these are worth growing for their white starry flowers. They are easily grown in ordinary soil, the bulbs increasing rapidly. Some kinds give oflT little bulblets, which in certain situations make them too numerous ! The following are among the kinds worthy of culture : A. tzeapoli- tanum,paradoxum, ciliatuin, subhirsutum, Clusianuin pulchellum, triquetruni (all with white flowers), aziircum and cceru- leum (both blue), pedemontanum (mauve), Moly and Jtavuin (yellow), fragrans (sweet scented), oreophyllum (crimson), descendens (deep crimson), narcissiflorum (purplish), Murrayaniim, acuminatum, and Macnnbianum (deep rose). These mostly grow from I ft. to 18 in. high, some 2 ft. or 3 ft. ALLOSORUS CRISPUS {Parsley Fern). — A beautiful little British Fern found in mountainous districts, which from its resemblance to Parsley has been given the name of Parsley Fern. It re- quires abundance of air and light, but should be shaded from the hot sun. In the rock-garden it does well between large stones, with broken stones about its roots, and its fronds just peeping out of the crevice. 'ALOE. — Succulent ti-opical Lilaceous plants. Not of much value in English gardens out-of-doors, but very pretty and effective in temperate countries, where, in addition to their singular and often fine forms, they have the charm of most grace- ful and pretty blossoms. ALONSOA {Mask-flower). — Mostly Peruvian annual plants, of the Snapdragon order, of which the best species are A. Warscewiczi, over i ft. high, and has small bright orange-red flowers ; A. lini- folia, I ft. to If ft. in height, and A. acutifolia, — a slender-growing herb, i ft. to 2 ft. in height ; A. incisifolia, also a pretty kind ; similar to this is A. myrti- folia, 2 ft. to i\ ft. high, and of vigorous growth, with individual flowers far larger than any other kind, and of a more in- tense scarlet than those of ^. linifolia ; A. albiflora has pure white flowers, yellow in the centre, and A. linearis has a profusion of light scarlet flowers. All the species are easily grown, both in pots and the open ground. The seeds should be sown in March; and the plants will flower early in July. They may also be propagated by cuttings in the spring. A. Warscewiczi is more perennial and shrubby in growth, but resembles the others in flowers and foliage. As a pot plant it will flower freely from early spring until late autumn if the roots are well nourished. It is rather dwarf, and can be propagated at any time from February to September. ALOYSIA CITRIODORA {Sweet Ver- bena).— A bush with fragrant leaves, and small and not showy flowers. Its pale green foliage goes well with any flower, and it may be grown against a sunny wall, where, if protected by a heap of ashes over its roots and a warm straw mat over its branches, it will pass through the winter safely. If uncovered too soon in spring, the young growths get nipped by C C 386 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ALSTROMERIA. late frosts. It is increased from cuttings. It is a hardy wall plant in mild seashore districts, but not so common, owing to the cold, in inland districts. Verbena, order. Chili. Syn. Lippia. ALSINB LAEICIFOLIA.— Thishand- some rock plant is a native of Switzerland, and is suitable for a rock garden in a sunny position, where it should be placed on a rather high ledge, so that its droop- ing white flowers can be appreciated. It is easily distinguished from Arenaria grandiflora., which has larger leaves and vvhose flowers are more erect. The leaves Alstromerias must have a richly manured and thoroughly warm and well- drained soil, and the best place is a south border, or along the front of a wall hav- ing a warm aspect, where, if the soil is not light and dry, it should be made so. Dig out the ground to the depth of 3 ft., and spread 6 in. or so of brick rubbish over the bottom of the border. Shake over the drainage a coating of half-rotten leaves or short littery manure, to prevent the soil from running through the inter- stices of the bricks, and stopping up the drainage. If the natural soil be stiff, a AlstrSmeria (Peruvian Lily). of Alsine laiicifolia are ciliated, verj' narrow, and arranged in clusters, bearing some slight resemblance to those of the Larch (hence its name). The large flowers are pure white, and in clusters of three to six on each stem. Its elegant drooping habit makes it a most desirable plant for the rock garden, especially as it is of the easiest cultivation. F. W. M. ALSTROMERIA {Peruvian Lily).— Handsome tuberous plants of the Ama- ryllis order. portion should be exchanged for an equal quantity of leaf soil, or other light vege- table mould ; and a barrow-load of sand. The plants should be procured in pots, as they rarely succeed from divisions, and, once planted, should never be interfered with. Place them in rows about 18 in. apart, and with I ft. from plant to plant. If planted during the winter, they should be placed from 6 in. to 9 in. deep, so as to keep them from frost ; and a few inches of half-rotten leaves shaken over the soil. Should there be any difificulty in obtain- AI.STROMERIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 387 ing established plants in pots to start with, seed may be had ; and this sow in pots or in beds where the plants are to remain. The seeds, being as large as Peas, may be sown 2 or 3 in. deep ; with three or four seeds in a patch. If well treated, they will begin to bloom at a year old, and if not disturbed will in- crease in strength and beauty every sea- son. If one takes the seed of "Alstrb- merias as soon as it is ripe and sows it. Alsine laricifolia. every seed will germinate the first season. It is also much better to sow three to five seeds in each pot and let the seedlings remain in the same pot the first year. The young plants of Alstromerias are very difficult to handle, they are brittle as glass, and a very great percentage will die if replanted when they are still young. When grown in masses in this way they are very beautiful, as every stem furnishes a large number of flowers, varying much in their colour markings. While growing and blooming they should have occasional watering, otherwise they get too dry, and ripen off prematurely. A good mulching of old Mushroom dung or of leaf soil is a great assistance while in bloom. When going out of flower carefully remove the seed-heads, other- wise the plants are apt to become ex- hausted, as almost every flower sets. In removing the pods, do not shorten the stems or reduce the leaves in any way, as all are needed to ripen the tubers and form fresh crowns for the following year. The stems should therefore not be cut down, but die away naturally. Any one having deep light sandy soil resting on a dry bottom may grow these beautiful flowering plants without preparation ; all that is necessary being to pick out a well- sheltered spot, and to give the surface a slight mulching on the approach of severe weather. No trouble is involved in staking and tying, for the stems are strong enough to support themselves. unless in very exposed situations. They are quite worth cultivating for cut flowers, as they last long when cut. The species in cultivation are A. aurantiaca {A. aurea). — A vigorous growing Chilian kind, 2 ft. to 4 ft. high, flowering in summer and autumn. The flowers are large, orange yellow, streaked with red, and umbels of from 10 to 15 blooms terminating the stems. A. brasiliensis. — A distinct kind with red and green flowers, is ■ dwai'fer than the preceding. Known also as A. fisit- tacina. A. chilensis. — This is a quite hardy kind from Chili, with many varieties that give a wide range of colours from almost white to deep orange and red. A. Felegrina. — Not so tall or robust as the last ; but the flowers are larger, whitish, and beautifully streaked and veined with purple. There are several varieties, including a white one, {A. p. alba) which requires protection. When well grown it is a fine pot plant, compact, and crowned with almost pure white flowers. It is called the Lily of the Incas. A. peregrina is synonymous. Other good kinds are the hardy variable-coloured A. versicolor {A. peru- viana) and St. Martin's flower {A. pul- chrd), this, however, requiring protec- tion. ALTERNANTHERA {Joy- Weed).— Little tropical weeds of the Amaranthus order, which, owing to their showy colour, have been used in our gardens far beyond their merits. These tender plants are natives of Brazil, and can be used only in the more favoured parts of the country. The varieties range in colour of foliage from deep purple to bright yellow, and all are showy when used in masses, surrounded with plants of con- trasting colours and similar habit of growth. ALTH^A {Hollyhock).— ^\^-amz\. or perennial — plants of the Mallow family consisting chiefly, of coarse-growing plants. Some, such as A. losea, from which the Hollyhock has sprung, are showy garden flowers. The other wild species are generally characterised by great vigour, and hence are not very suitable for the choice flower garden. They thrive in almost any situation or soil. Among them A. armeniaca.^ officinalis, narbonensis, cannabina, ficifolia, Hildebrandti hirsuta, caribcea, Froloviana syriactis,lavatercefolia are the best — mostly they are natives of S. Europe and the East, flowering in summer and autumn. A. rosea {Hollyhock).— Qn^ of the C C 2 388 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. A1.TH;«A. noblest of hardy plants, and there are many positions in almost all gardens where it would add to the general effect. For breaking up ugly lines of shrubs or walls, and for forming back-grounds, its tall column-like growth is well fitted. So, too, it is valuable for bold and stately effects among or near flower beds. Cottage bee- keepers would do well to grow a few Hollyhocks, for bees are fond of their flowers. Culture. — Deep cultivation, much manure, frequent waterings in dry weather, with occasional soakings of liquid manure, will secure fine spikes and flowers. Holly- hocks require good garden soil, trenched to the depth of 2 ft. A wet soil is good in summer, but injurious in winter, and to prevent surface wet from injuring old plants left in the open ground remove the mould round their necks, filUng up with about 6 in. of white sand. This will pre- serve the crowns of the plants. It is best, however, if fine flowers are desired, to plant young plants every year, as one would Dahlias, putting them 3 ft. apart in rows at least 4 ft. apart ; or if grouped in beds, not less than 3 ft apart. In May or June, when the spikes have grown i ft. high, thin them out according to the strength of the plant, if well established and strong, leaving four spikes, and if weak two or three. When for exhibition, leave only one spike, and to get fine blooms cut off the side shoots, thin the flower buds if crowded together, and remove the top of the spike, according to the height desired, taking into considera- tion the usual height and habit of the plant. By topping you increase the size of the flower, but at the same time shorten its duration, and perhaps disfigure its appearance. Stake them before they get too high, tying them securely, so as to induce them to grow erect. The most robust will not require a stake higher than 4 ft. If the weather is dry, they may be watered with a solution of guano or any other liquid manure poured carefully round the roots, but not too near the stem. But it is in the garden, not the exhibition, one wants the Hollyhock. Propagation is effected from eyes, cuttings, seeds, or careful division. Holly- hocks may be propagated by single eyes, put in in July and August, and also by cuttings put in in spring, on a slight hot- bed. Plants raised in summer are best preserved by putting them in October into 4-in. or 5-in. pots in light, rich, sandy earth, and then placing them in a cold frame or greenhouse, giving them plenty of air on all favourable occasions. Thus treated they will grow a little in wmter. In March or April turn them out into the open ground, and they will bloom as finely and as early as if planted in autumn. Plants put out even in May will flower the Althaea rosea (Double-flowered Hollyhock). same year. If seeds are sown in autumn in a box or pan in heat, as soon as they are ripe, potted off and grown on in a pot through the winter, and planted out the fol- lowing April, they will flower in the same summer and autumn. If allowed to remain in the beds or borders where they have flowered, choice Hollyhocks often perish from damp, or from snow settling round their collars, or penetrating the cavity left by the too close removal of the flower- stems. At the approach of winter, say in THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 389 October, carefully lift all it is desired to save, and lay them close together in a slanting direction, at an angle of about ^°, in a warm mellow soil at the foot of a wall or hedge, where, in hard weather, shelter can easily be given. But in wet, heavy soils, snow and damp are most de- structive. The ground that is to receive them can then be thoroughly worked in winter, and if a little rotten turf is worked in with them when replanted in March or April, good spikes and large flowers may be expected. Choice and scarce varieties may be either potted up or planted out in a frame. Potting them is the better way, because they can be placed in a green- house or vinery, on shelves near the glass. Some of the stools will have numerous growths starting from them, and unless the plants have a little heat early in the year, many of the cuttings cannot be pro- pagated soon enough to flower the same season. Growers in the south of England have an advantage with these spring- struck cuttings over the northern florists. There is quite three weeks' difference be- tween the time of flowering in the south and in the northern districts of England and in Scotland! Root-grafting gives the propagator a little advantage, and early in the year the plants are propagated more readily in a light frame fixed in a heated propagating house. A hotbed is un- certain, as there is sometimes too much heat, and then not enough. Although the young side shoots of old stocks will root in a gentle bottom-heat in spring, they may also be increased in July, just before the plants come into flower. The side shoots from the flower-spikes, or the smaller flower - spikes, if they can be spared, should be cut up into single joints, and dibbled in thickly in a prepared bed in a frame or pit, where they can be kept close and cared for by shading from bright sunshine, and sprinkling occasionally with water that has been warmed by standing in the sun. Nearly every cutting will then develop a bud from the axil of the leaf, rapidly strike root, and make a good strong plant by the following spring ; as a rule, young plants propagated at this season give the best spikes. When cut- ting down the flowering stems of Holly- hocks after blooming, they should be left a good length, as they are impatient of damp about their crowns ; in spring the old stems may be removed altogether. Owing to the Hollyhock disease it is often a better plan to abandon the named kinds increased from cuttings and resort to seedlings only for stock. This way is all the more sure, as seed growers of late years have fixed and separated the colours so that a fine variety of good colours may be secured in this way, while the plants are more vigorous, and in any case will often start free from the disease. Insect Pests and Diseases. — Red spider and thrips are both very trouble- some, but the first does most injury. It appears on the under sides of the leaves as soon as the hot weather sets in, and is difficult to dislodge. If there is any trace of red spider before planting out, the whole plant, except the roots, should be dipped in a pail of soft soapy water, to which a pint or so of tobacco liquid has been added. It will be well to syringe the under sides of the leaves with the mixture if the plants have been planted out before the pest is perceived. Thrips may be de- stroyed in the same way, and it is well to syringe the plants every day in hot weather. The Hollyhock fungus {Pucdnia malvacearum) is very destructive to the Hollyhock. When once it seizes a col- lection, probably the best way is to destroy all the plants affected. Those that do not appear to be attacked should be washed with soapy water in which flowers of sulphur has been dissolved. The sulphur will settle at the bottom of the vessel, and must be frequently stirred up when the mixture is being used. Sulphur seems to destroy almost any fungus ; and may de- stroy this in its very earliest stages, but will not when established. ALYSSUM {Madwort).—'R.oc^ and alpine plants, numerous in rocky and alpine districts, but the species much resemble each other. A. saxaiile (the Rock Madwort or Gold Dust) is one of the most valuable of yellow spring flowers, hardy in all parts of these islands. The colour of its masses of bloom and its vigour have made it one of the best- known plants. It is often grown in half- shady places ; but like most rock-plants it should be fully exposed. It is well fitted for the spring garden, and the mixed border, and for association with evergreen Candytufts and Aubrietias. In winter it perishes in heavy rich clays when on the level ground. A native of Southern Russia, it flowers with us in April or May. There is a dwarfer variety, distinguished by the name of A. saxatile compactum, but it differs very little from the old plant. A. Gemonense has the habit of A. saxatile., but larger flowers. A. mon- tanum is a dwarf plant, spreading into compact tufts, 3 in. high. A. podoUcum., is a small hardy alpine from South Russia. It has in early summer, a profusion of small white blossoms, and is suited for the 39° AMARANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AMARYLLIS. rock-garden or the margins of borders. A. pyrenaicum is a neat rock-plant with white flowers. A. spinosum is a silvery little bush with white flowers. A. ser- .\lyssum montanum. pyllifolium is a grey-green leaved form, with yellow flowers. Small plants quickly become Liliputian bushes, 3 in. to 6 in. high ; and when fully exposed, are almost as compact as Moss. Among other kinds sometimes grown are A. Wiersbecki, and A. ofympicum, but they are not quite so good as the com- mon kind. The alpine and rock kinds are of easy culture in light or dry soil, as indeed are all the species. A. maritimum is the Sweet Alyssum, a small annual with white flowers, useful as a carpet plant. It grows on the tops of walls in the west country, and in sandy places. In these situations it is perennial, but in gardens is grown as an annual, sowing itself freely. There is a variegated form. AMAEANTHUS {PHtic^s Feather, Love-lies-bleeding). — ^Annual plants, some of distmct habit and striking color. The old Love-lies-bleeding (A. caudatus) with its dark red pendent racemes, is a fine plant when well grown, hxAA. speciosus and some other varieties are finer. The more vigor- ous species grow from 2 to 5 ft. high. It is best to give them room to spread, other\vise much of their picturesque effect will be lost ; and to use them in positions where their peculiar habit may be seen to ad- vantage, as, for example, in large vases and edges of bold beds. Easily raised as any annual, they deserve to be well thinned out and put in rich ground, so that they may attain full size. The foliage of some varieties is very rich in its hues, and planted with Canna, Wigandia, Ricinus, Solanum, their effect is good. The varie- ties of A. tricolor require a light soil and a warmer place. They do well in gardens by the seaside, and sow the seed in April in a hot bed, pricking out the seedlings in a hot bed, and plant out about the end of May. The cultivated kinds embrace bi- color, tricolor, atro-purpureus. A. melan- cholicus 7uber, a useful bedding plant with bright crimson leaves, A. Henderi, A. salic^olius, and A. s. Princess of Wales may be used in the summer garden with good effect. Amaranthus order. Old and new world. AMAEYLLIS.— Showy bulbous tropi- cal plants. None of the species of which are quite hardy, though the beautiful Belladonna Lily {A. Belladonna) may be grown well in the open air. It is a noble bulbous plant from the Cape of Good Hope, from ijft. to 3 ft. high, blooming late in summer, the flowers, as large as the white Lily, and of delicate silvery rose in clusters on stout leafless stems, arising from the large pear- shaped bulbs. Choose a place on the Amaranthus (Prince's Feather). AMARYLLIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 391 south side of a house or wall, take out the whole of the soil to the depth of 3 ft. and place about 6 in. of broken brick in the bottom. Over this put some half- rotten manure to keep the drainage open, and feed the plant. If the natural soil is not good, add some sandy mellow loam, or if stiff, a few barrow-loads of leaf mould, and one or two of sharp sand mixed with it. Having trod this firm, plant the bulbs in small groups. Each clump should be about I foot apart, and if the border is of such a width as to take a double row, the plants in the second should be alternate with those in the first. In planting, place a handful or so of sharp bearing noble umbels of white flowers, turning to pale rose in summer, and there are other varieties. AMBBEBOA MOSCHATA, see Cen- TAUREA (Sweet Sultan). AMELANCHIEB {Snowy Mespilus, June Berry). — Pretty hardy Rosaceous shrubs and low trees. There are two kinds of June Berry, the American(^. canadensis and European {A, vulgaris), while the varieties one sees in gardens may be classed under either. They are small trees, associating well with the Almond, Laburnum, the Cherry, Plum, and other low-growing trees. The American kinds — later in flowering — do not bear so much A group of the Belladonna Lily. sand round the bulbs to keep them from rotting. If planted in autumn, or at any time during the winter, it will be well to protect them from severe weather by half- rotten leaves, cocoa-nut fibre, or fern. The plants begin to push forth their new leaves early in spring, and upon the freedom with which they send forth these during summer the bloom in the autumn depends. During dry weather give an occasional soaking of water, and with liquid manure once or twice. As soon as the foliage ripens off remove it, and clean the border before the blooms begin to come through the soil. A. B. ' is a variety with larger bulbs, bloom. Of A. canadensis there are several varieties, — Botryapium, florida, ovalis, alnifolia, and sanguinea. They grow freely in almost any soil, and rather sheltered places, as they bloom very early. AMELLUS! ANNUUS. — A pretty dwarf hardy annual, with Daisy-like flowers, of a deep purple, but with white rose, scarlet, and violet varieties, which are named in catalogues alba, rosea, ker- mesina, and atro-violacea. It forms a compact tuft, suitable for groups or masses, if sown in the open in April, flowering in June, and there is notmuch kdvantage in sowing it earlier. It makes a pretty 392 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ANDROMEDA. ground or "carpet" plant with taller plants here and there through it. Cape of Good Hope. Compositae. Syn. Kaul- fussia amelloides. AMICIA ZYGOMERIS. — A quaint greenhouse Leguminous plant from Mexico, occasionally used in the sheltered flower garden. Mr. E. H. Woodall praises it: "for those who like a bold and distinct plant in a warm situation in summer, and have means to protect or take it up and pot it in winter. With me it has stood the cold, rain, and gales far better than the variegated Maize and big Solanums. The flower, though bright, is not large enough to be effective." AMMOBIUM {Winged Everlasting). — A. alatum is a handsome Composite from New Holland i^ to 3 ft. high, with white chaffy flowers with yellow discs from May till September. In sandy soil it is perennial, but on heavy and damp soils must be grown as annual or biennial ; and among such plants is worth a place. Seed. AMORPHA {Bastard Indigo).— D&- ciduous hardy shrubs of the Pea order, thriving in ordinary garden soil but requiring a somewhat sheltered situation in bleak localities. Increased by layers or cuttings in autumn, or from suckers which are plentifully produced. A. canescens (the Lead Plant) is a native of Missouri. It has clusters of blue flowers, and is remarkable for its white or hoary appearance. A. fruticosa (The False Indigo) comes from California. There are many forms differing but very slightly from each other or from the type, all having bluish or dark purple flowers. AMPELOPSIS. See Vixis. ANAGALLIS {Pimpernel).— Usually rather pretty and half-hardy annuals of the Primrose family. The best-known is the Italian Pimpernel {A. Monelli), with large blossoms, deep iDlue, shaded with rose. There are several varieties — rubra grandiflora, IVilmoreana, bright blue purple, yellow eye ; Phillipsi, deep blue, rose-coloured centre ; Breweri, intense blue ; linifolia, fine blue, very dwarf ; Napoleon III., maroon ; and sanguinea, bright ruby. These flower from July to September and a packet of mixed seed gives good variety. The Indian Pimpernel {A. indica) has small bright blue flowers. It is a hardy annual, but the Italian Pimpernel should be grown as a half- hardy annual. The seed may be sown any time from March till July, the later sowings to be made in pots and put into a greenhouse or window in autumn. Pim- pernels grow well in ordinary garden soil, and are used with good effect in broad masses in borders, or edgings to beds, and make good pot plants. The pretty little bog Pimpernel {A. tenella) is a native creeping plant, with slender stems and myriads of tiny pink flowers. It is pretty in suspended pots or pans, and may be grown in the bog or a moist comer in the rock-garden. Amelanchier canadensis. ANCHUSA {Alkanet).—^\OM'!. herbace- ous biennial plants of the Forget-me-Not family ; some worth growing, amongst the best being A. italica, which is vigorous, 3 to 4 ft. or more high, with beautiful blue blossoms. A. hybrida is similar, about 2 ft. high with flowers of rich violet. It is biennial. A. capensis is a pretty plant with large bright blue flowers, rather tender ; it should be planted in a sheltered well-drained border. On the whole, the species are not important as garden plants. Among the best being A. se?npervirens, a British perennial, i^to 2 ft. high, with blue flowers, worth a place in the wild garden. Seeds or division. ANDROMEDA. — Handsome dwarf hardy shrubs of the Heath Family, thriving in peaty soil. Many plants, usually called Andromedas in gardens, belong in reality to several other genera. There is only one true species of Andromeda known, viz. : — A. polifolia, known variously as the Marsh Rosemary, Moorwort, and the Wild Rosemary of North America ; it is ANDROSACE. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ANDROSACE. 393 also a native of Britain and N. Europe. It grows from about 6 to i8 inches high, and produces its purplish-red flowers erratically from May to September, and-is Flowers of Andromeda (Pieris). a useful plant grouped in peat beds or in the bog garden. For allied plants usually known as Andromedas see Cassandra, Cassiope, Leucothoe, Lyonia, Oxyden- drum, Pieris, and Zenobia. Androsace. — Alpine plants, of very small stature and great beauty, belonging to the Primrose order. Other families, like Primroses and Hairbells, do come down to the hill-pastures, the sea-rocks, or the sunny heaths, but these do not. They are more alpine than even the Gentians, which are as handsome in a hill-meadow as on the highest slopes ; and as Andro- saces are, among flowering plants, the most confined to the snowy region, so they are the dwarfest of this class. Growing at elevations where the snow falls very early in autumn, they flovyer as soon as it melts. Sometimes, like some other alpine flowers, they frequent high cliffs with a vertical face, or with portions of the face receding here and there into shallow recesses. Here they must endure intense cold — cold which would destroy all shrub or tree life ex- posed to it. And here in spring they flower. Their small evergreen leaves, often downy, retain much more dust and soot than, smoother and larger-leaved evergreen alpine plants do, making them more difficult of culture near cities than most alpine plants. The Androsaces enjoy in cultivation small fissures between rocks or stones, firmly packed with pure sandy peat, or very sandy or gritty loam, not less than 15 in. deep. They should be so placed that no wet can gather or lie about them, and they should be so planted in between stones that, once well rooted into the deep earth — all the better if mingled with pieces of broken sand-stone — they could never suffer from drought. It is easy to arrange rocks and soils so that, once the mass below is thoroughly moistened, an ordinary drought can have little effect in drying it. As in the flower-garden proper we have little chance of success with plants like these requiring the most careful attention and a special situation. Only the names of the species are here given mainly requiring the treatment above described, excepting the spreading Himalayan, A. lanuginosa, which thrives on walls and sandy borders — A. alpitta, carnea, chamce- jasme, helvetica, imbricata, Laggeri, obtusifolia, pubescens, pyrenaica, sarmen- tosa, Vitaliana and Wulfeniana. They are mostly from the Alps and Pyrenees, a few from the mountains of India. Androsace lanuginosa. 394 ANDRYALA. THE ENGLISH FLOfVER GARDEN. Andryala.— Small plants of the Dan- delion order; some with woolly leaves. The shrubby ^. mogadorensis, forms snowy masses on a little islet on the Morocco coast, and has not been found elsewhere. It bears flowers as large as a half-crown, of a bright yellow, the disc being bright orange. Little is known of its culture and hardiness. A. lanata has woolly silvery leaves, and grows well in any soil not too damp. Anemone ( Windflower). — A noble family of tuberous alpine meadow and herbaceous plants, of the Buttercup family, to which is due much of the beauty of spring and early summer in northern and temperate countries. In early spring, or what is winter to us in N orthem Europe, when the valleys of Southern Europe and sunny sheltered spots all round the great rocky basin of the Mediterranean are beginning to glow with colour, we see the earliest Windflowers in all their loveliness. Those arid mountains that look so barren have on their sunny sides carpets of Anemones in countless variety. These belong to old favourites in our gardens — the common Windflower and the Peacock Anemone. Later on the Star Anemone begins, and troops in thousands over the terraces, meadows, and fields of the same regions. Climbing the moun- tains in April, the Hepatica nestles in nooks all over the bushy parts of the hills. Farther east, while the common Anemones are aflame along the Riviera valleys and terraces, the blue Greek .\nemone is open on the hills of Greece ; a little later the blue Apennine Anemone blossoms. Meanwhile our Wood Ane- mone adorns the woods throughout the northern world, and here and there through the brown Grass on the chalk hills comes the purple of the Pasque- flower. The Grass has grown tall before the gracefiil Alpine Windflower flowers in aU the natural meadows of the Alps ; while later on bloom the high alpine Wind- flowers, which soon flower and fruit, and are ready to sleep for nine months in the snow. These are but few examples of what is done for the northern and temperate world by these Windflowers, so precious for our gardens also. A. alpina (Alpine Windflower). — On- nearly every great mountam range in northern climes this is one of the handsomest plants, growing i8 in. to 2 ft. high. It grows more slowly in gar- dens than most of the other kinds, and should have deep soil. In its native countries the flowers show as the snow disappears, and in our gardens at the end of April or beginning of .May, A. sulphurea is a fine variety. Many fail with it through transplanting in autumn and winter. Seed is the best way to increase it. Sow this in November in a rather moist peaty bed out-of-doors and allow the seedlings to remain for two years. When growth commences in spring transplant to where they are to flower. Full exposure, good drainage, and moisture in summer are essential. The Blue Appennine Windflower. A. angnlosa {Great Hepatica). — Larger than the common Hepatica, with sky-blue flowers as large as a crown-piece, and known by its five-lobed leaves. 1 1 is a native of Transylvania, enjoying partial shade. In rock-gardens, or near them, it will succeed in spaces between choice dwarf shrubs in beds, or may be used as an edging to beds of spring flowers, and for open, bare, and unmown spots along the margins of wood walks. The best way to increase it is by seed and division. A. apennina {Apennine Windflower). — This free-growing blue kind is wel- come in the garden, but it is when scattered among the native Anemones in ' our woods, or making pictures with Daffo- dils, or running free among dwarf plants in groves, that this Italian plant adds a new charm to our spring. It is readily increased by division, and grows about 4 in. to 6 in. in height There is a white flowered variety, and other forms not so important, however, as the wild one. A. blanda {Blue Winter Wind- flower). — A lovely plant from the hills of Greece, worth a place in every garden, of a fine sky-blue, and bloom- ing in winter during mild open years. It should be grown in every rock- garden, planted on banks that catch the I early sun ; and should also adorn the ANEMONE. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 395 spring-garden, whilst it may be natura- lised in Grassy places in warm soil. It is distinguished by round and bulb- like roots ; increased by division and seed, and it varies somewhat in size and colour, according to the districts in which it is gathered wild in Greece or Asia Minor. A. coronaria {Poppy Anemone). — One of the most admired flowers of our gardens from earliest times. There are many varieties, single and double. The single sorts may be readily grown from seed sown in the open air in April, and, being varied in fine colour, they deserve to be cultivated, even more than many of the doubles. The planting of these double varieties may be made in autumn or in spring, or at intervals all through the winter, to secure a continuity of flowers ; but the best bloom is secured by September or October planting. The Poppy Anemone thrives in warm deep loam, and the roots of the more select kinds may be taken up when the leaves die down. They are, however, seldom worth this trouble, as many fine varieties may be grown from seed sown in June. Prick out the plants in autumn : they will flower well in the following spring, so that the plant is as easily raised as an annual. Apart from the old florists' or double Anemones and the single ones, there are certain races of French origin of much value — the Anemones de Caen, for example. These are raised from the same species, but are more vigorous and have larger flowers than the older Dutch kinds. Of the Caen Anemones there are both single and double kinds, and the Chrysanthemum- flowered is another fine double race, whil-st one may also note the deep scarlet double form — Chapeau de Cardinal, and the double Nice Anemones. The fine variety of the Poppy Anemones leads to mixed collections being grown. While it is well to plant mixtures now and then, it is better to select and keep true some of the finer forms in any desired colour. A fine scarlet, purple, or violet should be grown by itself and for itself, as in that way the Poppy Anemone will be a greater aid to the garden artist. All kinds thrive in light 'garden soils of fair quality, and, in many districts there is no trouble in their culture ; in others this plant never does well and is often killed in winter. By resorting to spring planting we avoid this last. The plan is not worth following out, especially as we have so many really hardy species introduced of recent years. The St. Bridgid Anemones, like those of Caen and Nice, are simply selections from the Poppy Anemone, depending for their value on care in selection, and also on good culture in the warm limestone soil the plants enjoy so well. The following method will enable any one to raise anemones from seed in a moist loam. To save time, I sow as soon 4s the seed is ripe, selecting it from the brightest flowers only. Separatethe seed thoroughly. Spread a newspaper on the table, pour o\-er it a quart of sand, dry ashes, or fine earth, and sprinkle the seed over this, rubbing it together till its separation is complete. The seed bed need not be larger than 3 ft. by 9 ft., and choose the sunniest part of the garden. Make the surface fine, tread it down, and give it a good watering. Wait until it is dry enough to scratch with a fine rake ; then sow broadcast, covering the seed with a very thin coat of fine earth, about the thickness of a shilling ; beat flat with a spade, and give a light sprinkling of water. Never let a ray of sunshine reach the bed ; cover it with newspapers, spread- ing a few Pea sticks or something to retain the covering in its place. Keep the surface of the bed moist. In about twenty days the young plants will begin to appear, and when all seem up, remove the covering ; they will need no further care except watering. If the bed once gets thoroughly dry, the plants are apt, after forming small bulbs about the size of Peas, to stop growing, the foliage to die, and the bulbs to lie dormant for months. If kept, however, well watered through the summer, they will go on growing through the winter, and begin to blossom the following spring. The seedlings may be left to blossom where they are sown, or be transplanted in September or October. — J. What are termed P'rench Anemones are thought an improvement on the Dutch, with large flowers of brilliant and varied colour; the plants vigorous, the climate of Normandy in some parts suiting the plant ; but in our country, away from the sea, the Poppy Anemone may perish in cold weather. Poppy Anemones, double and single, are useful for edgings and for borders either singly or in tufts. They are culti- vated alone in beds or in clumps in borders, and answer well for planting under standard Rose Trees or other light and thinly planted shrubs. Cut the flowers when just open. A. fulgens ( The Scarlet Wind/lower). — A native of the south of France, over a limited area, for the most part in vineyards. Scarlet Windflower withstands severe 39(> THE ENGLISH FLOWER GAliDEN. ANEMONli. frosts in the open border, but stagnant moisture injures it. In good well-drained soils it will thrive, but is best in a rich manured loam in a northern aspect and .in a shaded situation. Division is the surest way of increasing it, as it is liable to sport if raised from seeds. Roots may be transplanted almost all the year round, though . the resting time extends only from June to August, and to insure early and good flowers plant the roots as early as possible in the autumn. A large bed of •well-grown plants in bloom is a brilliant sight. The flowers last indoors for a week or more if cut when just coming into bloom and kept in water in a moder- ately warm room. — H. V. The Greek form oi A. fulgens is larger, and very intense in colour. A fine strain was raised by the late Rev. J. G. Nelson, and called by him yi . fulgens major. The peacock Anemone {A. Pavonina) is ■double form of this. A. Hepatica {Common Hepaticd). — A beautiful early hardy flower. In sheltered spots on porous soil the foliage will re- main through the winter. The Hepatica is a deep rooter — hence it thrives so well upon made banks, and it will do as well as Primroses or Violets in any good gar- den soil. Where let alone, and not often pulled to pieces, it makes strong tufts. Clumps of the rich-coloured blues and Anemone faponica alba. reds when a mass of bloom in March are very beautiful. The best-known kinds are the double red and single blue, both amongst the hardiest of the section. Then there are the single white ; single Anemone Robinsoniana. red ; double blue, rich in colour ; Barlowi, a rich-coloured sport from the single blue ; splendens, a single red ; Ulacina, a pretty mauve kind ; and some others — every variety being worthy of culture. A. japonica {Japan Anemone). — A tall autumn-blooming kind, 2 ft. to 4 ft. high, with fine foliage and large rose-coloured flowers. The variety named Honorine Jobert, with pure white flowers, is a beautiful plant ; and all good forms of the plant should be cultivated where cut flowers are required in autumn. By having some on a north border, and some on a warm one, the bloom may be pro- longed. The secret of success seems to be to prepare at first a deep bed of rich soil and to leave the plants alone. The various forms of the Japan Ane- mone are useful for borders, groups, fnnges of shrubbery in rich soil, and here and there in half-shady places by wood walks. A. nemorosa {Wood Anemone).— Iw sprmg this native plant adorns our woods, and also those of nearly all Europe and Asia, but it is so abundant in the British Isles that there is little need to plead for ANEMONE. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 397 its culture. There are double varieties, and the colour of the flower is occasionally lilac, or reddish, or purplish. A sky-blue variety of the Wood Ane- mone, A. Robinsoniana, has of recent years been much grown. It is of easy culture and much beauty, especially if seen when the noon-day sun is on the flowers. It is useful for the rock-garden in wide-spreading tufts ; or for the margins of borders, or as a ground plant beneath shrubs, or for the wild garden or for dot- ting through the Grass in the pleasure- ground in spots not mown early. A. palmata {Cyclamen-leaved Atte- mone). — A distinct kind, with leathery leaves and large handsome flowers in May and June, glossy, yellow, only open- ing to the sun. A native of N. Africa and other places on the shores of the Mediterranean, this charming flower should be planted in deep turfy peat, or light fibrous loam with leaf-mould, but not placed on the face of rocks, but rather on level spots, where it can root deeply and grow into strong tufts. There is a double variety. This Anemone may be increased by either division or seeds. A. Pulsatilla {Pasque-flower).— Th^re^ are few sights more pleasant to the lover of spring flowers than the Pasque-flower just showing through the dry Grass of a i'vvii x>\/ ^ -^\-!''-^\ H #4 ; ~-^s^^ -r-^i ^ fmf Pasque-flower (Anemone Pulsatilla). bleak down on an early spring day. It is smaller in a wild than in a cultivated state, forming in the garden strong healthy tufts, but it is one of the plants more beautiful in a wild state than in a garden. In Normandy with Mr. Burbidge I came upon many plants of it on the grassy hill about Chateau Gaillard and also in the woods and by the roads near, and we thought we had never seen so fair a wild flower. There are several varieties, including red, lilac, and ^^■hite kinds, but they are not common, and there is also a double variety. It prefers well-drained and light but deep soil, and is increased bv division or seeds. Anemone sulphurea. A. ranunculoides ( Yellow Wood Ane- mone). — Not unlike the Apennine and the common Wood Anemone in habit, this is very distinct in its yellow flowers in March, and April. It is S. European, and usually less free on common soils than the Apen- nine A., but is happy on chalky soil. It is. charming for association with tufts of the- Apennine or the Wood Anemone. A. stellata {Star Windflower). — A native of Italy, and Greece, and seldom' hardy in our country. The star-like flowers, ruby, rosy purple, rosy, or whitish,, vary in a charming way, and usually have a large white eye at the base, contrasting with the delicate colouring of the rest of the petals, and the brown- violet of the stamens and styles of the flower. It is not so vigorous as the Poppy A., and requires a sheltered warm position,, a light, sandy, well-drained soil. It is in- creased by division and seeds, and is the same asA-horiensis. A. sylvestris {Snowdrop Windflower).. — A handsome plant, growing on almost any soil, with white flowers in spring as large as a crown-piece and beautiful buds. A native of Central Europe, it is at home in this country, but in many soils fails to- flower. The aspect of the drooping un- opened buds suggested its English name — the Snowdrop Anemone. This is from I ft. to 15 in. high, and is increased by division of the root. A. thalictroides {Thalictticm ane- monoides). 39» ANEMONOPSIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ANTHEMIS. The previously named Anemones are the most beautiful of the family, which, however, contains many other interesting plants, but many of the higher Alpine kinds are grown and increased with difficulty and only in carefully chosen situations. Some again, however distinct as species, are not strikingly so in gardens and for the flower-gardener the best way is to make good use of the proved species. The lovers of alpine flowers will no doubt look with a longing eye over the following names of the species, while no doubt many unknown species adorn the vast soHtudes of Asia and Arctic America and probably other countries too. Known species. — A. acanthifolia, Hab? acutiloba, N. America ; tEquinoctialis^ Peru ; albeina., N. Asia ; alchemilltf/oUa, .S. Africa ; aliinn, Europe, N.America; aliaica,, Siberia ; cmgulosa, E. Europe ; anomala, N. America ; aniucensis, Chili ; afifennina, S. Europe ; /irmena, Asia Minor ; baicalensis, Asia ; baldensis, Switzerland ; barbulttta, China ; Bauhini, Europe ; iijiora., Himalayas ; blanda., E. Europe ; Bogenhardi- nna, Europe ; Bonngeana^ Siberia ; caeiesiina, China ; ccerulea, Siberia ; caffra, S. Africa ; capensis, S. Africa ; temua., Japan ; ckinensi's, China ; coronaria, S. Europe ; crassifolia, Tasmania ; cylindrica, _ N America ; dahurica, Temp. Asia ; debilis, Siberia ; decapeiala, N. W. America; deltoidea, N. W. America; demissa, Himalayas ; dickoUma, N. Asia and N. America ; Drummandii, California ; elongata, Himalayas ; erccn- i/wides, Temp. Asia ; exigua, China ; Falcpneri, Himalayas ; Fannini, Natal ; Fischeriana, Siberia ; flaccida, China ; /ormosa, Asia Minor ; fulgens, _ S. Europe ; Glazioviana^ Brazil ; Gmeliniana, Siberia ; gracilis, Japan ; Grayi, California ; Cri^thi, Hima- layas; Halleri, Switzerland; lulleborifolia, S. America ; Hepatica, Europe, N. America ; mpaticifolia.. Chili ; heterophyllci, N. America ; integri/olia, Cent. America; isopyroides, Sibirica ; Jamesoni, Ecuador ; Jankts, Transylvania ; japonica, Japan ; lineariloba, Kamts- chatka; mexicana, Mexico; minuta, Siberia; Tllontana, S. E. Europe ; vtuHiJida., N. and S. America ; narcissi- flora, Europe, N.Asia, N.America ; nemorosa, Europe, N. Asia, N. America ; nikoensis, Japan ; obtusiloba, Himalayas ; ochrolenca, Switzerland ; octopetala, Hab ? palmata, S. Europe ; parvijiara, N. America ; patens, Europe, N. America ; Pavontana, Iberia ; Pittoni, Jlurope \polyantkes, Himalayas \praiensis, N.Europe; Pulsatilla, Europe ; RaddeaTia, Amur ; ranunculoides, S. Europe ; refiexa, Siberia ; Richardsoni, Arctic i\merica ; rigida. Chili ; rivtclaris, E. Indies ; Rossii, China ; rupestris, Himalayas ; rupicola, Himalayas ; Sellcnvi, Brazil ; sibirica, Siberia ; slavica, Europe ; speciosa, Caucasus ; sphenophylla. Chili ; stolonifera, Japan ; suvtatrana, Sumatra ; sylvestris, S. Europe ; tenuifolia, S. Africa ; tetrasefiala, Himalayas ; thalic- troides, N. America ; Thonisoni, Trop. Africa ; transylvanica, Europe ; trifolia, Europe, N. America ; iritemata, S. America ; trullifolia, Himalayas ; Tschemaewi, Temp. Asia ; udensis, Manchuria ; umbrosa, Siberia ; vernalis, Europe ; virginiana, N. America ; viii/olia, Himalayas; Wahlenbergii, Europe; Waltcri, N. America ; Wightiana, E. Indies ; Wolf- traiigiana, Europe. Anemonopsis macropliylla is a beauti- ful Japanese plant somewhat like the Japanese Windflower, but smaller, and also belonging to the same family of plants. The thick shining leaves rise to a height of 12 in. ; the slender flower-stems, about 1 8 in. in height, bearing drooping blossoms, about i^ in. across, and pale purple. They differ from those of the Anemone in having two rows of petals, one outside and spreading, the other forming a cone in the centre. It thrives in a rich soil in a shaded border well drained. Anomatheca cruenta {Flowering grass).— A pretty little South African bulb of the Iris order, from 6 to I2 in. high, flowers J in. across, carmine crimson, three of the lower segments marked with Anomatheca cruenta. a dark spot ; in loose clusters on slender stems and Grass-like leaves. Hardy on many soils, but in others it should be planted on warm slopes, in very sandy dry soil or on warm borders ; the bulbs planted rather deep. In many soils it increases rapidly. Syn. Lapeyrousia. Autennaria {Cats-ear). — Mostly hardy alpine or border flowers. A. 7nargar- itacea {Anaphalis margaritaced). The Pearly Everlasting, is a North American plant, 2 ft. high, with flowers in clusters, white and chaffy, hence are kept in a dry state, and dyed in various colours. The pretty but rare A. triplineivis from Nepal is closely allied to this plant. The Moun- tain Cat's-ears, A. dioica and A. alpina, and such forms as A. minima, are neat little plants with whitish foliage, used as carpeting. All are of simple culture in ordinary soil in exposed positions. These are good rock garden plants and the pretty little rosy heads of one form of the Mountain Everlasting may often be seen in the collage gardens of War- wickshire. A. tomentosa has been much used as a dwarf silvery plant in the flower garden. It is hardy and of easy increase and culture in open spots. Anthemis {R. Camomile). — Vigorous perennials and rock plants, some with "marguerite" looking flowers. Of the kinds in cultivation A. Aizoon is a dwarf silvery rock-plant, 2 to 4 in. high, with Daisy-like flowers. A. Kitaibeli is prett)- in the mixed border, with large, pale. ANTHERICUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, antirrhinum. 399 lemon-coloured, Marguerite-like flowers. A. tinctoria is similar and both are Anthemis Macedonica. excellent for cutting, growing \'ery freely in ordinary soil. The double-flowered form of the Corn Camomile {A. arvensis) is sometimes cultivated among annual plants. A. Bicbersteini forms dense carpets of silvery leaves with large and handsome yellow blossoms one on a stem. A. Macedoniiii is a neat species with white flowers, excellent as a rock-garden plant. Others are Kitaibeli and A. nobilis. Anthericum {St. Brun&s Lily). — Bulb- ous plants of the Lily family, containing few species hardy in this country. These are the European kinds, among the most beautiful of hardy flowers. A. Hookeri [syn. Chrysobactron) is a distinct New Zealand plant, 15 to 20 in. high, with bright yellow flowers, in long spikes in early summer. It grows best in moist deep soils. A. Liliago (the St. Bernard's Lily) is about 2 ft. high, with white flowers in early summer. A. ramosum has flower stems about 2 ft. high, much branched, and small white flowers ; it has Grass-like leaves,and soon growsinto large tufts. A. Liliastrum (St. Bruno's Lily) is a graceful alpine meadow plant in deep-free sandy soil, in early summer throwing up spikes of snowy-white Lily-like blossoms. In dry soils a covering with rotten manure helps it, and in early spring the plants should be protected from slugs and cater- pillars. It is increased by division of the roots in autumn, which is the best time to plant, or it may be raised from seed. Where plentiful, it would be an interesting plant to naturalise in a grassy place. , The major variety of the St. Bmno's Lily has much larger flowers (2 in. across) coming up from the root, these opening before the flowers on the spike. It grows 3 ft. high in good soil, and is a fine border plant. Antholyza {African Corn-fiag).—Y\ti-a.\.% of the Iris family, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, with Iris-like leaves and tall flower-spikes bearing bright red flo\\ers. They are almost hardy in a warm, well- drained border in sandy loam. Lift the plants every autumn, so as to separate the small bulbs, replanting in October and November, or in February. A hand- ful of litter over them during winter would be the best way to insure their safety. Offsets and seeds. Anthoxanthum odoratum {Sweet Vernal Grass). — A pretty native hardy grass grown in ordinary garden soil. The pleasant smell of new-mown hay is chiefly owing to [this plant which in drying emits an odour like that' of the Sweet Woodruff ("^i^^rw/a odorata). Anthyllis {Kidney Vetch). — Rock and herbaceous perennials, of the Pea family, of which few are worth grow- ing. A. monta7ia the Mountain Kidney Vetch, is a hardy alpine plant 6 in. high, the leaves nearly white with down, and the pinkish flowers in dense heads, forming with the hoary leaves pretty little tufts. This plant thrives on cold and bad soils, resisting cold and moisture. A. erifiacea is a singular spiny, almost leafless shrub, about i ft. high, with purplish flowers. A. Vulneraria (Woundwort), a common native plant, is pretty on dry banks. There is a white and a red variety. Anticlea {Zygadenus). Antirrhiniiin(5«a^(*-af o«). — A numer- ous family of rock plants and peren- nial herbs, mostly hardy and many of them from mountainous regions, but none so popular in gardens as the handsome Snapdragon {A. majus) which like the wallflowers often grows on walls and stony places. Among the many species, some few are seen in cultivation from time to time, but they do not take a large place in gardens, among the best being A^ Asarina and A. rupestre. Of the common Snapdragon, the gar- den varieties are now numerous, and often showy in effect, the best being the pure colours {i.e.., not striped). CuLTlVATlON.^Snapdragons are easy of cultivation, sandy and free soils suiting them. They are sown : (i) In August in the place where they are to grow, or preferably in seed-beds, in which latter case plant close to a south wall, sheltering from continued frosts with dry leaves or straw, planting out in spring 16 in. to 24 in. apart. (2) In June or July in seed-beds in a well-exposed posi- tion, planting out the seedlings in the spring. (3) In seed-beds (March to April) 400 APERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AQUILEGIA. at the foot of a south wall. Transplant when the plants are sufficiently developed, and they may also be transplanted to seed-beds and planted out when the flowers commence to show themselves. By means of successive sowings it is possible to obtain an almost uninterrupted bloom from June until frost comes. Snap- . dragons are also propagated by cuttings made in the spring or summer, and even during the whole of flowering time. With • Snapdragons, as with a great number of other plants, the colour of the stems and leaves of the young plants may to a cer- tain point indicate to us what the colour of the flowers will be. Thus, kinds with green or light-coloured stems and leaves will have in nearly all cases white, or mainly white flowers, or of which the colour is undecided ; whilst of the plants which produce flowers of a decided colour the stems and the leaves are of a pro- nounced green tint, more or less purple or ruddy also. Apera arundinacea. — A dainty slender- growing Grass, in ordinary soil, almost rush-like in growth, bearing long weeping plumes of a glossy purplish-brown colour, and useful where graceful spray is wanted. The plumes dry well, and endure for a long time. — B. Aphanostephus ramosissimus. — A pretty half-hardy annual from Texas, scarcely more than 4 in. in height, much branched, every shoot producing a flower- head about I in. across, with a yellow disc, and violet-blue ray florets. It has a close carpet -like growth, and blooms freely throughout the summer. The same treat- ment as other half-hardy annuals. Aphyllanthes monspeliensis {Lily Pink of Montpelier). — A pretty Rush- like Lilaceous plant from Southern France, forming dense tufts i ft. or more high ; its flowers deep blue and f in. across. It is not important, though a tuft on the rougher slopes of the rock-garden will not be out of place. Apios tuberosa {Ground Nut). — A hardy climbing Pea-flower, with a tuberous root, from N. America, with flowers in summer of a dull brownish-purple, violet scented, and is curious as a climber or for rambling over shrubs. Division of tubers. Aponogeton distachyon {Cape Pond- flower). — A beautiful and fragrant water- plant from the Cape of Good Hope, which, fortunately, is hardy in many parts of these islands. About London during the late severe winters there has been no more interest- ing sight than the profuse bloom of this plant in springs, and in the mid- land and cold districts it is necessarj', for the perfect culture of this plant in the open air, to grow it in spring or other water that does not freeze ; but in mild districts and in the south of England this is not needed. It may be flowered in an inverted bell-glass in a room. In Devon- shire it is grown to greater perfection than in the home counties or near Lon- don. Failures often result from putting it Aponogeton (Cape Pond-flower), in too shallow water. There is a variety {roseus) with rosy tinted blossoms. A. spathaceum is a smaller-growing plant, with flowers tinged with rose. It is a poor form of the Cape Pond-flower. Naiada- cea. AcLuilegia {Columbine). — Alpine rock and meadow perennials of the Buttercup order, often beautiful in habit, colour, and in form of flower, widely distributed over the northern and mountain regions of Europe, 'Asia, and America. Among them may be found great variety in colour — white, rose, buff, blue, and purple, and also stripes and intermediate shades even in the same flower, the American kinds having yellow, scarlet, and most delicate shades of blue flowers. The Columbines are frequently taller than most of the plants strictly termed alpine, but are nevertheless true alpine plants, and among the most singularly beautiful of the class. The alpine kinds, living in the high bushy places in the Alps and Pyre- nees, and North Asian mountain chains, are among the fairest of all flowers. Climbing the sunny hills of the sierras in California, one meets with a large scarlet I Columbine, that has almost the vigour of I a lily, and in the mountains of Utah, I and on many others in the Rocky Mountain region, there is the Rocky I Mountain Columbine {A. ca'rulea), with its long and slender spurs and lovely AQUILEGIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AQUILEGIA. 40r cool tints, and there is no family that nas a wider share in adorning the mountains. Although our cottage gardens are alive with Columbines in much beauty of colour in early summer, there is some difficulty in cultivating the rarer alpine kinds. They require to be carefully planted in sandy or gritty thougli moist ground, and in well-drained ledges in the rock-garden, in half-shady positions or northern ex- posures. Most rare Columbines, how- ever, fail to form enduring tufts in our gardens, and they must be raised from seed as frequently as good seed can be got. It is the alpine character of the home of many of the Columbines which makes the culture of some of the lovely kinds so uncertain, and which causes them to thrive so well in the north of Scotland while they fail in our ordinary dry garden borders. No plants are more capricious ; take, for instance, the charm- ing A. ^landulosa, grown like a weed at Forres, in Scotland, and so short-lived in most gardens. Nor is this an e.xcep- tion ; it is characteristic of all the mountain kinds. The best soil for them is deep, well-drained, rich alluvial loam. It is probable many of the species are biennial, and that it is necessary to raise them from seed frequently ; and to avoid the results of crossing it is better to get the seed, if we can, from the wild home of the species. The seeds should be sown early in spring, and the young plants pricked out into pans or into an old garden frame as soon as they are fit to handle, removing them early in August to the borders ; select a cloudy day for the work, and give them a little shading for a few days. A. alpina {Alpine Columbitie). — A beautiful high mountain plant i ft. to 2 ft. high, with showy blue flowers, and there is a lovely variety with a white centre to the flower. In the rock-garden in a rather moist and sheltered, but not shady, spot in deep sandy loam or peat. Seed or division. A. Bertoloni.— A pretty little alpine, about 1 ft. high, with violet-blue flowers, having short knobby spurs. A. (i3li£oTnaKa,{Califomian Columbine). — One of the finest of the American species, with one bold woody stem, 3 ft. high, the flowers handsome, and a bright orange. The seeds should be carefully looked after, as having once blossomed the old plant may perish. This plant thrives best on a deep sandy loam and moist. A. canadensis {Canadian Columbine). — The flowers are smaller than the Western American kinds ; but this is compensated for by the brilliancy of the scarlet colour of the sepals and of the erect spurs, and by the bright yellow of A white Aquilegia. the petals. The true plant is a slender grower, I ft. in height. It is a plant for borders, for placing here and there among dwarf shrubs and plants in the rougher parts of the rock-garden. D D 402 AQUILEGIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AQUILEGIA. A. chrysantha {Golden Columbine). — This tall and beautiful species endures as a perennial on many soils where the other kinds perish, thriving even on the stiff clay soils north of London, though it is no less free in more happy situations. It comes true from seed, which is most safely raised under glass, and the plant grows 4 ft. in height in good soil. I Flower of Rocky Mountain Columbine. A. coemlea {Rocky Mountain Columbine). — This is verybeautiful, the green-tipped spurs of the flower being as slender as a thread, and having a tendency to twist round each other. It is hardy, flower- ing early in summer, from 12 in. to 15 in. high, worthy of the best position on the rock-garden, and in choice mixed borders, where the soil is free and deep. Unlike the Golden Columbine, it is not perennial on many soils, though longer-lived in cool hill-gardens. To get healthy plants that will flower freely, seeds should be sown annually, as the plant rarely does well after the second year, in many cases dying before that time. A. glandulosa {Altaian Columbines- Pi. beautiful plant of tufted habit, flowering in early summer — a fine blue, with tips of petals creamy-white, the spur curved backwards towards the stalk, the sepals dark blue, large, with a long footstalk, it is a native of the Altai Mountains, and one of the most precious flowers for the rock-garden, in deep sandy soil. Increased by seed and careful division of the fleshy roots, when the plant is in full leaf. If divided when at rest, the roots are almost certain to perish, at least on cold soils. A. Skinneri {Skinnet's Columbine).— A distinct plant, the flowers produced later on slender pedicels, the sepals greenish, the petals small and yellow; the spurs are 2 in. long and bright orange- red. Though from Guatemala, it comes from mountain districts, and is nearly hardy. While the name is often seen, the true plant is rare. A. vindiflora. — As a rule green flowers are not much admired, but this Siberian Columbine is charming ; the sage-green of the flower and the delicate tint of the leaf offering a delicate hai-mony. In the border it may not be noticed, but if a spray or two are put in a glass its beauty is seen. It has a delicate fragrance, and is raised from seed. A. vulgaris {Common Columbine). — There are many forms of this native kind in various colours, and double kinds, flowering from May till towards the end of summer. One may often see a Siberian Columbine. variety of the common Columbine nearly as handsome as any of the finest alpine species. The varieties of our common THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 403 Columbine and some hybrid forms are so free and hardy that they may well be used in the wilder and more picturesque parts of large pleasure- grounds, by streams, in copses, or among Foxgloves, Geraniums, or long Grasses. The ground should be well dug if the vegetation is dense, and the seed sown on the spot. Where bare places occur, and seedlings have a chance of coming up without being strangled by other plants, seed may be scattered as soon as ripe. Known species. — A, advena, Hab? alpinat Siberia; Amaliee, Thessaly; araganensis, Spain; arbasccnsis, Europe ; Bertoloni, Europe ; Brauni, Europe ; brevis- iyla, N. America ; Buergeriana^ Japan ; californicay N. W. America ; catnpylocenira^ Europe ; canadensis^ N. America ; ckryaantha, N. Mexico ; caruiea^ N, W. America ; dichroa, Europe ; diozca, Europe ; discolor, Spain ; Einseleana, Europe ; exiinia, Europe ; flabeUaia, Japan ; JlavesceTis, California ; formosa, Kamtschatka; /ragrans, Himalayas; Gaertneri, Europe ; Gebieri,- Europe ; glandulosa, Siberia; glauca, Himalayas ; grata, Europe ; Haynaldi, Europe ; Huieri, Europe ; Jonesi, N. America ; Kareliniana, Hab ? Kitaibeli, Armenia ; lactijlora, Siberia ; lepioceras, Siberia ; longisepala, Europe ; longissima, N. America; lutea, Hab?' lutescens, Europe ; macro- centra, Europe ; mollis, France ; Moorcroftiana, Himalayas ; nemoralis, France ; nevadensis, Spain ; olympica, E. Europe ; orthantha, Europe ; Oiionis, Greece; oxysepala, ,^. Asia; parvijlora, Siberia; pubijlora, E. Indies ; pycnotricha, Europe ypyrenaica, S. Europe ; ruscinonensis, France ; Schotti, Europe ; sibirica, Siberia ; sinensis, China ; Skinneri, Mexico ; sienopetala, Europe ; sulphurea, Europe ; Szaboi, Europe ; viridiflora, Siberia ; voluhilis, Manchuria ; •vulgaris, Europe. Arabis (Rock Cress). — A large family of hill-plants, few of which are grown, though some are worth a place. A. albida (White Rock Cress) is a popular plant in gardens, and in the barrows of every London flower-hawker in spring. It will grow in any soil, in our cities as well as in the open country, where its sheets of snowy bloom may open in early spring. It- is as easily increased as a weed, by seed, or cuttings, and is useful for the mixed border, the spring garden, and for naturalising in bare or rocky spots. It is closely allied to the alpine Rock Cress or Bee Flower {A. alpind) so widely distri- buted on the Alps, but is distinct, and by far the best kind. A variegated form is the dwarfest and whitest of the Rock Cresses. A. blepharophylla (Rosy Rock Cress) is not unlike the white Arabis, but the flowers are rosy purple. It varies a good deal, but there is no difficulty in selecting a strain of the deepest rose, its healthy tufts being effective in April. In mild districts and on light soils it should be tried out every winter, but does not appear to have answered well after many trials, and its annual and tender character is against it as a rock- plant. There are variegated forms of the commoner species, the prettiest of them being A. lucida variegata, but none of these forms have much value. A. arenosa, from the south of Europe, is a pretty annual in the spring garden or naturalised on old ruins or dry bare banks. A. petrcea is a neat sturdy little plant, with pure white flowers ; it is a native of some of the higher Scottish mountains, rare but very pretty when well grown on a moist well-exposed spot on the rock-garden. A. Stelleri, a Chinese species, is a much freer flowering plant than A. blepharophylla, ripening seed freely, and easily grown in the rock-garden. Crucifem. Aralia. — Shrubs, or stout herbaceous plants of the Ivy order, they are of diverse aspects, but few of them are fitted for open air, except A. canescens and A. spinosa, which thrive in our gardens, and which in size and beauty of leaf are far before many " fine-foliaged plants " care- fully grown in hothouses. These and even the tender kinds may find a place in the flower garden. The Aralias described are now placed under Fatsia, but we retain the older name as better known in gardens. A. papyrifera (Chinese Rice-paper plant), though a native of the hot island of Formosa, is useful for the greenhouse in winter and Aralia chinensis. the flower garden in summer. It is hand- some in leaf, and, like all the large-leaved plants, must be protected from cutting winds, and even with all the care we may give it is only suited for southern or very warm gardens. D D 2 404 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. A. chinensis. — A handsome hardy shrub, with very large much-divided spiny leaves, resembling those of the Angelica tree of North America. In this country it attains the height of from 6 to 12 ft, as in Mrs. Shilson's garden at Tremough, near Falmouth, where there is (or was a few years ago) a specimen 30 ft. high, with a trunk 9 in. in diameter. In a well- Aralia spinosa. From a jjhotograph sent by Mr. C. L. Mayor, Paignton, D^von. drained deep loam it thrives vigorously, and in ordinary garden soil grows well in some sheltered but sunny spots. May be useful in a flower-garden where tender fine-leaved plants will not thrive. — Syn. Dimorphanthus mandschuricus. ' A. Sieboldi. — A shrubby species, with fine green leaves, usually grown as a greenhouse plant, but nearly hardy, and a handsome bush on dry soils and near the sea. It may be used in the flower garden or the pleasure-ground, for isolated specimens on the turf, or for association with fine-leaved plants ; but it soon turns yellow and unhappy-looking if exposed to much sunshine. It is also hardier in the shade, its foliage browning badly if caught too suddenly by the sun after hard frosts. Syn. Fatsia Japonica. A. spinosa {Angelica Tree) is the oldest species in our gardens in which there are many old specimens. Its small white flowers appear in autumn in great panicles. This fine shrub has often been put in exposed places, but is better where its great leaves will not be torn, and in every size may be used in the flower garden or pleasure ground. Cuttings of the roots. N. America. Araucaria {Monkey-Puzzle). — A noble group of Cone-bearing trees, most of which, unfortunately, are too tender for our winters. A. imbricata (the Monkey- Puzzle Tree) is a native of Chili, and the only species which does at all well in favourable situations. As a rule it soon presents an unhappy appearance, and is therefore not to be recommended for planting. It was killed by thousands in the nurseries and gardens in the severe winter of i860, and it is no way worthy of its popularity in the garden, being really a forest tree of a climate very different to ours. Arbutus {Strawberry Tree). — Ever- green shrubs of much beauty, both of flower and form of leaf or bush, but coming from warmer countries thrive only on our sea shore or warmer districts and on warm soils. The beau- tiful evergreen A. Unedo is chiefly met with in warm and coast districts, where it grows 20 ft. high or more. Inland it is cut down in severe winters. There are varieties of it, one of the best being A. Croomei, which has longer and broader leaves than the common kind. The variety rubra has almost bright scarlet flowers in autumn. One variety has double flowers, and there are a number of so called varieties differing a little in the form of the leaf but of no real distinction. S. Europe, and also wild in the south of Ireland. The other species are not so important as flowering trees, though good evergreens where they will face the climate. A. Andrachne, with smooth ruddy-tinged bark, is hardy in the south and coast districts ; about London it reaches a height of over 1 5 ft. It grows wild in Greece, and is a very old tree in gardens. The fine Californian Arbutus are not hardy with us. These shrabs succeed best in a deep light loam, and will thrive on chalky soils much better ARCTOSTAPHYLUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ARENARIA. 40s than many other evergreen shrubs. In planting them, a warm sheltered position is best. In the south and west of England, and in Ireland, the handsome fruits are freely borne, and a large speci- men is then very handsome. Flowers of Arbutus Unedo (Strawberry tree). Arctostaphylos {Bear-berry). — Mostly trailing Alpine evergreens of the Heath order, of which few are in cultivation. Of this group A. alpina is useful for rocky banks, edging bog-beds, or even in bogs. A. Uva-ursi (Bear-berry) is a dwarf ever- green mountain shrub, i ft. high — often less — sometimes grown with rock-plants. It has small rose flowers in early summer and red berries in autumn. A. alpina. — The Black Bear-berry has trailing stems and white or flesh coloured flowers. It is abundant in hilly places in Europe and N. America. Grows in any soil, but prefers a moist border or ledge, and may be increased by division. A. nitida is a Mexican half-hardyevergreen with shining gr^en leaves and white flowers. The dwarf, much branched, A. fiungens, is also a native of Mexico ; while the shrubby, hardy A. tonientosa comes from N. W. America. Arctotis. — Showy half hardy compo- sites from the Cape, numbering between forty and fifty species, for the most part little known. The bright colours of many of the species are more intense with the light and exposure of the open air than when the plants are cramped in pots in a greenhouse. Dry sunny banks often • devoid of plant life might be beautifully clothed with them. Although true sun- loving plants, they may be used as a groundwork in spot? where, unmindful of the shade if not too dense, they flower almost as freely as when fully exposed to the sun. They require warm greenhouse treatment in winter. A. acaulis is a very variable dwarf species. The flowers are large, attractive, and of a deep rich orange. It does not ripen seed freely, but is easily propagated from side shoots. A. aspera is a half-shrubby species, with deeply cut and wrinkled leaves and creamy flowers, purplish outside. It may be used in vases and hanging baskets, the pink buds being pretty. Cuttings strike readily in heat. A. aureola is of shrubby habit, i to 2 ft. in height, and bears its handsome orange flowers towards the end of the branches. Cuttings taken off towards the end of July and August root freely in a cold frame. Syn. A. grandiflora. A. leptorhiza is one of the most showy annuals we grow, with abundance of rich orange flowers, as is also A. breviscapa, which likes a sunny position. The seeds may be sown in , the open air, the plant being treated as a hardy annual. A sunny spot should be chosen, and the seedlings well thinned. — K. Arctotis arborescens. Arenaria {Sandwort). — A numerous family of rock and mountain plants, of vast distribution over northern and alpine ranges, and in temperate countries. Few kinds of the great number known are in gardens, and these kinds are dwarf plants, easy to grow, and well suited for the rock- garden. 4o6 ARENARIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. A. balearica {Creeping Sandwort).— P^ pretty little plant, which coats rocks and stones with verdure, and scatters over the green mantle countless white starry flowers. Plant firmly in any common soil near the stones or rocks it is to cover, and it will soon begin 'to clothe them. Flowers in spring, is readily increased by division, and is quite easy to grow. I first used it for carpets beneath tea roses at Gravetye, and also for low rough stone walls, over which it spreads in myriads. Corsica. A. montana {Mountain Sandwort). — A pretty rock-plant, having the habit of a Mountain Sandwort (Arenaria montana). Cerastium, and fine large white flowers. It is the best of the large Sandworts, and should be in every collection of rock- plants, being hardy and free, and good to go with the more vigorous rock-plants. France. Seed or division. A. norwegica is one of the best kinds, forming dense cushions about 6 in. in diameter, and covered with large white flowers throughout the summer. A fine alpine plant. Norway. A. purpurescens [jPurpUsh Sandwort). — An interesting kind with purplish flowers, on a dwarf tufted mass of smooth pointed leaves. It is plentiful over the Pyrenean mountains, hardy, and, like the other kinds, increased by seed or division. It should be associated in the rock-garden with the smallest plants. There are a great number of other species, but not easy to find among them plants of such garden value as those named above. Arethusa bulbosa. — A beautiful Ameri- can hardy Orchid, which grows in weX meadows or bog-land, blossoming in May and June. Each plant bears a bright rose-purple flower that shows well on its bed of Sphagnum, Cranberry, and Sedge. The little bulbs grow in a mossy mat formed by the roots and decaying herbag:e of plants and moss. In cultivation it requires the same soil, and get the leaf as well matured as possible. A shady moist spot with a northern exposure is best, and the soil should be a mixture of well-rotted manure and Sphagnum. During wmter, protect the bed with some cover, for it is not so hardy in gardens as in its bog home. Argemone (Prickly Poppy). — Hand- some Poppy-like plants, said to be peren- nial, but perishing on moist soils after the first year. As they come from the warmer parts of California and Mexico, and even there grow on dry hill-sides and in warm valleys, their perishing here maybe understood. Usually about 2 ft. high, having large white flowers 4 in. across with a bunch of yellow stamens in the centre. They should have a warm loam, and go with the choicest annual flowers. The kinds mostly grown are A. mexicana, A. grandiflora, and A. hispida, which are so much alike in habit as not to need separate description. Seed in a warm frame. Aristotelia Macqui.— Ahardy Chilian shrub of the Lime tree family, chiefly esteemed for its handsome evergreen foliage. The pea-like berries are at first dark purple but eventually black. There is a variegated form, but not quite so hardy as the southern species. This shrub is commoner in Ireland than in England. Aristolocliia {Dutchman's Pipe). — Climbing Birthworts of curious form of flower, and effective for their foliage. Sipho is generally used as a wall-plant, but is far finer for covering bowers, or any such structures, or for clambering up trees or over stumps. A. tomentosa is smaller, but distinct in its tone of green, and is well worthy to be employed in like manner, both plants coming from N. America. They grow with freedom in ordinary garden soil. The hardy shrubby kinds are not important. The family is a large one, mainly tropical, but some of the forms go into northern countries. Propagated by cuttings. Anueria {Thrift, Sea Pink). — Rock and shore plants of the Statice Order, of which the best known is the common A. vulgaris (Thrift). This native of our shores, and of the tops of the Scottish mountains, is \ery pretty, with its flowers of soft lilac or white springing from cushions of grass-like leaves ; but it is the deep rosy form, rarely seen wild, that best deserves cultivation. It is like THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 407 the common Thrift, save that the flowers are of a showy rose. It is useful for the spring garden, for banks or borders in shrubberies, for edgings, and for the rock- garden, and is easily increased by division. As old plants do not bloom so long as young ones, occasional replanting is desirable. In addition to the white variety and the old dark red one, there are Crimson Gem and Lauc/icana, the flowers intense pink. A. cccspitosa, a rose- coloured kind from the south of Europe, 5000 to 8000 ft. above the sea-level. Its flower-heads, each from | in. to i in. in diameter, are borne on slender stems i to 2 in. high, from June to September. The leaves are in dense tufts, with a branching woody root-stock. A rock-garden plant, thriving in any well-drained, rather poor, sandy loam, in wet weather it is apt to damp off" at the neck in rich soil. It is increased by seeds. A. cephalotes (Great Thrift), is one of the best hardy flowers from South Europe and South Africa, and should be in every good border and rock-garden among the taller plants. Hardy on free and well- The Tufted Thrift (Armeria caespitosa.) drained soils, it now and then perishes in hard winters, especially on cold soils. It should therefore have good dry and sandy loam. It varies a little from seed which is easily raised, but all the forms are worth growing. It is not, however, so readily got from division. This species and its forms have flowers much larger than the common Thrift. A. setacea, an alpine species, its little globose heads of pink flowers being so numerous as almost to conceal the plant. On flower-stems from i to 3 in. high. This and A.juncea are found in the S. of France on barren stony mounds and on elevated tablelands. They are hardy, pf easy culture, growing freely in stony earth, either in the open border, on rocks, or in pots. Arnebia echioides {Prophet-flower).— A handsome and distinct perennial herb, I fti to 18 in. high. The flowers, of a bright primrose-yellow, have five black spots on the corolla, which gradually fade to a lighter shade, and finally disappear. It is hardy, succeeds either on the rock- garden or in a well-drained border, and prefers partial shade. It is a native of the Caucasus and Northern Persia, and though long introduced is still among the rarest of hardy flowers, although it has got commoner lately. Young plants bloom long, which adds to their charms. Seeds are not freely borne, but it may be increased by cuttings. A. Griffithi is a tender annual, and though pretty not so valuable as A. echioides. Aronicum. — See Doronicum. Artemisia {Wormwood). — Herbs and low bushes covering a large part of the surface of northern and arid regions. Though often poor weeds, some have a use in gardens, though rarely for their flowers. A. anethifolia is one of the most elegant herbaceous perennials, 5 ft. in height. A. annua is a graceful plant with tall stems 5 or 6 ft. high, the foliage fine, and the flowers not showy in elegant panicles. The hue is a fresh and pleas- ing green, and the plant is a graceful centre of a flower-bed or group. Other kinds, like A. alpina and A. frigida, be- long to an alpine group which is at home in the rock-garden, while there are many taller herbaceous and half-woody plants of a silvery hue, such as A. Stelleriana, A. cana, A. maritima, and some with handsome Fern-like foliage like A. tan- acetifolia. Arum {Cuckoo Pint). — Tuberous rooted herbaceous plants of distinct form, of which some from South Europe are hardy, and of interest in our gardens. They thrive best in warm borders and about the sunny side of garden walls, the Italian Arum thriving more freely. Some nine or ten kinds are found in South Europe, two coming as far north as our own country. They have, when in bloom, a very offensive odour of carrion. A. crinitum {Dragon's Mouth). — This plant when in flower is very grotesque, from the singular shape of its broad speckled spathe. The leaves are cut into deep segments, and the leaf-stalks, overlapping each other, form a sort of spurious stem i ft. or 14 in. high, marbled 408 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ARUNDO. and spotted with purplish-black. Warm borders, fringes of shrubberies, or beds of the smaller sub-tropical plants suit it best. Division of tubers. A. Dracunculus {Dragons, Snake Plant), from South Europe, attains a height of 2 to 3 ft. ; the leaves large ; the stalks and stem of a fleshy colour, deeply mottled with black. It loves best a comer The true use for it is as a naturalised plant, or in the shrubbery. Anindinaria {See Bambusa). Aniudo {Gteat Reed). — Important Grasses of fine form, sometimes of great height. A. conspicua {New Zealand Reed). — A Grass of noble form — a companion for the Pampas Grass, especially in the Arum crinltum (Dragon's Moulh). to itself in sandy loam at the foot of a south wall. Many would not care for a plant having such an odour. Division. A. italicum {Italian Arum) is larger than our native Arum ; the veins blotched with yellow. As the leaves come very early in the season, they are attractive. In the autumn, when they have died away, the clusters of scarlet berries, on foot-stalks lo in. or 12 in. long, are showy. western and southern counties and on good soils. In fine deep loams it reaches a height of nearly 12 ft., but it perishes from cold or other causes on many soils. It flowers before the Pampas Grass. It hkes fibrous, loamy soil, plenty of water nearly all the year round, and may be mcreased by seeds or division. A. 'Q(lim.-x.{GreatReed).—T\^\%, the great Reed of the south of Europe, is a noble THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ASPARAGRAS. 409 plant on good soils, in the south of Eng- land making canes 10 ft. high, in a rich deep soil in a warm garden, but in our ■country it has suffered much in recent severe winters, its variegated variety is of some value for the flower garden, and is nearly hardy in the southern counties, and best suited to warm and good soils. A. Phragmites ^Common Reed).—K native marsh or water-plant, 6 ft. or more high, bearing when in flower a large, handsome, spreading, purplish panicle. Useful for the margins of arti- ficial waters, to which it may be brought from its wild haunts. Where it grows wild there is usually no scarcity of it, and it is an excellent cover for water birds. There is a good variegated form which has more claims as a garden plant for the water side. Asanim {Asarabaccd). — Curious little plants resembling Cyclamens in their leaves, but of little value except as curiosities, and occasionally as wood or shrubbery plants in ordinary garden soil. A. canadense is the Canadian Snake- root, which bears in spring curious brownish-purple flowers, the roots being strongly aromatic, like Ginger. A. vir- ginicuin is the Heart Snake-root, its leaves thick and leathery, with the upper surface mottled with white. Sometimes used as a spice ; hence the common name Wild Ginger. A. caudatmn is from Oregon, and much like the others in habit, but the divisions of the flower have long tail- like appendages. A. europceiim is the Asarabacca, the flowers greenish, about \ in. long, and close to the ground. " Asclepias [Milk-weed, Silk-weed). — A large genus of strong growing her- baceous perennials, few of which however are adapted for the flower garden, as they require a good deal of room, and their flowers are not attractive. They thrive in a light or peaty soil and may be increased "by division. A. acuminata has red and white flowers. A. amcena, purple ; A. Cornuti (the common Milk-weed) — also known as A. syriaca — grows vigorously to a height of 4 ft., and bears umbels of deep purple fragrant flowers, of which bees seem to be fond. A. i?icarnata (the Swamp Milk-weed) is a good waterside plant with rose-purple flowers. A. quadrifolia < Four-leaved Milk- weed) bears fragrant terminal heads of lilac-white flowers early in the summer. A. purpurasceiis is also a waterside plant with purple flowers. A. rubra (the Red Milk-weed) is a distinct tall-growing plant with long bright green foliage, and large umbels of purple-red flowers. A. tuberosa (the Butterfly Silk-weed) is the prettiest species, with its clusters of showy bright orange-red flowers in the autumn. Good flowering plants may be obtained from seed in three years, but it is mostly increased by dividing the tubers. This species likes sandy soil and a warm situation. A. variegata (Variegated Milk- weed) has dense umbels of handsome white flowers with a reddish centre. The downy stems reach a height of 2 to 4 ft., and are mottled with purple. Asimina ( Virginian Papaw). — A North American shrub, or low tree of the Custard Apple family, A. triloba, forms a small tree, with dull purple flowers, about 2 in. A climbing Asparagus. across. It bears fruits eaten by the in- habitants of the Southern States ; hence the name. Sometimes grown against a wall in this country, but is hardy as a standard, at least about London. Asparagus. — Herbaceous plants or climbers of the Lily Order, of fine habit with elegant leaves. The vigorous and talM . Broussoneti is quite- hardy in warm sandy soil, and so are A. tenuifolius and others. The common Asparagus is as good as any, and a tuft or group of it is graceful in a border of flowers or a bed of fine-leaved plants. 4IO ASPERULA ODORATA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Asperula odorata {Sweet Woodruff). — This little wood-herb, which belongs to the same family as the Coffee Plant, is abundant in many parts of Britain, and is worthy of the garden or shrubbery, especially in districts where it does not occur wild. Many would like to preserve its stems and leaves for the fragrant hay-like odour they give off when dried ; and in May the small white flowers, dotted over the tufts of whorled leaves, are pretty. It is sometimes used as an edging to beds in cottage gardens, and it goes prettily with some of the smaller ivies, in forming edgings about rocky banks and borders. A. azurea setosa {A. orientalis) is a pretty hardy blue annual, flowering in April and May. Sow seed in the previous autumn. A. cynanchica is a rosy-red perennial, and a good bank or rough rock-plant. A. hexafhylla is a tall slender white-flowered species. Asphodeline. — Plants nearly allied to the following, but the stems of Aspho- delus are leafless, while in Asphodeline the leaves are produced on erect stems. About six kinds are in cultivation, the best-known being A. lutea (tall yellow Asphodel), which grows about 3 ft. high, with yellow flowers in dense clustered spikes. A. iaurica has white flowers, on stems I to 2 ft. high. A. liburnica {A. cretica) and A. tenuzorhs.ve. yellow flowers in loose racemes. A. damascena has white blossoms in dense racemes, and A. brevicaulis has yellow flowers in loose racemes. These all thrive in any com- mon garden soil, and may be used in bold masses with good effect among other tall plants. Asphodelus {Asphodel). — Tuberous plants of the Lily Order, with spiked flowers and not of a high order of beauty, thriving in any free garden soil. The best-known is the bold A. ramosus (tall Asphodel), a South European species, famihar in most old herbaceous plant borders, but better fitted for the shrub- ber)'. Other kinds are A. fistulosus and tenuifolius, with white flowers, the plant growing from \\ to 3 ft. high. The last- named kind has delicate feathery foliage. A. creticus, the Cretan Asphodel, has yellow flowers, and is an easily cultivated border plant. Aspidistra lurida {Parlour Palm).— A dwarf palm-like plant of the Lily order, 1 8 to 24 in. high, with long graceful ever- green leaves and dull purple flowers on the surface of the soil, and one of the most enduring of fine-leaved plants in rooms, for which purpose the variegated form is most used. Both are used with good effect in some gardens, and the plant is hardy in certain districts. Division, Japan. Aspidium {Shield or Wood Fern). — This family now embraces the Poly- stichum and some species of Lastrea. There are numerous hardy kinds, in- cluding some of the finest hardy Ferns, among them the Male Fern(.^. Filix-mas), and the Prickly Shield Fern. These thrive even in small town gardens and places similarly confined. All they require is plenty of water in hot dry weather. Either alone or in groups they have a fine effect, particularly as an undergrowth to trees in the pleasure-ground or in the shadier parts of the garden, and are evergreen. Their varieties are endless, no fewer than a hundred named sorts of A. aculeahau and fifty of A.Filix-mas being enumerated in trade lists. The larger varieties have a fine effect in shady spots, but the smaller and more delicate kinds require more care. A, aculeatum succeeds best in rich loam, with sand and leaf-mould, well drained, and so does the Male Fern. The bolder Ferns of this group give fine cool effects in rightly chosen spots in and near the flower garden. Asplenium {Spleenwort). — The fine dark green colour and free-growing cha- racter of most of the Spleenwort Ferns give them distinct value. The best soil for them is a well-drained mixture of peat, sand, and loam, in ^\■hich the finerkinds of flower- ing shrubs, such as Kalmias and Andro- medas, thrive. A. Adia?ttum nigrum (the black Spleenwort) would be at home arnongst hardy Azaleas, as they lose their foliage in winter, and the Spleenwort would then carpet the surface. The shade, too, of Azaleas in the summer, if not planted too thickly, would suit this Spleenwort, which when wild fringes copses or is found on hedge-banks, where it gets a little pro- tection from the summer sun The various smaller species of this genus belong more to the choice fernery than to the flower garden, unless when we are happy in having old walls near or around it, often so congenial a home for the smaller rock-ferns. AsteiT{Starwort, Michaelmas Daisy).— Hardy perennial plants of much beauty and variety. There is a quiet beauty about the more select Starworts, which is charming in the autumn days, and their variety of colour, of form, and of bud and blossom are delightful. For the most part Starworts are regard- less of cold or rain. Less showy than THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ASTRAGALUS. 411 the Chrysanthemum, they are more re- fined in colour and form. Even where not introduced into the flower garden, they should always be grown for cutting ; and they are excellent for forming bold groups to cover the bare ground among newly- planted shrabs. Nothing can be more easy to cultivate. The essential point is to get the distinct kinds, of which the follow- ing are among the best that flower in early October — Aster amellus, acris, cassu- bicus, turbinellus, Chafmani, versicolor, pulchellus, cordifolius, elegans, Reevesi, discolor, laxus, horizonialis, ericoides, Shorti, multiflorus, dumosus, Curtisi, Iccvis, longifolius coccineus, sericetcs, Nova-Anglce, Nova-Belgii, puniceus, and vimineus. Every year adds to our autumn-blooming hardy plants, and a choice of Starworts may be made by bushes, and their flowers massed above them here and there. Asters, dwarfer than the shrubs among which we place them, are not less valuable, as they help to give light and shade, and to avoid the common way of setting plants to a face as if they were so many bricks. This is • not the only way of growing these hardiest of northern flowers, but it is a charming one, and it lights up the garden with a new loveliness of refined colour. Of recent years many seedling forms have been raised and named, but in no case are these so good as the best of the wild species, such as amellus, acris and cordifolius. Astilbe {Goats Beard). — A vigorous group of chiefly tall-branching herbaceous perennials. The robust kinds resemble the Spirseas of the Aruncus group, but are V.'"l. Aster elegans (Lilac Starwort). autumn visits to collections. - As yet gardeners seldom look at general eifects — at the whole of things. The flowers are so dear to them that the garden, as a picture, is left to chance, and hence there is so much ugliness and formality in gardens, to those at least who regard the robe as more than the buttons. Some years ago Starworts were rarely seen except in bundles in botanic gardens. Since the hardy flower revival, they have become more frequent in collections, but as yet they have no important place in gardens generally, and we may often still see them tied in bundles, though the effective way of grouping is so clear and simply carried out. The bad effect of staking and bundling may be wholly got rid of, if the plants were supported and relieved by the bolder, and perhaps better suited for the margin of water. There are eight kinds in cultivation, the best known of which are A. japonica and A. rivularis. Moist places in the wild garden are most suitable for A. decandra, A. rivularis, A. rubra, A. Lemoinei, and^. Thunbergi, the last being also known as Spirrea. These plants group well, and the handsome foliage makes healthy undergrowth, over which the tall plumes of white or red flowers tower with good effect. Division of the roots, and some by the runners. Astragalus {Milk Vetch). — A large family of alpine and perennial leguminous plants, but not many of which are valuable for the garden. The best are rock-plants, but they grow freely on the level ground in borders. A. monspessulanus (Mont- 412 ASTRANTIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. AUBRIETIA. pellier Aster) is useful for the front of borders. The vigorous shoots are pros- trate, so that it is seen to greater advan- tage when its long heads of crimson and rosy flowers droop over rocks. It grows well in any soil. There are several varieties. A. Onobrychis (Saintfoin Milk Vetch) is a handsome species from South Europe and Siberia (in some varieties spreading, and in others-about l8 in. high), with racemes of purplish-crimson flowers in June. It thrives well on any good loam. A. dasyglottis is well suited for the rock- garden. Its numerous showy flower- heads, of a clear bright purple, are set off .;■' '"■."-' f J^'f (-^\': ^Sli^^te-" i^>r\ ^^^^5^ '--ip^ i H Astrantia major. by the fresh green foliage. A. adsiirgens is dwarf, with numbers of violet-carmine flowers. A. vaginatus succeeds in an ex- posed position in any ordinary border. The showy deep violet-purple flowers are borne in dense erect clusters for a long time. Astrantia. {Master-wort). — These herbs are amongst umbelliferous plants, and consist of not more than four or five true species, all natives of the mountains of Southern Europe. The two most distinct are A. major and A. helleborifolia. A. helleborifoHa is from the Caucasus, with the largest flower of any, the colour clear pink ; but the habit of the plant is straggling, and the flowers smell un- pleasantly of sour milk. A third species is A. Biebersteini ; in some of its characters it is intermediate between the other two. Its habit is good and com- pact, and it flowers freely. There are two or three smaller species, the com- monest of which is A. vtinor, often brought from the Alps by collectors. The Astran- tias have a quaint beauty of their own ; they are not showy, but not particular about soil or aspect. They are easily established in woodland walks where the growth of weeds is not too rank.— C. W. D. Athyrium(Z«^/Vr«).— Beautifulhardy Ferns, which A. Filix-fmniina may be taken to represent. They like a compost of loam, leaf-mould, and peat, mixed in about equal proportions, with the addition of some sharp sand. They require abun- dance of water during their growing period, but not in winter, because all the varieties are deciduous, the ground at that period being wet enough naturally. Among many fine hardy evergreen and herbaceous plants Lady Ferns might be planted with advantage ; they will thrive in a little shade where protected from drying winds. There are many beautiful forms. Atragene, see Clejiatis. Aubrietia {Purple Rock Cress). — A charming group of alpine and rock plants from the mountains of South Europe, and belonging to the Wallflower family. There are many varieties in gardens, but probably all may be reduced to some half- dozen species, whilst all are beautiful. The oldest is called A. purpurea. Then there is what is called deltoidea, and the fine free-branching variety of it known as Eyrei, which has large rich violet-purple flowers. We have also grandiflora, with a lax habit, which makes it a charming rock-plant. Masses of this, with its various shades of colour, are pretty. There is also a fine variegated large-flowered form of it. Then we have Leichtlini, Mooreana, Coluiiince, and Campbelli ; but the names of the species are too numerous in this family, and some varieties raised in gardens, like Dr. Murie, are of higher value as garden plants. The Aubrietia is excellent as a wall- plant. We need only sow the seed in any mossy or earthy chinks in autumn or spring, indeed they will sow themselves on walls, and often bloom on the sunny sides of walls in February. Rock-gardens, stony places, and sloping banks suit THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 413- Aubrietias peifectly. They make neat edg- ings, and may be used as such with good effect. There are one or two variegated varieties. Aubrietias are easy to naturalise in rocky places, and may be easily got from seeds, cuttings, or by division. Aucuba. — Evergreen berry-bearing shrubs of the Dogwood order, which brighten gardens in winter. The Aucuba is one of the best shrubs for planting under trees, as its strong fleshy roots enable it to live where other shrubs would starve. It may be safely removed at midsummer or midwinter, but requires shelter and shade. To get a good crop oif berries, plant males about 30 ft. apart tive in the subdued light of a shady wood, and happily few shrubs flower better in partial shade than Azaleas. They like shelter, even from southerly winds, and delight in quiet shaded nooks. A peaty soil suits them best, though they grow well in loam. The hardy Azaleas, called Ghent Azaleas, have sprung chiefly from the wild Azaleas of North America — A. nudiflora, A. calendulacea, and.<4. viscosa. These and A. pontica have been so hybridised with the wild Azalea of South Europe that we have a race in which the colours of the various species are blended and diversified in a great variety Purple Rock Cress (Aubrietia). among the ordinary forms. Smoke and dust seem to have slight effect upon Aucubas, making them valuable for town gardens. The variegated form is more vigorous and rapid in growth than the green or plain- leaved variety, though we have now many fine green forms extremely handsome when in good berry. Azalea {Swamp Honeysuckle). — These are beautiful upland and bog shrubs from North America, and, if only as a relief from the heaviness of Rhododendrons, the graceful growth of Azaleas is precious. There is nothing in the open garden so charming as old Azalea bushes in flower, with their branches in table-like tiers ; but the brilliant tints always seem most effec- of tints, and they all intercross so freely that it is difficult to single out a variety identical with any of the wild specie^. Fifty years ago, Latin names were given, to every fine variety, but they could soon be numbered by the hundred from Belgian gardens alone. Now very few sorts are named. Every variation of tint, from the most fiery scarlets to delicate pinks,, whites, and dark and pale yellows, is tO' be had in Ghent Azaleas, a very beautiful one being the pure white Mrs. Anthony Waterer. Of late years there has sprung up a new race with double Hose-in-hose flowers, collectively called the Narcissi- flora group, the chief sorts of which number about a score — Graf von Meran, 414 AZARA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, b^ria chrysostoma. one of the first, being still among the best yellows. A Californian species, named A. occidentalism is distinct from the deciduous Azaleas, as it flowers after the others a.re past. It has bunches of fragrant white flowers and broad foliage. A. mollis, a dwarf deciduous shrub from Japan and China, has given rise to a variety of kinds, yellow, salmon-red, and orange- scarlet being the prevailing colours. It is hardy, and being dwarf may be grouped as a foreground to a mass of the tall kinds. The Chinese A. amwna, with small magenta flowers, common enough in greenhouses, is quite hardy in mild localities and rich in bold masses. The Flowers of Azalea molHs. Chinese A. indica, the ordinary Azalea of greenhouses, is hardy in many places, especially the white variety, which, even in mid-Sussex, thrives in the open air. The Ledum-leaved Azalea (^. ledifoUa) is a "hardy evergreen shrub, also from China, with white flowers, large and open, like A. indica. It grows from 5 ft. to 6 ft. high, and Loudon states that in Cornwall, on Sir Charles Lemon's estate at Carclew, it was planted in hedges, which flowered magnificently without the slightest pro- tection. Azara. — Distinct and graceful Chilian shrubs, nearly hardy in favourable soils. As wall-plants, particularly if the walls have an east or west aspect, they flower freely ; while in the southern counties, at least, they do well in the open away from walls. Well-drained loam and the partial shade of taller shrubs suit them. A. Gillesi is probably the most handsome, its toothed leaves resembling in colour and texture those of the Holly, with the branches tinged with red. Both in the open air and under glass it blooms in the late autumn and the winter, the flowers small, and, from the great number of rich orange-coloured stamens, resemble golden catkins. A. celastrina has rather smaller leaves, and yellow blossoms. A. integri- folia has drooping spikes of fragrant yellow blossoms, which form a dense bush a few feet in height. A. micro- phylla is a graceful evergreen shrub, with many small flowers, succeeded in autumn by small orange-red berries. The best place for it is a sheltered position, not too low. For planting against a wall or trellis few shrubs are better. Among qther kinds are A. dentata, a quick grower ; and A. serrata, with prettily serrated leaves, and umbels of yellow blossoms. Order, Bixinese. AzoUa caroliniana. — A very small and curious water-plant, which floats on water quite free of soil, the tufts of delicate green leaves like tiny emeralds. During summer it will grow out-of-doors, but then becomes bronzed, and perhaps it is prettier when light green, as it is in the green- houses or window. Syn., A. rubra. A. pinnata is a distinct species. Babiana {Baboon-root). — Charming bulbs of the Iris order, from South Africa, allied to Sparaxis and Tritonia, but having broader foliage, often hairy and plaited; they grow from 6 to 12 in. high, with spikes of sometimes sweetly scented brilliant flowers ranging in colour from blue to crimson-magenta. The bulbs should be planted from Sep- tember to January, about 4 in. deep and 2 to 4 in. apart, in light loamy soil thoroughly drained, with a due south aspect. The early plantings make foliage in autumn, and require protection of mats against frost. Those planted in December and January will only require a covering of Fern, which should be removed in spring as the foliage appears. In wet soils surround the bulbs with sand, and raise the beds above the level. iSlany varieties are in cultivation, and their names will be found in bulb lists ; but in the open air in Britain these plants are too tender, and their growth is only worth attempting in very favoured spots. Baeria chrysostoma, a Californian Composite about i ft. high, with a dense tufted head, covered in early summer with bright yellow flowers. It should be treated as a half-hardy annual. B. coronaiia. — A hardy annual, about 6 in. high, with a compact tufted habit, and bearing in summer a profusion of bright yellow Daisy-like blossoms. Sow in autumn in light dr>' soil for early flower- ing, and in spring for later bloom. Syn. BAHIA LANATA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. BAMEUSA. 415 Hymenoxys californica. Shortia califor- nica. Bahia lanata {^Woolly Bahia).—K grayish herb 6 to 15 in. high, and much branched from the base of the stem, flowering in summer, one yellow flower on each stalk, and is suited for borders or banks, in light, sandy, well-drained loam. It may be raised from seed, but more readily by division. America. Compositse. Bambusa {Bamboo). — There are some forty or more varieties of these graceful woody grasses which have proved to be hardy in all but the coldest parts of our Islands best in sheltered places. Grace and elegance are the character- istics of the Bamboo, and in no species are these more conspicuous than in the lovely group of Phyllostachj's, while some of the Arundinarias will, if planted in suitable places, grow into dense thickets of almost tropical aspect. There are few gardens in which some sheltered nook, backed by evergreens, might not be beautified by a feathering group of Phyllostachys Henonis or ftigra ; while in the wilderness fine effects may be produced by the grand foliage of Arun- dinaria MMakS or the stately plumes of A. Simoni. Background is the great secret of getting the best effect out of plants in which beauty of form is the dominant feature ; and above all let the Bamboos be sheltered from our bitmg easterly and north-easterly winds, as they are more deadly than frost. The softer and moister westerly winds, blow they never so hard, will do but little damage to plants which come from such storm- vexed regions as the coasts of China and the islands of Japan. It is important that every autumn ^he plants should be well mulched with cow manure, and this again should be covered with dead leaves. To prevent the latter from blowing away it is expedient to surround the plant or group with wire netting. This has the additional advantage of keeping out rabbits and hares, which should be kept out in any case. The mulching pro- tects the roots from frost in the winter, and prevents evaporation in summer. When the plants are thoroughly established these precautions become un- necessary, and they may be left to shift for themselves. The plants should only travel during the period when they are at rest. They will be received therefore during the late autumn or winter. If they have come from abroad, the balls of earth round the roots should be thoroughly soaked ; they should then be potted and placed in a cool house for the winter ; the leaves syringed with rain- water twice a day, but the roots should not be kept too wet. In this way many species will keep their leaves as gi'een and fresh as if they had never been dis- turbed ; but even those that lose their leaves will early in February begin to show little fat buds that will soon develop into branchlets. Early in May begin to harden off the plants, as you would Geraniums for bedding out, and, at the end of May, place them in their per- manent homes. When you take the plants out of the pots be careful not to disturb the roots in any way. You must not attempt to comb them out as you would the roots of trees, for they are as brittle as glass : place, them in the earth as they are, and they will soon find their way about. If possible the newly planted Bamboos should be well watered during growth. It must be remembered that Bamboos will not show their true characteristics for several years. But by taking the above precautions much time will be saved, and many disappointments avoided. For trans- planting Bamboos (from one part of the same garden to another, not for sending them on a journey), May and June- are perhaps the best months, though • I have moved them without any ill feffects during the whole summer up to the end of September. The worst time is from November to March ; for the plants need to have made some roots in their new homes before they can resist our cold winters and biting winds. As to propa- gation there are four methods avail- able, (i) By seed. (2) By division. (3) By cuttings of the base of the stem with or without the rhizome attached. (4) By cuttings of rhizomes. I. Propagation by seed. — The seed should be sown sparsely in pans filled with good garden soil — with plenty of sand in it — and well drained with broken potsherds or stones. Cover the seed with fine soil about a quarter of an in,ch deep or less. The pans should be ' placed in hotbeds and fre- quently watered, great care being taken to prevent the soil from drying. The frames should be partially shaded from the sun and kept fairly ven- tilated, more air being admitted as the seedlings gain strength. Assuming the seed to have been sown in the latter end of March or in April, the young plants may bear full exposure to air and sun in June. Iri the following spring the plants should be pricked out into 3-in. 4i6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. pots, which, after generous watering, again should be placed under glass upon a hotbed to help the plants to root in their new abode. By degrees they will bear longer exposure, until in the latter end of May or early June the pots are plunged into open beds, buried a little below the surface, and covered with a mulching of dead leaves or straw. The beds should be well watered during the summer. In the month of October the pots must be taken up andtplaced in a cool house, in cold frames, which must be covered up during severe frosts, andxin the month of May following they may be planted out in their permanent places. 2. Propagation by division. — The best moment for this operation is, in our climate, the latter end of April or May. The process is very simple. The plants should be divided into clumps of two or three culms with their rhizome, in order to insure a new growth from the buds on the intemodes of the root-stock. If the tufts can be lifted with a ball of earth, so much the better. They should be plant- ed in beds at distances of 2 ft., carefully watered, and protected by a top-dressing of well-rotted cowmanure and dead leaves. 3. Propagation by cuttings of THE BASE OF THE CULM. — Cut off about a foot's length of rhizome bear- ing a stem ; cut down the stem to about the same length. Plant at such a depth as will insure the two or three lowest and branchless knots at the base of the culm being covered with earth. This may be effected either in pots or in the open ground. It is essential that the stem should be cut down, otherwise it begins to wither downwards ; a sort of creeping paralysis of the whole plant ensues, ending in death. 4. Propagation by cuttings with- out THE rhizome. — The lower knots occurring at short intervals are each furnished with roots and a bud ; the roots sometimes burying themselves and rooting in the ground, at others remain- ing in an abortive state. Cut the stem off with a very sharp instrument as close to the rhizome as possible, cutting down the upper part of the shoots at the same time ; the lower nodes are then buried in a pot, allowing only the end of the last branchless intemode to protrude. Slight warmth and moisture are all that are required to ensure rooting. The work should be done in the spring. 5. Propagation by cuttings of rhizomes. — It takes place in the spring, and consists merely in lifting the rhizomes, cutting them into lengths of from 6 in. to 8 in., which are planted at a depth of from 4 in. to 6 in. in good rich loam and copiously watered during the summer. Care should be taken to see that each length, which will have three or four knots, should be the growth only of the preceding year, containing living eyes or buds, for the older rhizomes are sterile. Natives of the Himalayas. Arundinaria racemosa. — A low-grow- ing Arundinaria, growing as high as 15 feet in its own country. Stem smooth and round. Intemodes about 2 in. apart, leaves 2 to 4 in. in length and narrow, cross veins well defined. After the trying winter of 1895, quite green and fresh at Kew Gardens ; found at an elevation of 12,000 ft. in the N.E. Himalayas. A. aristata. — A pretty Arundi- naria of moderate size, with purplish stems and tessellated leaves. This latter quality, taken in conjunction with the great altitude at which it is found in the North Eastern Himalayas — as high as 11,000 feet above the sea-level — indi- cate it as a hardy Bamboo. A. spathiflora. — Another hardy Bamboo with tessellated leaves from the Hima- layas, where it is found at an altitude of 9,000 feet. Most of the specimens which 1 have seen grown under this name in English gardens are not the true A. spathiflora. A.falcata and A. Falconeri, though fine kinds in their native country, are not quite hardy in ours. Natives of China and Japan. A. humilis. — A green species, about 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, looks as if it might in time grow a few inches higher. The stem is round and green, the nodes not much raised, the intemodes 3 in. to 3^ in. in length. Bright evergreen leaves smooth on both sides, 4^ in. long, three-quarters of an inch Ijroad, and tapering to a point. A very pretty plant to form a car- pet, or isolated group near rocks. Syn. Bambusa gracilis. A. Fortune! fol. var. — A silvery- variegated dwarf Bamboo about 3 ft. high. Leaves about 5 in. long, by half or at most three-quarters of an inch wide ; a bright colour beautifully striated with white in a young state, but the variegation is apt to fade in the older leaves, which become rather ' spotty. A strong runner at the roots. A. auricoma. — A golden variegated dwarf Bamboo, taller than the two pre- ceding sorts, rather over than under 3 ft. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 417 high. Leaves striped with bright yellow, from 5 in. to 7 in. long, by i in. to i\ in. broad. Not such a strong runner as the two preceding kinds, but a beautiful and conspicuous evergreen plant. Bambusa pumila (? Arundinaria). — A very pretty dwarf Bamboo. At first sight this would strike the observer as Arun- dinaria numilis under another name. It is however, I think, certainly a dis- tinct species. It is smaller in habit, the leaves are less broad, shorter, and do not taper so gradually to a point. The teeth of the serrated edges are less conspicu- ous ; the lower sheaths are hardly so hairy, and the nodes are less well defined and far less downy. The stem is more slender. Arundinaria Hindsii.— A distinct and beautiful species. In its first year with me it has grown to a height of 6 ft. 3 in., but will evidently attain a greater stature. The young dark-green steins have a lovely white wax on them like the bloom on a Grape. The leaves are 6 in. long by about five-eighths of an inch across ; they are thicker than in most Bamboos. The colour is a beautiful dark green, fairer underneath ; the veins are more con- spicuously and beautifully tessellated than in any Bamboo that I have observed. A. Hindsii var. graminea.— A smaller plant than the above, with leaves 9 in. long by five-eighths of an inch broad, and yellow stems ; considered by the authorities at Kew to be another form of the same species. The tessellation of the veins of the leaves is not quite so strongly marked as in the type. A. japonica. — A fine and valuable plant, generally grown in gardens under the name of Bambusa M^tak^. The leaves are from 8 in. to i ft. in length by about i^ in., sometimes more, broad. The upper surface is smooth and shining, the lower side paler, rather glaucous and wrinkled ; the edges are finely serrated. The creeping root-stock in well-established plants is very active, so that care must be taken to give the plant plenty of room. A. Simoni. — Of this fine species, at Kew, old-established plants have reached a height of 1 8 ft. The leaves are from 10 in. to I ft. long, slightly hairy, lanceolate, longitudinally ribbed, ending in a long narrow point. So far as experience at present goes, this is the greatest runner of all the hardy Bamboos. Its young shoots will appear at a great distance from the parent plant. It should be planted apart in the wild garden, where it may wander at pleasure without injury to any neighbour. Bambusa palmata (? Arundinaria).— A beautiful species, conspicuous from the size of its leaves, which are often used by Japanese peasants to wrap up the bit of salt fish or other condiment which they eat with their rice. With me it is about 5 ft. high, or rather more. The leaves are the chief beauty of the plant, each from i ft. to 13 in. long and 3 in. to 3^ in. broad, tapering rather suddenly to a very fine point ; the colour a vivid green on the upper surface, glaucous on the lower. Both edges are serrated. The rhizomes are exceedingly active, and travel far. Bambusa palmata (from a photograph by Lord • Annesley). *Arundinaria VeitChi much resembles Bambusa palmata in its habit, though on a far humbler scale, the plant being only about 2 ft. high and the leaves smaller and more rounded at the point. The leaves are about 7 in. long by about 2^ in. broad, green above, glaucous below, glabrous and much ribbed. The edges wither in winter, giving the plant a variegated but shabby appearance ; but the thick new foliage of spring is very beautiful, and the plant runs fiercely, soon making a thick carpet and ousting all weeds. E E 4l8 BAMBUSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Bambusa tessellata. — Avery beautiful species, noteworthy as having the largest leaves of any of the hardy Bamboos. The stem is about 2\ ft. high, round, slightly flattened at the top, the colour a purplish- green, much hidden by persistent withered sheaths. A feature of the plant is the pretty way in which the slender new culms spring from the carpet of arching foliage. Syn., Bambusa Raga- mowski. Arundinaria nitida.— A very lovely species from North Western . SzSchuan. The culms are purple-black, very slender and round. The 'leaves are small, lancet- shaped, and tessellated. Quite the hardi- est of all our Bamboos, for in the bitter weather of February 1895, it stood at Kew as green as in mid-summer. Bambusa angustifolia. — A lovely little Bamboo, probably an Arundinaria, about 9 in. to i ft. in height. The stems are round, very slender, and when young of a purplish colour. It is much branched ; the leaves are about \\ in. in length by three-eighths of an inch in width ; they are serrated on both sides, and somewhat capriciously striped with silver variega- tion. • Bambusa marmorea.— A pretty and distinct little Bamboo, for which I have chosen the name marmorea\on account of the very peculiar appearance of the young stems, which are folded in purple sheaths, dehcately marbled with a pinkish silver-gray, through which, near the knots, peep glimmers of the bright emerald- green or dark purple of the stem itself The leaves, which are bright green, are about 4j in. long by three-eighths to five- eighths of an inch broad ; they are ser- rated on both edges, and have a marked constriction at about half an inch from the very sharp end. The rhizome is very active, new shoots appearing at some distance from the parent plant. B. pygmsea.— The best and the smallest of the dwarf Bamboos, invaluable for making a carpet of soft brilliant green. It grows with extraordinary rapidity, the root-stock travelling great distances and at a considerable depth. Stem about 6 in. to 16 in. high ; leaves about 4 in. long by half an inch to three-quarters of an inch broad. This wonderful little plant grows so thick and close that no weed has a chance against it, but its rampant habits make it advisable to give It plenty of room. B. Marliacea. — A very handsome species. The only plant of it I possess (it IS a rare Bamboo, not easily obtained) has m Its third year grown to a height of 8 ft., but promises to become very tall and vigorous. The stem when freed from the sheaths is very handsome — a dark green shining like enamel ; the internodes at the base are very close together, not more than i^ in. to 2 in. The branches are long, and the habit of this Bamboo is very graceful, the culms forming the most, elegant arches, beautiful both in form and ' colour. B. fastuosa. — However difficult it may be to distinguish between some of the species of hardy Bamboos, this very stately and beautiful plant stands out quite con- spicuously among its fellows, having marked characteristics which are all its own. The leaves are from 5 in. to 7 in. long by three-quarters of an inch to I in. in width, tapering to a sharp point, and markedly constricted at about an inch from the end, which has the appearance of a little tongue. Their colour is bright green on the upper surface and very glaucous underneath. There is every reason to believe that this Bamboo will prove to be one of the most valuable of the group. Tall, spreading, gracefully plumed with foliage which for richness and beauty of colour is without a rival, it cannot fail to make a striking feature in the wild garden. Phyllostachys aurea.— The distinc- tive name aurea is not very happily chosen, for there is nothing golden about the plant unless it be the yellow stems, and these are not peculiar to the variety named. At Shrubland Park, Phyllo- stachys aurea is 14 ft. 6 in. high, the canes being 2| in. round. P. mitis.— This is the tallest, and in that respect the noblest, of all the Bam- boos capable of being cultivated in this country. At Shrubland the culms of plants imported seven years ago are 19 ft. 5 in- high and 4 J in. in circum- ference. In China and Japan it grows to 60 ft. high. The stems, some of which spring out of the ground like spears, are, when fully developed, beautifully arched. The young shoots, when once they start, are very rapid, growing in this country as much as 6 in. in the twenty-four hoiirs. The utmost growth that I have noticed is 4^ in. in the twenty-four hours ; but mine are young plants. P. sulphurea.— A handsome golden- stemmed Bamboo, which in appearance has great affinity with P. mitis. It is per- fectly hardy and well worth cultivating but difficult to obtain. At Shrubland it IS growing to a height of 13 ft., with a circumference of 2J in. round the stem. P. Quilioi.— A very distinct Bamboo, THE ENGLISH ELOWER GARDEN. BEAUCARN'EA. 419 introduced from the north of Japan by the French Admiral Du Quilio. To me it appears to ha\e a character ahogether its own, and the many botanists and gar- deners to whom I have shown it have without exception come round to my opinion. Altogether a notable Bamboo, growing at Shrubland to a height of 18 ft. 6 in., the canes ha\ing a circumference of 3I in. Syn., Phyllostachys MazcH. P. viridi-glaucescens. —A most elegant and graceful Bamboo, to which many cultivators give the palm of loveliness. It grows to a great height — nearly 18 ft. at Shrubland. The root-stock is very active, the plant being a great runner, while many of the culms come almost horizontally out of the ground, giving the plant a \'ery \\'ide spread. The leaves are generally about 3 in. or 4 in. long and about three-quarters of an inch across. The stem is much zigzagged. Once estab- lished, this is a perfectly hardy Bamboo, but it should be established in pots as before directed before planting out. P. Henonis. — To my taste this is the loveliest of all our Bamboos. Nor is that its only merit, for it is perfectly hardy, and bears up bravely against our coldest weather. Of all the plants that I im- ported not one has gone amiss, though they were subjected to hardships to which, now that I know better how to manage, I should not dream of exposing them, and which proved fatal to a good many of their travelling companions. The slender tall stems are green at first, growing yellower with age, slightly zigzagged. The root- stock runs rather freely, but it is to its habit that this Bamboo owes its surpassing loveliness. The two-year-old culms, borne down by the weight of their own foliage, bend almost to the earth in graceful curves, forming a pretty groundwork from which the stems of the year spring up, arching and waving their feathery fronds, the delicate green leaves seeming to float in the air. P. nigra. — This is perhaps the best known, and from its black stems the most easily recognised of the hardy Bamboos. Varieties of this said to be more free than the species are P. nigro-punctata and P. Boryana. With me the plant has been a little capricious and difficult to establish, but once it has taken hold of the ground no Bamboo seems hardier. The stems are of an olive-green colour during their first year of growth, changing to shining black the following year. They are slightly zigzagged. The leaves, which are from 3 in. to 43 in. long by three- quarters of an inch broad, are green on the upper surface and glaucous under- neath. P. Castillonis.— A most lovely plant. The foliage is larger than it is in most of the Bamboos, some ■ of the leaves being as much as between 8 in. and 9 in. long by nearly 2 in. broad. When they first appear they are striped with bright orange-yellow, which in time fades to a creamy white. As the sheaths of the branchlets are of a very pretty pink, the plant has a tricoloured effect, which is most pleasing ; the branches come in twos and threes. Twenty-four degrees of frost January, 1894, did them no harm. Arundinaria anceps. — A very beauti- ful Bamboo discovered by Mr. Jordan, superintendent of Regent's Park, in the stock of a dead nursery gardener, whose books being destroyed or lost, it was impossible to trace its origin. It is pro- bably a Chinese species. The culms are brown when ripe ; the leaf-sheaths are hairy, and the petiole of the leaf is yellow. A. nobilis.— A grand Bamboo, pro- bably of Chinese origin, growing to a height of 24 ft. at Menabilly, in Corn- wall. It is quite hardy, only losing its leaves in early summer when the new ones are ready to appear. The tall stems are yellowish in colour with very dark purplish nodes, of which the lower rim is broadly marked with grey. A. B. Freeman-Mitford. Baptisia {False Indigo). — A hardy and vigorous Lupine-like group of plants, perennials from North America, forming strong bushy tufts 3 to 5 ft. high, with sea-green leaves ; the flowers, mostly of a delicate blue, in long spikes. B. australis, exaliata, and alba are the best- known kinds, and are best placed in the mixed border in any garden soil. Barbarea.— Mountain and marsh cruci- ferous herbs of the Old World, not many of much garden value. In the natural state few of these plants are pretty, but two varieties are worth growing. The finest is the double yellow Rocket {B. vulgaris fl.-pl.), Avhich is a beautiful and curious plant. It is about 18 in. high, flowers bright yellow, from June till late summer, and often till autumn. It suc- ceeds in almost any soil, preferring a rich light loam ; and is increased by division of the root-stock. Barkhausia. See Crepis. Bartonia aurea. See Mentzelia. Beaucarnea. — Graceful tropical Lilia- ceous plants, with swollen stem-bases, growing freely in a cool house, but some- times placed in the flower garden for a E E 2 420 BEGONIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. bellis perennis. few months in summer. America, Syn., Nolina. Begonia {Elephant's Ear). — A large tropical and sub-tropical family of plants, many of them of much value in our hot- houses, and, of recent years, in our open gardens. The Tuberous Begonia is the most familiar to flower gardeners, and of late years has played a large part in summer bedding. Grouped together in beds, a fine effect is produced, and in respect to colours there is a great diversity, from the darkest scarlets and crimsons to the various shades of rose and pink ; also white and blush-coloured kinds. The cultivation of the Begonia, both tuberous and shrubby, for bedding out, is not difficult. Seedlings raised in March will make good plants for planting early in June. One can just prick them off into pans ; from these, when large enough, they are put in shallow boxes, and not disturbed again until planted out, unless getting overcrowded. The beds should be well prepared for them, if the soil is heavy, using plenty of well-decomposed leaf-mould, and failing this old Mushroom manure. During the first year those of inferior quality should be discarded when lifted, whilst mark the finest for another year. For the second and after seasons' display start the tubers in a gentle heat in boxes in March, transferring them to a cold frame or pit in May. A north frame is best, the plants make very free growth, and get a good size for planting out the first week in June. The beds should be surfaced with either a dwarf kind of plant or with Coco-nut fibre. When, however, they are planted thickly together, use the fibre, which will soon be covered by the foliage. When Begonias, more particu- larly the tuberous ones, are planted in dry positions, they should always be kept moist at the root. Damping the beds overhead as the sun leaves them in the after part of the day when the weather is dry and warm will greatly refresh them. When lifted, the tuberous varieties require careful attention so as to prevent the decaying stems from imparting any ill effects to the tubers. Remove these stems as soon as they can be twisted out without any trouble. Some growers expose the tubers in a light, dry, and airy house until the stems are quite dried up. Later on the bulbs when quite at rest should be kept in a cool place, neither too dry nor too moist, but where frost cannot reach them, being stored in either Coco-nut fibre or silver sand in shallow boxes until again required for starting. It is better to have single than double flowers for bedding out, and there is no want of good colours. A class getting more popular each year is that called the shrubby set, these being known as forms of B. semfer- florens. They are neat and shrubby in growth, with an abundance of rather small leaves, varying in shade. Conspicuous is Vernon's variety, the leaves deep crimson to light green, and pinky blossoms. There are many varieties, and as easily and similarly raised as the tuberous kinds. The plants are, when in beauty, a mass of bloom, the small flowers almost hiding the leaves. But many of the kinds are very dull in colour, and get shabby to- wards the end of summer. There are many uses for them in gardens — as distinct groups, or as a groundwork to beds filled with taller plants. One of the best of the bedding Begonias is Princess Beatrice, compact and neat in growth, the flowers of a pretty pink shade. Behria tenuifolia. — This is a new bulbous flower, of the Lily Order, which Prof Greene places close to the Brodiaea, but which I think will prove to be much nearer to the Mexican family of Bessera. The bulbs are small, exactly like those of Milla biflora, and the plants bear grassy leaves, each about a foot long. The scarlet flowers are tubular, carried in an umbel, with the stamens much exserted. Its season of growth is from May to September, and it comes from Cape St. Lucas, in Southern California.— C. G. V. T. Bellevallia. See Hyacinthus. Bellis perennis {Daisy). — Daisies raised from our Wild Daisy are among the most popular of garden flowers, although not used so much as formerly. They need only simple culture, increase rapidly, and in the spring garden are of great service m large clumps or masses. Though we have numerous kinds, growers have ad- hered most closely to the old flat-petalled white and the old quilled red, both of which are grown by millions as market plants. Besides these are the flat-petalled Pink Beauty, a charming pink of the quilled class ; a deep rich red or crimson quilled kind called Rob Roy; White Globe, with large white quilled petals ; and many others. The yellow-blotched or Aucuba- leayed kinds ha^•e originated by sporting, and one named aucubsefolia is a pretty kind, but rather tender, though it will do well in winter on a free porous soil and m summer in a cool shady border if transplanted there. The giant or cro'wn- flowered Daisies almost form a distinct section, and, though vigorous, are much THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, betacicla variegata. 421 less free of bloom than the better-known kinds. These have large and usually mottled red flowers upon long stalks, and are best suited for mixed borders. A very old favourite is the Hen-and-Chickens Daisy. It differs in no respect of habit or foliage from the double kinds, except that when the flowers are at their best they send out small ones from the axils of the scales — hence the name. Propagation is simple, and may be done in spring and autumn. Well-dug soil suits well, and pull the plants to pieces, dibbling them in six inches apart, and if Berberis nepalensis. u good mass of bloom is desired they may be put a little closer. Where the soil is good the Daisy increases so rapidly that it may be transplanted twice in the year. Bellium.— Plants closely allied to the Daisy, and belonging to the same order ((Composite), of which some three or four forms are in cultivation. Although from the south of Europe, they are hardy on the rock-garden, but are apt to exhaust themselves in flowering. B. bellidioides, B. crassifolium, and B. minutum, are much alike and are easily grown in light soil. B. rotundifolium ccerulescens (Blue Daisy) is a native of Morocco, and is a pretty rock-plant. Division or by seed. Berberidopsis corallina {Coral Bar- berry). — A beautiful evergreen climbing shrub from Chili, hardy enough for open walls in the southern counties. It has large spiny leaves very much like some Barberries, the flowers bright coral-red, hanging in clusters on slender stalks, and borne for several weeks in summer. It is charming for a wall, preferring partial shade, such as that of a wall facing east or west, and does best in peaty or sandy soil. Seed or layers. Berberis {Barberry). — A valuable group of hardy shrubs, among the most beau- tiful of which is Darwin's Barberry {B. Darwini). B. stenophylla is a hybrid between B. Darwini and the small B. enipetrifolia. B. dulcis is a pretty Barberry, whose slender shoots are hung with tiny yellow flowers. The common Barberry {B. vulgaris) is brilliant when in fruit in autumn, and it has several varieties, some of which differ con- siderably in habit of growth and colour of the berries. A beautiful shrub-group could be formed of the fruiting Bar- berries alone, using B. vulgaris, B. aristata (which has berries covered with white powder, like Plums), and the small- growing B. Thunbergi, also remarkable for its scarlet berries, which remain on the bush throughout the autumn. B. Walli- chiana has handsome flowers and foliage, and is worthy of cultivation in the best collections. are now merged in As flowering shrubs value, as is shown flower and fruit of the common evergreen Barberry B. agui- folium and its varieties. M.fascicularis, though not hardy everywhere, is fine when in bloom, its stems being wreathed with golden clusters for some weeks, while M. hybrida is scarcely less ornamental and certainly hardier. Of not so much value as flowering shrubs are M. reopens, M. glumacea and M. trifoliata, all good dwarf Evergreens. In mild districts there is not a finer flowering shrub in spring than M. nepalensis, with large clusters of yellow bloom and massive foliage. M. japonica is a good Evergreen in sheltered places, and a fine flowering shrub. Most of the evergreen kinds thrive best in leafy or peaty soils, the ordinary hardy kinds in any garden soil. Berkheya {Stobaa). Beta cicla variegata {Chilian Beet). — A variety of common Beet, the leaves often more than 3 ft, long, vivid in The Mahonias the genus Berberis. they are of much by the beauty of 422 BIGNONIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. colour, their midribs varying from dark waxy orange to vivid crimson. The plant should be sown in a gently heated frame, and afterwards planted out in rich ground. It varies much from seed, and the most striking individuals should be selected before the plants are put out. Used sparingly, its effect is often perhaps more telling than if in quantity, but it is a mistake to use this or any such vegetables in the flower-garden. Other varieties of the common Beet are used in the flower-garden for the sake of their dark colours, but no artistic flower- gardening is possible where such vege- tables out of place are used. Bignonia ( Trttrnpet-flower). — Shrubby climbers graceful, showy in flower, and of the highest value as flower-garden plants. B. capreolata, a true Bignonia, is a native of the southern parts of North America, and is nearly hardy in all but the coldest parts of England. It is commonly grown as a greenhouse climber, but it succeeds against a warm wall. It has heart-shaped leaves, the flowers, trum- pet shaped, are large, reddish yellow, and in a sheltered spot against a sunny wall it is almost an evergreen. B. grandiflora is a Chinese plant, showy when in bloom, the drooping flowers, of a bright orange-scarlet, coming in large clusters. Its foliage, too, is larger, but the plant rarely grows vigorously in this country. It is handsome in bloom on a warm sunny wall. B. radicans is a native of the North American States, and is an old garden favourite. Its long wiry stems send out roots like Ivy, and cling to walls or any support. The foliage is graceful, and in late summer come showy clusters of scarlet and orange blossoms. There is a variety major, with larger flowers of a paler tint, and more robust foliage. A strong plant will run up and cover a wall 40 ft. high. Syn., Tecoina. Blechnum. See Lomaria. Bletia hyacinthina. — A beautiful Chinese Orchid, having ribbed leaves, and slender flower-stems i ft. or more high, bearing about half a dozen showy flowers of a deep rosy pink. It has proved hardy, and thrives in sheltered and shaded situations in peat borders in \\'inter. In cold districts it would be well to cover the roots, and is very interesting for the bog garden or a bed of hardy Orchids. Blitum. See Chenopodium. Bloomeria aurea. — An attractive little Californian plant, having umbels of small orange flowers striped -with a deeper hue, from 6 to 1 8 in. high, and quite hardy in light garden soil in sunny positions, but should be protected during severe cold. Syn., Nothoscordum aureum. Blumenbachia coronata. — An interest- ing annual flower, showy, the foliage elegant, and the growth dwarf, the structure of the flowers singular. Its culture is simple, that of a hardy annual, but it is better to sow it in spring than in autumn. It flowers from July to September if grown in warm light soils. The other species in cultivation are B. insignis and B. niultifida. Both are natives of the southern parts of South America. (Loasa Order.) Bobartia aurantiaca. — A pretty Iri- daceous bulb from the Cape of Good Hope, about i ft. high, and bearing numerous rich yellow blossoms. Being somewhat tender, it should be planted in light warm soil in a border, or in the rock-garden, and protected in winter. The bulbs should be lifted and sepa- rated after flowering, and replanted in autimm. Bocconia cordata {Plume Poppy). — A handsome and vigorous perennial of the Poppy Order, growing in erect tufts 5 to over 8 ft. high, the numerous flowers in very large panicles, the flowers not showy, but the inflorescence, when the plant is well grown, has a fine effect. The plant is best in the shrubbery, and does well in ordinary garden soil. It is excellent in bold groups, the leaves, too, being fine in form. Division. China. Syn.B.japomca. B. frutescens. — A ^'igorous Mexican shrub, 3^ to nearly 6 ft. high, with few and -i-ery brittle branches, large, sea- green, handsome leaves, and greenish flowers. Very effective on Grass plats, in groups or as isolated specimens. It requires a somewhat warmer climate than ouis. It may be placed out from June to the end of September. It is difficult to propagate by cuttings, and easier to raise from seed. Bcehmeria nivea.— A stout shrubby perennial of the Nettle family, occasion- ally grown in botanic gardens, dis- tmct in habit, and with the under side of the leaves silvery. About London it grows 3 to 4 ft. high, doing best in sandy loam. Division. China. Boltonia.— Aster. Bomarea.— Curious and handsome plants of the Amar)-llis order allied to Alstroemeria, requiring greenhouse tem- perature so far as now known. Mr. Archer Hind, of Newton Abbot, has B. eduUs out-of-doors, and it has flowered well after surviving a temperature of ^c" below freezing. If any of the other BONGARDIARAUWOLFI. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 423 species should prove hardy in the southern counties, their fine bold twin- ing habit and handsome flowers would be a gain. Best in free sandy or peaty soil. Bongardia Eauwolfi. — A plant of the Barberry Order, though remarkably un- like one, as it has a Cyclamen-like root- stem, from the apex of which spring the flower stems 6 in. high, bearing roundish golden blossoms from \ to i in. across, which droop gracefully from slender stalks. Though now rare, this beautiful plant was among our earliest garden plants, and is mentioned by all the early writers. Found from the Greek Archi- pelago to Afghanistan, and hardy on dry soils. Seed. Syn., Leontice. BoragO orientalis ( The Cretan Bords;e). — A vigorous perennial, bearing pale-blue flowers early in spring, having very large leaves through the summer. Easily naturalised in any rough place, but not worth a place in the garden proper, being coarse and taking up much space. The common Borage is very pretty, naturalised in dry places or banks, where it might often be welcome for use as well as beauty. There is a white variety. B. laxiflora is pretty with suspended blue flowers ; it grows very freely on sandy soils. Borldiausia. See Crepis. Botryanthus. See Muscari. Boussingaultia baselloides {Madeira Vine). — A luxuriant trailing plant of the Spinach Order with- shoots 16 to 20 ft. long, flowering late in autumn, the flowers small, white, fragrant, and becoming black as they fade. The fine green leaves are shining, fleshy, and slightly wavy ; stems twining, tinged with red, growing with extraordinary rapidity, and bearing many tubercles. Suited only for dry banks and chalk-pits, associated with climbing and trailing plants. Tubercles of the stem ; these break with the least shock, but the smallest fragment will vegetate South America. Boykinia.— Singular plants of the Saxifrage Order from N. America. Three species, B. aconitifolia, B. major, and B. roiundifolia, all with white flowers, have been introduced, and will grow in ordinary garden soil. Brachycome iberidifolia [Swan River Daisy). — A pretty Australian annual of simple culture, about 8 to 12 in. high, the flowers about i in. across, in loose terminal clusters, and are bright blue, with a paler centre. There are other sorts, with flowers of various shades of blue and purple, and one of pure white. Sow in cool house in September as soon as ready, prick off" four or five in a 4-in. pot, keep in cold pits during winter, and guard against damp. Pot on again in March singly into 4-in. pots, and finally at end of April plant out into open borders ; or sow on slight hotbed in March, prick out into pits for transplant- ing into open in May ; or sow in openwin April and May. Brassica. — Some forms of the Cabbage, particularly the variegated Kales, are The Plume Poppy {Bocconia cordata). used in the flower garden for winter effect, where people are ignorant of what a flower-garden means — in winter even a beautiful thing to those who know how to make it so. So we will forego des- criptions of how to grow kail for the flower-garden. The odour of such things about a house after a hard frost should be enough of itself to condemn them. And as for beauty, a corner of a labourer's garden with a few snowdrops and hepaticas is worth all the displays of the floral kail- yard e%er seen. 424 lravoageminiflora7'^£ ENGLISH flower GAKDEN. BRUGMANSIA. Bravoa geminiflora {Scarlet Twin- flower). — A pretty Mexican bulbous plant of the Amaryllis Order. From i to 2 ft. high, the flower-stems stout and erect, bearing on the upper part numerous pairs of nodding tubular flowers of a rich scarlet outside, but inclined to yellow within. It succeeds well in warm sheltered situations in borders of light and well-drained soil, but requires some protection over the bulbs in winter. It flowers in autumn, and remains a long time in bloom. Brevoortia coccinea ( Crimson Satin- flower). — A beautiful bulbous flower, of the Lily Order, also known as B. Ida- Mai. It is one of the prettiest Californian plants. The drooping umbels of flowers grow on stems, \\ to 2 ft. high, the flowers tubular and of a deep crimson- red, the lips a vivid green. It succeeds best in friable loam. It is not well to delay planting after October, and the roots may remain undisturbed for several years. Offsets are given oif, and the plant may also be increased by seed, which vegetates pretty freely after some weeks, the bulbs flowering in three or four years. Not less than three plants should be grouped together, and a dozen will produce a still better effect; an Osier rod in their midst will support the fragile stems. Briza {Quaking Grass). — A graceful family of Grasses, American and Euro- pean. B. maxima is one of the hand- somest, growing 12 to 18 in. high ; may be sown in the open in March in any garden soil, is quite hardy and graceful while growing, and useful for decoration either green or dried. B. media (Common Quaking Grass) is smaller, 9 to 15 in. high. Borders, Seed. Brodieea {Brodie's Lily or Californian Hyacinth). — A charming family of North American liliaceous plants. B. congesta has the stems long and wiry, the flowers in a dense umbel ; pur- plish blue in colour, and very lasting. B. alba is a pretty white-flowered variety. B. capitata much resembles this kind. There is also a white-flowered variety. B. grandiflora. — This is an old and pretty plant, about 5 in. high, and the deep purplish-blue flowers in a loose umbel in July. At the time of flowering the foliage is generally more or less withered, and to hide the nakedness of the stems it is sometimes best to plant the bulb among some other low-growing plants. B. Howelli. — This pretty species has flowers in a fine umbel, bell-shaped and milky white. A beautiful variety of it ijilacina) has delicate bluish flowers, re- taining its fine deep-green foliage at the time of flowering, and throwing up sturdy stems about 2 ft. high, crowned by large flat umbels of well-shaped flowers of a delicate milky-white and light lilac-blue. B. laxa is a very old garden plant, of which there are several varieties, not only varying in colour of the flowers, which in the species is of a deep purplish-blue, but also in the size of the flowers and the umbels. B. minor, probably not more than a variety of the foregoing, is very pretty ; the scape is not more than an inch high, about fifteen flowers in the umbel ; the colour purplish blue, with a lighter centre. B. peduncularis is a pretty white- flowered species, with large umbel of porcelain-white blossoms. The cultivation of the above bulbs is simphcity itself. They may be planted from October until t>ecember, and in mild localities will pass the winter in the open unprotected. In Holland, where the winters are often very severe, they are covered with reeds or straw at the approach of the cold season. This covering will not only keep the cold off, but it also serves to keep the soil open and to ward off the exciting effects of an often treacherous winter sun. — C. G. V. T. Bromus {Brome Grass). —At least one of this large genus of Grasses is very graceful and worthy of culture — that is B. briz(zformis, a hardy biennial about 2 ft. high, with large graceful and droop- ing heads. It is more valuable for cutting and drying than any of the Quaking Grasses. It may be grown as an annual sown out-of-doors in spring, and autumnal- sown plants would be best in warm soils. Browallia. — Annual plants of the Nightshade Order, chiefly Peruvian. B. elata has usually been regarded only as a beautiful pot-plant in summer and autumn, but it does well in the open air, either in a bed by itself or in large patches with other things. It supplies a shade of colour difficult to obtain, and is useful to cut from. Sow the seed in March, prick off the young plants when large enough to handle, grow them on till they are strong, and plant out in May. There is a white variety equally useful. B. Roezli is a dense compact bush, 16 to 20 in. high, with shining green leaves. The flowers are of a delicate azure blue, or are white with a yellow tube, and are unusually large for the genus. They come in uninterrupted succession from spring till autumn. Rocky Mountains. Brugmansia. See Datura. KRYANTHUS ERiiCTUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWEli GARDEN. 425 Bryanthus erectus {Hybrid B.).—K ■dwarf evergreen Ericaceous bush, from 8 in. to I ft. high, bearing pretty pinkish flowers. Said to be a hybrid. In very fine sandy soil or in that usually prepared for American plants, it grows well, and is suitable for the rock-garden or in col- lections of very dwarf alpine shrubs, whether planted in the rock-garden or in neat beds. Bryonia dioica {Bryony). — The modest merit of this wild British climber of the Cucumber Order is seen in German gar- dens, where it is chosen for its enduring verdure as well as graceful foliage. So trained, it relieves the mass of stone, but so ■common a British hedge plant will not often find a place in our gardens. Buddleiaglobosa ( Orange Ball Tree).— A favourite shrub from Chili, often seen in the southern coast gardens, where it is hardier, and in Ireland ; the flowers, balls of bright yellow, are showy in early summer. It is of rapid growth, and if badly cut down during a severe winter generally grows again in the following summer. B. Colvillei is a tender Hima- layan kind, with bunches of pale rose- coloured flowers. It is a shrub for mild districts only. Other species less satis- factory for open-air culture are B. crispa, B. Lindleyana. Bulbocodium vernum {Spring Mea- doiu Saffron). — A pretty Liliaceous bulb from 4 to 6 in. high, and one of the ■earliest of flowers, sending up large rosy purple flower-buds, distinct in colour. The tubular flowers are nearly 4 in. long, and are usually prettiest in the bud state. Associated with very early flowering plants like the Snowflake, Snowdrop, and Greek Anemone, it is welcome in the rock-garden or in warm sunny borders. Easily increased by dividing the bulbs m July or August, and replanting them from 4 in. to 6 in. apart. One other species, B. trigynum, is sometimes met with in cultivation. Alps of Europe. Buphthalmum speciosum. — A bold free and showy perennial, hardy, and growing in any soil, with large heart- shaped leaves in great tufts, and, in summer and autumn, handsome heads of showy yellow flowers with dark centres. An excellent plant for shrubberies and covering the ground here and there in bold masses, as it grows so close that it keeps the weeds down and in such ways also gives a better effect than in small tufts in the mixed border. Central Europe. Division. Syn. Telekia speciosa. Butomus umbellatus {Flowering Rush). — A handsome native water-plant, often very fine in a rich muddy soil. It should always find a place among water- plants, being hardy and free to flower. Common by some river banks, and always worth introducing into ponds where absent. Division. Buxus {Box).--T:h.is beautiful bush or low tree grows wild on some of our southern chalk hills, and is much culti- vated in gardens as an edging and also in shrubberies. The beauty of its habit is seldom seen in gardens, owing to its being grown under other trees or to its being too much crowded, but seen wild its habit is most graceful, and it might be well to secure the same beauty of habit by planting in groups upon ex- posed knolls. Almost all the species and Bulbocodium. varieties have variegated forms, which, though pretty, are not ' so good as the natural forms. B. sempervirens (the Com- mon Box) from its close bushy habit is one of the most useful Evergreens for garden hedges. It may be pruned or clipped into any shape ; and when topiary gardening was in fashion, it shared with the Yew in the formation of designs and figures of men and animals. While there are few soils in which it will not thrive, it prefers such as are light, with a warm gravelly subsoil. Of what is regarded as the typical species there are in cultivation many varieties, differing more or less in stature, habits, and foliage is /a/o^zra, a form of the common Box, but hardier. The Minorca Box {B. balearicd) is a native of Balearic and other islands in the Mediter- ranean, as well as Italy and Turkey, where it forms a fine tree of from 60 to 80 ft. in height. The leaves are larger than those of the common Box, and when exposed to the sun are of a lighter green, 426 CACTUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CALANDKINIA. but it only succeeds well in warm well- sheltered situations with a dry soil and a warm subsoil. Other species are Har- landi microphylla and Wallidiana, few of these so precious as the common Box. The variegated forms of Box are seldom so good in effect as the green kinds, at least after they have left the nursery stage. Cactus.— Various plants belongmg to the Cactus Order of plants have proved hardy in England. Opuntia, Echmo- cereus, Mammillaria and Echinopsis are Buphthalmuni speciosum. among the hardiest. Pretty effects are shown by some Cacti in the open air in Southern England, the plants blooming freely when fully exposed in the sun on a warm rock-garden ; but the want of the sunshine of their native plains is against their being very happy in Britain. When the foliage of a plant is perennial, as in Cacti, it is well to place it so that it may be safe from injuries, apart from climate, and the best places are, as a rule, on well-drained ledges in the rock-garden. Plants of this family should be planted in the rock-garden in open airy situations, free from dripping water, and where the drainage is perfect. Probably hardy alpine species will be found farther south, and we may yet see, in warmer counties. a good collection of bright-flowered Cac- taceous plants on warm rocky borders or banks. Caladium esculentum. — Handsome sub-tropical plants of the Arum Order, with fine foliage. It is only in the mid- land and southern counties that it can be grown, but its fine form, outlines, and aspects make it worthy of a place associated with fine-leaved plants wher- ever the garden is warm enough. It requires above all other plants a light rich warm soil. May is the best time for plant- ing it out in the open air, and, if groups are formed, the plants should be 2 or 2 J ft. apart. The foliage generally attains full size in August and September. It has been used with good effect in London gardens, but owing to cold seasons its culture is to a great extent given up. New Zealand. Syn., Colocasia esculenta. Calamintlia. — Mountain herbs of the Sage Order, but few in cultivation ; peren- nial rock plants. G. glabella is a charming minute plant, growing in neat little tufts 3 in. high, flowering in summer and bear- ing lilac-purple scented blossoms. Should be grown on the rock-garden in sandy loam and among the dwarfest plants. Divi- sion. Calampelis. See Eccremocarpus. Calaudrinia. Rock Purslane. — Dwarf annual or perennial plants of the Purslane Order. This genus is large, and many species have been introduced, though few are very effective for gardens, but if well grown and placed they are pretty, and sometimes brilliant border or rock plants, thriving in warm and dry soils. C. discolor is a beautiful S. American plant, from i to i^ ft. high, with flesh)- leaves, pale green above and purple be- neath, and bright-rose flowers in a long raceme, i^ in. across. C. gtandiflora is a handsome annual with showy blossoms. It thrives in a wann and good loam, and blooms throughout the autumn. C. oppositifolia is a distinct plant, and is well marked by its larger, very thick, succulent leaves and delicate white flowers. C. speciosa has flowers from \ to I in. across, purple-crimson ; on sunny mornings they open fully, closing early in the afternoon. C. umbellata is a dis- tinct and pretty plant, the flower dazzling magenta-crimson. It does well in fine sandy peat or in other light earth, and is perennial on dry soils and in chinks in a well-drained rock-garden, readily raised from seed sown in pots or in the open air in fine sandy soil. It may also be treated as an annual sown in frames very early in spring. Chili. CALCEOLARIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CALCEOLARIA. 427 There are other kinds, such as C. Lind- leyana, C. firocumbetis, C. compressa, and C. micrantha, but not so good as the kinds iust mentioned. Calceolaria {Slipper Flower). — Hand- some and distinct herbs or low shrubs of the Foxglove Order, mostly from South America. Many of them are of high garden value, but few are hardy. In the London district they are employed very much less than they were some years ago, as many of the varieties die from disease, or are short-lived as regularly and firmly into the frames, giving a sprinkling of water through a fine rose to settle the soil and to prevent their flagging. Keep the frames close and shaded for a day or two, but afterwards remove the shading, and only use it during the succeeding month to counter- act the effects of bright sunshine. Wintering. — These frames require no further care beyond protection from frost, by covering the sashes, and banking up the sides, if of wood, with soil. Wooden boxes, seed-pans, or pots might also be tv »;^«»*i^-Jt'Mj f^^.^<«v^^»#r-. Calandrinia oppositifoHa. regards bloom, but the handsome C. amplexicaulis, \\ith its bold habit and lemon-yellow flowers, is always a favourite. Propagation. — The best time for pro- pagating the shrubby varieties is the end of September and October, in a cold wooden or turf frame on a dry bottom ; fill it to within 6 in. of the top with sandy loam, and over that spread some clean silver sand. Then select stubby firm side shoots, pick out any flower-spikes that are visible, remove one or two of the base leaves, cut horizontally below a joint with a sharp knife, and dibble them thickly. used for striking Calceolarias in ; and in them the plants might be wintered in any pit, greenhouse, or conservatory. Whether propagated in frames or boxes, they should be transplanted farther apart than previously, into other frames filled with rich open soil, where they will become fit for planting out by the middle of May. Spring Propagation. — Spring cut- tings are mostly rooted in hotbeds, in boxes, or in pans, and often as many damp off as survive to become plants ; neverthe- less, where the stock is deficient, this mode must be resorted to. It is best to 428 CALCEOLARIA. THE ENGLISH FLO]VER GARDEN. CALLIRHOE. Strike them after the middle of March in pure sand in a hotbed or propagating pit where there is no stagnant moisture, and, when well rooted, to pot them, or put them in boxes in light sandy soil, still keeping them in warm quarters for a few days. After that, gradually shift them into places in which there is less heat. Powdered charcoal or wood ashes strewed on the soil among the cuttings prevents damp, and the watering-pot should be used judiciously. Species of Calceolaria. — Apart from the varieties, a number of species are of some merit for the flower garden, and some are neglected and unknown. The greater number of them inhabit mountain valleys, and ascend to an elevation of from 1 3,000 to 14,000 ft. within the tropics in South America, where they enjoy a temperate climate. C. alba. — A lovely sub-shrubby species from Chili growing 3 to 4 ft. high, with clusters of snowy white flowers. A native of Chili. C. amplexicaulis.— A fine bold kind with soft green leaves clasping the stem and many lemon-yellow flowers. Owing to its tall habit it groups well with bold plants, and it is usually handsomer in autumn than any of the other kinds. Ecuador. C. hyssopifolia is one of the best of the small-growing kinds, bearing loose clusters of lemon-yellow blossoms from early summer till autumn, the foliage resembling that of Hyssop. Ecuador. C. Kellyana. — A curious hardy hybrid, with short downy stems, 6 to 9 in. high, flowers about an inch across, of a deep yellow with numerous small brown dots, and two or three grow together on the top of the stems. Its foliage resembles that of one of the Mimulus, creeping along the ground, and it is a very mteresting dwarf rock-garden plant. C. Pavonii is a noble species, the largest in cultivation. It is from 2 to 4 ft. high, has large light-green, much- wrinkled foliage, from June to September bearing large, pale-yellow, slipper-shaped blossoms. It is a fine object against a warm south wall, but at the approach of winter it should either be lifted or pro- tected. Peru. C. violacea is a pretty species, with small helmet-shaped flowers, which are rich purple and spotted ; succeeds well on warm borders or the rock-garden, and, if slightly protected, withstands mild winters in the south. Chili. Calendula officinalis {Pot Marigold).— An interesting old hardy biennial ; one of the best for autumn and winter flowering in almost every garden ; the petals were formerly used to flavour dishes in old English cookery, hence its name. A variety of kinds is now offered by the seed houses. The plants are among the best biennials for autumn and even winter flowering. For late blooming, seed should be sown in July. The plants usually sow themselves freely, and may be sown in the open ground either in spring or autumn. The pretty variety called meteor and other forms are improvements on the old showy form. Calla. See RiCHARDlA. Calla palustris {Bog Arum). — A small hardy trailing Arum, which has pretty little white spathes. Though often grown in water, in a bog or muddy place it will grdw larger. For moist spongy spots near the rock-garden, or by the side of a rill, it is one of the best plants, but its beauty is best seen when it is allowed to ramble over rich muddy soil. N. America and N. Europe. Flowering in summer, and in- creasing rapidly by its- running stems. Callichroa. See Layia. CaUiopsis. See Coreopsis. Calliprora lutea. See Brodi^a. Callirhoe {Poppy Mallow).— K small and handsome genus of North American plants, . of the Mallow order, of which some half-dozen kinds are known in our gardens. They are hardy herbaceous perennials, and succeed well in the open border in rich light soil. C. alcsoides is an erect herbaceous perennial, with the habit and general ap- pearance of Malva nioschata, the flowers from I inch to \\ inches in diameter. Bar- ren Oak lands, Kentucky and Tennessee. C. digitata. — A distinct-looking glau- cous perennial herb, 2 or 3 ft. high, with reddish-purple flowers in summer ; it is not so showy as the other kinds. C. involucrata is a charming dwarf prostrate perennial, with large violet- crimson flowers 2 in. in diameter. It is excellent for the rock-garden, as it bears a continuous crop of showy blossoms from early in summer till late in autumn. It has the best effect when allowed to fall over the ledge of a rock. California. C. macrorhiza alba is a pure white form of a kind with purplish-carmine flowers, and erect stems, from i^ to 2^ ft. high, with a corymbose raceme of flowers. It occurs in several shades of colour, from rosy-purple to pale rose and white, and sown early it will bloom the first year. South-western States of N. America. C. Papaver, figured in The Garden, has a trailing habit, and flowers incessantly from early summer until late autumn. CALLISTEPHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWEK GARDEN. calochortus. 429 The flowers are of a bright purple-red, as large and somewhat resembling those of our common field Poppy, hence the name. C.'pedata is one of the prettiest species. A perennial, with trailing stems bearing lobed foliage, and handsome crimson flowers, fully 2 in. in diameter. When sown early the plaiils bloom the first season, and contmue in flower until late in autumn. In dry soils the roots survive our average winters. It succeeds best in dry soils. The \arieties nana and compacta are pretty dwarfer varieties. Callistephus chinensis {China Aster). — Among the many annuals now in culti- \ation China Asters are among the best, and when well grown and cared for they do as much to render a garden gay during summer and autumn as any annual plant. To see them in their beauty, however, they must be grown in masses, and well cultivated — not at any stage left to haphazard or poor culture. \''arieties. — China Asters may be classed according to height, habit, character of flower. Tall Asters com- prise the fine Paeony-flowered, the tall Chrysanthemum, the Emperor, the tall Victoria, the Quilled, and a few others. Kinds of medium height are the dwarfer forms of the Victoria, the fine Cocardeau, the Rose, and the Porcupine. The dwarf forms comprise the short Chrysanthemum, the dwarf pyramidal, and specially the dwarf bouquet, which is one of the most beautiful for pot culture. The best bedding kinds are the medium-growing Victoria, the Rose, and the dwarf Chrysanthemum, as these vary from 9 to 12 in. in height, and form good bunches of bloom on each plant, and fine masses of colour collec- tively. The dwarf bouquet kinds, whilst specially good for pot culture, are valuable as edgings to beds of taller kinds. For pot culture for exhibition the best are the medium-growing Victorias, as these, if of a good strain, possess quality, and hand- some even heads of bloom. Culture. — Mr. J. Betteridge writes : — " For several years after I com- menced the culture of quilled Asters I always sowed the seed in bottom- heat ; but during the last decade I have sowed it, between 26th March and 26th April, in a cold frame, under glass, in drills 6 in. apart, and not too thick in the drills. A few days suffice to bring the plants above the soil, when a liberal supply of air must be given, or they will be weak. When large enough, prick them out into another cold frame, slightly shaded, where they will soon be estab- lished, and after they are strong enough to handle plant them out in well- manured soil, and be careful not to break the tender fibres of the roots. Let the rows be i ft. apart, and plant the strongest plants I ft. from each other, in showery weather, and they will soon get estab- lished. If the weather be hot and drying, gi\e them a little watering till rooted : afterwards keep them clear of weeds by hoeing among them. About the first week in August top-dress with rotten manure from an old hotbed, giving a good soak- ing all over if the weather continues dry. " Soil. — China Asters like a deep rich soil, and, should dry weather set in, it is only in such soil that really fine flowers can be obtained and the plants induced to hold out. Planted in the ordinary way, they are weeds in comparison with those that are well nourished and watered. Confined to the top shallow crust of earth, they soon dry up and starve. The best way to manage them is to dig and cast off the top spit to one side, handy to be returned to its place again, and then to trench and break up the soil below, working in with it plenty of short manure. In very light soils a few barrow-loads of clay, chopped fine and mixed well in, will do more than any other to grow fine China Asters. The thing to aim at is to keep the bottom cool and moist ; then, if the weather be favourable, the plants will take care of themselves. But considermg this work has all to be done for one year's bloom only, the question is whether the same labour would not be better gi\en to hardy plants or choice shrubs which thrive for many years in. the same spot after such preparation as is here spoken of to secure one year's bloom, and that perhaps a short one." Calltina. See Erica Vulgaris. Calocephalus Browni.— A New Hol- land plant, with slender hoary stems, in a small state largely used for flat geometrical beds in summer. Increased by cuttings in early spring. Composita. Syn., Leiicophyta. Calochortus {Mariposa Lily). — A love- ly family of bulbous plants from Western North America, belonging to the Lily Order. Forming one of the most charm- ing groups of hardy bulbous plants, the colours being so \aried and delicate. Excepting the Mexican species, which are, fortunately, few, Calochorti are hardy ; but my experience is that unless on very warm soils their culture is precarious in our country, and no wonder, considering 43° cALOCHORTi. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CALOCHORTI. they come from one of the most genial and sunny of climates. They are so singularly beautiful, how- ever, that many will attempt their culti- vation, and the advice of Mr. Carl Purdy, who has studied the wild species in their native wilds, and cultivated them, is the best we can have. The Culture of Calochorti.— Calochorti are natives of a vast region in North America, stretching from far east of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from Northern Mexico to British America. From the sea-coast and islands they grow from 6000 feet to 9000 feet altitude on the peaks. Some are natives of the intensely hot deserts of Southern California and Arizona, and some grow in the moist meadows of Oregon in a climate differing but little from that of England. In Montana and other States of the inland region the species indigenous there have to bear as low a temperature as 40° below zero. In the soils in which they naturally grow there is as much diversity. Clay, sand, loam and rocky debris are respectively the chosen homes of certain species, and several choose the blackest and stickiest of clays. One is found in salt meadows and many in grassy meadows. I have at different times tried nearly every known species in many soils and situations. The winter climate of Ukiah is quite wet, with the thermometer often at 20' to 24°, and sometimes as low as 15^ above zero. Often the Calochorti leaves are frozen till they crackle, but I have never known any injury to result. In spring there is abundant rain until their flowering time, while our summer is perfectly dry. Perfect drainage is the first essential to success for all sorts. I have gradually come to the use of three mixtures. Along our river banks there is a winter deposit of sandy silt. This is excellent Calochortus soil, but not so good as the next. I find the best results follow from the use of about one half half-rotten spent tan bark with one half sandy or clay loam. The tan bark rots slowly and gives a loose, well-drained soil, which will not pack. This suits all Calochorti and gives a splendid bloom and firm, well-ripened bulbs. For English growers many sub- stitutes will occur. I know of but one disease to which Calochorti are subject. This is. a mildew, the " Lily leaf ash." It attacks them in the spring, just before the flowering stalk appears. It attacks the leaf tissue, and in a week entirely destroys the leaf and injures the bulb. In their susceptibility to the attacks of the fungus Calochorti vary greatly. All of the species having a single glossy radical leaf are free from its attacks. This includes all of the Star Tulips and the C. niiidus group. While all of the desert species, such as C. splendens, C. Kennedyi, C. Palmeri, C. Gunnisoni, C. NuttalU, C. macrocarpus, and C.flexuosus are subject to it to such an extent as to make their successful culture very near hopeless unless some cure can be found for this mildew. While the amateur may prefer to try all sorts and get his experience for him- self, I believe that many growers will appreciate a list of the best growers among the Calochorti. For such I would recommend the following : — In the globular-flowered Star Tulips, C. albus, \\'hite, C. pulchellus, yellow, and C. amcenus, rose-coloured, are all thrifty and beautiful. Among the open-cupped Star Tulips, C. Benthatni, in yellow, and C. Maweanus var. major are the best. There is, however, a race of giant Star Tulips, sturdy plants 9 in. to 16 in. high, with large flowers of the same delicate style as Maweanus, which, although rare now, will soon quite displace the smaller ones. These are C. apiculatus, straw- coloured, C. Greeni, blue, and C. Howelli, yellow. C. lilacinus, a lavender-coloured sort, is a splendid grower and very de- siraijle. In the next section, C. nitidus is a fine hardy and very beautifiil plant, combining the attributes of Star Tulip and Mariposa. In the C. IVeedi set, C. Plummera is best. Of the true Butter- fly Tulips, C. Vesta is by far the best grower. It is a sort which has great vitality, can be propagated very rapidly by offsets (three or four a year), and grows well in any well-drained soil. C. venustus var. purpurescens is almost as good a grower, and the two are by all odds the easiest Calochorti to grow. C. venustus var. citrinus in lemon is very thrifty. That grand plant C. clavatus is a fine grower. I have found that by very late planting I can bring sorts to flower which planted early invariably succumb. I had the same experience a year ago. It would seem that when planted early they reach a standstill period in late winter and cannot resist disease, while planted late theyare in full growth at the critical period. Clearly if so much care is needed in their own lovely climate, in ours it will require all our care to secure them perfect drain- age, porous soil and warmth, though no doubt some of naturally warm soils may suit them. CALOCHORTI. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CALOCHORTI. 431 C. albus. — This is a charming species and more easily grown than most. This may be planted in the open border without much fear of failure, unless the soil be very stiff. It increases rapidly by offsets and seeds, which ripen and produce good flowering bulbs in three years. These require rich soil during the first two years, after which they may be planted in the general collection. C. apiculatus is a tall stout-stemmed species 9 to 18 in. high, with large straw- coloured flowers. The variety minor has creamy flowers with a fringe of yellow hairs in the centre. Calochortus fl.lvus. C. Benthami.— A pretty dwarf species from 4 in. to 8 in. high, the leaves long and narrow ; the flowers, of a rich citron- yellow, often deep brown at the base, and densely covered with yellow hairs, are erect, from three to six in an umbel, and produced in June and July. California. C. clavatus has strong much- branched flower stems, bearing very large widely expanded blossoms of golden- yellow. C. coeruleus. — A dwarf species, rarely exceeding 6 in. m height, with umbels of three to five large flowers of a bright lilac, dotted and lined with dark blue, the gland at the base being covered with a pretty fringed scale. California. C. elegans. — A fine dwarf species. variable, bearing in June three to five drooping flowers, white or greenish-white with a purplish base, bearded, but not ciliate. The gland is covered by a fringed scale. The narrow leaf is longer than the flower-stem, smooth, and nerved. C. flavus. — It represents a form in which the flowers are upright, and the petals ha^e an outward curve instead of an inward curve. It is, perhaps, not quite so hardy as most kinds, but it will be found to do well at the base of a south wall. It is also known as C. pallidus and C. luicus. Mexico. 0. ftreeni. — A fine bold species, grow- ing a foot or more in height, and blooming in early June, three to five large, clear, lilac flowers, barred below with yellow and purple, and often loosely covered with long hairs. The leaves are broad, glaucous green, and pointed. California. C. Gunnisoni has larger flowers of a bright lilac, yellowish-green below the middle, where they are banded and lined with purple. A native of the Rocky Mountains from Wyoming to New Mexico, flowering with us in July. C. Howelli is a strong growing species with long glossy leaves and large creamy white flowers. C. Kennedy!. — This is the most brilliant of the Mariposa Lilies known to us, and the flowers are dazzling scarlet in colour. It has proved perfectly hardy, and grows about 18 in. high. California. C. lilacinus. — This is of very distinct habit, and has curious, hairy flowers, which are borne from four to ten on a stem, from 6 in. to 8 in. high, and they are pale lilac in colour. California. C. longibarbatus. — A curious species from Oregon and Washington Territory. It grows about a foot in height, the stem bearing one to three pale purple-lilac flowers each i to \\ in. in diameter, with a dark purple stripe across the base of each petal, and a long beard just above it. Flowers in July. C. luteus. — A handsome and variable species, from i ft. to 2 ft. in height ; the flowers vary from one to six to a stem, the colour varying from yellow to deep, rich orange, and lined with brownish- yellow below the middle. In the variety citrinus the whole flower is rich lemon- yellow, with a central circular brown or purple blotch ; and in the variety oculatiis it varies from white and lilac to yellow, with a dark-brown spot. C. Lyoni. — One of the earliest Mariposa Lilies, with numerous large blossoms varying from pure white to rose with a large black spot at the base of each petal. 432 CALOCHORTI. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. C. macrocarpus.— A tall handsome species, found on the undulating barren grounds around the great falls of the Columbia River. It grows from i\ ft. to 2 ft. in height, the flowers, 3 in. to 4 in. in diameter, purplish-lilac, somewhat paler at the base and with greenish mid- vein. C. madrensis. — A pretty little species with bright orange-yellow flowers in August and September, and a tuft of deep-orange hairs at the base of each Calochortus fuscus. segment. It rarely exceeds a span in height, the stems bearing several flowers in a loose head. Mexico. C. Maweanus is a low plant, from 5 in. to 9 in. in height, and bearing from four to six bell-shaped flowers in July, each \\ in. to 2 in. in diameter. The petals are white, tinged with bright purple at the base, and densely clothed with purple hairs. California. C. nitidus is a lovely strong growing species with five to ten large white flowers in an umbel, each petal having a large indigo blotch in the centre, and covered with long hairs. C. Nuttalli has large white flowers with a blackish purple blotch at the base of the broader segments, the narrow segments being green striped with red. The rare variety Leichtlini has white flowers also, but is more beautifully marked. C. Plummerse throws up a broad leaf about 2 ft. long, and. a strong branching spike with numerous soft lilac flowers of a satiny lustre and about 4 in. across, the base of each petal being clothed with golden hairs. 0. pulchellus. — A hardy plant, the bulbs, left in the open border, flower regu- larly. It grows about a foot high, much- branched, each branch terminating in an umbel of three to four fragrant, bright orange-yellow pendulous flowers. C. splendens. — A pretty species, the flowers of a pale lilac, with a dark blotch at the base of each of the petals. California. C. Tolmiei. — This very scarce Star Tulip is a vigorous grower, with tubular flowers covered with bluish hairs. C. venustus. — One of the prettiest of the Mariposa Lilies, from i ft. to 2 ft. high, the flowers very large, white or pale lilac, with a prominent red blotch at the top of each petal, the centre brownish-yellow, the base brown. California from Alameda County southwards. C. Weedi. — A handsome and remark- able species in having the bulbs fibrous- coated. The stem grows about a foot in height, one to three flowered, large, deep yellow, dotted and frequently margined with purple. Calopogou pulchellus. — A beautiful hardy Orchid suitable for boggy ground, the flowers pink, i in. in diameter, in clusters of two to six upon a stem, beautifully bearded with white, yellow, and purple hairs. Plant in the rock- garden, bog, or in an open spot in the hardy fernery in moist peaty soil, as it is a native of wet spots at the edges of Pine woods in the Moss in Cranberry swamps, and in wet Grassy marshes, and occasionally seen on solid ground, in low, wet, woody situations in N. America. Caltha {Marsh Marigold).— The: Marsh Marigold (C. palustris), that in early spring " shines like fire in swamps and hollows gray," and is one of our good hardy plants, though it is so frequent in a wild state that there is little need to gi\ e it a place, except on the margin of water. Its double ^arie- CALYCANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CAMELLIA. 433 ties, however, are worth a place in a moist rich border, or, like the single form, by the water-side. There is a double variety of the smaller creeping C. radicans, about half the size of the common plant. There are double-flowered forms, bearing beautiful golden rosettes. There are also C. leptosepala, a Californian kind, and C. pur^urasccns, distinct and hand- some, about I ft. high, with purplish stems, and bright-orange flowers, the out- side of the petals flushed with a purplish tinge. The various forms of the Marsh Marigold are handsome in their golden blossoms, and in groups or bold masses are effective ; they are easily grown, and increase freely. Calycanthus {Allspice Tree). — North American shrubs with handsome flowers •of pleasant fragrance. C. occidentalis is from 6 to 8 ft. high, with large maroon- crimson flowers of fine fragrance, and is worthy of cultivation. C. floridus is smaller and not so dense, with purplish- red flowei-s, strongly scented. The names in catalogues, such as C. glaucus, laviga- tus, oblongifolius, macrophyllus, represent forms or varieties of either the eastern or the western species. The two described are hardy, the Carolina species having been gro%vn since 1757, while the Cali- fornian has been cultivated over fifty years. They flourish best when some- what shaded by other trees and where the ground is damp. They grow wild near stieams and wet places. The Winter-Sweet, Chimonanthus, is some- times included among these shrubs in Continental lists. Calycanthacese. Calypso borealis. — A pretty Uttle hardy Orchid, with rosy-purple sepals and petals, and a white lip, heavily blotched with cinnamon brown, from the cold regions of N. America. It succeeds in half-shady spots on the margin of the rock-garden or bog', or in a select spot among choice shrubs in light, moist vegetable soil, covered with Coco fibre or like material to keep the surface open. Calystegia. See Convolvulus. Camassia {Quamash). — North Ameri- can plants of the Lily Order, hardy and valu- able for cutting. C. esculenta {Quamash) is a native of meadows and marshes in N. W. America from I to 3 ft. high, its stalks bearing a loose raceme of from ten to twenty flowers about 2 in. across, the colour from deep to pale blue. There is also a pure white, and various other forms thriving in moist situations in a deep light soil. A bold group in flower has a fine eflfect in July, and it is excellent in the cut state, as the buds of the spike open in the house. C. Cusicki is a new species discovered a few years ago in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, and it was described in Garden and Pores/ as the most vigorous species yet found with large broad leaves, a stout flower-stem growing 3 ft. high, and flowers of a pale delicate blue, large and spreading. C. Fraseri {Eastern Quamash). — A native of the States east of the Mississippi, its flowers are rather smaller than those of the western species ; about i^ ft. high, the scape bearing a raceme of ten to thirty pale-blue flowers, each about i in. across. It is, however, later in flowering than other Camassias, thriving in a light rich soil. All Camassias may be pro- pagated by dividing the bulbs or by seeds. 0. Leichtlini ( While Camassia). — This often grows on sandy ridge-tops, and is found in dry spots in ravines ; its bulbs are generally deep in some stiff soil. The flower-spike is large, being 9 in. long by 4 in diameter, while in rich deep soils it is sometimes compound, and contains several hundred florets, creamy white and about I in. in diameter, the stem often 3 or 4 ft. high. It is vigorous, but not so handsome as the Quamash. British Columbia. Camellia. — Handsome shrubs of the Tea Order, mostly grown under glass in our country, and those who live in northern districts may well be sur- prised to see this shrub healthy out-of- doors, even if it does not flower well ; but in the Isle of Wight and the southern coasts of England and Ireland it is often laden with as many flowers, as it is in Madeira. Most people who have Camellias in the open air find that they flower well five out of every six years, and that the plants are hardy — indeed, hardier than many shrubs that make their new growth early in the year. Their greatest enemy is fierce winds, which beat them about. Any one planting them out for the first time will do well to plant first some of the commoner kinds, and in sheltered spots ; then, when these thrive, to continue with more valuable ones. The best aspect for Camellias is a south or south-west one, sheltered by a bank or wall, but in some districts they do best on a north wall. Planting from pots may- take place at any period, but about July is the best time, as the wood is then well ripened. Duke of Devonshire, Halfida, Chandleri, Florida, imbricata, elegans, Alberti, Double White, Donckelaari, F F 434 CAMPANULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CAMPANULA. Countess of Orkney, Mathotiana, and Lady Hume's Blush are good varieties for outdoor culture. The late Robert Mamock, the landscape gardener, wrote as follows to The Garden about Camellias out-of-doors : " Permit me to remind those who, like myself, have an affection for the great beauty of the Camellia, when in vigorous health in the open air, that although it is true that the plant will bear a greater degree of cold than the Common Laurel, and other ever- Alpine Hairbell in rock garden. Engraved from photograph by Ellen Willmott. green shrubs which by common consent have long been regarded as hardy, yet the main stems and stouter branches of the Camellia are, nevertheless, liable to injury from severe frost. Now, all that is necessary to protect the plant at this weak point is to closely wrap the stem with straw or hay bands ; and if a little Fern or other loose material be laid over the roots, so much the better. The portions of the stems near the ground are the most liable to suffer, while the leaves and branches, if not exposed to fierce gales, will bear much frost, provided the stems are protected." . Campanula {Hairbell, Bellflower). — A large, beautiful, and most important family for the flower garden. The alpine species are charming for rock-gardens, being as a rule not difficult to cultivate. Some are very easy and free. A group of kinds somewhat larger than the high alpines adorn rocks and old walls on the mountains, and maybe used for these in our gardens. Some are pretty window- plants, thriving in dry rooms ; numbers are good border and edging plants of easy cul- ture ; the tall and straggling kinds admir- able for the wild garden, or rough woody places or hedgerows, but these tall species must not be used much in the flower garden or mixed borders, as their time of bloom is short and they are very apt to overrun rarer plants. Some of the annual kinds, if well grown, are showy. The Canterbury Bell is one of the finest of biennials, the tall chimney Campanula a very handsome and precious plant. C. Allioui, an alpine kind forming an underground network of succulent roots, surmounted by stemless rosettes of leaves, about an inch long, from which arise stalkless erect flowers. Suc- ceeds in exposed positions in the rock- garden in a moist, free, and sandy loam, but dislikes limestone. Division. Alps. C. alpina {Alpine Hairbell).— Co\fa&i with stiff down, gi^^ng it a slightly gray appearance, 5 to lo in. high ; flowers of fine dark blue, scattered in a pyramidal manner along the stems. Valuable for front margins of mixed border, as well as the rock-garden. Division or seeds. Carpathians. C. Barrelieri has prostrate one- flowered stems and roundish heart-shaped leaves and blue large flowers. On rocks by the seaside about Naples ; a good trailing rock-plant, which thrives also in baskets or pots in windows. C. csespitosa {Tufted Hairbell).— K charming and vigorous little plant, its roots ramble \'ery much, and it soon forms large patches in any garden soil. Ex- cellent for edgings and rocks, the angles of steps in rock-gardens, and where flagstones are used to form paths it is one of the plants that run about among the stones with very pretty effect. C. carpatica {Carpathian Hairbell).— A dwarf plant of free-flowering habit, the light-blue flowers large and cup- shaped, borne on foot-stalks 12 to 15 in. high in July and August in succession. There are pale and white forms of this plant and the hybrid forms, none of them CAMPANULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CAMPANULA. 43S better than the species though giving variety. C. cenisia {Mont Cents Hairbell). — A high alpine plant growing among Saxifraga biflora on the sides of glaciers, making little show above ground but vigorous below, sending a great number of runners under the soil, and here and there it sends up a compact rosette of light-green leaves, with blue flowers. It should have a sandy or gritty and moist soil on the rock-garden. Division. C. fragilis {Brittle Hairbell) is a glabrous plant, except that the young branches are coated with soft down ; the flowering branches prostrate, 12 or 15 in. long ; the flowers i in. or more in diameter, delicate blue. If planted in the rock-garden, a watchful eye must be Campanula carpatica. kept against snails. A \ariety C. hirsuta is covered with stiff down, and looks almost woolly. Division, cuttings, and seeds. C. garganica {Gars;ano Hairbell). — A compact and tufty plant. The flowers in branching racemes, pale blue, towards the centre shading off to white in summer, thriving in a rock garden or a border ; but, owing to its pendent flowering branches, a good place for it is against a rocky ledge, over which its masses of flowers may hang. Division or by cuttings taken in early spring. C. glomerata {Clustered Bellflower). — A handsome plant about 2 ft. high, the stems terminated by dense clusters of pretty flowers, intense purple. The pure-white form is somewhat rare, and there are various forms and allies. One of the finest of all the Bellflowers. C. grandiflora. See Platycodon. C. isophylla {Liguriatt Hairbell). — A very pretty Italian species ; the lea\es are roundish or heart-shaped, the flowers of a pale but very bright blue, and with whitish centre. A charming ornament for the rock-garden, in sunny positions in well- drained, rather dry fissures, in sandy loam. The variety alba is a beautiful form with white flowers. Seed and cuttings. C. macrantha. — The stems of this handsome plant rise to a height of 5 ft., terminated by clusters of large deep-blue flowers almost as large as Canterbury Bells, but less contracted at the mouth of the tube. It is a free vigorous perennial from Russia, best fitted for naturalisation in woody places. C. macrostyla {Candelabra Bellflower). — A singular plant, having large flowers, with blue netted veins on a white ground which gets purple at the edges, and with a huge stigma, wholly distinct from any of the Campanulas in our gardens, and well deserves culture. It is readily recog- nised by its candelabra habit of growth. A native of Asia Minor, and a fine annual of easy culture. C. Medium {Canterbury Bell). — A familiar old plant having now varieties of various colours bearing single flowers, doubles, in which two, three, and even four bells seem to be compressed into the outer one ; and duplex flowers, in which one bell grows in the other, the two com- bined resembling a cup standing in a saucer. There are many colours, such as white, lavender, mauve, several shades of purple, pink, rose, salmon, and blue. The duplex strains have hitherto been confined chiefly to white and blue, but other colours are now being introduced. The habit of the plants as a rule is compact, when in bloom, ranging from 18 to 24 in. in height, and forming perfect pyramids of flowers. The Calycanthema section usually exhibits a taller and a looser growth, and should be planted in borders behind the double and single kinds. March or April is the best time to sow seed in a warm spot in the open ground, but it is much safer to sow some also in shallow pans or boxes placed in a frame or on a shelf in the greenhouse. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out into some shady spot, and keep them watered until well rooted. From that time they may be safely left to take care of themselves until September, when they should be trans- planted into their permanent places in F F 2 436 CAMPANULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CAMPANULA. the flower borders, where they will get well established before the winter and develop blooming crowns for the next year. C. persicifolia {Peach - leaved Bell- flower). — A beautiful species, the cup- Campanula hirsuta. shaped flowers of which are fully 2 in. across. The plant is i\ to 3 ft. high, flowering in July and August. Besides the double blue and white forms there is an interesting variety named coronata, in which the corolla is doubled. All the varieties well repay good culture, and there is a new and very large form, maxime. Plants occasionally divided and grown in rich beds give very fine crops of flowers. C. Porteiischlagiana( Wall Hair bell)'.— A dense tufted-evergreen species, with small bright-green leaves, irregularly notched, so dense as to obscure the foot-stalks, i in. or more in length, by which they are sup- ported. The flowers pale blue in August or September. _ It spreads slowly by underground stems, and succeeds in crevices of the rock-garden. Dalmatia. C. pulla {Austrian HairbeH).—T\ai,, when well grown, is one of the most chai-m- ing of Hairbells. It is a native of the Austrian Alps, on high mountain pastures ; if planted in the rock-garden, therefore, it should have to itself a shelf of soil in which a little peat and sand have been mixed. After blooming the fohage dis- appears and the plant goes to rest. An excellent rock-garden plant. Division. C. pusilla.— Smaller than C. caspitosa, rarely exceeding 4 in. in height, the shining green leaves heart-shaped and toothed, the flowers pale blue, in racemes, in June and July. Switzerland. Very gritty moist loam in the rock-garden is best for it. Syn. C. modesta. C. pyramidalis {Steeple Bellflower).—'i A vigorous plant, with thick and fleshy flower-stems, rising to a height of 4 to 6 ft., with numerous broad ovate leaves ; the flowers, close to the stem, giving the in- florescence a steeple-like form. The flowers are blue or white ; coming in succession, over a considerable time, in July, August, and September. Though not quite a biennial, it is better in general cultivation to treat it as such, as from seedling plants, well grown on during the first year, the finest stems arise. A border flower of the highest merit in favourable soils ; so important, indeed, that occasional batches oj' seed should be sown to keep up a vigorous supply. It is often grown in pots for the house both in England and France. Campanula pyramidalis. C. Raineri {Rainet's Bellflower). — K dwarf, compact, sturdy plant, varying in height from 3 to 6 in., each branch bearing a large dark-blue flower. It thrives best in sunny positions in loam freely inter- CAMPANULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 437 mingled with pieces of stone, and well watered in dry weather, and is a gem for the rock-garden. Alps of N. Italy. C. rotundifolia {English Hairbell).— In this pretty wild plant we have a true type of the Hairbell. There is a white variety, generally dwarfer, and there are several forms all beautiful, and of easy culture in any soil. These are all ex- cellent border flowers, and also good for the rougher parts of the rock-gai'den, and I love to see the wild plant growing in Grass on rough slopes or places not mown till autumn. C. turbinata {Turban Bellflower) is a dwarf plant with grayish-green leaves, the flowers borne singly on stems about 6 in. long, deep blue, and i^ in. across. Mountains of Transylvania ; a charming plant for border or rock culture. Camptosorus rhizophyllus {Walking Leaf). — A curious N. American Fern, remarkable for its narrow fronds, which taper into slender prolongations, and take root at the tips like runners, giving rise to young plants. Thrives in gritty loamy soil in a somewhat shaded position in the rock-garden or hardy fernery. Canna {Indian Shot). — Handsome tropical plants of the Ginger Order with fine foliage. The tendency of most half-hardy flower-garden plants is to flatness, and the grace of the Cannas makes them valuable, though our country in many parts is too cool for their fair development ; in the warmer south and in sheltered gardens they may be grown with profit. Another good quality is their power of withstanding the storms of autumn. Sheltered situations, places near warm walls, and sheltered dells are the best places for them. As to cul- ture and propagation, nothing can be more simple ; they may be stored in winter under shelves in the houses, in the root- room — in fact, anywhere, if covered up to protect them from frost, in spring pulling the roots in pieces and potting them separately. Afterwards it is usual to bring them on in heat, and finally to harden them off previous to planting out in the middle of May. The soil should be deep, rich, and light. Cannas, pro- tected by a coating of litter, have been left out in Battersea Park through severe winters, and attained a height of nearly 12 ft. ; but this was on raised beds in a very warm and sheltered place. Wherever they are grown as isolated tufts, in small groups, or in small beds, it will be best not to take them up oftener than every second or third year, if the ground be warm and well drained. These noble plants would also adorn the conservatory, which is often as devoid of graceful vegetation as the un- happy flower gardens all over the country. Few subjects would be more effective, and none more easily obtained. Cannas are pretty in pots when grown with a few corms of gladiolus. The flowers of the Gladioli nestle among the foliage of the Cannas, and lend a charm to groups. Large-flowered Cannas. — This is a race of Cannas for which we are mainly indebted to M. Crozy, of Lyons, France, who crossed the Iris-flowered Canna with the older kind. Here, how- ever, they are more valuable for the green- house than the open air. The plants as a rule are dwarfer than the old type of Canna, the newer French varieties rang- ing bet\\'een i| ft. to 4 ft. in height, the leaves of many shades of colour. Campanula turbinata var. In commencing the cultivation of these Cannas, by far the best time to get them is during the winter (say soon after Christmas), when the rhizomes, then in a dormant and well-ripened state, can be sent by post. The list of varieties is now a considerable one, so that a careful selection is absolutely necessary, other- wise some of them will be found to greatly resemble each other, A few of the finer ones are Paul Bert, Louise Chretien, Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, Capri- cieux, Revol Massot, Lutea splendens, Ulrich Brunner, Frangois Crozy, Antonin Crozy, Admiral Courbet, Fdlix Crousse, Francisque Morel, and Antoine Chantin, and there are many others. 438 CANNABIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Cannabis sativa {Hemp Plant).— K well-known annual of the Nettle Order ; largely cultivated for its fibre. In our country it is 4 to 10 ft. high, but in Italy sometimes 20 ft. high. In plants growing singly, the stem is much branched, but in masses it is generally simple. It is useful where the tender sub-tropical plants cannot be easily grown, well-grown plants looking graceful, and are useful at the backs of borders ; and a few look well as a separate group. It should be sown in the open ground Canna iridifiora Ehemanni. early in April, and to get larger plants it would be best to raise it in frames. It loves a warm sandy loam, and is one of the few plants that thrive in small London gardens. Carbenia benedicta {Blessed Thistle). —A handsome biennial, having bold, deep-green leaves, blotched and marbled with silvery white. It is useful for asso- ciating with plants of fine foliage, but must have good deep soil and plenty of space. It grows freely and luxuriantly in a thm shrubbery, or on any bank of rubbish. S. Europe. Syn. Cnicus bene- dictus. Cardamine {Cuckoo-flower or Lady's Smock). — Plants of the Wallflower Order, few of which are cultivated, the best being the native Cuckoo-flower in its double form. This will grow well almost any- where, although, like the wild plant, that colours the meadows with its soft-hued flowers, it delights in swampy ground. The single kind is too common to need cultivation ; the double kind is a pretty subject for the spring garden and for borders. Division. C. trifolia is a pretty species, with white flowers, from Swit- zerland; 9 to 12 in. high ; a border or rough rock-plant. C. latifolia, C. asari- folia, and C. rotundi- folia are pretty dwarf plants when in flower, but not popu- lar in gardens. The Toothworts (syn. Dentarias) are interesting spring- flowering plants. They grow best in a light sandy or peaty soil enriched by de- cayed leaf-mould. Their flowers are welcome in early spring, and remain some time in beauty, and they are easily increased from the small tuber-like roots. Some, like C. bulbifera (Corjl Root), bear bulblets on the stem, and from these the plant may be increased. C. digitata, a hand- some dwarf kind, . , about 12 in. high, flowers in April ; rich purple, in flat racemes at the top of the stem. C. maxima is the largest of the species, being 2 ft. high, with many pale-purple flowers, and is a native of N. America. L.pinnata is a stout species at once dis- tinguished by its pinnate leaves ; it is from 14 to 20 in. high, flowering from April to June, bearing large pale-purple, lilac, or white flowers, in a cluster. It is a native of mountain and sub-alpine woods in Switzerland. Carex (i"^«z>)/). — A bold and handsome annual 2 to 3 ft. high in its wild form in S. Europe and N. Africa, and, in cultivation, breaking;: into a number of forms, few of them so pretty as the single wild flower, pale yellow or buff, treated as a half- hardy annual, and sown in good ground in April or early in May. Chionodoxa sardensis. southern or western aspect, and often in high ground, at least, thriving as a bush. It is fast-growing, the flowers a lovely contrast to the deep rich green foliage. Chrysantliemiun. — Perennial and annual plants, some of which are valu- able for the garden. C. arcticum. — A good plant for the rock-garden about a foot high, flowering all the summer, white tinged with lilac or rose. C. carinatum {Tricolor Chrysanthe- mum). — A showy annual from N. Africa, which varies much in cultivation, and is valuable if only for its yield of flowers for cutting. There are double white and yellow forms ; and the showy ones known as C. Burridgeanum. Dunnett's varieties of the same plant are also good. They C. fnitescens {Paris Daisy, Mar- guerite).— X vigorous half-hardy plant from the Canary Isles ; the foliage glaucous ; the flowers large, pure white, with a yellow centre, and appearing from June until cut down by frost. It is a fine Daisy-like plant, and several forms or allies are also valuable, such as the yellow Etoile d'Or and Comtesse de Cham- bord. These are of easy culture and propagation, being for the outdoor garden, treated as half-hardy plants and put out in May. ^ C. indicum.— This is a native of China and Japan, and from it has originated the numerous varieties of the Chrysan- themum. Although in our country, gener- ally, open air culture will often be im- practicable, nevertheless, the outdoor CHRYSANTHEMUM, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, chrysanthemum. 449 kinds are so pretty tljat it is worth while trying to secure them where the soil and climate are not unfavourable. The following varieties will make a capital display out of doors ; Lady Fitz- wygram, Mdme. C. Desgrange, G. Wermig, Comtesse Fouchier de Careil, Choisya teinata (Mexican Orange-flower) in Devon garden. La Vierge, Gustave Grunerwald, Roi des Pr^cocds, Ryecroft Glory, Vicomtesse d'Avene, Maria, Mrs. Gifford, Montague, Mdme. Eulalie Morel, Florrie Parsons, Strathmeath, Arthur Crepey, Carrie Denny, Mdlle. Rdn^e Cohn, October Yellow. In many well-kept gardens there are open spaces on the walls, and the question is often asked, What can be done to hide them ? The answer is, train Chrysanthemums upon them ; if well nailed in they take up but little room, and afford a pleasing background to the other occupants of the borders. Strong cuttings or suckers, or, what is better still, the old roots or stools that flowered in pots the previous season, planted at the foot of the wall 3 ft. apart early in March, in soil similar to that just recommended, will make remarkably rapid growth, and, if kept neatly nailed in and all the side-shoots removed as they appear, will soon cover a wall of ordinary height. Should it be desirable to protect the Paris Daisy (C. fruteKcens). blossoms from wind and weather it can be effectually done by nailing a 12-in. board on the top of the wall, so as to form a coping. This, supported by a few poles in front, is all that is required, and, if practicable, a canvas covering fastened in front when the nights are cold will generally prove sufficient protection ; with these simple precau- tions the duration of the flowers will be greatly prolonged. The varieties named below are best for wall culture. Many early-flowering Japanese and re- flexed kinds are included, as they are more suitable than the incurved section, the natural form of the petals being less likely to hold water from night dews and rains. H^/zz>.— Eynsford White, Lady Sel- G G 450 CHRYSANTHEMUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, chrysanthemum. borne, Mdlle. Lacroix, Elaine, Fair Maid of Guernsey, Mrs. Forsyth, Felicity, Ava- cup, Mrs. Horril, President Hyde, Phoebus. Blicsh and Rose. — Bouquet Fait, Chrysanthemum Mdme. Desgrange, grown in the lanche. Yellow and Orane:e.—Q..O\vL\-ay, I Princess of Teck, Venus, Maiden's Blush Jardni des Plantes, Sunflower, Butter- | Peach Christine, Christine, Etoile de Lyon' CHRYSANTHEMUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CIMICIFUGA. 451 Annie Clibran, Viviand Morel. Crimson. — E. Molyneux, Cullingfordi, W. Holmes, King of Crimsons, M. Mousillac, M. Henri Jacotot, and Progne. Red and Brown. — Triomphe du Nord, Gloire du Rocher, Val d'Andorre, F^lix Cassagneau, Wm. Robinson, Julie Lagravfere, and Source d'Or. Purple and Amaranth. — Dr. Sharpe, M. Bernard, Alberic Lunden, and Mrs. Nisbet. Pompons. — These are useful for wall covering ; they grow compact and flower freely. The following is a good selection : White.— ScR\.\r Mdlanie, Mdlle. Marthe, La Purete, White Perfection, Snowdrop. Yellow. — Golden Circle, St. Michael, Primrose League, Wilham Westlake, Nelly Dainford. Red and Brown. — Black Douglas, Prince of Orangfe, Tiber, Vulcan, Victorine, Prince Victor, James Forsyth, Fremy, Eleonore. Purple. — President, Comte de Morny, and Pygmalion. Single-flowered Varieties are very use- ful for covering walls. The best are — White. — White Perfection, The Virgin, Exquisite. Yellow. — Yellow Jane, Golden Star, Prince of Yellows, Canariense, and Charming. Blush and Pink. — Florence, Mary Anderson, America, and Crushed Strawberry. Red. — Lady Churchill, Souv. de Londres, Scarlet Gem, David Windsor, and Effie. Summer and Early Autumn Flowering Kinds. — This is an importantclass,furnish- ing a number of varieties that are valuable for cutting from, and they enliven the borders when other hardy flowers are on the wane. But there are many good early autumn flowers, and setting chrysanthe- mums much before their natural season is a practice of doubtful value in the flower-garden. Some are very dwarf and of various shades of colour, and for the open air are of much value. — A. S. C. latifolium is the largest of the Ox-eye Daisies, with fleshy, coarsely serrated, broad leaves. The seeds have large flower-heads, 3 in. to 4 in. across ; a strong growing species requiring plenty of room. Division and seeds. A number of varieties of this and the following species have been raised which have some value as border plants and for cutting. C. maximum is nearly allied to C. pallens, from which it is distinguished chiefly by its involucre and larger flowers. The leaves of C. maximum are bluntly serrated, stems more or less branched, each carrying a single white flower, leaf- less towards the flower-heads, the in- volucre flattish, composed of numerous narrow bracts. Maritime Alps. C. Zawadskii, of tufted habit, bears numerous rose-tinted flowers all through the summer months. — D.K. C. segetum {Corn Marigold). — A showy yellow native plant, as worthy of cultiva- tion as many an exotic, and in certain cases worth growing for cutting. Treat as a hardy annual, preferring autumn sowing. Chrysobactron Hookeri {Anthericum). Chrysurus {Lamarckia). CichoriumIntybus(C^zV£>0;)- — A pretty native plant, from 2 to 5 ft. high, bearing in summer and autumn handsome blue flowers. It is worth introducing as a wild plant into localities where it is not com- Chicory. mon. It is a rampant grower, and will take care of itself under almost any con- ditions. The seed may be sown on rubbish heaps and in stony places, old quarries, and by roadsides. Cimicifuga {Bugbane). — Plants of the Crowfoot Order, nearly allied to the Bane- berry. They are tall herbaceous plants ; one at least is handsome — C. racemosa (Black Snakeroot), 3 to 8 ft. high, with feathery racemes of white blossoms i to 3 ft. long, which, being slender, droop gracefully ; but the plants generally are not of much garden value. They are of easy culture in rich soil, and may be used as groups in the wild garden. The flowers have an offensive odour. Division. N. America and Asia. G G 2 452 CINERARIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CISTUS. Cineraria maritima. See Senecio. Cistus {Rock /eoj^).— The Rock Roses are amongst the most beautiful of flower- ing shrubs, but in our country it is only on the lightest and warmest soils and on walls that they may be trusted to survive Europe; some extend to North Africa and Asia Minor, and one to the Canary Islands, Many of the species vary a good deal in colour, size of leaves, and not a few appear to hybridise freely In spite of the fugacious Chrysanthemum "Cottage Pink.'' our winters. Most of the species have been at one time or another in cultiva- tion in this country, but their value is greatly lessened by the recurring se\ere winters which kill unprotected plants of so many of the kinds. All the species are Old World plants, most of them being natives of South-western character of the flowers (they do not last more than one day), their bright colours and the profusion in which a succession is kept up for a considerable time render the Cistuses amongst the most welcome of garden shrubs during the summer months. They prefer a dry sandy soil, and, although some grow freely THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 45.i enough in almost any garden soil, they are much more likely to suffer during Cimicifuga I'acemosa, winter in rich ground. The positions best for them are sunny banks on warm sandy soil, and something may be done by protection and frequently raising and propagating the plant ; but the question as to whether such labour would not be better bestowed on some family of shrubs quite hardy in our climate, may be worth considering save by those who seek collections in face of all difficulties. There are many natural hybrids, some confusion of names, and many more names than distinct plants, this, and the fact that these sun-loving bushes from the south are tender over a large area of our islands makes us limit the species named here to the more distinct and hardier kinds. Among the more distinct species are : — albidus, corbariensis, crispus, cyprius, kirsutus, ladaniferus, laurifolius, longi- folius, lusitanicus, monspeliensis, parvi- florus, purpureus, salvifolius, Thureti, villosus, with many hybrid forms some of the best of these being C. Florentinus. Cladium Mariscus.— A vigorous native fen plant, 2 to 6 ft. high, in flower crowned with dense, close chestnut-coloured pan- icles, sometimes 3 ft. in length, the leaves glaucous, rigid, and often 4 ft. long. Worthy of a place on the margin of water. Oladrastis tinotoria, the Yellow- wood of N. America, is a pretty lawn tree of medium size and symmetrical growth, but not a good flowering tree. Its leaves, in autumn, turn to a rich yellow, and remain bright for weeks until cut off by frosts. The white pea-shaped flowers are borne in loose clusters. Syn. Virgilia lutca. C, a'murensis, a shrub introduced a few years ago from the Amoor Valley. Its leaves resemble those of the Yellow- wood, but are of thicker texture, not so large, and of a duller green. In late summer it produces a plentiful crop of flowers, even when only a few feet high. The spikes are dense, the blossoms white, and inclined to yellow, and endure a long time. Small bushes flower freely. It is hardy in sandy loams. Leguminosa. Clarkia. — These Californian plants of the Evening Primrose and Fuchsia Order are among the prettiest of hardy annuals, robust, of easy culture, and flower for a long time. There are two species from which the numerous varieties now in cultivation have been obtained. C. dedans grows 3 ft. high, erect, much branched, and bears long leafy racemes of flowers with undivided petals, varying from purple to pale red or a salmon colour. The principal varieties of this species ha\e double flowers, and two — Purple King (deep purple) and Salmon pPI^^H ^i^dNf;'^^!^^^^!^^ iHwEHaflK HntfiHi^1g^'^v''^^^'VW"nH B^^lt^^ltf^''^^!^9r-4CVv^ JKH r^-'TT^-jiPK'^ Ah^JfLdfinTr iK J'''wi ^^f^^ ^^MHIii!ilP^4 lywi^" J r\«' 'i- *-'*'■'' vtIm ^H^tCtL V ^!lkv nt^K-'^^'^'^KH'^Nn ^^■nifitj^firoj F^^fci/^^mHlvU^H ■r i-jP^ljpWMtffilSflSHlfl HIBHHhI Cistus florentinus. Queen (salmon-pink) — have flowers pro- duced freely on strong branching plants, and are very effective border flowers. The other species, C. pulchella, vanes in height from about i ft. in the Tom Thumb sorts to 2 ft. It has magenta flowers 454 CLAVTONIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. normally, but there is every variation between deep purple and pure white, and there are also several double-flowered forms. iMany varieties are mentioned in seed lists, most of which are distinct from each other, and well worth growing where annuals are much grown. Culture. — Their growth is much affected by the nature of the soil. Like all other hardy annuals, they may be sown either in autumn or spring, and by sowing in the beginning of September the seedlings gain strength before the winter, and flower well in early spring, but these autumn sowings are liable to accident, and should only be tried on warm soils. The pink flowers, requires a damp peaty soil like an artificial bog. Clematis {Virgin's Bower.) — Beautiful climbing shrubs and herbs from northern and temperate regions and of the highest value for gardens. Among hardy climbers there is no group of plants that equals the Clematis in variety and number, or perhaps in beauty. The Clematis vary in habit from her- baceous plants little more than i ft. high to woody climbers with stems 50 ft. or more in length. Most of the climbing species support themselves by means of the leaf-stalks, which curl round twigs or other slender objects near. The Clematis Cistus formosus. first spring sowing should take place in the middle of March, when the plants would flower in July. Until about the middle of June other sowings may be made for flowering later. The best soil is ordinary garden mould, not too rich or dry.— G. Claytonia.— A small group of the Pur- slane Order, of which three species are pretty garden plants. C. caro- hniana is a spreading dwarf species bear- ing in spring loose racemes of pretty rose flowers, and C. virginica (Spring Beauty) IS a slender erect plant, with pink blossoms. Both are suitable for warm spots m the rock-garden in loamy soil, but C. sibirica, also a dwarf species with flo^yer possesses no true petals, but in tneir place a coloured calyx consisting of usually four, but sometimes as many as eight sepals. ' The Clematis like an open loamy soil, which should always be fairly rich, and in the case of the largest-flowered kinds even very rich in Negetable humus and feitihsing material. All of them appear to succeed best in a chalky soil, and in fis w"J>"/''"''^"r '^•^"°'d °f '^l^alk or lime n^ u^ '^PPjy "• ^" '-^"""al mulch- ing with rotted manure given about so^r t ch r ' '^"^'*' -P«--"y ontoor sou. buch pruning as may be necessarv for these wild types should be done in THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CLEMATIS. 455 February. The stronger growers stand pruning well, and if they grow up their supports too high and form a thick heavy tangle at the top, they may safely be cut hard back. The weaker ones rarely need pruning at all. The Clematises maybe used to cover walls, mounds, ar- bours, pergolas and fences, and in the an inch to three-quarters of an inch long, bell-shaped or tubular, the sepals yellow- ish white. Like most of the Clematis, this varies a good deal in shape of leaf, and one form has been considered dis- tinct enough to receive the name of latisecta. C. alpina {Alpine Clematis).— P^ very Cistus ladaniferus. open, where no other support is available, rough Oak branches may be used for them, either singly or several set together to form a pyramid, while the more vigorous species will run over trees. C. aethusifolia.— A graceful climber, with slender stems and branches. The flowers have not bright colour, but are gracefully borne and pendulous, from half pretty plant flowering in spring. The flowers are nodding, the four large sepals being soft blue with a whitish margin, or sometimes almost entirely white. The flower is 2 ins. or more across. Syn., Atragene austriaca. C. apiifolia. — A vigorous climber with ternate leaves, growing 10 ft. high, flower- ing in August and September in panicles 4S6 CLEMATIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CLEMATIS. dull white. Japan and China. Closely allied to this is C. brevicaudata. C. aromatica is closely allied to C. Viticella, and if it be a hybrid, as it is supposed to be, that species must be one of the parents. It is a slender plant, 6 or 7 ft. high. The solitary flowers are about 2 ins. in diameter, and of a rich purplish blue, and have a sweet, delicate, and slightly aromatic odour. C. campaniflora {Bell-flowered C.) — This has rather small bell-shaped flowers each about i in. in diameter, with the pointed tips of the sepals recurved. Pale violet or almost white. The plant 10 to 1 5 ft. high. The flowers are very freely Clarkia alba. borne, and against the deep green, often finely-divided foliage they are very effective. 0. calycina {Winter flowering C.) {C. balearica of Richard). — A native of Minorca aad Corsica, evergreen with dark brown angled stems, and during the winter the foliage acquires a fine bronzy hue. The flower is about 2 in. across, yellowish white, stained inside with ob- long, irregular, reddish-purple spots. December to April. In the London dis- trict it ought to have the shelter of a wall to flower well. From its near ally, the following species, it differs in its narrower and more divided foliage. C. cirrhosa {Evergreen C.) {C. balearica of Persoon). This evergreen species has been much confused with. C. calycina C. cirrhosa., however, if it comes from the Balearic Islands at all, is not confined to them, but is a native also of various parts of Spain, and is found also in Algiers and on the mountains of N. Africa. The flowers are dull white or cream coloured, downy outside, smooth within, and about 1^ in. in diameter. In South Europe it chmbs over big trees, but it grows only some 8 or 10 ft. high in these colder latitudes. C. coccinea {Scarlet C.)—A distinct and beautiful species. Its stems grow some 6 to 10 ft. high, and as a rule in this country die back to the ground in winter. It is a native of Texas, the flowers vary in colour from rosy carmine to scarlet ; they are swollen at the base, but narrow towards the top, where, how- ever, the tips of the four sepals are re- curved. These sepals are very thick and somewhat leathery and over an inch long. A larger-flowered variety is known as major, and various hybrids have been raised by crossing this and other species. C. connata. — This species is found on the Himalayas. It is a climber with stout woody stems with leaflets 3 to 5 in. long, coarsely toothed, or sometimes more or less three-lobed. The bell- shaped flowers appear during autumn and are of a clear light yellow, pointed tips re- curved. C. crispa {Frilled C.) — This name applies to a number of plants alike in all essential characters, but differing in the shape of the leaves and in the size and colour of the flower. The leaf consists of three, five, or more leaflets, which vary in outline. The calyx is cylindrical or bell- shaped, and from i to 2 in. long, the upper part of each sepal spreading. The colour is purple margined with white, or in some forms pale lilac. The flowers are fragrant and appear in June, continuing up to autumn. Some of the forms are bright in colour and pretty, but others are amongst the least effective of the shrubby Clematis, the thick, heavy sepals being of a dull purple (N. America). C. iiom.'giz&i {Douglass C.)— A Rocky Mountain species discovered by David Douglas, and at present scarcely known in English gardens. The flower is bell-shaped, I inch long, the sepals being recurved at the tips and of an intense purple inside, paler without. C. ^'XWaixiS3a{Fragrant Virgiris Bower"). — A vigorous grower, its leaves are of a rich dark green and remain fresh till well into the winter. The flowers are small (half-inch to three-quarters of an inch across) and appear in late summer and autumn fragrant, creamy-white, THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CLEMATIS. 457 the fruit white and feathery. This is a variable species, in the size and shape of the leaflets and in the flower panicles, some of which are large and with numerous blossoms, whilst in other forms the panicles are few-flowered and scarcely branched. C. florida. — A distinct species, grows 9 to 1 2 ft. high, the flowers 2 to 4 in. across, flat when fully expanded, sepals of a creamy white and the tuft of stamens purple. There is a double-flowered vari- ety and others with \iolet or blush-tinted flowers (Japan). C. Fremonti. — This has herbaceous stems I to 2 ft. high, rarely branched, and carry numerous leathery leaves, 3 or 4 in. long, without stalks ; the purple flowers drooping with recurved tips. The tails of the fruits are downy when young rather than feathery (N. .America). C. fusca. — A sub-shrubby or nearly herbaceous species, with prostrate rather than climbing stems. When given sup- port, however, it grows 6 to 8 ft. high. The bell-shaped flowers are covered with a short, very thick, brown wool, the sepals being a reddish brown colour. The fruit forms a thick globular head, i in. across, of plumose tails (N. Asia). C. Hendersoni {Henderson's Vitgin's Bower). — This is considered to be a hybrid between C. Viticclla and C. intei^ri- folia, and was raised in 1835 by Mr. Henderson, at Pine-apple Place, St. John's Wood. The plant grows to a height of 8 or 10 ft. The flowers, which have a faint sweet perfume, are o\er 2 in. across and of a deep bluish purple, and appear from June to September. C. Heracleaefolia {David's Virgin's Bower).— A dwarf, sturdy plant under 2 ft. high, \\\\h large leaves and short-stalked corymbs of flowers of a Hyacinth-like shape and of a purplish blue colour. Much supe- rior to it as a garden plant is the variety Davidiana, which often ranks as a species. Its stems are about 4 ft. long, but are rarely strong enough to stand erect without support. The largest leaflets often measure 6 in. in length by nearly as much in width, and are thus the largest of any of the cultivated Clematises. The bright lavender blue flowers are in dense heads, borne on long stalks in early autumn, but they also frequently appear in short, closely packed clusters right in the axils of the leaves. Each flower is three-quarters of an inch long, the points of the sepals reflexed and resembling a Hyacinth blossom (N. China). C. integrifolia. — Herbaceous, 2 to 3 ft. high, its erect stems furnished with leaves 2 to 4 in. long and stalkless, or nearly so. The blue, drooping flowers are on the top of the stem and from the axils of the uppermost leaves from June to August. (Europe). C. lanuginosa {Great flowered Virgin! s Boi<.'t'r). — A noble Chinese species 5 or 6 ft. high, the leaves covered beneath with greyish wool, the flowers the largest of any of the wild kinds 6 in. across and the sepals flat and overlapping and of a pale lavender colour. It is to this species more than to any other that the beauty of the garden hybrids of Clematis are Clem. America, inermis, Abyssinia. Leichhardti, Australia. Metel, tropical countries, jiieieloides, W. America, microcarpa. nigra, Malaya. j)r^ Ki ^^■2?^^^ ^v^^ [yAiBM*s^fc^'''^fe. .-sJ i^*^^-^* * *^iHiliH m^^^m ^,:.,, •.'^■^PJ»^? ' %X^l'^^BIS^i "''''^''^ fJ^P p:':^^::'^^^^ :.. .; life/ Redbraes Picotee. the root is attacked by disease, the shoots may be taken off' as follows : Take the shoot just above the fourth or fifth joint from the top, and with a sharp pull draw it out from the socket formed by the next joint, which it will pull away with it. Just through the joint make a little upward slit in the cutting, and thrust it firmly into a pot filled to within i in. of the top with the compost described, and the rest with silver sand. Water the pot and plunge it in fibre under a hand-light for three or week in July, and finished by the second week in August. It is performed as follows : Scrape away the earth round the plant to the depth of 2 in., and substitute for the earth removed the compost pre- scribed. Strip each shoot up to the top three or four joints, going all round the plant before proceeding farther. Then with a fine sharp knife cut half through a shoot, just below a joint, make a slant- ing cut up through the joint, and bring the knife out just above it ; take a peg K K 498 DIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DIANTHUS. with a hook in it, and thrust it into the fresh compost just above the tongue, so that as the peg comes down it will catch the tongue and peg it into the earth. Cover it with a little more compost placed firmly. Proceed thus all round the plant, finally watering carefully with a fine rose water- pot to settle the soil around the layers. In about a month the layers will be rooted, and by the second week in October all the young plants ought to be in their winter quarters. Several Diseases affect Carnations. Two of the worst- are fungoid growths. One of these is a fungus which grows between the membranes of the leafi and the only method of destroying it is to pick off and burn every infected leaf It appears at first as a small blister which bursts, scattering its spores and leaving a dark-brown scar. A more familiar disease is that known as spot; a damp atmosphere or overcrowding of the plants being the causes. 1 1 spreads rapidly, but some kinds enjoy a complete immunity from it. Dusting the plants two or three times with a mixture of soot and sulphur has been found effectual. The gout is a swelling of the stem close to the surface of the ground, which eventually bursts, supposed to be caused by little worms which eat their way into the collar of the plant and lay eggs there which hatch worms that feed upon and eventually kill the plant. The Maggot is a small insect with great powers for mischief It comes in the spring from an ^^% laid no doubt in the skin or tissues of the leaf, apd, eating its way down under the skiii of the leaf, it makes a home in the main stem of the plant, eating out the centre and killing it. The only remedy appears to be diligently searching for and hunting it out before it has traversed the leaf. Wire-worm is a pest to be reckoned with, but usually only gives trouble in fresh soil. Spittle fly, which appears when the flower-spikes are growing, must be destroyed, or it will do serious harm. An open situation and a well-drained soil are conditions un- favourable to the spot diseases, whilst rotation in planting ke'eps the stock free from the worm pests and maggots. D. csesius {Cheddar Pink).— One of the neatest and prettiest of the dwarf Pinks, the fragrant and rosy flowers appearing in spring, on stems 6 in. high, and in good soil sometimes taller. This Pink requires peculiar treatment, as in winter it perishes in the ordinary border, while quite happy on an old wall. It is a native of Europe and Britain (the rocks at Cheddar, in Somersetshire). To establish it on the top or any part of an old wall sow the seeds on the wall in a little cushion of Moss, if such exists, or, if not, place a little earth in a chink with the seed, and it may also be grown upon the rock-garden, in firm, calcareous, or gritty earth, placed in a chink between two small rocks. D. deltoides {Maiden Pink). — A pretty native plant, with bright pink-spotted or white flowers, on stems from 6 to 1 2 in. long. It grows almost anywhere, in borders or on rockwork, does not appear to suffer from wire-worm, like most other Pinks, and often flowers several times during the summer. It may be readily raised from seed, and is easily increased by division. The variety glauca has white flowers with a pink eye. It is abundant on Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh,, and forms a charming contrast to the crimson kind. D. dentosus {Amoor Pink).—K distinct and pretty dwarf Pink, with violet-lilac flowers, more than i in. across, the margins toothed, and the base of each petal having a regular dark-violet spot, which forms a dark "eye" nearly ^ in. across in the centre of the flower. The plant flowers from May or June till autumn, and thrives in sandy soil, in borders, or on rockwork ; seed. South Russia. p. negleotus {Glacier Pink). — A brilliant alpine plant, forming, very close to the ground, tufts like short wiry grass, from which spring many flowers, i in. across, and of bright rose. It grows freely in very sandy loam, either in pots or on the rock-garden, rooting into the sand through the bottom of the pots as freely as any weed, is hardy, easily grown, increased by division and seed. Alps and Pyrenees. Syn., D. glacialis. D. petrseus {Rock Pink).— A charming Pink, forming hard tufts, i or 2 in. high, from which spring numerous flower-stems, each bearing a fine rose-coloured flower. It seems to escape the attacks of wire- worm. It flowers in summer, and should be planted on the rock-garden in sandy and rather poor moist loam, Hungary ; seed or division. p. plumarius {The Common Pink).— This is the parent of our numerous varieties of Pinks, and has single purple flowers, rather deeply cut at the margin, and IS naturalised on old walls in various parts of England. The wild plant is rather handsome when grown in healthy tufts, but on the level ground it is apt to perish. The many fragrant double varieties are welcome everywhere, and should be cultivated as rock or bank DIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DIANTHUS. 499 plants, as they live longer and thrive better when raised above the general level of the ground, though they grow well in ordinary soil. They have for many years been amongst the favourite " florists' " flowers in European countries, and are hardier and dwarfer than the Carnation. In August, Pinks should be planted 9 in. apart, the ground being rich and well prepared. If the winter be very severe, a little litter should be put over them, and in spring the surface of the beds should be stirred a little, and given a top-dressing of fine old manure and a as the plants begin to grow, the bed should be mulched about i in. deep with equal quantities of well-rotted horse manure and leaf-mould. The plants will then fast push on their new growth. Increasing Stock.— If the plants have made good growth in July, cut the strongest shoots with a sharp knife, cut off the ends of the grass, and cut the shoot two or three joints below the grass or leaves. Prepare some ground as follows : Scatter a little salt on the surface, then riddle on 2 in. deep of fresh soil, prick in the pipings, and put a light or Dianthus neglectus (Glacier Pink). slight dusting of guano. As they push up their flower-spikes these should be staked, and if they are for exhibition the buds should be thinned, as many varieties produce buds too freely. The culture of Pinks, however, either for exhibition or for the garden, is simple, and the outlay small. Get newly struck pipings in August and September — the best months to plant them in a sunny place. In a smoky town a cold frame will be needed ; but if the air be clear, an open bed will do. When the pipings are once planted in the open garden, they require little care till they begin to push up their flower-stems. Spring planting should be commenced as early as the weather permits, and, as soon hand-glass over them ; and they will be rooted in a few weeks. Where seed is wanted, protect the flowers from wet, and as they decay re- move the withered petals, which en- courage damp and form a harbour for insects. Seed should be saved only from the finest and most constant varieties of vigorous and hardy growth, and may be sown early in June in pots, or in the open ground. Garden or Border Pinks. — The show Pinks may be left to the exhibitor. There are certain kinds both old and new which must be taken care of by the " general lover " of flowers. These are the hardier border kinds, grown for their K K 2 Soo DIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DICENTRA. beauty and fragrance. As in the case of the hardier Carnations, we must en- courage these. Some of the best of the hardier kinds are — Anne Boleyn, Ascot (soft pink), Fimbriatus major, Fragrans (pure), George White, Hercules, Lady Blanche, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Pettifer, Mrs. Sinkins (Mule Pink), Marie Pard (Mule Pink), Napoleon III., Multiflorus, New- market, Pluto, Purity, Robustus, Rubens, Thalia, White Queen, Wm. Bruce, High Cldre, Multiflorus flore-pleno, Multiflorus roseus, Striatiflorus, Speciosus fl.-pl., Coc- cineus. Early Blush, Fimbriatus albus (old white). Lord Lyons, Miss Joliffe, Nellie, White Perpetual, the Clove Pink, Her Majesty. Dwarf single and double Pinks. — Messrs. Dicksons, of Edinburgh, have raised some dwarf profuse blooming Pinks so compact in habit and stiff in stem that they do without stakes. Most Pinks are better without stakes, especially when their foliage is healthy, and is in such wide tufts as to shield the flowers from splashed earth ; but these new dwarf sorts may be compact enough for the rock-garden. Mr. J. Grieve, who raised them, says : " Both the single and the dwarf double varieties will prove quite a boon to the flower-gardener and for bouquets. To the ordinary eye all florists' Pinks consist of but one variety ; whereas amongst the single and dwarf sorts there are endless colours, and many of the flowers are so varied in colour as to render them easily mistaken for other plants. Numbers of the single sorts look like miniature Petunias." Carnea Beauty, Delicata, Rosea, Spicata, and Odorata are among the best of these new dwarf Pinks, and the class will no doubt be added to. D. sinensis {Chinese Pmi).— This has given rise to a race of beautiful garden flowers. It is an annual, or biennial, ac- cording to the way it is sown and grown. If sown early, the plants will flower the first year ; if late, the second. On dry soils, and if the winters be mild, they will live for two or three years. The varieties, both single and double, are now very numerous and beautiful, and may be classed under D. Heddewigi and D. laciniatus. The forms of Heddewigi, the Japanese variety, are dwarf and handsome, while there are double-flowered forms, particularly diadematus, the flowers of which are large and very double. The petals of the laciniated section are very deeply cut into a fine fringe. Of this class there are also double-flowered forms. The colours of both are much varied, and there are striped crimson and white sorts. There is a pretty dwarf class (nanus), about 6 in. high, but it is less useful than the taller varieties for cutting from. Two beautiful and distinct selected sorts. Crimson Belle and Eastern Queen, are among the best varieties. Sow D. sinensis under glass in February, with very little or no bottom-heat ; give air freely during open weather, and in April plant out in well-cultivated soil, which need not be rich. Place the plants 9 in. to 12 in. apart each way, and they will form compact tufts. Encourage the laterals by pinching off decayed flowers, and the result will be a mass of blossom through- out the summer, and probably till November. Some sow in autumn, and winter the young plants in frames or under hand-glasses, — hardening them off by degrees in spring, until they have become fully established. These Pinks are ad- mirable for the flower garden, either in beds by themselves, or mixed ; they may be well used with taller plants of a different character dotted sparsely among them. D. superbus {Fringed Pink). — A fragrant wild pink, easily known by its petals being cut into strips for more than half their length. It inhabits many parts of Europe from Norway to the Pyrenees, and is a true perennial, though it perishes so often in gardens that many regard it as a biennial. It is more likely to perish in winter on rich and moist soil than on poor and light soil, and, when it is desired to establish it as a perennial, it should be planted in fibry loam, well mixed with sand or grit. It grows, however, on nearly any soil ; and, by raising it every year from seed, an abundant stock may be kept up even where the plant perishes in winter. It comes true from seed, and is often more than i ft. high ; flowering in summer or in early autumn, and is better suited for mixed beds and borders than for the rock-garden. Biapensia lapponica. — A sturdy and d\yarf evergreen alpine shrub, often under 2 in. in height, growing in dense rounded tufts, having narrow closely packed leaves, and bearing in summer solitary white flowers, about half an inch across. It may be grown well on fully exposed spots on the rock-garden, in deep sandy and stony peat which is kept well moistened during the warm season. It is a native of N. Europe and N. America, being found on high mountains or in arctic latitudes. Dicentra {Bleeding j%ar/).— Graceful plants of the Fumitory Order, including DICENTRA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 501 about half a dozen cultivated species, of which the finest are — D. chrysantha.— This handsome plant forms a spreading tuft of rigid glaucous foliage, from which arises a stiff leafy stem, 3 to 4 ft. high, with long branching panicles of bright golden-yellow blossoms, about I in. long in August and September ; it seems hardy in light rich soil if warm and sheltered. Seed. California. D. CucuUaria {Dutchman' s-breeches) and D. thalictrifolia are less important, and rather belong to the curious garden. D. e^dmia combines a Fern-like grace with the flowering qualities of a good hardy perennial. From i to i J ft. high, with numerous reddish-purple blossoms in long drooping racemes. It is useful for the rock-garden and the mixed border, or for naturalising by woodland walks ; thriving in rich sandy soil. Division. N. America. D. formosa is similar to the preceding, having also Fern-like foliage, but is dwarfer in growth, its racemes shorter and more crowded, and its flowers lighter. Suitable for same positions as D. eximia. California. D. spectabilis.— A beautiful plant, too well known to need description, as nearly every garden is adorned with its singular flowers, which resemble rosy hearts, and, in strings of a dozen or more, are grace- fully borne on slender stalks. It succeeds best in warm, light, rich soils, if in sheltered positions, being liable to be cut down by late spring frosts. It is moreover suited for the mixed border, but is of such remarkable beauty and grace that it may be used with the best effect near the lower flanks of rockwork, in bushy places near it, or on low parts where the stone or " rock " is suggested rather than shown. It is worthy of naturalisation on light rich soils by wood walks. It is also excellent for mixed borders, and for snug corners on the fringes of choice shrubs in peat, as such soil suits it well. There is a " white " variety, which is by no means so ornamental, though worth growing for variety's sake. Propagated by division in autumn. The species are D. canadensis, N. Amer. chrysantha, Calif. CucuUaria, N. Amer. eximia, do. formosa, do. lachenalicEjlora, Siberia, ochroletica, Calif, paucifiora, Calif. pusilla, Japan. Roylei, Mts. of India, scan- dens, do. spectabilis, Japan, thalictrifolia, Mts. of India, torulosa, do. uniflora, N. America. Dicksonia antaretica. — A noble ever- green Tree Fern, with a stout trunk, 30 ft. high or more, the fronds forming a mag- nificent crown, often 20 to 30 ft. across. They are from 6 to 20 ft. long, becoming pendulous with age. It is the hardiest of Tree Ferns, and the most suitable for the open air, in sheltered shady dells. From the end of May to October. In favourable localities it may even be left out all the winter. Dictamnus Fraxinella {Fraxinelld). — A favourite old plant, about 2 ft. high, forming dense tufts, flowers pale purple, and with darker lines (there is a white form) borne in I'acemes in June and July. This plant does best in a light soil. It is propagated by seeds sown as soon as they are ripe, or by its fleshy roots, which, if cut into pieces, in spring, will form good Dictamnus Fraxinella. plants much quicker than seedlings. It is a slow-growing plant in most gardens, though it is freer in some warm soils, and a very long-lived plant where it likes the soil. It is at home in the sunny mixed border among medium-sized plants. Caucasian Mountains. Didiscus ccBruleus. — A native of New Holland, and from I to 2 ft. high. Its stems are erect and much branched, each branch terminating in a flat umbel of small flowers, of a pleasing clear blue colour, which are borne freely from August to October. It is a half-hardy annual, and requires rather careful treat- ment, as it is impatient of excessive moisture, especially in the early stages of 502 DIELYTRA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DIPHYLLBIA. its growth. It requires to be raised in a gentle hotbed, and the seedhngs should be transplanted in May to a warm friable soil, in which they will flower freely. Those who seek distinct and novel effects might use this plant, as its pretty blue flowers are uncommon in the Parsley Order, which usually has pale flowers. A little bed or groundwork would be charm- ing if only as a change. Syn., Trachymene' coerulea. Dielytra {Dicenira).—A name erron- eously given to Dicentra. Diervilla (see Weigela). Digitalis {Foxglove). — The most im- portant plant of this genus is our native Foxglove, and the handsomest of the several species in cultivation. The best of the exotics is D. grandiflora, a tall slender plant, bearing large bell-shaped yellow blossoms in long racemes. The other kinds are D. ferruginea, aurea, eriostachys, fulva, laevigata, lanata, lutea, ochroleuca, parviflora, Thapsi, tomentosa, but these are suited mainly for botanical collections. D. purpurea {Foxglove). — Wild Fox- gloves seldom differ in colour, but culti- vated ones assume a variety of colours, including white, cream, rose, red, deep red, and other shades. The charm of these varieties, however, lies in their pretty throat-markings— spots and blotchings of deep purple and maroon, which make large flowers resemble those of a Gloxinia ; hence the name gloxiniaeflora is applied to some finely-spotted kinds. The garden plants make grand border flowers ; they are more robust than the wild plant, and have stouter stems and larger flowers. If associated with other tall plants, they look well as a background to mixed borders ; and the improved varieties have a fine effect in the wild garden if planted or sown in bold masses. They are good, too, among Rhododendrons, where these bushes are not too thick, and they charm- ingly break the masses of foliage. The seed is small, and is best sown in pans or boxes, under glass, early in May. When the young plants are well up they should be placed out of doors to get thoroughly hardened before being finally planted out. In shrubbery borders varied clumps of several plants produce a finer effect than when set singly. The Foxglove fre- quently blooms two years in succession ; but it is always well to sow a little seed annually ; and if there be any to spare, it may be scattered in woods or copses where it is desired to establish the plants. Those who do not require seed should cut out the centre spike as soon as it gets shabby, and the side shoots will be con- siderably benefited, especially if a good supply of water be given in dry weather. In a good variety a side shoot will supply an abundance of seed. — D. The species are -.—D. ambigua, W. Asia. atlantica, Algeria, ciliata, Caucas. cochin- chinensis, Cochinch. dubia, Balearics. erio- stachya. Jerruginea, S. Europe. Fontanesii. gloxinioides. laciniata, Spain. lizvigata, Danube and Greece, lanata, do. leucophma, Greece. longibracteala, Austria. lutea, _S. Europe, lutescens, France, mariana, Spain. minor, Spain. nervosa, Persia. obscura, Spain, orieuialis. As. Min. parviflora, S. Europe, purpurascens, Europe, purpurea, do. sibirica, Siberia. Thapsi, Spain, viridi- flora, Greece. DigrapMs {Ribbon Grass). — Grasses, of which the Ribbon Grass (D. arundinacea variegata) is the most familiar. Being hardy and perennial, it is valuable for good effect in the flower garden. It should be treated liberally, and renewed by young plants every other year. If it be not desired in the flower garden proper, a few tufts by a back shrubbery will suffice. It grows anywhere. Dimorphanthus mandscliuricus (see Aralia). Dimorphotlieca pluvialis {Cape Mari- gold). — A hardy annual from the Cape, 1 8 in. to 2 ft. high ; with flowers, white and purplish-violet beneath, expanding in fine weather. Plants from spring-sown seed flower from July to September. It is a bold free annual thriving in any good soil and an effective ground plant with the larger flower-garden subjects ; alone, how- ever, it is well worth growing. Compositas. Dioscorea ( Yam). — Climbing plants with inconspicuous flowers, but with elegant leaves and growth which make them suitable for covering trellises and bowers, D. Batatas, D. villosa, and D. japonica are the species in cultivation ; and all of these grow in good garden soil. They may occasionally find a place in the curious garden, but we have so many climbers with fair flowers and good foliage, that there is scarcely room for the yams in the select garden. Diotis maritima {Sea Cotton-weed).— A dwarf cottony herb suitable for the rock-garden, and sometimes employed in the flower-garden as an edging plant. It is apt to grow rather straggling, and to prevent this it is kept neatly pegged down and cut in well. It should have deep sandy soil. Increased by cuttings, as it seldoms seeds in gardens. Native of our southern shores. Diphylleia cymosa {Umbrella-leaf). — An interesting perennial of the Barberry DIPLOPAPPUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DORONICUM. 503 family, about i-^ ft. high, with pairs of large umbrella-like leaves, and in summer loose clusters of white flowers, succeeded by bluish-black berries. A native of N. America, on the borders of rivulets and on mountains, it thrives in the moister spots of peat borders and fringes of beds of American plants. Hitherto only seen in single weak specimens, this plant, if more plentiful, might be made good use of in a choice garden of American plants and flowers. Division. Diplopappus (see Aster). Dipsacus {Teaser). — Coarse - growing plants, annual or biennial, striking in form, in woods and hedgerows, where their fine foliage and habit have a good effect. There are three native species, D. FuUonum, pilosus, and sylvestrls ; the boldest kind is D. laciniatus, a European species growing 5 to 8 ft. high, with large deeply-cut foliage. The seed may be sown in woody places and by freshly broken hedge-banks, where the plants will often perpetuate themselves. Dodecatheon {American Cowslip). — Beautiful plants, of the Primrose family, perennials from N. America, where they are called Shooting Stars. They are all hardy, requiring a cool situation and light loamy soil. The nature of the soil is, however, of small importance, as they grow almost as freely in peat or leaf-mould as in loam ; situation is the principal point. In borders where Primulas and Soldanellas thrive, Dodecatheons will soon establish themselves. All the kinds grow freely in sandy loam, and soon form large tufts, which should be divided every third or fourth year. The best time for trans- planting them is the end of January or the beginning of February, when the roots are becoming active ; but care must be taken not to divide them into pieces too small, for fear of losing the plants while they are in a weakly condition. All may be easily raised froni seed. D. integrifolium, — A lovely flower ; the petals have a white base, and spring from a yellow and dark orange cup, the flowers deep rosy crimson, on stems from 4 to 6 in. high, in March. It is a native of the Rocky Mountains, and a choice plant for the rock-garden, if planted in sandy peat or sandy loam with leaf-mould. It is easily grown in pots placed in the open air in some sheltered and half-shady spot during summer, and kept in shallow cold frames during winter. Strong well-established plants produce abundance of seed, which should be sown soon after it is gathered. Careful division. D. Jeffreyanum. — A stout kind, more than 2 ft. high in good soil, with larger and thicker leaves than D. Meadia, red- dish midribs strong and conspicuous, and the flower somewhat larger and darker. D. Jeffreyanum is a hardy and distinct plant, thriving in light, rich, and deep loam m a warm and sheltered spot, where its great leaves are not broken by high winds. D. Meadia {American Cowslip),a.gra.ct- ful plant and a favourite among old border flowers, its slender stems from 10 to 16 in. high, bearing umbels of elegantly droop- ing flowers, the purplish petals springing up vertically from the pointed centre of the flowers, something like those of the greenhouse Cyclamen. It loves a rich light loam, and is one of the most suitable plants forthe rock-garden, for choice mixed borders, or for the fringes of beds of Ameri- can plants. In many deep light loams it thrives without any preparation, but where a place is prepared for it, it is best to add plenty of leaf-mould and plant in a some- what shaded and' sheltered position,though it often thrives in exposed borders. It is best increased by division when the plants die down in autumn ; but if seed is sown, it should be sown soon after it is gathered. There are numbers of pretty and distinct varieties, differing more or less in height of plant and size and colour of flower. Among the best are D. giganteum, elegans, albiflorum, and violaceum. D. californi- cum, though sometimes thought a species, is probably only a variety of D. Meadia. It is, however, a distinct and pretty plant, and worth growing. Dolmisea macrocephala (see Jurinea). Dondia Epipactis. — A singular and pretty little herb, 3 to 6 in. high, with small heads of greenish -yellow flowers in spring, and suitable for the rock-garden, margins of borders, or banks ; increased by division after flowering. Carinthia and Carniola. Syn., Hacquetia Epipactis. Doronicum {Leopard's Bane).— Showy plants of the order Composite, of which half-a-dozen species are in gardens, all of vigorous growth, flowering in spring, and thrive in any soil ; they are therefore excel- lent for rough places, for naturalising, or for dry banks, where little else will thrive. All are readily increased by division of the roots. They range in height from 9 to 12 in., and have large, bright yellow Daisy- like flowers. The best species, are D. austriacum and caucasicum, both of which are neater than the rest and produce in early spring a profusion of blossoms that enliven the borders besides being useful for cutting. The other kinds are D. Clusi, carpetanum, Columnae, Pardalianches, and plantagineum, all natives of Europe. D. 504 DOWNINGIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DRIMVS. plantagineum var. excelsum {syn., Harpur Crewe) is by far the best.— D. Doronicum plantaginetun excelsum. The species are : D. altaicum, Siberia. austriacum, Europe. Bourgaei, Canaries. cacaliafolium, As. Minor, carpetanum , Spain. caucasicum. As. Minor. Clusii, Pyrenees. Columnae, S. Europe and As. Min. corsicum, Corsica, croaticum, S. Europe, dentatum. Fakoneri, Spain, glaciah, do. grandiflorum, Europe, hirsutuin, do. hungaricum, S.E. Europe. macrophyllum, Caucas., Persia. maximttm, Armenia, oblongifolium, Caucas. Orphanidis, Greece. PardaJiatuhes, Europe. plantagineum, Europe. Roylei, Mts. of India. scorpioides, Europe. stenoglossum, China. Thirkei, Bithynia. Downingia. — Charming little Califom- ian half-hardy annuals, generally known as Clintonia. There are two species, D. pulchella and elegans, similar to each other, resembling the dwarf annual Lobelias in habit, but more brilliant in colour. D. pulchella is of dwarf habit, rarely exceeding 6 in. in height, and is suitable for edging small beds or borders, as when covered with its bright blue flowers it is very pretty. In March and April the seed should be sown in the open ground in a free soil and an open situation, but, if the plants are intended for pot culture, the sowing should be two months earlier. Each plant should be allowed quite 8 in. for development, and in hot weather those from the latest sowing should be well watered. The flowers of the several varieties of D. pulchella differ in colour, the best variety being alba (white;, rubra (red), and atropurpurea (dark ^"Sraba {Whitlow Grajj).— Minute alpine plants, most of them having bright yellow or white flowers, and leaves often in neat rosettes. They are too dwarf to- take care of themselves among plants, much bigger than Mosses, and therefore there are few positions suitable for them ; but it would be very interesting to try them on mossy walls, ruins, or bits of mountain ground with sparse vegetation. The best-known and showiest is D. aizoides, found on old walls and rocks in the west of England. It forms a dwarf, spreading, cushion-like tuft, which, in spring, is covered with bright yellow blossoms.. D. Aizoon, alpina, ciharis, cuspi- data, lapponica, rupestris, frigida, and helvetica are very dwarf, compact-growing plants. In each the small flowers, white or yellow, are produced abundantly. Rarer kinds are D. Mawi, glaciaUs, and bruniae- foha, all worth growing in a full collection of alpine flowers for a choice rock-garden. Dracaena. See Cordyline. Dracocephalum {Dragoris - head). — Plants of the Sage family, among them a few choice perennials suitable for the rock- garden or the mixed border, succeeding in light garden soil and increased by division or seed. D. altaiense has bright green leaves, and axillar)' clusters of large tubular flowers of a dense Gentian-like blue, spotted with red in the throat. D. austriacum has flower-stems nearly i ft. in height, densely covered with rich purple blossoms ; D. Ruyschianum, a handsome species, has narrow Hyssop-like leaves and purplish-blue flowers, but its variety japonicum, a new introduction from Japan, is even more showy. D. peregrinum, with pretty blue flowers always produced in pairs, is desirable, and so is D. argunense, which is a variety of D. Ruyschianum. The most beautiful of all is D. grandiflorum, a rock-garden plant, which is the earliest in flower. It is very dwarf, and has large clusters of in- tensely blue flowers, which scarcely overtop the foliage. In D. speciosum, a Himalayan species, the small deep purple flowers are nearly smothered by the large green bracts. The hardy annual kinds, such as Molda- vicum and D. canescens, are ornamental, and worth a place in a full collection. Drimys Winteri ( Wintei 's Bark). — An interesting evergreen shrub from South America, not hardy enough for open-air culture except against a wall. In mild districts its fragrant milk-white flowers THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ECHEVERIA. 505 appear, but its outdoor culture should not be attempted in cold places. Dl'osera {Sundew). — Most interesting little bog-plants, of which all the hardy species but one are natives of Britain. All are characterised by tufts of leaves which have their surfaces covered with dense glandular hairs. When the native kinds are grown artificially the condition of their natural home should be imitated as far as possible. In a bog on a very small scale it is not easy to secure the humid atmosphere they have at home, but they will grow wherever Sphagnum grows. The native kinds are intermedia, longifolia, obovata, and rotundifolia. The North American Thread-leaved Sun- dew (D. filiformis)is a beautiful bog-plant, with very long slender leaves covered with glandular hairs, the flowers purple- rose colour, half an inch wide, and open- ing only in the sunshine. It is quite hardy, but appears difficult to cultivate. Dryas {Mountain Avens). — Mountain plants of the Rose family, containing two or three dwarf alpine plants of spreading growth and neat evergreen foliage. They thrive in borders in light soil, though they are seen to best advantage in the rock- garden, where they can spread over the brows and surfaces of limestone rocks, best on an exposed spot, not too dry, though when well established they will flourish under almost any conditions. Division in spring. The kinds are D. Drummondi, a dwarf, hardy, evergreen trailer, with flower-stems 3 to 8 in. high ; its yellow flowers, i in. across, appear in summer. N. America. D. octopetala, a creeping evergreen, forming dense tufts, with pretty white flowers. A very small form of octopetala called minima is useful for covering stones in the rock-garden. It has white flowers with yellow centre, which are i in. or more across, borne on stalks 3 to 8 in. high. A British mountain plant. Dyckia rariflora. — An interesting plant of the Bromeliad family, which is for the most part tropical. Though this is a native of Brazil, it is hardy in sheltered localities if planted in sandy loam in dry snug nooks of a well-drained rock-garden. It is about 2 ft. high, with a rosette of spiny leaves and spikes of orange-coloured flowers, which here, however, are but seldom produced in the open air. Eccremocarpus scaber.— A delightful old climber for walls, trellises, and pillars, its orange-red flowers are beautiful, and its rambling shoots graceful. If the roots are protected during winter, they are un- injured and the plant annually increases in size. Increased freely by seed, and should be raised in this way occasionally. Syn., Calampelis. Echeveria. — Dwarf succulent plants, much used in the flower garden, especially the half-hardy species like secunda. Other species are tenderer and need a green- house to keep them through the winter, and a warm house or frame to propagate them in the spring. E. secunda is well known by its pale green rosette, leaves tipped with red. E. s. major is but a mealy form of the same. E. s. glauca differs only in having leaves rather more pointed and glaucous. E. s. pumila is a smaller form, with narrow leaves of the same colour as E. s. major. E. glauca metallica is intermediate between the well-known E. metallica and E. secunda glauca. Dwarf and massive, the leaves are very solid and fleshy. E. metallica is a noble species, and distinct in the size of its leaves and in their riph metallic hue. The dwarfer kinds are used mostly as edgings or panels. The fine E. metallica is very effective on the margins of beds and groups of the dwarfer foliage plants, or here and there among hardy succulents. It should be planted out about the middle of May. Increase. — As soon as the seed is ripe prepare to sow it. Fill some 4-in. pots to within J in. of the rim with equal pro- portions of leaf-mould and well-sanded loam. Make the surface very firm, and water the soil so that the whole body of it becomes thoroughly moistened. Having- allowed the moisture to drain away, scatter the seed lightly and cover it thinly with silver sand. Place the pot in a hand-light or in a close frame ; cover with a pane of glass and shade. The seed will germinate before the soil can dry, and if it is sown as soon as it is ripe every seed will come up. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out thinly into pans or 6-in. pots ; keep them close until they are fairly established, and then allow them the full benefit of sun and air. After the middle of September give no water, and take care to remove all decay as soon as it is perceived. If planted early in April in well-worked and fairly- enriched soil, these little plants will be strong by the autumn. There is another method of increasing them. With a sharp knife cut out the heart of the plant, so as to induce offshoots. These taken off" will speedily make good speci- mens. E. metallica maybe increased in the following manner : Take off" the flower- stems which come early in the season ; cut off" the embryo flowers and place the stems in pots of sandy soil. These stems will 5o6 ECHINACEA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ECHINOPS. Strike and will produce little offsets from the axils of the flower-stem leaves. If these are taken off they will readily strike. E. metallica may also be raised from seed in the manner aljove described. Echinacea (see Rudbeckia). Echinocactus Simpsoni.— A beautiful little Cactaceous plant, a native of Colo- rado, occurring at great elevations, and believed to be hardy. It grows in a globular mass, 3 or 4 in. across, which is covered with white spines. It flowers early in March, bearing large pale purple blossoms which are very beautiful. No one appears to have had any lengthened experience in cultivating it, but, so far, it • seems to thrive. Its natural conditions should be imitated as far as may be. In its native habitat it enjoys a dry climate, and, in some seasons at least, is more or less protected from frost by a covering of snow. In this country, however, it has withstood 32' of frost, and therefore in a dry spot may escape and flourish. Echinocereus. — Plants of the Cactus family (from arid regions in N. America), some of which have been said to be hardy. Mr. E. G. Loder, of Weedon, Northamptonshire, grows and flowers them successfully. He thus writes to The Garden : " I have a wall here where the Ivy hangs over in such a way that it keeps a large portion of the winter's snow and rain off the plants growing underneath. In this position I have grown several species of Echinocereus and Opuntia, an Echinocactus, and a Mammillaria. Only small plants were tried, yet several flowered in spite of our very severe winters and not favourable summers. We had 41" of frost one winter, but none of these Cacti were in- jured by it. No species of Cactus which I have tried does well in a level border. A narrow rock border, raised about I ft. high, against a south wall, would be a capital position, but it is much improved if the wall has a good wide coping. The most attractive is a natural one of Ivy. What success I have in the culture of these plants has amply repaid me for all the trouble and care spent upon them ; but much greater success may reasonably be expected by any one who will under- take their cultivation in a more sunny part of England. All of them are beautiful, and some quite splendid when in flower. E. Fendleri bears some of the brightest coloured flowers that I have ever seen — a rich purple." The species of Echino- cereus that Mr. Loder grows are E. noephiceus, gonacanthus, Fendleri, viri- diflorus, and paucispinus. We have no doubt that various hardy Cacti of N. America would flower well on raised stony borders and sunny banks in rock-gardens. Give them soil which is well drained and sunny, but exposed, away from all coping or artificial protection, but take great care so to place them in relation to surrounding objects that their stems cannot easily be hurt in clearing or passing. A few protecting stones and low evergreens can be grouped so as to keep off the digger and also dangerous animals. A close turf of some dwarf clean alpine will prevent earth- splashings and will improve the effect. Echinochloa {Panicum). Echinocystis lobata (^Wild Balsam Apple). — A tall climbing annual of the Gourd family, having greenish - yellow flowers, succeeded by large oval fruits. Useful for covering arbours, but scarcely worth growing. N. America. Echmops ruthenicus (Globe Thistle). ■^ ## ] ■1* -J. if ^ J- ^ '"'^ «^ r^ ^tr^r ^^^t^ *Mrt/if/^ I ■>^^^^i^- ■ ^^f ' '^^^^^ ^M '^SH^ I^^.M| Echinops ruthenicus (Globe Thistle). — A fine hardy plant from S. Russia, 3 to 5 ft. high, covered \\\xh a silvery down, the flowers blue, in round heads. Thrives in ordinary soil. Easily multiplied by division of the tufts, or by cuttings of the roots in spring. It is the most ornamental of its distinct family, and is highly suit- able for grouping with the bolder her- baceous plants. It would also look well when isolated on the turf There are other species, mostly from S. Europe and the Levant, among which are E. Ritro and E. banaticus ; but we have never seen any so good as E. ruthenicus, and, as the species are very much alike, it is enough to grow the best. E. sphaerocephalus is a fine species tall and handsome ; giganteus is a garden variety of the above, more robust, and with larger heads ECHINOSPERMUM. rim ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EI.,«AGNUS. 507 Echinospermum. — Sometimes men- tioned in seed catalogues, but the species at present introduced are of little value. Echium ( Viper's .Sw^/^^jj).— Handsome plants of the Forget-me-not Order, the finer kinds of which, though superb in the open gardens of S. Europe, are too tender for flower gardens. E. planta- gineum is one of the handsomest of the annual or biennial species. Its showy flowers, of rich purplish-violet, are in long slender wreaths that rise erect from a tuft of broad leaves. It is handsomer than our indigenous species, E. pustulatum and E. vulgare. E. rubrum is a scarce and handsome species, its habit is similar to those above mentioned, but its colour is a reddish-violet, similar to the attractive E. creticum. The Salamanca Viper's Bugloss (E. salmanticum) is another fine kind, but difficult to obtain, except from its native locality. These five species are now in cultivation, and are representative of the annual and biennial Echiums. They are all showy and of the simplest culture. The seeds should be sown in ordinary garden soil, either in spring for the current year's flowering, or late in autumn for flowering in early summer. Our native E. vulgare is good in certain positions ; its long racemes of blue flowers are hand- somer than those of the Italian Anchusa. Against a hot wall, where nothing else would grow. Dr. Acland, of the Grammar School, Colchester, planted some, and they gave a beautiful bloom. It is valuable for such positions, particularly on hot gravelly or chalky soils. Edraianthus. See Wahlenbergia. Edwardsia tetraptera {Sophora). Elaeagnus {Oleaster). — Several of the Oleasters are beautiful shrubs, and deserve to be much more widely cultivated than they are now. E. angustifolia, the form which grows wild in South-eastern Europe, is the wild Olive of the old Greek authors, and in some modern books is called Jerusalem Willow. The long silvery-gray fruit is constantly sold in the Constantinople markets under the name of Ighidd agdghi, and is sweet and pleasant to the taste, abounding as it does in a dry, mealy, saccharine substance ; it possesses the property of retaining, for a considerable time after being gathered, its usual size and form. The general aspect of this form is much more that of a Willow than an Olive, the long lanceolate leaves being grayish above and silvery-white beneath. Under cultivation I have seen this thrive in a dry, hungry, sandy soil, and attain tree- like proportions with a stem as much as a foot in diameter. This deciduous species is capable of being turned to good account, by the landscape gardener ; the yellow tubular flowers are produced in profusion. E. argentea, or E. canadensis (the Stiver Berry, or Missouri Silver Tree), has very fragrant tubular yellow flowers, followed by an abundance of nearly globular, dry, mealy, edible fruit. This species gives a characteristic feature to the vegetation of the Upper Missouri valley, and in a wild state grows 8 or 10 ft. in height, and throws up an abundance of suckers, a habit which, at any rate in a young state, does not appear to occur so much under cultivation. The oval leaves are silvery-white. In nearly all British and foreign nurseries this species is confused with the Buffalo Berry (Shepherdia argentea), a genus belonging to the same natural order as the Elseagnus, but altogether different from it. E. hortensis, a somewhat variable plant with a wide geographical dis- tribution, is cultivated in many countries for the sake of its fruit. In Dr. Aitchison's Botany of the Afghan Delimitatio7i Commission it is described as a shrub or tree occurring at an elevation of 3,000 ft. and upwards, near running streams, and cultivated largely in orchards for its fruit. E. longipes, a thoroughly deciduous Japanese species, is one of the most desirable members of the genus. Prof. Sargent thus writes of it in Garden and Forest : " The plant may well be grown for the beauty of its fruit alone, which, moreover, is juicy and edible with a sharp, rather pungent, agreeable flavour. Both the size and the flavour can doubt- less be improved by careful selection, and it is quite within the range of possibility that it may become a highly esteemed and popular dessert and culinary fruit. To some persons, even in its pre- sent state, the flavour is far preferable to that of the Currant or the Gooseberry." The fruit, as implied by the specific name, is borne on long stalks ; it is bright red in colour and covered with minute white dots. The branches are covered with rusty brown scales, and the somewhat leathery leaves are dark green above and silvery-white beneath. Pheasants are said to be very fond of the fruit, and I can vouch for the fact that blackbirds and other fruit-eating birds will soon strip a bush unless it be netted. Some French growers make a preserve of the fruit, and this is said to be very similar to that made from the fruit of the Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas) ; a spirit, too, with a taste like kirsch, has also been made from So8 EL/EAGNUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EMPETRDM- the fruit. E. longipes, known in some gardens under the names of E. edulis, E. odorata edulis, and E. rotundifolia, is appa- rently as hardy as the first-named species. E. macrophylla/, an evergreen species from China and Japan, has large roundish leaves, grayish above and silvery beneath. Old plants are said to produce suckers freely, but the species is a somewhat recent introduction to British gardens, and all the specimens which I have seen up to the present have not shown any tendency to sucker. It is quite distinct in appearance from any other hardy cultivated shrub, and is worthy of much more general employment in the orna- mental shrubbery. In its native habitats it is said to sometimes attain tree-like dimensions ; under cultivation I have only seen it as a dense bush. E. pungens, E. glabra, and E. refiexa are beautiful evergreens, which are not very dissimilar in general aspect, and which without long dry scientific de- scriptions it would be impossible to dis- tinguish. Variegated forms exist of all three, and any of them, as well as the types, are thoroughly well worthy of a place in the garden or pleasure-ground. They are all natives of Japan, &c., but do not appear to be quite as hardy as the species previously mentioned ; all could be tried, however, with every prospect of success ill the southern counties. Some of them in the south of Europe assume a somewhat climbing habit, and round the North Italian lakes, for example, grow up to the tops of high Fir and Pine trees. E. Simoni, said to be a native of China, seems quite hardy, but is the least orna- mental of those which have been men- tioned in these notes. A variegated form of this, with leaves margined with dark green and with the centres constantly varie- gated with golden-yellow and yellowish- green, originated in the Belgian nurseries a few years ago ; it is highly spoken of in some of the Belgian periodicals. E. umbellata is a beautiful bush. The leaves , are deep green and glabrous on the upper surface ; in a young state earlier in the season they are silvery-gray, and silvery-white beneath. The creamy-white flowers are produced in the greatest pro- fusion in June. In some locahties the plant is practically e\ergreen ; in the neighbourhood of London, however, it is — at any rate during such winters as the two last — to all intents and purposes deciduous. It is probably perfectly hardy throughout Britain, as it withstands the much severer winters of Northern Ger- many without protection. In a wild state it occurs from the Himalayas to China and Japan. Eteagnus parvifolia is a name under which this species occurs in some gardens. — G. N. Elymus arenarius {.Lyme Grass).— This wild British Grass is strong-rooting and distinct, and often adds a feature to the garden. If planted in deep soil a short distance from the margin of a shrubbery, or on a bank on the Grass, and allowed to have its own way, it makes an effective plant. It is hardy in all parts of these islands. In very good soil it will grow 4 ft. high ; and as we should cultivate it for the leaves, there would be no loss if the flowers were removed. It is frequent on our shores, but more abundant in the north than in the south. E. condensatus (Bunch Grass) is a vigorous perennial Grass from British Columbia, forming a dense, compact, column-like growth, and more than 8 ft. high. It is covered from the base almost to the top with long arching leaves, and in the flowering season is crowned w'ith erect rigid spikes 6J in. long, so that it resembles an elongated ear of wheat. It is very ornamental, and maybe grown in the same way as the Lyme Grass. Other kinds might be mentioned, but one or two give us the best effect of the race. Embotliriuin coccineum {Fire Bush). — A very beautiful S. American ever- green shrub of the Protea family, hardy in' warm parts of Britain, even without the protection of a wall. At Coombe Royal, in South Devon, it grows quite 20 ft. high, and is a spectacle of won- drous beauty about the end of April or the beginning of May, when every twig carries a cluster of fiery flowers. Even on the favoured De\onshire coast a sharp late frost will sometimes injure the flowers. It is, therefore, only suited for warm gardens on the south coast. Emilia sagittata. — A pretty half-hardy annual, 9 to 1 8 in. high, with slender flower- stems, terminated by bright orange-scarlet heads nearly i in. across. It likes a light rich soil, and flowers from July to Septem- ber if the seed be sown in heat in February and March, the seedlings put out in May. East Indies. Syn., Cacalia. Compositse. Emmenanthe penduliflora. — A Cali- fornian annual, about I ft. high, and of neat tufted habit, like a Nemophila ; the pale primrose-yellow flowers are in loose racemes. Succeeds best as a hardy annual on any ordinary soil. Empetnim uigr\un {Crowberry). — A small evergreen Heath-like bush, of the easiest culture, which may be associated with the dwarfcr rock shrubs. It is a ENKIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 509 native plant, and the badge of the Scotch clan McLean. Enkianthus campanulatus.— A pretty shrub, native of Northern Japan. It has slender branches covered with a light brown bark, and campanulate flowers produced in a pendulous cluster, and of a pale rosy-red colour, with three darker lines on each of the five sections of the corolla. E. cernuus. — A little-known species narrower mouth than in E. > campanu- latus. Ericacea;. Eomecon chionanthus [Cyclamen Poppy). — A very charming hardy peren- nial Poppy intermediate between Stylo- phorum and Sanguinaria. The root- stocks are usually as thick as the finger ; they run freely underground, and increase rapidly ; leaves all from the base, long- stalked, and resembling those of the hardy Cyclamen. The flowers, 2 to 3 in. Lyme Grass (Elymus arenarius). only recently introduced from Japan, where it is said to be a bush 6 ft. to 8 ft. high. The reddish flowers are campanulate, and slightly five-lobed. Syn., Meisteria cernua. E. japonicus. — A rare but desirable shrub, first discovered by Sir Rutherford Alcock near Nagasaki, Japan, in 1859, and afterwards introduced by Messrs. Standish. The leaves turn to a beautiful deep orange colour before falling in autumn. The pendent flowers are pure white, globose, and contracted to a much in diameter, are pure white, with a bunch of yellow anthers in the centre ; several borne on stems about i ft. high. It is a native of China, and will be found perfectly hardy out-of-doors ; it has stood the winters of 1890 and 1891 without injury. This Poppy will be found a delightful plant in moist situations in free soil, and fully exposed to the sun. The pure pearly-white Poppy flowers, in a setting of bold yellow-green foliage, make an elegant picture, and as it continues in flower all through the summer, it is a 510 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EQUISETUM. good plant for the rock-garden. It can be increased to any extent by division. Epigsea repens {Mayflower).—^ small Evergreen found in sandy soil in the shade of Pines in many parts of N. America, with pretty rose-tinted flowers in small clusters, which exhale a rich odour, and appear in spring. Its natural home is under trees, and it would be well to plant some of it in the shade of Pines or shrubs. It was at one time lost to our nurseries and gardens, owing to the habit of planting all things in the same kind Epigsa repens (Mayflower). , of exposed situation. It is a charming plant for the wild garden, in sandy or peaty soil under trees, growing only a few inches high. Caprifoliaceae. EpUobium {French Willow). — Few of these plants are worthy of cultivation, but some are important, and the best perhaps is the showy crimson native E. angustifolium, of which there is a pure white variety. This plant runs in a border so quickly as to soon become a trouble- some weed, but is fine when allowed to run wild in a rough shrubbery or copse, where it may bloom with the Foxglove. It is a native of Europe and many parts of Britain. Division. Other kinds some- what less vigorous are E. angustissimum, E. Dodonasi, and E. rosmarinifolium. The common native E. hirsutum is stouter than the French Willow, and is only useful by the margins of streams and ponds, associated with the Loosestrife and such plants. There is a variegated form. The Rocky Mountain Willow Herb (E. obcordatum) is a beautiful rock- plant. The Willow Herbs of our own, latitudes are very tall and Mgorous, but on the dreary summits of the Kooky Mountains and the Cahfornian Sierras one species has succeeded in contending against the elements by reason of its very dwarf stature ; it has imitated the Phloxes, and Pentstemons of the same region ; though not more than 3 in. high, it has retained the size and beauty of flower of the finest species, the colour being rosy- crimson. It is hardy, and thrives in. ordinary sandy soil in the rock-garden. Some of the small New Zealand species^ such as glabellum nummulariaefolium, and longipes, are very useful for draping stones on rock-gardens. — D. Epimedium {Barren-wort). — Interest- ing and, when well grown, elegant plants of the Barberry Order, but not shrubby. E. pinnatum is a hardy dwarf perennial from Asia Minor, 8 in. to 2J ft. high, with handsome tufts, and bearing long clusters of yellow flowers. The old leaves remain fine until the new ones appear in the ensuing spring. It is not well to remove them, as they shelter the buds of the new leaves during the winter, and the plants flower better when they are allowed to re- main. Cool peaty soil and a slightly shaded position are most suitable. Other species are alpinum, macranthum, Musschianum, purpureum, rubrum, niveum, and viola- ceum, all loving half-shady spots in peat, or in moist sandy soil. None are so valuable for general culture as the first-mentioned. Known species. — E. alpitmm, Europe, con- cinmim, Japan, elatum, Himal. macranthum, Japan. Mztsschianum, do. Perralderianum, j Algeria. pinnatum, Persia. pteroceras, \ Caucas. pabescens, China, pubigeriiin, Caucas. ' rubrum, Japan, sagittatum, do. Epipactis palustris {Marsh E.)—A somewhat showy hardy Orchid, i to i^ ft. high, flowering late in summer, and bearing rather handsome purplish flowers. A native of moist grassy places in all parts of tempe- rate and southern Europe. A good plant for the bog-garden, or for moist spots near a rivulet, in soft peat. In moist districts it thrives very well in ordinary moist soil. Eiiuisetum Telmateia {Giant Horse- tail). — A tall British plant, of much grace of habit when well developed, and from 3 to 6 ft. high in moist peaty or clay hollows in woods. The stem is furnished from ! top to bottom with spreading whorls of j slender branches, slightly drooping, the I whole forming a graceful pyramid. It is fit I for the hardy fernery, shady peat borders, i near cascades, or among shrubs, and grows : best in deep vegetable soil. Division. E. sylvaticum is another nati\e Horse-tail, ERAGROSTIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EREMURUS. much dwaifer, but graceful when well grown, the stem standing 8 to 15 in. high, and being covered with slender branches. Eragrostis {Love Grass). — Grasses, some of which are worth cultivating for their elegant feathery panicles. E. aegyptiaca, with silvery-white plumes, maxima, elegans, pilosa, amabilis, pellu- cida, capillaris, plumosa, are all elegant annuals. They are useful for cutting for the house during summer. Seed may be sown in autumn or spring in the open air, on or in a slightly heated frame. For preserving, the stems should be gathered before the seeds are too ripe. Eranthis hyemalis {Winter Aconite). — A pretty early plant with yellow flowers surrounded by a whorl of shining green. It is 3 to 8 in. high, and flowers from January to March. It is seen best in a half-wild state, under trees or on banks in woody places, though it is occasionally worthy of a place among the earliest border flowers. It often naturalises itself freely in Grass, and is very beautiful when the little yellow flowers peep out in early spring. When the branches of large trees are allowed to rest on the turf of the lawn, a few roots of it scattered beneath will soon form a carpet, glowing in sheets of yellow in winter or spring. We may therefore enjoy it without giving it positions suited for more delicate plants, or taking any trouble about it, but it is more vigorous on chalky or warm soils, and dwindles on some cold soils. Eremostachys. — Perennials of the Sage family, suitable only for botanical collec- tions. E. laciniata has deeply-cut leaves, and flower-stems about 4 ft. high, with numerous leafy bracts enclosing large purplish flowers arranged in whorls. E. iberica differs from E. laciniata in having the flowers yellow. Both seem difficult to cultivate, and we have never seen them well grown. Eremurus. — Noble bulbous plants from Northern India, Persia, and Central Asia, as yet little seen in our gardens. Of their culture or fitness for our climate generally little can be said with certainty. Most of the forms are handsome, and well suited for the warm sheltered glades of gardens where hai-dy flowers and plants are grown in a natural and informal way. In such a home they can be associated in bold groups with some of the finest hardy plants, with a background of fine-foliaged subjects and choice shrubs. In planting, however, care should be taken to place the roots where they would not be over- grown or shaded by other plants, so that the crowns should receive the greatest amount of sunshine during the ripening period previous to going to rest. They thrive admirably in deep, rich, sandy loam-,, such as would suit Lilium auratum, with the addition of some thoroughly decayed cow manure. My own plants were grown in a bed filled in 3 ft. deep with a compost of good fibrous loam, sharp ri\'er-sand,, peat, decayed cow manure, and charcoal, with a well-drained sheltered situation facing due south. Once well planted,, they should never be disturbed, as the roots are extremely brittle and very liable to injury. The surface soil above the roots, should be kept clean by hand weeding and enriched by occasional surfacings of old manure, leaf-soil, and a little grit, thoroughly broken up and mixed together. Autumn is the best period for planting, which should take place as soon as the young plants have ripened their growth, the sites being well and deeply prepared some little time beforehand, so as to allow the soil to thoroughly settle before the plants are placed in it. As the whole family dislike stagnant moisture, care should be taken to avoid this at the time of planting, and in any favourable situation this can be managed by spreading out the roots of the young plants upon the prepared surface of the bed and covering, them with soil so as to form a mound. This- can be afterwards surfaced with Cocoa-nut fibre refuse to exclude frost. In any case it is a great advantage to keep the crown of the plant slightly above the soil. I found a plan adopted by Mr. Gumbleton, who is a most successful cultivator of these plants, to be an excellent protection during winter and early spring, especially at the latter period, when the young growth is liable to be injured by frost and the plants to be disfigured for the- whole season, if not permanently injured. The shelter, in fact, is very simple and is easily managed — being merely the placing over each plant of a hand-light upon supports. As it takes some of the forms several years to flower, old plants, are valuable, but are difficult to move. It is better, therefore, to begin with three- year-old plants if possible, and care should be taken to obtain the plants from a trustworthy source, or, after waiting patiently, cultivators may find that in- stead of the beautiful E. robustus or E. himalaicus, they have the uninteresting E. spectabilis, or some other species that they do not care for. Owing to losing my garden, I had, unfortunately, to break up my collection in the finest condition, before all the forms I had collected had flowered. I, SI2 EREMURUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EREMURUS. however, flowered E. robustus, Olgae, himalaicus, and Bungei, all of which are very beautiful, and amenable to cultivation. These four forms all flowered finely, and throve admirably in a Herefordshire garden. A most interesting account of this family, with a list of the species and varieties known to cultivation, may be found in vol. xxix. (p. 96) of The Garden, which cannot fail to assist those who con- template the introduction of these beautiful plants into their gardens. — W. J. G. The Rev. F. Page-Roberts writes from Scole Rectory : — " With a little trouble Eremuri may be grown successfully by every lover of beautiful flowers. All that i^ necessary for their well-being is protection from slugs, which soon scent them from afar. I keep a perforated zinc collar round the crown and protect from spring frosts. The plant early forces its way up even through the frost-bound earth, but the tender flower-spike, tender only in infancy, is nipped in the bud if rain fall on it and freeze. Protection also from cutting winds which destroy the foliage is needed. With such precautions and planted in loam, deep, but not too stiff, in a well-drained sunny border, and with an occasional dose of weak liquid manure, they will repay one for all the care given to them." E. Aitchisonii. — This is a very fine species, nearly aUied to E. robustus. It was introduced a few years ago from Kar- shdtal, Afghanistan, where it grows on ridges of the hills nearly 12,000 ft. above sea-level, flowering in June. It is a rather fine species, producing dense spikes of pale reddish flowers. The robust and very striking stems vary from 3 to 5 ft. high. E. anrantiacus. — A charming dwarf plant somewhat resembling E. Bungei, and perfectly hardy in gardens. It flowers in April, the numerous spikes of bright citron-yellow flowers giving quite a character to part of the Hariab district, where it is one of the commonest plants on rough stony ground. It is very interesting as the vegetable proper of the Hariab district, and is said to be the sole vegetable upon which the in- habitants depend for at least two months of the year. The leaves are simply cut from the root-stock, as close to the ground as possible, and cooked. It is extremely palatable, and Dr. Aitchison recommends its growth as an early spring vegetable. E. Bungei. — A pretty dwarf species now plentiful in nurseries. The leaves, contemporary with the flowers, are narrow, linear, and about 1 ft. long. Flower- stem somewhat slender, i to 3 ft. long. Flowers bright yellow, the segments reflexing from above the base, and having a distinct green keel. The stamens are about twice as long as the EREMURUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. S13 perianth. Native of Persia, flowering in E. himalaicus is a beautiful white- flowered species, introduced to cultivation by Mr. Gumbleton, and is one of the most lovely hardy plants in cultivation. In form and height it reminds one of E. robustus, but it starts into growth later, escaping spring frosts. The flower- stems are 4 to 8 ft. high, the dense raceme taking up quite 2 ft. of the upper portion, with flowers as large as a florin. It is one of the hardiest and best of the known species. It flowers in May and June, and is a native of the temperate Himalayas. E. Olga is a comparatively dwarf form, recei\ed with E. Bungei from Herr Max Leichtlin, and one of the latest to flower. The flower-stem is nearly 4 ft. high, and is densely set with handsome lilac flowers as large as a five-shilling ■piece. It is certainly one of the hand- somest and most conspicuous flowered species. It was introduced about eight years ago by Dr. Regel. A native of Turkestan, flowering in June and July. E. robustus, a lovely species, and one of the best known in gardens. It pro- duces a huge flower-stem 6 to 10 ft. high, bearing on its summit a dense raceme of peach-shaded lilac flowers nearly 2 in. in diameter. It is perfectly hardy, and may often be seen forcing its shoots through frozen ground. It is one of the easiest to manage. Native of Turkestan, flowering in June. — D. Known species. — They are Asiatic plants coming chiefly from Asia Minor, Persia, Afghanistan, India, and Turkestan. E. Aitchi- soni, Afghan. Alberti, albo-citrinus, altaicus, angustifolius, anisopterus, Aucherianus, bach- tiaricus, bucharicus, Bungei, cappadocicus, Capusi, Griffithii, himalaicus, inderiensis, Kauf- manni, Korolkowi, luteus, Olgse, persicus, robustus, spectabills, stenophyllus, btocksii, Suworowi, tauricus, turkestanicus. Erianthus Eavennse. — A fine Grass from S. Europe, somewhat like the Pampas Grass in habit, but smaller in size, having violet-tinged leaves. The flowering stems grow from 5 to 6^ ft. high, but as it only flowers with us in a very warm season, it must be valued for its foliage alone. I ts dense tufts are strongest with us in light or warm soil, in positions with a south aspect. It is poor on cold soils, and will probably not grow well north of London. It is fitted for association with such Grasses as Arundo conspicua. Division of the tufts in spring or autumn. E. strictus is another species, but is not so good as E. Ravennae. Erica (.^^aM).— Beautiful shrubs, of which the kinds that are wild in Europe are very precious for gardens. We should take more hints from our own wild plants and bring the hardy Heaths of Britain as an artistic element into the flower garden. Why we should have such things as the Alternanthera grown with care and cost in hothouses, and then put out in summer to make our flower gardens ridiculous, while neglecting such lovely hardy things as our own Heaths and their many pretty varieties, is a thing that would require some explaining. But very many people Erigeron speciosus. do not know how happy these Heaths are as garden plants, and how delightfully they mark the seasons, and for the most part at a time when people leave town. A singularly pretty Heath •garden is that of Sir P. Currie at Hawley. In frontof his house he has kept, instead of a lawn,' a piece of the Heath land of the district almost in its natural state, save for a little levelling of old pits. In such places the native Heaths of Surrey and Hampshire sow themselves, and nothing can be more beautiful. Where, as in many country L L SH THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ERIGERON. places, these Heaths abound, there is no occasion to cultivate them, although we cultivate nothing prettier ; but certain varieties of these Heaths are charming, and deserve a place in the garden or wild garden. In places large enough for bold Heath gardens it would be charming to plant them, but a small place is often large enough for a few beds of hardy Heaths. Once established, they need very little attention. To some it may be necessary to state that most of our hardy Heaths break into delightful forms, white and various coloured. The common Heather has many charming varieties, also the Scotch Heath. These forms are quite as free as the wild sorts, and give delightful variety in a Heath garden, which need not by any means be a rocky or pretentious affair, but quite simple ; for Heaths are best on the nearly level ground. Though they grow best, perhaps, in peat bogs and wastes, it would be a mistake to suppose that only such soils can grow Heaths well, because we see them in Sussex in soils quite unlike those on which they thrive in Hampshire, though certainly on heaths they seem to form their own soil by decay of the stems and leaves for many years. If rocky banks or large rock-gardens already exist, choice Heaths form often their very best adornment, but such things are by no means necessary. Some of the best and most successful beds we have seen were on the level ground, as in the late Sir William Beaumont's garden in Surrey. For a list of species and varieties we adopt that of Mr. Eraser's book on trees and shrubs. E. ciliaris, {Dorset Heath) a. native of the south of England, and of some parts of Ireland, is a neat dwarf Heath 9 to 12 in. high, its pale-red flowers in racemes from June to July. It is one of the best of the dwarf hardy Heaths. , B. cinerea {Scotch Heather). — Abun- dant in many of the northern countries of Europe and all over Britain, about i ft. high, its flowers of reddish-purple, changing to blue, begin to expand early in June. Among its varieties are — alba, atro-purpurea, bicolor, coccinea, mon- strosa, pallida, purpurea, rosea, and spicata. E. herbacea {Alpine Forest Heath) is one of the prettiest of our hardy Heaths, with lovely pale red blossoms from the beginning of March (and in some seasons much earlier) till the beginning of April ; and as it may be clipped freely, it is valuable as an edging in flower gardens. It grows about i ft. high. The var. carnea, according to some botanists, is the same species, differing only m having bright red or flesh-coloured flowers. E. Mackiana {Mackay's Heath), found in Connemara. It has broad ovate leaves, silvery on the under surface, and is about I ft. high. The flowers are pale red, expanding in July and August, and it is remarkably showy. E. mediterranea is so named from being abundant in the countries border- ing the Mediterranean, and it is also found in several districts in Ireland ; its flowers pale red, the anthers darker, and the blooms are usually in perfection in April. The vars. are — alba, carnea, glauca, nana, rubra, and stricta. E. tetralix {Bell Heather). — This beautiful species is wild in all northern Europe, abundant on 'the moors and heaths of Britain, and is i to 2 ft. high. It is readily distinguished by ciliated leaves in four whorls round the steni. The flowers, delicate pink, are in terminal racemes, and bloom from July to August. Among its varieties are — rubra and alba. E. vagans {Cornish Heath). — This species is wild in the south of France, in some parts of Ireland, and is abundant on the moors of Cornwall ; 6 in. to 2 ft. high, and forming a neat bush ; the flowers pale purplish red, borne abun- dantly along the branches, and are in perfection in August and September. It is exceedingly showy, is invaluable for margins to clumps of the larger peat-soil shrubs, and forms a stout edging for flower gardens. The varieties are — alba, alba nana, carnea, and rubra. E. vulgaris {Common Heath or Ling). — This is the Heather of our moors. Its beautiful varieties should never be over- looked in a collection of hardy Heaths. They are all sports from the species, and have been found from time to time associated with it either wild or in gardens. The varieties are alba, Al- porti, argentea, aurea, coccinea, decum- bens, dumosa, flore-pleno, Hammondi, pumila, pygmsea, rigida, Searlei, and tomentosa. Erigeron {Fleabane). — Michaelmas Daisy-like plants of dwarf growth, some- wha.t alike in general appearance, and having pink or purple flowers with yellow centres. They flourish in any garden soil, but one or two are best suited for the rock-garden. Of these, E. alpinum grandiflorum is the finest. It is similar to the alpine Aster, having large heads of purplish flowers in late summer and remaining in beauty a long time 'suit- able for the rock-garden and well-drained THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. eritricMium. 515 borders. Division or seed. E. Roylei, a Himalayan plant, is another good alpine, of very dwarf, tufted growth, having large blossoms of a bluish-purple, with yellow eye. By far the best of the taller kinds is E. (Stenactis) speciosus, a vigorous species, with erect stems, that grow about 2^ ft. high, and bear during June and July many large purplish- lilac Aster-like flowers, with conspicuous orange centres. E. macranthus, another showy species, is of a neat habit, and about I ft. high. It bears an abundance of large, purple, yellow-eyed blossoms in summer, and, like E. speciosus, will Erigeron multiradiatus. grow in any soil. E. mucronatus, known also as Vittadenia triloba, is a valuable border flower, neat and compact, and for several weeks in summer is a dense rounded mass of bloom about 9 in. high. The flowers are pink when first expanded, and afterwards change to white, and the plant therefore presents every intermediate shade. Other kinds in gardens are E. multiradiatus, glabellus, glaucus, bellidifolius, strigosus, and phila- delphicus — the last two being the prettiest. All are easily increased by division in autumn or spring. The most eifective and useful of the genus is E. speciosus, which is excellent for groups or borders. Erinus alpinus {Wall E.)—h. pretty alpine plant, with racemes of violet-purple flowers, abundant on dwarf tufts of leaves in early summer. In winter it perishes on the level ground in most gardens, but it is permanent when allowed to run wild on old walls or ruins, and it is easily estab- lished on old ruins by sowing seeds in mossy or earthy chinks. It is well suited for the rock-garden, where it grows in any position, and often flowers bravely on earthless mossy rocks and stones. E. hirsutus is a variety covered with down. There is a white variety. Pyrenees. Eriobotrya japonica (Loquat). — A large-leaved shrub from Japan, but in our country tender, and only suitable for walls. Its large evergreen leaves are handsome at all seasons, and in warm districts it flowers freely, the blossoms being white, but it does not fruit in the open air in England. Eriogonum. — North American plants which, on the Rocky Mountains and in the alpine regions of California, are of much beauty, but are never good in cultivation, with the exception perhaps of E. umbellatum. From a dense tuft of leaves E. umbellatum throws up numer- ous stems, 6 to 8 in. high, on which golden- yellow blooms, in umbels 4 in. or more across, form a neat and conspicuous tuft. In light sandy soil of the rock- garden it lias never failed to bloom profusely. The variety Sileri is much better than the type. Other species are E. compositum, flavum, racemosum, ursinum. Eriophorum {Cotton Grass). — Sedge- like plants, whose heads of white cottony seeds make them interesting in the bog- garden or in wet places in grass. E. poly- stachyon is the best for a garden ; it is plentiful in some marshy districts. Eritrichiuiu nanum {Fairy Forget-me- not). — An alpine gem, closely allied to the Forget-me-nots, which, however, it far excels in the intensity of the azure- blue of its blossoms. Though reputed to be difiicult to cultivate, a fair amount of success may be ensured by planting it in broken limestone or sandstone, mixed with a small quantity of rich fibry loam and peat, in a spot in the rock-garden where it will be fully exposed and where the roots will be near masses of half-buried rock, to the sides of which they delight to cling. The chief enemy of this little plant, and indeed of all alpine plants with silky or cottony foliage, is moisture in winter, which soon causes it to damp off". In its native habitat it is covered with dry snow during that period. Some, therefore, recommend an over- hanging ledge, but if such protection be L L 2 5i6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ERVNGIDM. not removed during summer, it causes too much shade and dryness. A better plan is to place two pieces of glass in a ridge over the plant, thus keeping it dry and allowing a free access of air, but these should be removed early in spring. Alps, at high elevations. — G. Erodium {Stork's-bill). — Like the Ger- anium, but usually smaller and more southern in origin than the hardy Ger- anium. Suited for chalky banks or the rock- garden ; some are suited for borders, while others may be naturalised in the Grass in warm soil. Among the best species are — E. macradenium. — A charming dwarf Pyrenean plant, 6 to lo in. high, with the blooms of French white delicately tinged with purple, and veined with purplish- rose ; the lower petals are larger than the others ; the two upper ones have each a dark spot, which at once distinguishes them from other Erodiums. This plant should be exposed to the hottest sun. The best position for it is a crevice where it is tightly placed between two rocks, and where the roots can pene- trate dry, sandy, or stony soil to the depth of 3 ft. When grown in this way, it is extremely pretty ; the dry- ness of the situation keeps the leaves dwarf, they nestle to the rock, and the flowers come in great abundance during the summer months. The plant has an aromatic fragrance. E. Manescavi is a vigorous herba- ceous plant, and the most showy of the Erodiums. It grows i to l^ ft. high, and throws up strong flower-stalks above the foliage, each with seven to fifteen showy purplish flowers, I to i^ in. across. It is not fastidious as to soil or situation, but its best place is in dry, hard soil, fully exposed to the sun. If the soil be too rich, the plant bears so many leaves that the flowers are hidden. Seed, or careful division. E. petraeum (now Moltkia petrsea). — This has three to five purplish-rose flowers on each stalk, which are 4 to 6 in. high. The leaves and flower-stalks are densely clothed with minute hairs. It thrives best among the dwarfer alpine plants, in warm positions, in deep sandy or gravelly soil. E. Beichardi. — A miniature species 2 to 3 in. high when in flower. The small heart-shaped leaves lie close to the ground, and form little tufts from which arise slender stalks, each bearing a solitary white flower, marked with delicate pink veins. It often continues in flower for many weeks. It should be grown in gritty peat mixed with a small portion of loam, like the Androsaces and Gentians. To the foregoing may be added : E. caruifolium, 6 to 10 in. high ; flowers, red, about ^ in. in diameter, and in umljels of nine or ten blossoms. E. alpinum, which resembles E. Manescavi, but is much dwarfer, growing 6 to 8 in. high, and flowering continuously from spring to autumn. E. strictum is a fine annual with deep azure-blue flowers from India. E. romanum, allied to the British E. cicutarium, but with larger flowers, growing 6 to 9 in. high ; flowers, purplish, appearing in spring and early summer. E. trichomanefolium, a very pretty dwarf kind, 4 to 6 in. high, with leaves so deeply cut as to resemble a Fern ; flowers, flesh- coloured, marked with darker veins. All the preceding, with the exception of E. Manescavi and E. hymenodes, are suited for the rock-garden or borders, in light sandy or calcareous loam. E. Manescavi should, perhaps, be confined to the border, as it is somewhat too tall and spreading for the rock-garden. Erpetion (Viola). Eryngium {Sea Holly). — Handsome plants belonging to the Umbellifers, .but so unlike that class of plants in general appearance as to be often mis- taken for Thistles. For the garden, whether the decoration of the border, or rock-garden, or the lawn, few plants yield a greater charm from the size and colour of involucres and stems. The stems are so singularly beautiful with their ^•ivid steel-blue tints, surmounted with an in- volucre even more brilliant, that the effect of good large groups is hardl)' excelled by that of any plants that li\e in our climate. The great diversity in the fonn of the leaves is very interesting, ranging from the great Pandanus-like foliage of E. pandanifolium to the \ery small thistle- like leaves of E. dichotomum. Those be- longing to the Pandanus set, such as E. Lasseauxi, eburneum, bromelijefolium, and others, are useful among fine-leaved plants ; their leaves being mostly of a thick succulent nature, are not liable to be damaged by the cold nights in early autumn ; indeed, in all but very damp places or heavy soils they continue effec- tive as regards foliage all through the winter season. E. alpinum, Oliverianum, giganteum,andthefinerherbaceous species are very useful for borders, and all are the more \aluable for this purpose owing to the length of time they continue in bloom, and for the longtime they retain their hand- some blue tints. A good rich and well- drained soil suits most of the species ; ERYNGIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ERYNGIUM. 517 damp carries off more of the tender species during winter than cold. Protection is not needed, as the Sea Holhes will stand any exposure so long as the drainage is perfect. E. alpinum may be made an exception to the above directions, as in the south of England at any rate it prefers a shady spot in a good stiff soil. Much the same treatment will also answer in the case of E. Oliverianum. The only really safe way to increase these Sea Holhes is by means of seed. Some few sorts may be increased by division or root cuttings, but they take such a long time to recover strength, that a vigorous batch may be raised from seed in about the same time. Sow the seed in pans "as soon as gathered, and place in a cold frame. The seeds will germinate in the spring, and if properly managed will be ready to plant out the following year. These plants often "sow themselves," and seedlings come up in all sorts of places. ' The under-mentioned are a few of the best kinds : — E. alpinum {Alpine Sea Holly). — This is found in the alpine pastures of Switzer- land, and, when well grown, is certainly not surpassed in beauty by any plant in the genus. It does well in shady borders, developing a tint almost equal to that when the plant is fully exposed to sun- shine. The involucres,, as well as the stems, are of a beautiful blue, and its flower-stems averaging about 2 ft. high, appear during July and August. There is said to be a white variety. E. amethystinum {Amethy-U Sea Holly'). — This has been confounded with the much more robust E. Oliverianum, although they have little in common. E. amethystinum rarely exceeds I ft. to i-^ ft. in height, is of a somewhat straggling habit, and has flower heads and stems of the finest amethyst-blue. Apart from the great beauty of its flower-heads and stems, this plant is chiefly welcome on account of its pretty dwarf habit. It answers well for a first or second row in the border, and makes on the rock-garden charming little groups. It can be in- creased by division, and easily raised from seed. It flowers during July and August, and is a native of Dalmatia and Croatia. E. giganteum {Giant Sea Holly).^- This does well in almost all positions and varieties of soil. The large flower-heads are excellent for winter decoration ;. and although not highly coloured like those of many of the others, they make pretty bouquets arranged with Grasses. It is an excellent plant for grouping, and in large masses it forms a very picturesque object, growing from 3 ft. to 4 ft. high, with stout stems and deeply-lobed, spiny, glaucous leaves. The involucre, of eight to nine large, oval^ spiny leaves, pale grey or glaucous, is very effective. Caucasian Alps and Armenia. £. maritiimim {Common Sea Holly).— This plant is found growing along the coast in company with the Oyster plant (Mertensia maritima) and is a very pretty kind, requiring no special culture, and does well in a stiff, loamy soil. It is one The Amethyst Sea Holly (E. amethystinum). of the most glaucous of the species, flower- ing from July to October, and grows from 6 inches to i^ feet high. E. Oliverianum {Oliver's Sea Holly). — This is of easy cultivation, and the abun- dance of its highly coloured flower-heads renders it very attractive in the flower border. It has often been, and is even yet, confounded with the Amethyst Sea Holly. E. Oliverianum grows 2 feet to 3 feet and often 4 feet in height. The ten to twelve bracts composing the involucre are longer than the head of flowers and 5i8 ERYNGIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ERYNGIUM. have about half a dozen teeth on each side. In habit and general appearance it is more nearly allied to E. alpinum than to any of the other kinds. It ripens seed freely and in this way it may be readily increased, and is a native of the Levant. Other attractive kinds are E. Bourgati, campestre, coeruleum, planum, of which there is a very beautiful variety, dicho- tomum, triquetrum, creticum, glaciale, spina-album. The Pandanus Group. — To this group, chiefly natives of Mexico and Brazil, belongs some of the extraordinary forms in this highly ornamental . genus. Beginning with Serra, we have a large broad-leaved species with curious double spines ; Carrierei, said to be the finest of all, having a compact habit combined with large, beautiful leaves. E. bromelise- folium is a charming plant, striking and distinct in habit and forming elegant Yucca-like tufts, with its graceful leaves surmounted with whitish flowerrheads. E.. pandanifolium is a noble plant, very The common Sea Holly (E maritimum) effective when grown as an isolated plant on a lawn. E. Lasseauxi is nearly allied and quite hardy in the open air. E. eburneum, aquaticum, virgimanum, Leavenworthi' and others are all worthy of attention for their fine foliage. — D. D. Erysimum.— Wall-flower-like peren- nials, biennials, and annuals, mostly of dwarf growth. Of the perennials the following are the finest : — E. ochroleucum {Alpine Wall/lower). —This handsome plant forms, under cultivation, neat rich green tufts, 6 to 12 m. high, and in spring is covered with beautiful sulphur-coloured flowers. The rock-garden is most congenial to it ; but it does very well on good level ground, though it is apt to get naked about the base, and may perish on heavy soils during an unusually severe winter. It thrives best when rather frequently divided. Division and cuttings. A capital dwarf border plant on light soils. Alps and Pyrenees. Flowers in spring. There are several varieties. = Cheiran- thus alpinus. E. pumilum {Fairy Wall/lower). — A very small plant, rare in cultivation, re- sembling the alpine Wallflower in the size and colour of its flowers, but lacking its vigorous and rich green foliage. It is often only i in. high, and it beai-s very large flowers for its size. They appear above a few narrow sparsely toothed leaves which barely rise from the ground. High bare places in the Alps and Pyrenees. It requires an exposed spot of very sandy or gritty loam in the rock-garden, where it must be surrounded by a few small stones to guard it from excessive drought and from accident, and must be associated with the most minute alpine plants. It is nearly related to the alpine Wallflower, E. ochroleucum, but is separated from it by its minuteness, and by its greyish- green leaves. E. rheeticum. — A pretty mountain flower which, though rare in cultivation, is a common alpine in Rhaetia and the neighbouring districts, where in early summer its broad dense-tufted masses are aglow with pretty clear yellow blos- soms. E. canescens, a South European species with scentless yellow flowers, is also a neat alpine, and so is E. rupestre, which is desirable for the rock-garden. All of them are easy to grow, and delight m gritty soil and a well-drained and sunny position on the rock-garden. Among the biennial and annual kinds the best IS E. Perofskianuni, i to i j ft. high, with dense racemes of orange-yellow flowers. For early flowering it should be sown in autumn, and again in March and April for later bloom. E. arkansanum and pachycarpum are similar to E. Perof- skianuni. E. Barbarea {Barbarea vulgaris). Erytlirsea {Centaury).—^ small genus of rather pretty dwarf biennials belonging to the Gentian family. The native species, E. littoralis, common in some shore dis- tricts, is worth cultivating. It is 4 to 6 in. high, and bears an abundance of rich pink flowers, which last a considerable time in beauty, and will withstand full exposure to the sun, though partial shade is bene- ficial. The very beautiful E. diffusa is a similar species. It is a rapid grower ERYTHRINA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. erythronium. 519 with a profusion of pink blossoms in summer. E. Muhlenberg! is another beautiful plant. It is neat and about 8 in. high, putting out many slender branches. It bears many flowers, and the blossoms are 3^ in. across. They are of a deep pink, with a greenish-white star in the centre. Seeds should be sown in autumn, and grown under liberal treatment till the spring ; the plants will then flower much earlier and produce finer flowers than spring -sown plants. They are excellent for the rock-garden and the margins of a loamy border, but the soil must be moist. On account of their duration or other peculiarities, they are of more botanical than garden importance. Erythrina {Coral Tree). — These beauti- ful trees are pretty general through the tropics. Some attain great dimensions, while others are dwarf bushes with woody root-stocks. Many produce beautiful large Pea flowers, usually of a blood-red or scarlet colour, in terminal racemes. The varieties have proved very hardy and use- ful in the summer garden, flowering freely and showing considerable beauty of foli- age. E. ornata, Marie Belanger, lauri- folia, Crista-galli, profusa, Madame Be- langer, ruberrima, and Hendersoni, have stood out with slight protection. The common old E. Crista-galli will thrive for years against a warm south wall in a light soil, if protected about the roots in winter, and when so grown, it is often very hand- some in the warmer countries. How far E. herbacea will prove an efficient sub- stitute for the older and better known species remains to be seen, but, having resisted a New York winter, it may be assumed to be hardy enough for England, and it deserves a trial. It is rather dwarfer than the old species, and has a woody root-stock, which under favourable conditions throws up in summer stems 2 to 4 ft. high. These stems are of two kinds, one bearing leaves only, the other bearing flowers with few leaves. The flowering stems have a raceme, i to 2 ft. long, of narrow flowers about 2 in. in length, the deep scarlet standard, erect in so many genera, being horizontal and folded over the wings and keel. The seeds are bright scarlet, and should be sown in heat as early as practicable, the seedlings being kept in a frame for the first winter. This species is a native of Texas, and is found as far north as Carolina, and as far west as Sonora. Erythronium {Dog's-tooth Violet). — Lilaceous bulbs, among the loveliest of our hardy flowers, though the old favourite Dens-canis is the only one commonly cultivated. The genus con- tains only about a dozen species and varieties. These belong to N. America, with the exception of E. Dens-canis, a beautiful plant found in various parts of Europe. It has hand- some oval leaves, with patches of reddish- brown. The rosy-purple or lilac flowers are borne singly on stems 4 to 6 in. high, and droop gracefully. One variety has white flowers, one rose-coloured, and one flesh-coloured. E. longifoHum has longer and narrower leaves and larger flowers, and the sorts enumerated in catalogues Eryngium Oliverianum. under the name of majus are apparently derived from this variety. E. Dens-canis thrives in moist sandy or peaty soil, when fully exposed to the sun. It is most valuable for the spring or rock-garden, or for a border of choice hardy bulbs, and, where it is sufficiently plentiful, for edgings to American plants in peat soil. The bulbs are white and oblong, re- sembling a dog's tooth, hence its name. It is increased by dividing the bulbs every two or three years, and replant- ing rather deeply. Central Europe. The varieties sibiricum, a robust plant from the Altaian Mountains, and japonicum, with violet-purple flowers, are not, so far as we are aware, yet in culti- vation. 520 ERYTHRONIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ESCAI.LONIA. E. americanum {^Yellow Adder^s- tongue) is common in the woods and low copses of the Eastern States of N. America, where it flowers in May. Its pale green' leaves are mottled, and com- monly dotted with purple and white. Flowers i in. across, pale yellow, and spotted near the base ; they appear on slender stalks 6 to 9 in. high. A' variety (E. bracteatum) differs in having a bract developed, as E. grandiflorum sometimes has. It is very pretty, but, being a some- what shy flowerer, is seldom seen in cultivation. The late Mr. M'Nab was very successful with it in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, and writes in an early volume of The Garden : " This interesting plant formerly grew in the open border here, but its flowers were rarely seen. Some years ago I put a tuft of the bulbs in one of the stone compartments of the rock-garden, with a southern aspect, the soil being a mixture of peat and loam. As soon as the space became filled with roots, flowers were freely produced, and on the 20th of April it was covered with yellow blooms. In these confined spaces the bulbs are better matured than in open borders, where the ground is generally covered with small green leaves growing from unmatured bulbs, and there are few of the larger spotted leaves which generally accompany the flowers." The rich soil of our gardens probably develops growth at the expense of flower. In poor sandy soil, in copses, or in the wild garden, this little plant may bloom better. E. giganteum. — This, the noblest of the genus, is considered a variety of E. grandiflorum. Its showy flowers of pure white have a ring of .bright orange-red, and measure 3 in. in diameter. It is found in California at an elevation of six to ten thousand feet, and also in Van- couver's Island. It was called E. maximum by Douglas, and E. speciosum by Nuttall. E. grandiflorum. — The only cultivated kind with more than one flower on a stem. It is extremely handsome when well grown. In a peat bed, with Lilies and other peat-loving plants, it is very fine, and produces as many as five flowers on a stem. The late Mr. M'Nab used to grow the larger American kinds as well as the European Dens-canis very success- fully in grass. Writing of them in spring, he says, " Many Dog's-tooth Violets are in bloom on the northern grassy slopes of the rock-garden ; they were thickly dibbled in, here and there, when the turf was first laid, and, being placed in all exposures, a longer flowering season has been obtained. In such places they do not multiply fast, as only single flowers pro- ceeding from the two or three spotted leaves are produced. On grass banks with a southern aspect the leaves are all ripened off before the first grass cutting, which is not the case on grass slopes with a northern aspect." I have planted them largely in grass, and find they thrive in every soil in that way, and are very early and pretty both in leaf and flower, scattered in groups and colonies in turf , Little known or rarer kinds are E. revolutum, albidum, purpurascens, pro- pullans, and Hartwegi. Known species.— .£. albidum, N. Amer. americanum, do. Dens-canis, Europe, N. Asia, grandiflorum, N. W. Amer. Hartwegi, N. W. Amer. propullans, do. purptrascens, Calif. Escallonia.— The Escallonias in culti- vation are often beautiful shrubs, un- fortunately sometimes perishing in hard winters save in favoured districts. In mild places the common E. macrantha succeeds in the open, but, as a rule, it must be regarded as a wall shrub. Even in the mild districts it is cut down during severe winters, but it usually shoots up again strongly in the returning spring. There is a variety called sanguinea with deeper - coloured flowers. Somewhat similar to E. macrantha is E. rubra, but the foliage is less handsome and the flowers are paler. E. Philippiana is very beautiful and hardy, as it may be grown as a bush in the neighbourhood of London. It is an Evergreen with small leaves, and bears a profusion of large panicles of small white flowers. It is a first-rate shrub, and one of the best of the Escallonias. E. pterocladon is very free-flowering, the small flowers being white and pink, while E. punctata has dark red flowers, some- what similar to those of E. rubra. Another species, E. montevidensis, also known as E. florilaunda, bears large loose clusters of white flowers,- and there are varieties — usually seedling forms — known under different names, especially in seaside gardens. Among these, that called E. Ingrami is one of the best, being hardier than E. macrantha, though not so hand- some. Escallonias are mostly natives of S. America, chiefly Chili, Brazil, and Peru. Eschscholtzia {Califomian Poppy). — Brilliant annuals, long and favourably known. The beautiful new forms recently seen are acquisitions ; the rich reddish- orange of Mandarin and the unique form EUCALYPTUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EUCRYJ'HIA. 521 of double crocea are of real value, and they- make, with crocea alba, and the orange aurantiaca, most attractive plants. To have these showy flowers in all their beauty, they should be sown in August and September for early summer bloom. They may be sown even later — and should then be allowed to bloom where they are sown. They get deeply and firmly rooted, and flower much longer than if sown in spring. They are very hardy, and snails and slugs do not molest them. There are some half a dozen kinds, well worth growing, viz. E. californica, orange, very strong ; E. crocea, saffron colour ; E. c. alba, white ; E. c. Mandarin, orange and crimson, very fine ; E. c. fl.-pl., double ; E. c. rosea, and E. tenui- folia ; and new forms are raised from time to time. Known species. — Nearly all natives of Cali- fornia. E. Austinze, californica, elegans, glyptosperma, mexicana, minutiflora, Parishii, peninsularis, rhombipetala. Eucalyptus {Gicm Tree). — Large and handsome Australian trees and shrubs, of which a number of species grow to a great height. The leaves are thick and leathery, and vary much in shape. In the south of England and Ireland a few of the species live in the open air. About London some grow them for their aspect in the open air after a single year's growth, and in that case they should be put out about the middle of May. Some letters in the Times, by persons unaware of the results of planting the tree in this country, in- duced many to plant the common Gum tree, which perished with the first severe frost. Only in the more favoured districts have these trees any, chance, and they never present the graceful and stately port which they show in countries that really suit them, such as parts of Italy and California. What the higher moun- tain species may do remains to be seen, and the common Gum tree is sometimes made fair use of in the London parks among the larger plants put out for summer. Eucharidium. — Pretty hardy annuals of the Evening Primrose family, thriving under the same treatment as all annuals from California. They may be sown in autumn for early summer-flowering, or from March to June for late summer and autumn bloom. They flower about eight weeks after sowing, and remain in bloom a long time. Three species are cultivated — E. concinnum, about 9 in. high, with many rosy purple blooms ; E. grandi- florum, larger rosy-purple flowers, streaked •with white, which has a white variety (album), and a variety with pink flowers (roseum) ; and E. Breweri, an elegant new annual, more robust, and with red flowers of a deeper, richer colour than E. grandiflorum. These species are of secondary importance in the flower garden, but may occasionally be used as surface plants or in bold masses. Like many other annuals, they suffer in general estimation through being judged by spring-sown plants, with poor and short- lived bloom. Eucnide bartonioides.— A half-hardy annual of the Loasa family, from Mexico. The stems are about i ft. high, and bear sulphur-yellow flowers, \\ in. across, showy in August and September when several are expanded. Seeds should be sown in heated frames in early spring, but the seedlings should be very carefully trans- planted to the open border in May, as they are then very liable to injury. = Microsperma. Eucomis. — Cape bulbs, not very showy, though deserving of cultivation in the out- door garden, on account of their broad handsome foliage, more or less spotted with purple at the base, from which rise tall cylindrical spikes of blossoms sur- mounted by a crown of leaves. Like many Cape plants, they are hardy on light and dry soils. There are four species, all of which are in cultivation. E. undu- lata has leaves 18 in. long, wavy at the margins, and profusely marked on the under surface with dark purple blotches which, in the variety striata, assume the form of stripes. The flower spike is 2 to 4 ft. high. On the upper half are densely arranged, in a cylindrical manner, numer- ous greenish-white blossoms, with purplish centre, crowned by a tuft of narrow green leaves. E. punctata is the largest kind, having leaves about 3 ft. long. E. regia is dwarfer than either of the preceding. The raceme of flowers is about i ft. high, and the tuft of leaves at the top is larger than in other kinds. E. nana is the smallest. The spreading leaves lie hori- zontally, while in the others they are more erect. They thrive best in light sandy soil, with the roots protected by a covering during winter. The foot of a south wall suits them if they are associated with the larger hardy bulbs, but they are not the most effective or graceful of the Lily family. Eucryphia pinnatifolia {The Brush Bush). — A distinct shrub, and probably hardy, though a native of South America. It belongs to the Rose family, but the flowers remind one in size and form of those of St. John's Wort, except that 522 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EUONYMUS. they are white, and the central tuft of stamens is very conspicuous. The flowers, borne plentifully, are very pretty, among foliage resembling that of some of the Roses. It is one of the most beautiful shrubs of recent introduction, and valuable on account of producing its flowers about the end of the summer, when blooming shrubs are getting scarce. It is deciduous, some- what upright, and has pinnate leaves, and large white flowers about 3 in. in diameter. It is of rather slow growth, but has with- stood severe winters in the neighbourhood of London ; and may therefore fairly be classed as hardy. It can only be satis- factorily propagated by layers, which will, to a certain extent, account for its scarcity. Till more plentiful, it should be placed in warm positions and in good free soil. Chili. There is another species in cultivation, E. cordifolia, but it is rarer. Eulalia gracillima.— This Japanese Grass is less vigorous in growth than either of the better known kinds, the leaves being more narrow and more grace- fully recurved. They are bright green in colour, with a comparatively broad stripe of white down the centre of each. So pronounced is this white stripe, that this form is sometimes called E. gracillima univittata. Plants of it in pots are pretty. E. japonica. — A hardy and ornamental perennial Grass of robust growth, 6 to 7 ft. high. Established plants form clumps 17 to 18 ft. in circumference. The brownish-violet flower-panicles have at first erect branches, but as the flowers open, these branches curve over gracefully, and resemble a Prince of Wales' Feather. Each of the numerous flowers has at its base a tuft of long silky haii's, which contribute greatly to the feathery lightness of the whole. For isolated positions on lawns it is excellent ; or it might be used in groups, or on the margin of the shrubbery. Even more valuable than the type are the two variegated forms, varie- gata, with leaves longitudinally striped with white and green ; and zebrina, with distinct cross bars of yellow on the green, which render it singularly attractive. These variegated forms, particularly zebrina, are not quite so hardy as the type. Division or seed. Japan. Euonymus {Spindle Tree).— AW these have small flowers, with little beauty, but this defect is compensated for by their foliage, habit, and bright fruit which some of the sorts bear. They grow well in almost every variety of soil, but are most luxuriant in such as are rich in vegetable matter, and, as a rule, they prefer open sunny situations, particularly the evergreen sorts, and all thrive near the sea. The following are among the most distinct of the kinds at present in cultivation : — E. europaeus (Common Spindle Tree). — This is a native of England, and is a bushy tree, from 10 to 25 ft. high ; the leaves are of a warm green colour, changing as they decay to a reddish tiiit. Its small greenish-white flowers expand in May, and are followed almost always by an abundant crop of fruit, in bright pink capsules, which, opening up in the autumn, reveal the orange-coloured sac which envelops the seeds, producing a beautiful effect. Of several varieties, the most interesting are the white fruited kind, which differs from the species in producing white instead of pink cap- sules ; the variety with scarlet leaves ; and nanus or pumilus, a neat little plant, very bushy, and one which never grows higher than about 2 ft. and is admir- ably suited for the rock-garden, or any situation where a dwarf plant is desirable. E. latifolius {Broad-leaved Spindle Tree). — A species wild in the south of France and in some parts of Germany, and a tree of from 10 to 20 ft. high, the leaves shining green, larger than those of the common Euonymus ; the flowers, which expand in June, are of a purplish-white ; the capsules large, and deep red, contrast- ing, as they open, most effectively with the bright orange sacs with which the seed is enveloped. It is quite hardy, and forms an ornamental tree, well fitted for a lawn. E. americanus [American Spindle Tree). — This is a small deciduous, or, in mild winters and sheltered situations, sub- evergreen shrub, of about 6 ft. in height,, found wild over a wide area in Canada and the United States. It has an erect habit of growth, with numerous long slender branches covered with a smooth light green bark ; the flowers open in June, succeeded by rough warted brilliant crim- son capsules, which in its native habitats are so showy and abundant that it is. named the Burning Bush. In this country it is generally cultivated as a wall plant,, and as such it is ornamental. It succeeds best on the shady side, and prefers a moist rather than a dry porous soil. E. angustifolius {Narrow-leaved Spindle Tree). — A twiggy or sub-ever- green shrub about 4 ft. in height, with EUONYMUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. EUONYMUS. 523 long wiry branches, abundantly clothed with remarkably narrow oblong leaves, of a deep green colour in summer, changing in autumn to a dull red tint. The flowers are very small, of a greenish- white colour, followed by red fruit capsules. It is a numerous leaves of a dark glossy green colour. Though hardy in sheltered dis- tricts, it seldom flowers in this country. Few evergreens thrive better near the sea ; and either it or some of its varieties are frequently met with on the west and south Eulalia japonica. very distinct and interesting shrub for a low wall, and has a pretty effect on raised banks, growing freely in shady sheltered aspects, and in damp heavy soils. E. japoniCUS C/!?^a« Spindle Tree). — An evergreen species 4 to 6 ft. in height, of bushy habit, the branches clothed with coasts of England, and west coast of Scotland, forming handsome specimen shrubs on lawns and shrubberies. In the inland districts it suffers from frosts, and can only be depended upon on walls or in favoured -situations. During recent years a number of varieties have been 524 EUPATORIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. FARFUGIUM. sent home from Japan ; several of these, and particularly the variegated forms, are favourites. All the varieties thrive best in warm sunny exposure, and in well-drained soils. The kind called argenteus variegatus has leaves clothed with silver ; aureus varie- gatus, leaves margined with deep yellow ; latifolius argenteus and latifolius aureus, leaves with white and yellow variegations respectively. E. radicans variegatus is a dwarf creeping variety, its leaves are variegated with white ; it is hardy, and useful for planting as an edging. On rockeries or low walls it has a pretty , effect ; and as it forms roots similar to those of the Ivy, it requires little care to keep it to the wall or other support. — The Garden. Eupatorium ( Thorough-wort). — Coarse Composite plants, most of which are better suited for the wild garden than for borders, though two or three kinds are worth a place for supplying cut flowers in autumn. The most suitable are E. ageratoides, altissimum, and arom- aticum, which are 3 to 5 ft. high, arid bear a profusion of white blossoms in dense flat heads, E. cannabinum (Hemp Agrimony), E. perfoliatum, and E. pur- pureum (Trumpet-weed), which is a fine object in the rougher parts of a garden, being 12 ft. high, with stems terminated by huge clusters of purple flowers. All grow in any kind of soil. Euphorbia {Spurge). — Plants of the Spurge order include few hardy species of value for the flower garden. The foliage of some, such as E. Cyparissia (Cypress Spurge) is elegant. In spring E. pilosa and amygdaloides are attractive by their yellow flowers when little else is in bloom, but they are scarcely worth growing in a general way. Some of the dwarf kinds, such as E. Myrsinites, portlandica, capitata, and triflora, are neat and distinct in habit and grow in any soil. There are a few variegated fonris. The well-known Caper Spurge (E. Lathyris). is often seen in cottage gardens, and in habit is a distinct plant, with a certain beauty of foliage and habit. A few plants of it on a bank or rough place are not amiss. Eurya latifolia variegata. — This fine half-hardy variegated shrub, grown in pots or tubs, is useful and ornamental for outdoor decoration during summer ; it would also be useful intermixed with such things as Agapanthus for the adorn- ment of steps and corridors, and it is best increased by means of cuttings. Eurybia {Olearia). Eutoca (see Phacelia). Exochorda grandiflora {Pearl Bush). —One of the loveliest of hardy shrubs allied to the Spiraeas, but with larger flowers. It is a graceful shrub, makmg when full grown a rounded bush of about 10 ft. high and as much through. It flowers about the middle of May, just after the foliage unfolds, and affords a channing contrast between tender green leaves and snow-white flowers as large as florins. It likes shelter, and grows best in warm loam. Syti., Spirsa. Exogonium Purga {Jalap Plant).-— Of autumn-flowering hardy plants there is, perhaps, none more beautiful among climbing plants, and of its hardiness there can be little doubt. It has lived for years at Bitton, Gloucestershire, without any protection, and each year it has flowered well. It has also done well at Drayton- Beauchamp, Kew, Fulham, and in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. Mr. Ella- combe grows it in a sheltered corner, and provides a tall wire trellis with a spread- ing top for it to grow up. It does not flower in the lower parts, but the entire top and the pendent shoots become a mass of lovely bloom. If not checked by late .spring frosts at Bitton, it comes into blossom early in September, and continues to flower till cut down by frost. Mr. Ellacombe states that if he were to plant another, he should place it under a south wall, near a Peach or Apricot tree, and let it wind its way through the branches. Little training would prevent it injuring the tree, and it would probably flower earlier, and perfect its seeds. It has roundish tubers of variable size, those of mature growth being about as large as an orange and of a dark colour. These are the true Jalap tubers. The plant gets its name from Xalapa, in Mexico, its native region, and is increased by division of tubers. Fabiana imbricata {False Heath).— k. pretty shrub of the Potato family, but so much resembling a Heath, that it might well be mistaken for one. It is slender, with evergreen leaves, and in early summer every shoot is wreathed with small white tnimpet-shaped flowers. A native of Chili, it is not perfectly hardy as a bush except in the southern counties. Farfugiuin grande.— A vigorous per- ennial, with fleshy stems i to 2 ft. high, and with broad leaves of light green variously streaked, spotted with yellow in one variety, and having white and rose in another. It does best in a half-shady FELICIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 525 position in free moist soil. During the heats of summer it requires frequent watering, and at the approach of winter it should be moved to the greenhouse, except in mild districts. In colder parts it is scarcely worth planting out, as it grows slowly ; but where it thrives it is handsome in borders, or on the margins of beds. Multiplied by di\ision in spring ; the offsets being potted and kept in a frame until the\' are well rooted. Felicia tenella.— A neat little half- hardy plant of the Starwort family. It has dwarf slender stems, terminated by flower-heads, the flowers being i in. across, and of pale violet-blue with yellow centre. It should be raised as a half- hard)- annual, but as it becomes shrubby, it may be kept over the winter like half- hardy bedding plants. Flowers in light soil from July to September. Would form a graceful blue carpet to Gladioli, Tuberoses, standard Fuchsias, or other tall slender plants. Cape of Good Hope. Syn.., Aster tenellus. Fenzlia dianthiflora. — A charming Californian annual, forming compact tufts, I to 4 in. high. Its many large flowers \ary from purple and lilac to nearly white. It is perfectly hardy, and, like several Californian annuals, does best if sown in autumn. It thrives in any ordinary soil, but the warmer and more sheltered the situation the better. A Io\ely ground or carpet plant, if some slender bulbs or other taller plants are scattered through it. Syn.^ Gilia dianthoides. Ferdinanda eminens. — One of the finest " sub - tropical " plants, growing well in the southern counties when in rich moist soil. It is the better for shelter. WTiere the soil is rich, and humid, and the position warm, it is some- times over 12 ft. high, haxing pairs of immense opposite leaves, and is a good companion to the Castor-oil plant. It requires to be planted out, when young, about the middle of May; it grows freely from cuttings ; and greenhouse treatment will do in winter. It is better to keep a stock in pots through the summer, for cuttings, though the old ones may be used. Ferraria. — Plants of the Iris ord«i: from the Cape of Good Hope. F. undulata is the only hardy species. It is a curious plant with flowers like the Tiger-flower (Tigridia) in shape, but small, of a dull plum colour, and wavy-edged. It requires a light sandy soil, on a warm sunny border, and if close to a south wall it is all the better. The bulbs require protec- tion during winter or lifting in autumn, when they maj' be divided. Ferula {Giant Fmnel). — Among the finest umbelliferous plants that have so long remained unnoticed in our botanic gardens, their charm consisting in large tufts of the freshest green leaves in early spring. The leaf is apt to fade early in autumn, but this maybe retarded bycutting out the flower-shoots the moment they ap- pear, though these are not ugly, but on the contrary the plants are striking when in flower. Ferulas should be well planted at first, and it is only when established that their good effect is seen. W'liere bold spring flowers are naturalised or planted in colonies, a group of these fine- leaved plants will be \aluable, with their fine plumes rising in early spring. They are among the true hardy plants of the northern world, ne\'er suffering from cold. Their fine forms in summer or autumn, when they throw up flowering-shoots to' a height of 10 ft. or so, are remarkable enough ; but their appearance when break- ing up in spring charms us most. A good way is to place them singly or in small groups, just outside a shrubber)', or isolated on the Grass, so that their verdure may be seen in early spring. Deep free soil should be supplied before planting, if the soil be not good and deep. Ferulas are readily raised from seed, which as soon as gathered should be sown in a nursery bed in the open air. The plants, e\en when well established, do not bear division well, though with care they may be transplanted. One of the best known and most valuable is F. tingitana, which is elegant and \igorous. It takes several years to form strong- plants, and the plants look like massive plumes of large filmy Ferns. F. com- munis is also a good species, and others, including F. glauca, neipolitana, Feru- lago, and persica, may be added where variety is sought, but the first two are not surpassed. The flower-stems de\-eloped the second or third year from seed are 6 to 10 ft. high, are branched, and bear numbers of small inconspicuous flowers. S. Europe and N. Africa. Festuca {Fescue Gnus). — Annual and perennial Grasses, containing few species for the garden. A \-ariety of Sheep's Fescue (F.' ovina), named glauca, is a pretty dwarf hardy Grass, forming dense tufts of lea\-es of a glaucous hue or soft blue,, and on this' account some- times c^led "blue" Grass. It makes good edgings, and when it is used for- this purpose the flower-spikes should be cut away. F. ovina viridis is also 526 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. KOTHERGILLA. a pretty edging plant, and, being of slow growth, does not require renewal for years. Ficaria {Pilewort). — Plants of the Crowfoot family, much resembling some kinds of Buttercup : F. ranunculoides (Lesser Celandine) is a common British plant, 3 to 6 in. high, producing golden- yellow flowers in early spring. It is so common that it would not be mentioned but for its pretty double and white varieties. Moist borders, in any soil. A good plant for growing under trees. Division. F. grandiflora. — A large-flowered kind, about twice the size of our own, the flowers being nearly 2 in. across. It is easily grown and showy, and could be naturalised. Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Ficus elastica {India-rubber Plant). — This is not only in fair health in the open air in summer, but sometimes makes a good growth under our northern sun. It is best suited for select mixed groups, and in small gardens, for isolating among low-bedding plants. It will best enjoy stove treatment in winter. It should be put out at the end of May. In all cases it is best to use plants with single stems. The trailing F. repens and F. stipulata also thrive in the open air in summer, and have a pretty effect, trailing up stems of trees in the sub-tropical garden. In mild districts they are hardy against walls or rocks. Cuttings. Foeniculum (Fennel). — The common Fennel is graceful, and were there not many other plants of much grace of foli- age, it would be of value for its leaves. F. dulce is a nearly allied kind, and both grow in any soil or on any waste bank. Forsythia {Golden Bell). — Very beautiful spring -flowering shrubs, espe- cially F. susp>ensa, whose long, slender, wand - like shoots are studded for a considerable distance with bright golden blossoms. F. suspensa is certainly one of our finest shrubs, and should be found in any garden however small. It is at home under various conditions. Be- ing of a rather loose rambling habit, it is well suited for training on a wall ; indeed, few subjects are superior to it for a sunny spot, where the wood will thoroughly ripen, and a good display of spring bloom will be ensured. F. suspensa should not be employed as a wall plant in a shady position, as the yield of flowers will be meagre ; nor where a close-fitting subject is required, as it is seen to the greatest advantage when the principal branches are secured to the wall till the allotted space is covered, and the shoots are afterwards allowed to grow at will, since by this mode of treatment the long slender branchlets dispose themselves in a very graceful manner, and the upper ones hang down for a long distance. A wall treated in this way is quite a mass of gold. If any pruning is required, it should be done as soon as the flowers are over, so that the young shoots may have as long a growing and ripening season as possible. As a rule, however, they need little pruning beyond the removal of weak or exhausted shoots. When rambling about in a semi- wild state, or when hanging over a bank or a cutting, this Forsythia is seen to very great advantage. It also forms a most ornamental specimen in the open if it is secured to a good stout stick when planted, and is afterwards allowed to grow at will ; for the long slender shoots, which are produced in considerable numbers, will dispose themselves in a graceful manner, and in favourable situations many of them will root at the points, and will soon form quite a colony around the central plant. A large mass of Forsythia grown in this way is most striking. F. viridissima, another species, is quite a shrub. It needs a spot fuUy exposed to the sun, so that a good display of bloom may be ensured. A certain Forsythia was sent here from the Continent two or three years since under the name of F. intermedia, and was announced as a hybrid between F. suspensa and F. viri- dissima. Though at first very little disposed in its favour, I "have recently seen it in a better light. Its general appearance is about midway between its alleged parents. Forsythias may be flowered under glass in the greenhouse or the conservatory during the early months of the year, and, if so treated, they will bloom in a ver>' satisfactory manner. Owing to the time the blossoms expand when in the open ground, very little forcing is necessary to have them in bloom quite early. Fortunei and Sieboldi are names often used ; but these represent only vigorous forms of F. suspensa. As the shoots of the rambling kinds root from the points almost as readily as a bramble, and cuttings strike freely, there are no obstacles in the way of their rapid propagation. The shrubby F. viridissima also strikes without difficulty from cuttings, though scarcely to the same extent as the others. Fothergillaalnifolia.— ANorthAmeri- can dwarf shrub, desirable on account of Its flowering eariy in spring, its feathery THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 527 tufts of fragrant white flowers appearing before the leaves, which resemble those of the common Alder. Suitable for a moist peat border or the low part of the rock-garden. Fragaria {Strawbem^.—Tiie^ Straw- berry is much more useful in the fruit garden than in the flower garden, yet trailer, bearing many red berries and flowering late. All are of the easiest culture m any not too wet soil, and of facile increase by division. Francoa {Maiden's Wreath).— C\i\\\&n plants of the Saxifrage family, somewhat tender, and suitable for dry sheltered positions on warm borders or banks, pre- Francoa ramosa (Maiden's Wreath). some kinds are pretty in the rock-garden. The common English Strawberry is very pretty on banks, and occasionally most useful on old mossy garden walls where it estabhshes itself. One kind, F. mono- phylla, is a beautiful rock-gai-den plant, with large white flowers. The Indian strawberry, F. indica, is a pretty little ferring a light loam. They are good for cutting, as the long branching stems i8 in. to 2 ft. high, bear numerous white or pink blossoms on stalks. The plants are raised from seed, and in spring furnish flowers for a long time. F. ramosa, bear- ing white or pink flowers, and having a short stem, differs from F. appendiculata. 528 FRANKENIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. FRITILLARIA. which is stemless, and has flowers deeper in colour than the others. F. sonchifolia has also a short stem, but its leaves are sessile and not stalked, and its flowers are rose-coloured. They are often grown as window plants, and are best is such where they do not thrive in the open air. Frankenia Isevis {Sea Heath).— K very small evergreen, with crowded leaves like a Heath. Common in marshes by the sea in many parts of Europe and on the east coast of England. Best for the rock- garden, but mainly of botanical interest. Fremontia californica.— A handsome Californian shrub, but scarcely hardy enough for the open air without pro- tection. There are few more beautiful wall shrubs. It has large bright yellow bowl-shaped flowers, 2 in. across, the deep White Fritillary. green leaves being lobed. In favourable spots it reaches 10 or 12 ft. in height, and flowers in early summer. It succeeds best against anorth, west, or east wall, a southern exposure being usually too hot and dry. Fritillaria {Fritillary). — Bulbs of the Lily family, several of which are valuable, some, such as the Crown Imperial, being stately, others such as F. recurva, being delicate and pretty, but most have dull- tinted curiously interesting flowers. They may be put to many uses : the Crown Imperial is a fine plant for the mixed border or the shrubbery, and, bemg vigorous, is able to take care of itself in the wild garden. Its early spring growth makes it valuable. The Snake's-head (F. Meleagris) and others, such as F. latifoha, pyrenaica, together with the choicer kinds, are fitted for the bulb border and for grassy places. Only one or two require special treatment ; all the others thrive in ordinary garden soil. They may all be readily increased by offsets from the old bulbs, which should be lifted every three or four years and planted in fresh soil— a process very beneficial to the plants. The lifting should be done in autumn, and the bulbs replanted without delay. The following are among the most desirable for general cultivation : — F. aurea, one of the prettiest of the genus, is quite hardy, is about 5 in. high, and has a stem of four to six thick, fleshy, deep green leaves, with a nodding flower, which is pale yellow spotted, or chequered with brown. Silesia. F. Burneti, a handsome hardy plant about 9 in. high, with solitary drooping blossoms, 2 in. long, which are of a plum colour chequered with yellowish-green. Alps. Flowers with the Snowdrop, and is as easy to grow. F. imperialis [Crown Imperial). — A showy and stately plant, from 3 to 4 ft. high, with stout bright green shoots, crested by large dense whorls of drooping bell-like flowers and a cro\vn of foliage. There are se\eral varieties, differing chiefly in the colour of the flowers.- The princi- pal are — lutea (yellow), rubra (red), double red and double yellow, rubra maxima (very large red flowers), Aurora (bronzy orange), sulphurine (large sulphur-yellow), Orange Crown (orange-red), Stagzwaard (a fasciated stem fonn, with ver\- large deep red blossoms), and aurea marginata (gold-striped foliage) ; every lead being margined with a broad golden-yellow band, blending with the rest of the foliage. This plant thrives best-in a rich deep loam, especially if the bulbs remain undisturbed for years. Its best place, per- haps, is in a group on the fringe of the shrubbeiy or a group of American plants. For artistic effects it is not so valuable as the common Snake's-head ; and its odour is against it when gathered. F. Earelini. — An interesting kind, 4 to 5 in. high, with two or three broad leaves clasping its stem, and having a terminal raceme of slightly-drooping bell-like flowers. These flowers, about i in. across, are of a pale purple, with darker FRITILLARIA. THE EXGLISH SLOWER G JUDEX. fritillaria. 529 veins, a few darker spots, and a distinct yellowish-g-reen pit at the base of each refiexed segment. It is a native of Central Asia, and, flowering in late autumn or early winter, is \aluable for a collec- tion of winter-flowering outdoor plants. According to Dr. Kegel it must be kept in dry sand until November, and should not grow or show bloom before spring. If planted in November, growth is re- tarded, and it does not bloom in spring, which it ought to do ; while those flowering in autumn inxariably dwindle awa)-, and do not produce any new bulbs. It should be planted in light soil in well-drained borders with a warm exposure. x", latifolia. — A most variable species as regai-ds the colour of the flowers, which are larger than those of our native F. Meleagris. They are borne on stems about I ft. high, are pendulous, and vary in colour through xarious shades of purple, black, lilac, and yellow. The principal named \arieties ai-e — Black Knight, Cap- tain Marryat, Caioline Chisholm, Cooper, Dandy, Jei-ome, Maria Goldsmith, Mari- anne, Mellina^ Pharaoh, Rembrandt, Shakespeare, Van Speyk, each represent- ing a different shade of colour. They grow freely in an open situation in any soil, and are e.xcellent for naturalising. Caucasus. F. Meleagris {Siuikc's - hc(ui) is an elegant nati\ e species, of which there are numerous varieties. It is 9 to 18 in. high, and in early summer bears a solitary drooping flower, beautifully tesselated with purple or pui-plish-maroon on a pale ground. The chief varieties are — the white (alba), which has scai-cely anydai-k markings ; nigra, a deep purplish-black ; pallida, light purple ; angustifolia, with long narrow lea\es ; major, with flowers larger than the type ; praaco.x, which flowers about a week earlier than the other fonns ; flavida, yellowish ; and the rai-e double variety. All forms of this beautiful plant may be used with excellent effect. It: grows freely in grass not mown early, and is therefore admirable for the wild garden ; its various forms are among the most beautiful inhabitants of the hardy bulb garden, and tufts of the chequered or white-flowered variety are among the most graceful plants in cottage gardens. F. Moggridgei {Golden Snak^s-ftead). — A beautifiil plaiit with pendulous blossoms, 2 in. long, which are of fine golden-yellow, chequered with brownish- crimson on the inner surface of the bell. It may be seen on its native Alps, at an elevation of five to seven thousand feet, among the short stunted Grass, accom- panied by alpine plants, and giving the slopes the appearance of a sheet of golden bloom. It is hardy, and flowers early in spring. It is a lovely flower for planting in the choice bulb portions of the rock- garden, and, when plentiful, for dotting in groups in Grass where it may escape the mower. F. pudica is one of the most charming of hardy bulbs, and takes a place among yellow flowers similar to that of the Snow- drop among white ones. It is a native of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California, where it grows in a Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis). dry barren soil. It is one of the principal spring ornaments of the flora, being nearly 6 in. high, and having bright golden- yellow flowers, graceful in form and drooping like a Snowflake. It tlirives in warm sunny borders of loamy soil. F. recurva. — The showiest of the Fritillaries, its red colour being as bright as some Lilies, and mixed with bright yellow especially on the inside of the flower. It flowers early in May or towards the end of April. The bulbs consist of a slightly flattened tuberous stock, covered by articulated scales, some- what widely placed, which at first sight resemble those of Lilimn philadelphi- cum. A tuft of bright green linear leaves M :\i 530 FRITILLARIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. FUCHSIA. appears above the soil, and from this rises a slender purplish stem, 6 in. to 2^ ft. high, with several pendent Lily -like flowers. It is not robust, and has suc- ceeded only under careful cultivation, growing best in fibry loam, on a warm sunny border, near a wall. In winter it is advisable to cover the bulbs with some protective material or with a hand-light. California. F. Sewerzowi. — A singular - looking plant, growing from I to i| ft. high, having broad glaucous leaves and nod- ding flowers that are greenish outside and vinous-purple within. A native of the mountains of Turcomania, quite hardy in our climate. Propagated by bulblets or seed. Many others are in cultivation, but the majority are unattractive, though some are useful for naturalising among Grass in the wild garden ; the most suitable are — F. delphinensis, a robust plant with stems I ft. or more high, bearing brownish- purple flowers, more or less chequered with greenish-yellow ; F. pyrenaica, a similar species, but more robust ; F. liliacea, liliorhiza, lanceolata, lusitanica, pallidiflora, tulipifolia, ruthenica, and tristis, all with dull brownish-purple or greenish flowers. Fritillaria species. — F. acmopetala, Syria. alba, N. Amer. armena, Armenia, assyricua, Mesopotamia, atropurfurea, N.W. Amer. bi- fiora,CaM. bithynica, Bithyn. Boissieri, Spain. bucharica, Bokhara, camschatcensis, E. Asia. cirrhosa, Himal. conica, Greece, cornuta. Cornuti, crassifolia. As. Min. cuprea, Mexico. dagana, Siberia, dasyphylla, Lycea. Eduardi, Bokhara. Ehrharti, Greece. Elwesii, Lycea. Fleischeriana, Asia Min. Forbesii, Lycea. Gardneriana, Himal. gibbosa, Persia, Afghan. grcBca, Greece, imperialis, Persia, Himal. itwolucrata, Italy, japonica, Japan, kurdica, Kurdistan, lanceolata, N. W. Amer, iatifolia, Caucas. libanotica, Syria, liliacea, Calif. lusitajiica, Portugal, lutea, Caucas. Melcagris, Europe, Caucas. meleagroides, Siberia, mes- sanensis, Mediterr. region, minuta, Kurdi- stan. Munbyi, Algeria. obliqua, Greece. Olivieri, Persia, oranensis, Algeria, oxypetala, India, pallidiflora, Siberia, paruiflora, Calif. persica, Armenia. Pinardi, As. Min. plan- taginifolia. East, pluriflora, Calif pontica, Greece, priscox, S. Europe. Prsewalskii, E. Asia, pudica, N. W. Amer. pyrenaica, Pyrenees, rcueviosa, do. recurva, N. W. Ainer. Reuteri, Persia, rhodocanakis , Grec. Archip. Roylei, Himal. ruthenica, Caucas. Schliemanni, Asia Min. Sewerzowi, Cent. Asia. Sibthorpiana, Greece, tenella, Europe, Caucas. tubaformis, S. Europe, tulipifolia, Caucas. iisuriensis, Amoor. verticillaia, Siberia. Walujewi, Turkestan. Puchsia. — This, a most beautiful orna- ment when well grown, is too seldom seen in our flower gardens. All round our coasts, and especially in the southern and western parts, several species are hardy, and are perhaps the most beautifuL ob- jects in gardens. In other districts Fuchsias are cut down by frost, but spring up again vigorously and, in fact, live the life of herbaceous plants ; but in mild districts, and near the coast, they fre- quently escape being cut down for years, and become large and handsome bushes. No plants are more likely to improve the garden. Not showy, in mass of flower they are of the highest beauty ; the droop- ing shoots of most kinds afford a grace that no garden should be without. Even in dwarf kinds, where this drooping tend- ency is not seen to such advantage, or, it may be, is seen to a disadvantage, the Fuchsia is very valuable ; but its full beauty is seen when we use plants with rather tall stems or pyramids. In the milder districts, where it is a shrub, we see it to perfection ; in others, the tall- stemmed or pyramidal plants have to be placed out in summer. The right way to manage Fuchsias put out for the summe only is to induce them, as far as possible, to produce all their growth in the open air ; for if you start them, nurture them, and make them full of leaves and strong young growth in the spring, they will be disappointing ; but if you keep them back and do not let them burst into leaf until put in the open air in May, they will go on and retain all the strength they gather, suspending graceful blossoms until the leaves desert the trees. They should then be taken up and put in a dry cave, cellar, or shed for the winter, and it would not be difficult to " keep them back " in spring. And even if they seem inclined to push forth before the time to put them in the flower garden there should be no difficulty in placing them in some quiet sheltered nook, where they may receive more pro tection than in the flower garden proper, and yet have full opportunity to make growth in the open air — the great point to be attained. In many places refuse plants may be turned to good accoimt in this way. Nothing is simpler than to make of these standards for the flower garden by cutting away the lower and middle side-shoots and lea\ing the head. All may be freely propagated from cut- tings in spring or autumn. There are about a dozen more or less hardy kinds that siicceed in the open air in the south and midland counties, and many more in warm seaside localities ; in fact, there is not a Fuchsia in cultivation that will not THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 531 thrive in the open air in summer ; if used judiciously they give an air of grace afforded by no other plants. The foUow- ingare among the hardiest kinds : — F. COCCinea. — A well-known bushy plant, graceful and beautiful in growth and bloom, readily adapting itself to any locality, unless the soil be of the wettest and coldest description, and even then a slight covering of coal ashes after the stems are cut down in autumn will pro- tect the roots in winter. In favourable situations it is often 6 ft. high. From the axils of the leaves, which are a fine green, beautifully tinged or veined with red, the flowers, which before they fully open are not unlike crimson drops, are produced in profusion during the greater part of the summer. Chili. F. conica. — A vigorous compact species 3 to 6 ft. high, but not such a free flowerer as some of the others. The flowers have scarlet sepals, and dark purple petals. Chili. F. corallina. — A beautiful plant, taller and more slender than the others, and therefore specially suited for walls and houses. The flowers are large and of a showy red colour, and the plant is a vigorous grower and free bloomer. F. discolor is a dwarf variety with numerous small scarlet flowers. It is the hardiest of all, not being injured by the winters in the milder parts of Scotland if treated as a herbaceous plant. F. pumila is similar, but more slender, and equally desirable. F. globosa. — One of the best of the hardy Fuchsias. The flowers are globose in bud, and retain their shape for some time after they begin to expand, on account of the petals continuing to adhere at the tips. It is a profuse bloomer, and the flowers are richly coloured. It forms a sturdy and often a large shrub in sea- shore districts. Thei-e is no reason why it should not be grown in drier districts, even if cut down by .frost every year, as it is always handsome. F, gracilis. — A very distinct slender plant, with flowers on remarkably long slender stalks. The young shoots are a purplish - red, the calyx is a brighter scarlet, and the corolla has a greater infusion of red than other hardy kinds. In mild and moist districts it is nearly 7 ft. high, from 12 to 15 ft. in circumference, and is of rapid growth. In some winters it is not cut down by frost. There is a -variety called multiflora, which is very free - flowering, and which has shorter flowers and of darker crimson. F. tenella Is a seedling variety of F. graciHs. Chili. F. Eiccartoni.— One of the prettiest and hardiest sorts, growing well without protection even in parts of Scotland. It is compact and twiggy, and in summer bears many bright red blossoms. A garden hybrid. Besides these, other kinds are in cul- tivation, such as procumbens — a curious little New Zealand species — serratifolia, magellanica, thymifolia, and microphylla, and nearly all the hybrid kinds do out-of- doors in summer, and bloom well, though they may be cut down in winter. Among the most distinct and pretty are the dwarf and fragile kinds, such as F. micro- phylla, F. pumila, and several hardy hybrids of the globosa section, all of which seem to flourish unusually well near the sea,, and to grow almost any- where. Fuchsias are mostly "S. American plants, chiefly from Brazil, Bolivia, Chili, Ecuador, Peru, New Grenada, and Venezuela, but some from Mexico, some — viz. Colensoi, Eucliandra, Kirkii, procumbens — from N. Zealand, and one, raceraosa, from the Island of San Do- mingo. The known species are ; — F. alpestris, ainpliata, apetala, arborescens, ayaovacensis, baciilaris, boliviana, canescens, caracasaiia, chonotica, coccinea, Colensoi, con- fertifolia, cordifolia, corytnbiflora, cufvijlora, decussata, denticulata, dependens, Eucliandra, excorticata, fulgens, globosa, Hartwegii, hir- siita, hirtella, insignis, integrifolia intermedia, Kirkii, Lenneaita, longijlora, loxensis, ma- crantha, macropetala, macrostemma, macro- stigma, membranacea , microphylla, viiniata, minimifiora, minutijlora, mixta, montana, nigricans, Notarisii, ovalis, parviflora, petio- laris, procumbens, pubescens, quindiiensis, race- viosa, rosea, salicifolia, scabriuscula, serrati- folia, sessilifolia, simplicicaulis, spectabilis, spinosa, splendens, sylvaiica, thymifolia, tri- phylla, umbrosa, venusta, verrucosa, virgata. Fumaria {Fumitory). — Mostly annual plants of a weedy nature. The species of Corydalis are sometimes placed under this genus, especially in Continental gardens and nurseries. Funkia {Plantain Lily). — Valuable Japanese plants of the Lily Order, of which there are about half-a-dozen species and numerous varieties. The different species are free-flowering herbaceous plants, with spikes of bell-shaped flowers, but the chief value is in the foliage. They are noble plants, most useful for many positions in the garden, while few lend such a fine effisct as F. Sieboldi when finely developed. They are highly suit- able for grouping, and few plants thrive better in open places in shrubberies. The bold striking foliage of some of the strongest plain-leaved section renders them very effective for edging large beds, M M 2 532 FUNKIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. FONKIA, while the kinds with variegated fohage, such as F. undulata variegata, make good groups, or are suitable for edgings. They are best seen in well-drained deep soil. All are easily multiplied by division in spring or autumn. The best are — . F. Fortunei.— This strong species has smaller and more leathery leaves than F. Sieboldi, and they are of a much more bluish or glaucous tint. The flowers are pure white or pale mauve. F. grandiflora is 12 to 18 m. high, producing in August and September chief among which are the white-flowered variety (alba or speciosa as it is more commonly called), a beautiful pant, spathulata, and plantagimfoha, with long narrow leaves. There are some very pretty varieties with leaves of diflerenl variegation, all well worth growing;, notably albo-marginata, with a narrow white line along the margin of She kat ;. undulata variegata, in which the leaves, are undulated on. the margin and varie- gated on the greater part of the surface ; and umvittata, with a broad white midrib to the leaf Plantain Lily (Funkia Sieboldi). numerous large, handsome, pure white, sweet-scented flowers. In some places it is used for edging, but is best seen in tufts, in beds or borders, in a well-drained sandy loam. About Paris it is grown as a flower-garden plant, but with us it does not flower regularly unless in sunny spots and warm, well-drained, and very sandy loam. The young- leaves are a favourite prey of slugs and snails. It is also known as F. subcordata. F. lanclfolia is a small species, with tufts of lance-shaped leaves, narrowing from the middle towards both ends. There are some interesting varieties. F. ovata has large tufts of broad, deep, shining green leaves. Flower-stems 1 2 or 18 in. high, terminating in a short raceme of lilac-blue flowers, which appear in late summer and autumn. One of the strongest species, and when in flower is very hand- some. There is a variegated-leaved form. F. Sieboldi is the most ornamental of the species. It is 18 in. to 3 ft. high, and has large glaucous leaves, somewhat heart-shaped, often over i ft. across. The- flowers are in tall one-sided racemes well above the foliage, and are a creamy-lilac- There is an interesting variety with yellow- margined foliage. Admirable in tasteful." THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GAILLARDIA. 533 hands for picturesque groups or massive edgings. Gagea. — Small plants of the Lily Order, with flewers somewhat like a Star of Bethlehem, but yello.v, and not geneially admired, but pretty in grassy places in sandy soil. Europe, G. lutea being Britisk Gaillardia {Blanket Flower).— V^xy important plants for the flower garden, including some of the showiest flowers, \aluable for their long duration both on the plants and in a cut state. The genus numbers some half-a-dozen species from N. America, and many garden varieties. The numerous kinds now in gardens .appear to fall under three species, but there is a strong family likeness through- out the series. The kinds are G. aristata, a perennial, i to i^ ft. high, with narrow leaves, sometimes deeply cut. The flowers are \\ to 4 in. across, the ray florets having an outer .zone of orange-yellow and an inner one of brownish-red, while the centre is deep bluish-purple. It is the commonest kind, and having been raised largely from seed, has many varieties, differing more or less widely from the type, with various names. G. picta somewhat resembles G. anstata, but has smaller flowers, and is a biennial. It is.dwarfer, and its flowers are brighter. G. amblyodon is a beautiful Texan annual, introduced a few years ago. Its flowers are even smaller than those of •G. picta, and are of a deep cinnabar red. On strong plants they are borne plenti- fully towards the close of tlie summer for several weeks. G. pulchella is the oldest form cultivated, and was introduced about a century ago. It is i to 1 5 ft high, and bears bright yellow and purplish-red flowers, 2 in. across. An annual. G. bi- color and pinnatifida are seldom seen in ;gardens, probably owing to their being somewhat tender. The garden varieties, as has been stated, are numerous, but the most distinct of those named are — G. grandifiora, said to be a hybrid, presumably between G. picta and G. aristata. It is a beautiful and vigorous plant with large brightly-coloured flowers, -which are only surpassed by its variety maxima. It is by far the finest of all. G. hybrida is another garden cross, much resembling G. grandifiora ; the variety splendens has brighter flowers. G. Telemachi, Drummondi, Loiselli, and BosselaTi apjpear to be synonymous with some of the preceding, and G. jRichardsoni scarcely differs from them. AU thrive in good friable garden soil. but not on a cold stiff soil or on one that is too light or dry. Where possible they should be grown in bold groups, for they thrive better if so placed than as solitary plants in a parched border, and no plants have a finer effect in a bed by themselves. Where apt to die in winter, they may be used in mixed borders, if treated as half- hardy annuals ; for if sown in a mild hotbed at the end of February or the beginning of March, they may be grown into good plants, and give a full display of their fine flower-heads as early as those that have withstood the winter in the borders. It is well to note that these in many soils are not nearly so hardy or enduring as many of the perennials we have from N. Amer- ica, and therefore cannot in cold soils be depended on. The culture of the perennial Gaillardia is not beset with difficulties, and the plant is seen best in bold groups, rather than small clumps here and there in the border. If established plants in pots are obtained in April and put out in the places they are to occupy about 2 ft. apart each way, a good bloom may be expected the same season if the soil is well dug and mixed with well-decayed manure. Mr. W. Kel- way, of Langport, Somerset, in a note to The Garden on January 27, 1887, mentions that a collection planted in this manner bore the drought of the last five years better than any other herbaceous peren- nial grown at Langport, and stood the winter so well that not 3 per cent, suffered. Some commend the Gaillardia for bedding, though it is seldom grown in this way, but a pretty effect is obtained when plants of one distinct variety, or shades of the same colour, are put about I ft. apart with the stems pegged down. The situation, however, where the Gaillardias remain out winter after winter must be warm, the soil not too heavy, but light and dry. In very cold and wet seasons in Midland counties the plants often succumb ; but it is very easy in the autumn to strike cuttings, which may be taken off and treated similarly to the Pelargonium, or seeds raised in Alarch, and the plants hardened off before putting out, will also give a quick return in the shape of flowers. In- creased by cuttings in autumn or spring, and division in spring. Species of Gaillardia — acaubs, N. Amer. am- blyodon, Texas, aristata, N. Amer. arizonica, Arizona, comosa, Mexico. laiueolata, N. Amer. megapotamica, Braz. niexicana, Mex. odorata, N. West Amer. pinnatifida, N. W. Amer. tulchella, N. Amer. Roezli, Calif. simplex, N. W. Amer. spathulata, N. W. Amer. tontalensis. Argent. 534 GALACTITES. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GALANTHUS. Galactites tomentosa. — A Composite, from the shores of the Mediterranean, 2 to 3 ft. high, with spiny foliage, blotched with white, and cottony-white on the under surface, the flower-heads lilac- purple. If sown as early as February, it blooms the first season, but stronger plants are got by sowing in autumn. It succeeds best in good loam, and is are hardy, and may be naturalised in Grass, or on the rock-garden, or in the wild garden, where they may be associated with Anemone, early Crocuses, Winter Aconites. As cut flowers. Snowdrops are most attractive, but to cull the flowers in bud is, however, essential, as they can be carried better and open fresher in water than if cut when fully open. Buds v^. Gaillcirdia. effective in small masses in the sub-tropical garden. Galanthus {Snowdrop). — Always loved in English gardens, the old Snowdrop is now known to be only one member of a large family most of which have merits for garden culture. The Snow- drop never looks better than when naturalised amid tender herbage in old orchards and paddocks, on the margins of lawns, or beside woodland walks. Almost any soil suits the Snowdrop, but rich open soils are best. All the Snowdrops so gathered will remain beautiful for ten days or longer, while flowers cut after expansion «ill fade in about a week. The present growing state of our know- ledge of Snowdrops may best be gleaned from a paper read by iVIr. Jas. Allen before the Royal Horticultural Society, of which the following is an abstract ■— In speaking of Snowdrops we must not torget that, besides the di\ision into species and sub-species, we h&xe the ar- rangements into classes, according to GALANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GALANTHUS. 535 colours and other peculiarities. Conse- quently we hear of white Snowdrops and yellow Snowdrops, and also green Snow- drops. G. IMPERATI.— I think no botanist would be able to say where ni\alis ended and Imperati commenced. In the section to which G. nivalis and G. Imperati be- long there are some most lovely Snow- drops, amongst which I would mention first Mr. Melville's Dunrobin form. G. n. Atkinsi is second to none in size, form, quality, and freedom in growth. It is the plant known to some as Imperati of Atkins. G. Plicatus is very distinct and its best forms possess great beauty. The fore- most place in this section belongs to G. p. maxmius. G. plicatus usually flowers late, but I have a selected form, G. p. praecox, which flowers with the early varieties of G. nivalis. Another selected form, G. p. Omega, flowers with the \-ery latest. G. Eu\'ESl. — The best forms of this are large and handsome, but it wants the most sheltered spots in the garden to thrive. Many find G. Elwesi difficult to manage, but with me it grows very freely, especially in one Ijed of very light soil, where the seedlings are almost a nuisance. G. LATIFOLIUS.— This.is the most dis- tinct of all Snowdrops, with its broad grass-green foliage and small pure white flowers, and it has a delicate beauty all its own, more especially just before the bud expands, when the two leaves curve so lovingly round the flower-stem. G. FOSTERI. — The markings on the inner petals are very similar to those of G. Elwesi, but the foliage is quite different, being broad and somewhat blunt, and in shape and colour much like the leaves of Scilla sibirica. M. Max Leichtlin thinks very highly of G. Fosteri, and considers it to be the " king of Snowdrops." G. Alleni. — j\Ir. Barker thinks this is probably a hybrid between G. latifolius and G. caucasicus, as it has some of the features of each species. The flower is of much the same character as that of G. latifolius, but nearly twice as large, and the foliage corresponds in size with the blossoms. Autumnal Snovs'DROPS. — In Greece and the adjacent countries several Snow- drops have been found which flower in the autumn or early winter. They seem to belong to the nivalis section. One peculiarity I have noticed in them is that they have a glaucous hne running down the centre of each leaf, and by this they can be at once distinguished from the spring-flowermg forms of nivalis. So far as I can learn, all these Snowdrops grow on high ground, mostly on mountains. I understand that the Snowdrops on the lower grounds do not flower until early in the year. G. Olg.*;. — From the descriptions given of it, G. Olgae must be a fine variety, and it is very unfortunate that it is lost to cultivation. M. Tanka, the Hungarian botanist, asserts that this and G. octo- brensis are identical, but 1 do not think so ; and the difference between G. octobrensis and G. Rachelae confinns my opinion. G. OCTOBRENSIS. — Lord Walsingham, when travelling in Albania about the year 1875, collected some bulbs on one of the mountains and sent them to the late Rev. H. Harpur-Crewe. Amongst these was a bulb which proved to be a Snowdrop flowering in the autumn, usually in October. 1 am sorry to say that it is somewhat delicate and increases very slowly with me. G. RacheLjE. — This is of the same type as G. octobrensis, but the flower is a little larger, and the leaves are quite a third broader, and it seems to have a stronger constitution than that variety It also differs in being a week or ten days later in flowering. The Yellow Snowdrops form but a small class, two varieties only being known at present, G. lutesoens, and G. flavescens. It must not be supposed that the petals of the flower are yellow ; the name is given because of the rich yellow colour of the ovary, and the mark- ings on the inner petals are also of that colour, instead of the usual green, and even the flower-stalks are more yellow than green. The White Snowdrops also consist, at present, of two varieties only. G. poculiformis was first brought into notice by Mr. D. Melville, who found it in the grounds at Dunrobin Castle. It has since been found in Wales by Mr. A. D. Webster, and I have also received bulbs of a very similar form from a lady near Ayr, in whose garden it grew with several other peculiar forms. Green Snowdrops form quite a large class, but none of the blossoms are entirely, or even mostly, green in colour. They come into this class in consequence of having more or less green on the outer petals. G. Scharloki was so named in 1868 by Professor Caspary in honour of its discoverer, Herr Julius Scharlok, who found it in the valley of the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine. This variety. 536 GALANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GALEGA. in addition to large pale-green spots towards the tips of the outer petals, has the peculiarity of a twin or divided spathe, which curves down on the two sides much like a pair of wings. This variety grows and increases ^ery freely. G. virescens is a \'ery singular-looking Snowdrop, reminding one somewhat of an Ornitho- galum. The outer petals are pale green, shading off to pure white at the edges, and especially at the tips ; the inner petals are entirely green. G. Fosteri Leopard is a great curiosity, having flowers of quite unusual shape, and at the tip of each outer petal a large dark-green spot. M. Max Leichtlin kindly sent me ten collected bulbs of G. Fosteri in January 1890, and one of these flowered as described, and has kept true this season. G. Fosteri Spot is quite distinct from Leopard. It has long outer petals, some- what pearshaped, and at the tip of each is a small pale-green spot. The spots are not sufficiently prominent to give a decided character to the flower, but it is valuable as a variety. Soil for Snowdrops. — With me G. nivalis grows freely in all soils and situations. G. plicatus is not very particular, but still some of its varieties require extra care, as they ha-\e an un- pleasant way of disappearing. G. Elwesi does not do well in close retentive soil. G. latifolius qnd G. caucasicus, I beheve, prefer gritty loam, and I should say that G. Fosteri would also like it. Mr. A. D. Webster tells me that peat has quite a magical effect on Snowdrops, but I have not tried it. My ideal soil for Snow- drops in general would be half good sweet yellow loam and almosthalf unsifted river- grit and a little leaf-mould. The situa- tion I should choose would be a gently sloping bank, more or less shaded by trees whose roots were allowed to wander freely among the Snowdrops. I believe that all bulbs are healthier when planted amongst active roots than in ordinary beds. When the bulbs are at rest it is very essential that the soil should be kept sweet by the activity of other roots. We too often lose sight of this fact. I think the autumnal-flowering Snowdrops should be treated as alpine plants. All my best Snowdrops are grown under trees, the soil being quite full of their roots. I do not use manure for them. The only drawback to my situation for these spring gems is the soiling of the flowers from the drippings of the trees. I should mention that the climate is so trying that I cannot grow such hardy plants as Primroses, Pinks, Daisies, etc. All these disappear after a season or two. I move most of my Snowdrops when in full flower, and do not find they are injured by it. I ha\e noticed that the more green colour there is in any Snowdrop the more freely it grows and the more rapidly it increases, while the absence of green, or the substitution of yellow for the green, makes the plant delicate and slow of increase. Galatella {Aster). Galax aphylla {Wand Plant).— One. of the neatest little plants for the rock- garden ; its white wand-like flowers must have suggested its common name ; its round evergreen leaves are beautifully toothed and tinted, on slender stems 5 or 8 in. high. Of easy culture in moist peat or leaf-soil, in the bog-garden, or on the margins of beds of dwarf shrubs in peat. America. The White Goat's Rue. Galega {Goafs /?««).— Graceful hardy plants of the Pea-flower Order, flourishing m any soil. On account of their free growth they are useful for the wild garden, and are very effective in groups. They are herbaceous perennials, growing from 2 to 5 ft. in height, according to position and soil. The kinds are— G. officinalis, or Common Goat's Rue, a nati\e of GALTONIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 537 .■Southern Europe, and 3 to 5 ft. high, in summer bearing dense chisters of Pea- shaped blossoms of a pretty pink. There is a white variety (alba) useful for cutting. A variety called africana has .longer racemes and blossoms of a purple tinge. G. orientalis is from the Caucasus, 3 to 4 ft. high, with bluishrpurple flowers. ■G. persica is a later-flowering kind, from 2 to 4 ft. high, with white flowers in dense racemes on slender stalks. G. biloba has pretty bluish-lilac flowers. Galtonia candicans {Cape Hyacinth).— A noble bulb from the Cape, with spires • of waxy, white bell-like blossoms, i^ in. •long, on stems 4 to 6 ft. high, in late time in vases, and are welcome in winter. Though often grown on walls, it is hardy and makes a dense bush, 5 to 8 ft. high. In cold districts it is well to give it shelter, but in the south and west it does not require this. There are various other kinds of Garrya in cultivation, but G. eUiptica is the best. There are male and female forms, the most elegant being the pollen-bearing or male plant. Gaultheria procumbens {Partridge Berry). — This neat little shrub is pretty, and the berries give it a charm in winter, when it is one of the brightest plants on the rock-garden. Its di-ooping white flowers are also pretty. A native of WKS^^^^^m 1 11 HI ^SS ^*-i-3m wmm^m |K(j.5»;. >^^-)^ iW' m^'wrn ^^e^^^pi 1 MPf«fi^Sim9Ui!^J^^S| L» '■ '% , •'^;:;.% ^^^^^nS^M Hpf( lS-f®^*Hwn£fi^Ml^S^9 S!SaiMM^^ m m''^ b^^'^^afia^SoH mS^^'^^M • ^^^k^^^K^'S^ ■ff K (JKX ^ * i^L^J^^JWp^ BBlW5»K«Si^Wjl'i|'^ ^'^^3v8^H ^^B 4.' ft m ^^Hl ;:;:i_>^^^" i^ i£ ''¥^-rf-Cj »aii^S:>r>S^& ,^Ki|fc^mR "'.^ jffj" ^gPj(y i^^^^^m' '^^ |s| % m mmmm, ^^S ^^pi§ "#> W^ ^-^'m 0^'jS-''fm; ^^^^^^^BH ^^ft^ " p El^ ^,.;y?^5f^,r3i ^^si^H^y^ffiii Garrya elliptica. summer and autumn. It is of easy cul- ture, hardy in light soils, and valuable for bold groups in the : mixed border, in the flower garden, or between choice shrubs and among hardy Fuchsias. In- creased by offsets from the bulbs, or from seeds, which flower about tne fourth year. The distinct habit of this plant makes it one of the most valuable. Syn. Hyacin- thus candicans. Garrya elliptica.— A fine Califomian Evergreen, and beautiful winter-flowering shrub. In mild winters it begins to flower as early as December, and bears among handsome deep-green leaves gracefully- drooping tufts of pale-green catkins, which if cut with the twigs endure a long sandy places and cool damp woods from Canada to Virginia, and often found in the shade of evergreens, it does best in moist peat, and forms edgings to beds where the soil is of that nature, but it will also grow in loam. Easily increased by division or seeds. Suitable for the rock-garden, for the front margins of borders, and for edgings to beds of dwarf American plants, and it is best where well exposed. G. Shallon is too large for all but the rougher flanks of the rock-garden, being_ a vigorous shrub. Gaura Lindheimeri.— A graceful per- ennial, 3 to 4^ ft., high, flowering in summer and autumn, on long slender spikes bearing numerous white and rose 538 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GENISTA. flowers. It thrives in borders, in sandy loam, and plants for the flower garden may be used with the larger bedding plants. Increased by division and seed. N. America. Gazania ( Treasure Flower). — Hand- some and distinct dwarf plants ; of much value, though only hardy enough for our summers. They are most useful on warm , soils, and should always be placed in open j sunny spots and among dwarf plants. They strike freely in a cold frame in I August, but later require bottom-heat. Unless struck very early, spring-struck i plants are almost worthless, so that it is \ best to put in the stock in August and let them. stand in cutting-pots till potting-off time in spring. They will then come well ; into flower when put out in May ; «'hereas, if they are topped for spring cuttings, both lots will be small and late. Short young tops should be used for cuttings, and may ■ be inserted pretty thickly in the cutting- pots. When established, they must be just protected from frost, and kept in dry airy quarters. If kept warm, they grow too much, and are in spring poor lanky plants that can hardly be handled ; but cool airy treatment keeps them short and sturdy. G. rigens is the best known. It has long deep-green leaves, silvery beneath, and bears flowers 2 in. across, which are of bright orange-yellow, A\'ith a dark centre. G. splendens is a fine \'ariety, and there is also one with variegated leaves. The known species (from S. Africa) are :— G. arctotoides, armihioides, BurcheUii, caesfi- tosa, canescens, coronopifoUa, heterochaeta, Junneaefolia, Kraussii, Krebsiana, LichUn- stemit, lineariloba, longifolia, longiscapa, mu- cronata, multijuga, nivea, othonnites, oxyloba, Pavonia, pinnata, pygmaea, rigens, semilata, subbipinnata, subulata, tenuifolia, imikora, varzans. Geissorrhiza {Tile /?oo/).— Handsome Ixia-hke bulbs ; natives of the Cape. G. violacea has flowers of a rich scarlet, on slender stems about i ft. high. G. Hookeri has large white flowers, with purple centre. They require the same culture as Ixias. Genista {Rock Broom).— Many of the Genistas are good garden shrubs ; they thrive in almost any soil which is not too wet, and are readily raised from seeds. G. setnensis, a native of Sicily, is one of the best kinds. In a )'oung state the twigs are sparsely clothed with linear silky leaves, but when old no leaves are developed, and the green slender twigs perform the functions of leaves. An old tree— for this species attains a height of 12 ft. or more— is a beautiful sight in July or August when in full flower. G. Ans^CB, {Needle Furze) is a prostrate spiny shrub, sometimes growing to a height of 2 ft., widely distributed through- out Western Europe, and in Britain occurring on moist moors from Ross southwards. The short leafy racemes of yellow flowers appear in May and June. G. aspalathoides, a native of South- western Europe, makes a densely- branched, compact, spiny bush from i ft. to 2 ft. in height. It flowers in Jul)- and August (the yellow blossoms are somewhat smaller than those of G. anglica),,and is a good shrub for the rock- garden. Other names for it are Spartium aspalathoides and S. erinaceoides. G. anzantica, found wild in the neigh- bourhood of Naples, is very nearly allied to our nati^-e Dyer's Greenweed (G. tinctoria). It is \-ery dwarf in habit, and its racemes of golden-yellow flowers are produced in great profusion in late summer. A beautiful rock-garden plant. G. ephedroides, a natixe of Sardinia, is a much-branched shrub, 2 ft. in height, bearing yellow flowers from June to August. The aspect of the plant much resembles that of Ephedra distachya. G. germanica, a species widely dis- tributed throughout Europe, makes a bright rock-garden shrub not more than a couple of feet in height. It flowers ver)' freely during the summer and autumn months, and the stems are inclined to arch when i ft. or more high. Some- times met with under the name of Scorpius spinosus. G. hispanica, a native of South-western Europe, is a compact undershrub, ever- green from the colour of its shoots. It scarcely attains more than i ft. or 18 in. in height, and the crowded racemes of yellow flowers are borne at the tips of the •spiny twigs from Maj' onwards. G. pilosa, a widely distributed European species, is a dense, prostrate bush and a delightful rock-garden plant. In Britain It IS rare and local, being confined to gravelly heaths in the south and south- west of England. It grows freely and flowers abundantly in May and June. Like the rest of the British species of the genus, it has bright yellow blossoms. G. radiata is a natixe of Central and Southern Europe, 3 ft. or 4 ft. in height, ever- green from the colour of its much-branched spiny twigs. The terminal heads of bright yellow flowers are produced throughout the summer months. It is quite hardy at any rate m the South of England. G. ramosissima.— A nati\e of Southern GENISTA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GENTIANA. SS^ Spain, and one of the best garden ■:plants in the genus, growing about 3 ft. high, the slender twigs laden in July with bright yellow flowers. This also passes under the name of G. cinerea. G. sagittalis is widely distributed throughout Europe. In habit it differs widely from any of the other species here mentioned, the leaves being replaced by a winged-jointed stem. It scarcely grows a foot high, and forms a mass of branches bearing racemes of yellow flowers in May and June. G. tinctoria {The Dyer's Green-weed'). Occurring in a wild state in Britain, it rarely exceed^ 18 i^. in height, antj is a spineless shrub bearing a profusion of bright yellow flowers from July until September. A double-flowered variety of this makes a pretty rock-plant. Gr. tinctoria var. elatior is a tall-grow- ing form from the Caucasus, which under cultivation frequently grows from 4 ft. to 5 ft. high, and bears huge paniculate inflorescences. G. virgata. — A natix-e of Madeira and one of the most beautiful species of the genus. At Kew there are many old plants from 6 ft. to 10 ft. high, and as much through, which in July are one mass of colour, every one of the slender branchlets terminating in a raceme of golden-yellow blossoms. Gentiana {Ge7itian). — Often charming and in gardens important plants, some of them difficult to cultivate, but others easily grown (on the rock-garden and in borders). The most precious are the perennial alpine kinds, i\hich are such a beautiful feature on the mountains of Europe, and with care in our gardens spread into healthy tufts and flower as well as on the mountains. Of these plants there are two sections — the first, strong easily-grown kinds, suitable for borders ; and the second, dwarfer kinds, which should be grown in the rock-garden, or in borders or beds of choice dwarf plants. The Willow Gentian, some of the American perennials, and those with herbaceous shoots generally grow freely in borders, in good moist soil. So does the Gentianella (G. acaulis). The dwarfer Gentians are represented most familiarly by the Vernal Gentian (G. verna). G. acaulis {Gentianella). — An old in- habitant of English gardens, among the most beautiful of the Gentians, and easily cultivated, except on very dry soils. In some places edgings are made of it, and where it does well it should be used in every garden, as, when in flower, edgings of it are of great beauty, and, when not in flower, the masses of little leaves gathered into com- pact rosettes, form a good edging. It is at home on the rock-garden, where there are good masses of moist loam in which it can root. It is also good for forming cai-pets in the rock-garden or on raised borders. With us the flowers open in spring and in early summer, but on its native hills they open according to posi- tion, hke the Vernal Gentian. G. alpina is a marked variety with small broad leaves, and there are several other varie- Gentiana affinis. ties. Their colours vary from the deepest blue to white, and in one white flower the tips of the corolla are .a rich blue. In all the forms except the white the throat of the corolla is spotted with blue on a greenish ground, and all have greenish marks on the outside. Alps and Pyrenees. G. asclepiadea {Willow Gentian). — A good herbaceous kind ; this gives no trouble, but dies down out of harm's way in winter. Well grown, it will spring up to 2 ft. and freely produce good-sized flowers of a purple-blue along nearly the whole stem in late summer and autumn. This Gentian will grow in open .34° GENTIANA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GERANIUM. woods. It may therefore be naturalised, and its effect among the Grass in a wood is charming. There is a white form. Division. Europe. G. bavarica {Bavarian Gentian). — In size this resembles the Vernal Gentian, but it has smaller Box-like leaves of yellowish-green, and its tiny stems are thickly clothed with dense little tufts of foliage, from which arise flowers of lovely iridescent blue. While G. verna is found -on dry ground, or on ground not over- flowed by water, G. bavarica is in per- fection in boggy spots, by some little rill. We must imitate these conditions if we •desire to succeed, and a moist peat or bog bed, and with no coarse plants near, will enable us to grow this lovely plant. -Alps. Q-. septemfida {Crested Gentian).— h lovely plant, bearing on stems 6 to I2 in. high clusters of cylindrical flowers widening towards the mouth, and a Gentiana verna. ibeautiful bltie-white inside, and greenish- ;brown outside, having between each of the larger segments one smaller and finely cut. In the variety cordifolia leaves are more cordate, but it grows about only half the height of the type, with g. much neater habit. The dwarf form, again, seems to subdivide itself when raised from seed, and I have got plenty of plants with very small leaves flowering at a height -of only 3 in.— J. W. One of the most ■desirable species for the rock-garden, and thriving best in moist sandy peat. Division. Caucasus. G. verna ( Vernal Gentian).— O-ae^ of the most beautiful of alpine flowers, thriving in deep sandy loam, with abundance of water during the warm and dry months, and perfect exposure to the sun. The absence of these conditions is a frequent cause of failure. It thrives wild in cool pastures and uplands, where it is rarely subjected to such drought as it is in a parched border. Grit or broken limestone may be mingled with the soil ; if there be plenty of sand this is not essential ; a few pieces half buried in the ground will tend to prevent evaporation and guard the plant till it has taken root. It is so dwarf, that if weeds be allowed to grow round it they soon injure it, and tall plants over- shadow or overrun it. In moist' districts, it may be grown in a deep sandy loam, on the front edge of a border carefully sur- rounded by half-plunged stones. Well- rooted plants should be secured to begin with, as failure often occurs from imper- fectly-rooted, half-dead plants. It is abundant in mountain pastures on the Alps, in Asia, and also in Britain. There are other Gentians in cultivation, such as G. caucasica, adscendens pneumo- nanthe, cruciata, affinis, algida, arvernensis, crinita, and Andrewsi. Most Gentians may be raised from seed, but it is slow work. Geranium {Cranesbill). — The hardy Geraniums are usually stout perennials and natives of the fields and woods of Europe and Britain, though some are dainty alpine flowers. The handsomest of them is probably G. armenum. It is sometimes 3 ft. in height, flowering in midsumrner abundantly, and sometimes till late in autumn to a less degree. Its flowers are large and handsome. It re- quires only ordinary garden soil, and is well suited for the mixed border, or for grouping with the finer perennials in beds or on the margins of shrubberies. Some other kinds are showy, and the best of these are : the dwarf G. sanguineum ; its beautiful Lancashire \-ariety, \yith rose- coloured blossoms finely marked with dark hnes ; G. pratense, a tall kind, with large purple flowers ; and its pure white variet)-. There is also an intermediate form with white and purple flowers. The Caucasian species, G. gymnocaulon and ibericum, are beautiful, with their rich purple blossoms, 2 in. across, delicately pen- cilled with black. G. platypetalum, striatum, ibencum, and Lamberti are suited for shrubbery borders, and most of them are free and ^■igorous enough for naturalisation. G. Endressi, with light rose-coloured blossoms, is also very attractive. All the above-mentioned Geraniums are hardy, easily cultivated and grow in ordinary soil. The pretty rock-garden kinds, G. cinereum and G THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 541 argenteum, are charming alpine plants, and, unlike stout perennials, they must be associated with very dwarf rock-plants. All the Geraniums are increased by seed, and with the exception perhaps of the G. cinereum, and G. argenteum, all are freely multiplied by division. Geum montanum. — A common European species, is one of the best of the dwarf yellow-flowered kinds for the rock-garden. It is indeed essentially a rock- plant, and very beautiful when well estab- lished in early spring. It has a compact habit, the leaves lying close on the ground, the erect stems of solitary clear yellow flowers being abundant. It likes plenty of moisture. G. reptans is also a pretty x-ock- IDlant, differing from G. montanum in its finely cut leaves, large flowers, and in pro- ducing stolons, which are absent in G. mon- tanum. There is a variety, however, of the latter, which is by far the most ornamental plant of the European kinds. It is of a very vigorous habit, with large, fine leaves, and bears freely deep yellow flowers on each stem. This forai was cultivated in the Liverpool Botanic Garden over twenty years, and is said to be of garden origin. Gr. Chiloense.— A double-flowered form of this was figured in The Garden^ December 2 1st, 1878, under the name of G. coccineum fl.-pl., an erroneous name, under which it is known in many gardens. A A-ery large-flowered variety, under the name of G. chiloense grandiflorum, was figured in the Botanical Register^ vol. xvi., t. 1348. This I think is one of the best single-flowered forms in the genus, and does not seem to have altered much since the above-mentioned plate was drawn. At t. 1088 of the same work another plant is figured as G. coccineum, but this does not at all agree with the original figure in Sibthorp's Flora Grceca^ t. 485, and may be taken to represent as nearly as possible the typical G. chiloense. A native of Chiloe, introduced to cultivation some- where about 1826. G. chiloense var. grandiflorum (syn., coccineum grandiflorum) is a magnificent border plant, its dazzling scarlet flowers and bold habit making it a favourite with all who love brilliant patches in their mixed borders. The double-flowered form of this, however, seems to be a more general favourite, the blooms lasting longer, though I think they lack the elegance of those of the simpler form. They begin to expand soon after May and continue until October. G. chiloense var. miniatum. — This plant, figured in The Garden in 1890, is said to have originated in the nursery of Robert Parker at Tooting, and was named by him G. miniatum. Another plant known as the Altrincham variety, or G. hybridum, was raised about the same time, but unless in the flowers being brighter, I see no difference. But there can be no question as to the value of this plant, its robust constitution standing it in good stead in almost every kind of soil, . and enabling it to be propagated with the greatest facility by cutting the tufts in pieces. ■ It flowers from April until the end of July, and when doing well often attains a height of from 2 ft. to 3 ft. G. coccineum is a rare and entirely different plant. A native of Mount Olympus. — D. K. Gerbera Jamesoni. — A fine hardy plant in southern counties, but too tender for northerly places. It is a native of the Transvaal, the leathery dark-green leaves arranged in a rosette, and the flower head glowing scarlet. Where it cannot be grown in the border, it should be placed in pots in the greenhouse, in which it -succeeds well. At Kew the plant is grown in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand, and is watered as one would water a Cineraria. It is kept in a sunny, airy greenhouse all the year round. Gilia. — Hardy annuals, i to 2 ft. high,, and bearing for a long time a succession of blossoms either blue, white, lavender, or rose-coloured. Seed may be sown in autumn for spring-blooming, and in April for summer and autumn blooming. Gilias should be grown in masses and the soil should be light and enriched with. decomposed manure ; they are useful for small bouquets or vases, and last for a long time in water. The best are G. achilleKfoIia major (blue), G. a. alba (white), G. capitata (lavender), G. tricolor (white and purple), G. rosea splendens (rose), G. nivalis (white), G. liniflora, and G. laciniata. A mixed packet of seed will give a fine variety of colours. They may occasionally be made graceful use of as. carpet plants, or used effectively among annuals. GUlenia trifoliata. — A Spirasa-like plant with numerous erect slender stems,. about 2. ft. high, and branching in the upper part into a loose panicle of white flowers. Distinct and graceful, is of value for the . garden growing in peat or free , loamy soil, and may be given a place in the shrubbery, or in the wild garden- North America. Division. G. stipulacea.^This is a rather taller plant and not quite so compact in habit, but it is graceful, and no more charming plant could be introduced to parts of the: 542 GLADIOLUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GLADIOLUS. garden where there chances to be an extra amount of moisture and a httle shade from mid-day sun. Mr. J. Wood says : " It makes more ■distinct offsets, so that in the case of plants a few years old you may take the rooted offsets with a fair amount of fibre, and they make good plants the first year. The Gillenias have a distinct and delicate beauty all their own, and are pre-eminently suited for growing in semi-boggy places interspersed with such subjects as the Bog Lilies, Irises, Bamboos, and other similar strong growers." Gladiolus {Sword Lily). — Beautiful bulbs, for the most part natives of S. Africa. Every species introduced is of ornamental value, is easily grown, and is suitable for many garden uses. The chief charm of the Gladiolus is derived from the beautiful hybrid varieties now in cultivation. G. :gandavensis and brenchleyensis are the principal kinds from which these hybrids come, and are by far the most important class, though the earlier-fiowering kinds .(•descendants of G. ramosus, Colvillei, trimaculatus, and others) are valuable for ■early summer-flowering. The gandavensis section suffers from cold autumn rains, and the bulbs must be lifted in autumn. In growing Gladioli it is necessary to prepare soil where they will be most ■effective. They are happy in clumps be- tween Dahlias, Phloxes, Roses, and sub- jects of a somewhat similar character, and are very effective in clumps alternating with Tritomas, and also when associated with masses of Cannas ; while they are suitable for intermixing with American plants, whose dark foliage shows off rich flowers to good advantage. The position should be marked out in the autumn or winter, and a few spadefuls of manure should be dug in. As a rule, the space .of each clump should be i8 in. in ■ diameter, and the soil should be turned up to a depth of 1 8 to 24 in. March and April are the best months for planting, as •Gladioli planted then are at their best during August and the early part of September. A succession of planting is ■desirable to secure a late bloom. Those who desire their gardens to be beautiful late in the autumn should not fail to ■employ the Gladiolus largely, as it is the handsomest of late-blooming garden plants, and its spikes are seen to great advantage about the time of heavy autumn rains. When spikes of extra fine bloom are required it is necessary to give special treatment, and an open situation is of the utmost importance. A deep loamy :soil, not too heavy, is the most suitable for spikes for exhibition, but very satis- factory results even may be obtained by deep digging and liberal manuring in soils of an uncongenial character. Early in autumn the soil should be liberally dressed with manure from an old hotbed. After it is spread regularly over the surface, trench the soil up to a depth of 2 ft., and leave the surface as rough as possible, so as to expose a large body of it to winter frost and rain ; this is of special import- ance in the case of heavy soils, which should be thoroughly pulverised by the weather. If this is done, the soil will be fit for working in spring, and a pricking over with the fork will reduce it to a fine tilth, and will admit of the bulbs being planted, even in wet seasons, without unnecessary delay. Planting should com- mence in March, and be continued until June, at intervals of a fortnight. By this means will be obtained a succession of bloom, from the earliest moment at which the show varieties may be had in flower until the end of the season. The beds should be 4 ft. in width, with rows 18 in. apart. They will then admit of a row down the centre, and one on each side, these outside rows being 6 in. from the edge of the bed. As soon as the plants have made sufficient progress to require support, stout stakes should be put to them. The top of the stake must not be higher than the first bloom, and the stem should have one tie only, a strong one of bast. After staking, the bed should be covered with partly-decayed manure, to a uni- form depth of 2 to 3 in. This dressing materially assists during hot weather in keeping the soil cool and moist about the roots. As soon as the plants show bloom, liquid manure promotes full development of the flowers. For exhibition the spikes should be cut when about two thirds of the blooms are expanded, as the lower flowers are generally finer than those towards the top. To ensure a given number of spikes at a particular date, a number of different sorts should be planted. For example, instead of six to twelve bulbs of a sort, it is preferable to plant one to three, and to increase the number of sorts ; and, in purchasing a hundred bulbs, to select fifty to seventy varieties. For decoration it is also better to have a large number of sorts, because of the greater variety of colour they afford. The improvements of the last few years have been so rapid, that many sorts which a few years ago occupied a foremost position are now surpassed, and for exhibition purposes are comparatively worthless. Most large GLADIOLUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GLADIOLUS. 543 nurseries and seed houses supply the finest exhibition bulbs, as well as bulbs for ordinary planting. Early-flowering Kinds.— During the past few years these beautiful flowers have rapidly become popular on account of their great value for cutting. They have been obtained by hybridising several South African species, particularly G. ramosus (the branching kinds which are a distinct group), G. trimaculatus, G. bland- us, G. venustus, and G. Colvillei forming what is known as the nanus section. Of G. ramosus a great number of varieties are dwarfer in habit, more graceful in appearance, earlier in flower, than those of G. gandavensis, and almost as variable in colour ; they are, moreover, much hardier, and beds of them may be left unprotected during winter, so as to afford early flowers for cutting, for, unless the weather is very severe, these beds never require any covering. This remark applies only to bulbs established in the ground, for fresh bulbs are as tender as other Gladioli, and must be protected from frost. Amateurs often make a mistake in this matter. Many plants are hardy only after they are well established. The nanus section has a great many varieties of almost every shade of colour, I to 2 ft. high, and invariably having the three characteristic blotches of G. trima- culatus on the lower segments of the flower. G. Colvillei is one of the prettiest and hardiest of all, and is most valuable for cutting, particularly the white variety, which has many beautiful white flowers in early summer. The time of flowering depends upon the time of planting, but the dwarf sections are the earliest. If the varieties of G. ramosus are planted at the same time as the dwarfs, the dwarfs are in flower a fortnight before the others. These early-flowering kinds are of simple culture, and succeed best in well-drained raised lieds of good loamy soil, in a sunny position. Some varieties, such as Colvillei are safe if undisturbed, but some persons prefer to take the bulbs up and thoroughly dry them, and then to plant them again about 'November ; in which case they will flower early in June. If the bulbs remain in the ground through the winter, care must be taken to protect them in severe cold. Propagation may be effected rapidly by seeds and offsets. By seeds, flowering hulbs are produced the second season, and can be left in the ground during the winter, provided the soil is light and dry and the bulbs are protected from frost. These Gladioli are extremely useful for pot culture, and, by gentle forcing, can be had in flower at mid-winter, and, for securing bloom between the flowering of the forced plants and of the plants in the open beds, they may be grown in cold frames. For this purpose a bed of loam, leaf-mould, and sand in nearly equal pro- portions should be made up in October. It should be about i ft. deep and well drained, and in it the bulbs may be planted thickly 4 in. in depth. The lights should then be replaced, and air left on always, except during severe frosts. No water should be given until the leaves appear (which will be about February, or earlier if the season be mild), and then only enough to keep the soil moist. The Gladiolus the Bride. lights should be removed during niild weather, and altogether in April. During the latter part of May and in June plenty of bloom may be cut for decoration. Besides those named, the following are some of the best kinds : The Bride, Groot- voorst, Rubens, Maori Chief, The Fairy Elvira, Rembrandt, Philip Miller, Beatrice Baron von Humboldt, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Rose Distinctive. Another interesting race of hybrids has lately been obtained between G. gandavensis and G. purpureo-auratus, a Cape species, with yellow and purple flowers. -These hybrids have large flowers of a creamy-white and a deep 544 GLADIOLUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GLECHOMA. purplish-crimson. The named kinds are G. hybridus Froebeli, G. h. Lemoinei, and Marie Lemoine. Although by no means so showy as many others, they are fiiost graceful and distinct in port, and in the shape and colour of their flowers. In deep sandy soil they attain a height of nearly 5 ft., and the gradual development of the flowers renders them effective for at least five weeks after the first and Hybrid Gladiolus (Lemoine's). lowermost blossom. As graceful plants they well deserve culture, being hardier than many home-raised hybrids ; but a warm deep soil and a sheltered position near the foot of a south or west wall are the most congenial to their strong growth. A few of the true species almost equal the hybrids in beauty. One of the finest IS G. Saundersi, about 2 ft. high, with large flowers of a brilliant scarlet and a conspicuous pure white centre. It is not often grown, though hardy and of very easy culture, and only requiring a; sunny position in a light rich soil. The European Gladioli are pretty plants for the mixed border. There is a strong similarity among them, all of them being' from i to i-^ ft. high, and bearing rather small rosy-purple flowers.. The best-known are G. byzantinus, com- munis, segetus, illyricus, neglectus, sero- tinus. They like warm dry soil and a sunny situation. They are of particular interest from their free and hardy habit, which makes them as easy to grow as native plants. They are admirable for the wild garden as they thrive in copses,, open warm woods, in snug spots in broken hedgerow banks, and on fringes of shrubbery in the garden. Disease.— This is frequently, if not always, accompanied by some condition of the fungus known as Copper-web, the Rhizoctonia crocorum ■ of De CandoUe, which is known in France under the name of Tacon. The fungus attacks also the Narcissus, the Crocus, Asparagus, Potatoes, and other bulbs, roots, etc. A good deal of attention was paid to it in 1876, when Mr. G. W. Smith detected in abundance the curious fungus named by him Urocystis Gladioli. The Urocysti's and Rhizoctonia are probably two con- ditions of the same thing, the Rhizoctonia being possibly the spawn and the Uro- cystis the fruit. The latter Urocystis is- capable of remaining in a resting state for a year or more, and is frequently found in the decayed red-brown portions of the diseased corm. No attempts have been made in the direction of a cure, as far as we know. The disease is confined to certain localities and to cer- tain gardens, and is unknown in some districts. Glaucium {Homed Poppy).~V\z.rAs, of the Poppy family, mostly biennials. G. luteum is quite hardy and has hand- some siher foliage, almost as white as the silvery Centaurea. The leaves are much more deeply cut, and, planted close, are effective either in masses or lines. To ensure strong plants for winter borders or beds, seed should be sown about May, as the plant is a biennial. When in bloom It makes a striking border plant, the flowers being large and orange-red. G. Fischeri is a handsome plant; its snow-white woolly foliage is very telling, and Its blossom is an unusual flame colour. G cormculatum is similar, but not so handsome. Both require the same treatment as G. luteum. aiechoma hederacea {Ground Ivy) — A small British creeper, almost too- GLOBULARIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GUNNERA, S4S common to deserve notice here ; but it has one or two finely-variegated varieties worthy of a place on the edges of raised borders or in beds of plants with variegated leaves. Globularia {Globe ZPaz'^j/).— Interesting and dwarf alpine plants, good on the rock- garden in light and peaty soils. G. Alypum is among the best ; it inhabits dry rocks. Other kinds are G. cordifolia, G. nana, G. nudicaulis, and G. trichosantha. Glossocomia ovata. — A rare little perennial of the Bell-flower family, with showy blue flowers, rare and difficult to cultivate. North India. Gnaphalium {Cud Weed). — Compo- sites, usually with downy foliage, but of little value, except that G. lanatum, a sil- very-foliaged plant, i ft. high, is suitable for edgfings. G. lanatum is very easily propa- gated by division in spring, and is whitest and most compact when on dry poor soils. It bears pegging down, and should never be allowed to bloom. It is somewhat tender, and requires to be propagated annually. (See Antennaria.) Goodyera pubescens {Rattlesnake Plantain). — A beautiful little Orchid, with leaves close to the ground, delicately veined with silver ; hardy, distinct, and charming, though its flowers are not showy. It has long been grown in botanic and choice collections, thriving in a shady position, such as liiay be found in a good rock-garden, in moist peaty soil, with here and there a soft sandstone for its roots to run among. Eastern United States. G. repens and Menziesi are less desirable and much rarer. Gordonia {Loblolly Bay). — The two Gordonias in cultivation, G. pubescens and G. lasianthus, are beautiful shrubs, old garden plants, introduced during the last century, but too rare in gardens, owing to difficulty of propagation. The genus is allied to the Camellia. G. pubescens is of Camellia-like growth, 6 ft. high, and bears in late summer beautiful flowers, 3 in. across, pure white, with a centre tuft of yellow stamens. G. lasianthus is taller and more robust, and has larger and more fragrant flowers. Both are natives of the swamps near the coast of the southern States of North America, and therefore are not among the hardiest shrubs, but they may do with us in very favoured places. I have only seen them in flower near Phila- delphia. Grammanthes gentianoides. — A pretty half-hardy annual, and a capital plant for the dry parts of a rock-garden. about 2 in. high, forming a dense tuft, with fleshy leaves about \ in. long, with many flowers, about \ in. across : orange when first expanded, with a distinct V-shaped mark at the base of each petal, but finally assuming a deep red. G. gentianoides is sometimes used with good effect in the flower-garden, and succeeds in dry warm soil. Seeds should be sown in heat in February and March, and the seedlings planted out in May. Stonecrop family. Cape of Good Hope. Grevillea. — Australian shrubs, gener- ally grown in the greenhouse, but a few are quite hardy enough for wall culture; and G. sulphurea, the hardiest in cultiva- tion, 'lives against walls about London. Its pale yellow flowers, of curious shape, as in all Grevilleas, come throughout the summer. G. rosmarinifolia is another hardy kind with Rosemary - like leaves and clusters of red flowers. The Grevil- leas do best against a warm wall in a sheltered situation. Gunnera {Prickly Rhubarb). — South American plants remarkable for large Gunnera scabra. and handsome foliage, somewhat resem- bling that of gigantic Rhubarb. They are hardy if slightly protected during the severest cold, for instance by a layer of dry leaves placed among the stems, and having their own leaves bent down upon them. In spring these dry leaves should be removed, and the tender growth slightly protected by a piece of canvas-shading or by an ordinary mat. In mild winters this precaution is scarcely necessary, especially in the south and other favoured localities. Where there is any diversity of surface it will be easy to select a spot well open to the sun and yet sheltered by shrubs. A N N 546 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. GYNERIUM. large hole, about 6 by 4 ft. deep, should be dug out, a good layer of drainage material put at the bottom, and the hale filled with a rich compost of loam and manure. In summer the plants ought to have plenty of water, and a ridge of turf should be placed round them, to compel the water to sink down about their roots. They should also have a mulching of well-rotted manure early in every spring. They thrive on the margins of ponds or lakes where their roots can penetrate the moist soil, and if judiciously placed in such a position, they have a fine effect. Though the two kinds G. scabra and G. manicata greatly resemble each other, they have well-marked characteristics. The eaves of G. manicata are more Flower-spikes are produced freely, which should be cut as soon as seen, or they will check the growth of the leaves. When they die down in autumn, the leaves should be placed loosely over the crowns, with their stems on top to prevent them being blown away by the wind. Protected in this way the plants have stood the winter with a thermometer ranging on several occasions below zero. It grows freely from seed, but it can be divided as easily as Rhubarb. The individual flowers are very minute, more curious than beautiful, the chief attraction being in the truly magnificent leaves." The known species of Gunnera are : G. Ber- leroi. Chili, bracteata, do. brephogea, N. Granada. ^^ m iis^ ii'^'-'''': Gunnera pianicata at Narrow Water Park. Engraved from a photograph'sent by Mr. F. W. Burbidge. kidney-shaped and attain a much larger size, often measuring 4 to 6 ft. across. The spikes of fruit are also much longer, and the secondary spikes are long and flexuose, whereas in G. scabra they are short and stiff. Propagated by seed or division of established plants. G. manicata. — Writing from Trelissick, Truro, Mr. W. Sangwin says ; " It never attains the extraordinary dimensions it is capable of, unless planted in deep rich soil with its roots in the water by the side of a pond or stream. Our plant covers a space fully 30 ft. across, and consists of from twenty-five to thirty leaves, some of them over 9 ft. in diameter, upon clear stems 8 ft. high. The crowns are as large as a man's body, of a delicate pink colour. chilensis. Chili, commutaia, do. cordifolia, Tas- man. demiflora, N. Zeal, scabra, J. Femand. Hamiltoni, N. Zeal, insignis. Chili, lobata, Magellans. macrophylla, Java, magellanica, Magellans. manicata, Brazil, monotca, N. Zeal. peltata, J. Femand. perpensa, E. Africa, peta- loides. Sandwich Isles, prorepens, N. Zeal, stri- gosa, do. Gymnadenia conopsea. — A sweet- scented native Orchid, 6 in. to nearly 2 ft. high, the flowers pale purple, in a dense tapering spike, i to 4 in. long in summer. It is suitable for grassy places, and for drier parts of the bog- bed ; worth growing for its fragrance only. Increased by separation of the root knobs. Gynerium argenteum {Pampas Grass). GYPSOPHILA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HABUTZIA. 547 — This noble Grass, 6 to 14 ft. high, according to soil or district, is most precious for our gardens, but in many districts suffers from our severe winters, and we seldom now see the fine plants of it that were not uncommon soon after its introduction. Some varieties are better in habit than others, and flower earlier, and it would be better to patiently divide such than to trust to seedlings. There are a number of varieties, some of a delicate rosy colour, and one variegated. The soils of many gardens are insufficient to give it the highest vigour, and no plant better repays a thorough preparation, and we rarely see such fine specimens as in quiet nooks where it is sheltered by the surrounding vegetation. It should be planted about the beginning of April in deep open soil mulched with rotten manure, and watered copiously in hot dry weather. G. jubatum is very well spoken of, but as yet has not been tried jiiuch except in favoured spots. The leaves resemble those of G. argenteum, but are of deeper green, and droop elegantly at the extremities. From the centre of the tuft, and exceeding it by 2 or 3 ft., arise numerous stems, each bear- ing an immense loose panicle of long filamentous silvery flowers, of a rosy tint with silvery sheen. It is a native of Ecuador, and is earlier in bloom than G. argenteum. The sexes are borne on separate plants in all the species, and the plumes of male flowers are neither so handsome nor so durable as the plumes of female flowers. Crypsophila. — Plants of the Stitchwort family, the larger kinds usually very elegant, and bearing myriads of tiny white "blossoms on slender spreading panicles. Of these the best is G. paniculata, which forms a dense compact bush, 3 ft. ■or more high, the numerous flowers small white, on thread-like stalks on much- branched stems, with the light, airy effect ■of certain Grasses, and very useful for cutting. G. paniculata thrives in any soil, and is suitable for borders and for naturalisation in woods or banks. G. fastigiata, perfoliata, altissima Steveni, are very similar. G. prostrata is a pretty species for the rock-garden or the mixed border. It grows in spreading masses, and from midsummer to September has loose graceful panicles of small white or pink flowers, on slender stems. G. cerastioides is about 2 in. high, and has a spreading habit ; the leaves are about \\ in. long, and small clusters of blossoms, \ in. across, white with violet streaks. It is from Northern India, and quite unlike any of the group now in our gardens, being dwarfer and having larger flowers. It is a rapid grower, and in good soil and an open position on the rock-garden soon spreads into a broad tuft. Division, seeds, or cuttings in spring. G. elegans is a graceful feathery annual much used for bouquets. Habenaria (Rein Orchis). — Terrestrial Orchids from N. America, i to 2 ft. high, some of which are pretty. For out-door culture, a partially-shaded spot should be prepared with about equal parts of leaf- mould or peat and sand, and well mulched with leaves, grass, or other material, to keep it moist. H. blephariglottis bears in July spikes of white flowers beautifully fringed. H. ciliaris has bright orange- yellow flowers with a conspicuous fringe, and appear from July to September. H. fimbriata has a long spike of lilac- purple flowers beautifully fringed. H. psycodes bears spikes 4 to 10 in. long of handsome and fragrant purple flowers. They are charming plants for the bog- garden. Haberlea rhodopensis. — A pretty little rock-plant resembling a Gloxinia in miniature. It forms dense tufts of small rosettes of leaves, which somewhat re- semble those of the Pyrenean Ramondia (R. pyrenaica), every rosette bearing in spring one to five slender flower-stalks, each with two to four blossoms nearly I in. long, of a bluish-lilac colour with a yellowish throat. Messrs. Froebel, of Zurich, who grow it well, write of it : " We have treated this plant in the same manner as the Pyrenean Ramondia, i.e. we have planted it on the north side of the rock-garden ; so that the sun never directly reaches it. We grow it in fibrous peat, and fix the plants, if possible, in the fissures of the rock-garden, so that its rosettes hang in an oblique position, just as they do in their native country. It succeeds well in this way ; but if no rock- garden be at hand, it may be grown equally well on the north side of a Rhododendron bed. We have it thus situated quite close to a stone edging — a way in which we also grow the Ramondia, — and the Haberlea flowers profusely every year in May and June. The plant is very hardy, having withstood our often very hard winters, without any protection." It is a native of the Balkan Mountains, where it is found among moss and leaves on damp, shady, steep declivities at high elevations. Hablitzia tamnoides. — A hardy, chmb- ing, herbaceous plant, producing clusters of greenish-yellow flowers in the greatest N N 2 548 HABRANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GAKDEN. profusion. When tied to a strong stake or trellis it reaches a height of 8 or lo ft., and has a graceful appearance. It con- tinues in flower throughout the summer and the greater part of the autumn, but requires a good soil, plenty of moisture in summer, and freedom from stagnant water in winter. It forms a good subject for open situations in the wild garden, for the rock-garden or root-work, or for clothing the stems of naked trunks of trees. Habranthus pratensis. — A brilliant bulb of the Amaryllis family, hardy, at least in the southern and eastern parts of the country. It has stout and erect flower-stems, about i ft. high, and the brightest scarlet flowers, feathered here and there at the base with yellow. The variety fialgens is the finest form. It blooms freely in the open border of the Rev. Mr. Nelson's garden at Aldborough, in Norfolk, flowering at the end of May or beginning of June. It grows very freely in strong loam improved by the addition of a little leaf-mould and sand. Its propagation is too easy, for in many soils it is said to split up into offsets instead of growing to a flowering size. At Aldborough it made numerous offsets. A choice plant for the select bulb-garden or rock-garden. Chili. H. Andersoni is much inferior. Halesia {Snowdrop Tree). — Beautiful North American trees, hardy in this country. The commonest is H. tetraptera, one of the prettiest of flowering trees. It grows in England from 20 to 30 ft. high, has a rounded head, with sharply-toothed leaves, in May bearing many pure white blossoms, in form like the Snowdrop, hence its popular name. It is of moderately rapid growth, and flourishes in any good garden soil, and as it grows naturally by river banks, it enjoys a moist, but not waterlogged soil. In some parts it ripens its seed in abundance. A similar species distinguished in having but two wings to the seed-vessel (tetraptera having four), is H. diptera, of smaller growth, aiid not such a suitable tree for this climate ; neither is H. parviflora, which, like the others, has small bell-like flowers. As a lawn tree, or planted near the margin of a lake or stream, H. tetraptera is very beautiful. Halimondendron argenteum {Salt- tree). — A small shrub belonging to the Pea farnily, with elegant leaves, silky and whitish, the flowers purplish in early sum- mer : a native of Asiatic Russia, it is hardy, and grows from 5 to 6 ft. high, and some- times is grafted on to the tall stems of the Laburnum. Hamamelis ( Witch Hazel). — Hardy shrubs with singular blossoms flowering in winter. They have a peculiar value as ornamental shrubs, and one species at least is worth planting in all good gardens. This is H. arborea, or Tree Witch Hazel^ though in this country it does not rise generally above 8 ft. high. In January, and sometimes before, its leafless branches are covered with flowers, which have twisted, bright yellow petals and crimson calyces, so that a well-flowered plant is very pretty. It is a hardy Japanese shrub, and thrives in most kinds of soil, but must have an open situation. Another Japanese species is H. japonica,. a smaller and dwarfer plant than H. arborea, and bearing flowers of a lighter yellow colour, while that called H. Zuc- cariniana is very similar to it. Of less value perhaps is the American Witch Hazel, which has small yellowish flowers in winter, and sometimes in autumn. Though not so showy when in flower as the Japanese species, it is a pretty shrub, and, like the others, thrives in any soil. Hedera Helix {I'vy). — The most beauti- ful evergreen climber of our northern and temperate world is a noble garden plant that may be used in many ways. The common Ivy of the woods is familiar to all, but its many beautiful varieties are not so common as this. All are not of the same vigorous habit, as will easily be seen by cultivating a collection ; but the rich self green-leaved kinds are usually as free and as hardy as the wild plant. Although there are many varieties, there are only two accepted species — the Australian, that is confined to the continent of Australia ; and Hedera Helix, which is found wild in the British Isles, and spreads over Europe, reaching into N. Africa and Central Asia. It is under our English Ivy that the large number of forms in culti\'ation are classed. Although there are only two species, we can classify the Ivies in several groups, after the variation in the leaves. If we want Ivies in their fullest beauty, it is necessary to pay some attention to position, soil, and training. This applies to all kinds, but especially to the more delicate varieties. Ordinaiy garden soil will grow the Ivy well, and the strong growers, as Emerald Gem, Rasgneriana algeriensis, canariensis or the Irish hy, sagittaefolia, lucida, palmata, gracilis, dentata, digitata, pedata, and angularis,will need no special position ; but in the case of kinds Hke madeirensis yariegata, a showy form, some little care IS needed. It is better to plant these kmds as edgings to a bed of shrubs or THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HEDYSARUM. 549 permit them to clamber o\er a root-stump, arbour, or form a pyramid of them, where they will be less exposed to the full force of wind than if they were stiffly trained on walls. Cuttings ma\' be struck in the latter part of the summer, and quickly root if put in a shady border where the soil is fairly good. It is sometimes well to cut the plants down to the ground after the first )-ear, as often the shoots are \ery weak ; but this severe pruning induces a stronger growth later on. .-\s re- gards the best time to plant, the spring months are the most suitable ; but the Ivy may be planted any time if it is in a pot, and during the first sum- mer, if the weather is hot, give plenty of water. In the case of ^-ariegated sorts, it is advisable to plant in a poor soil, so as to bringout the \ ariegation. A word should be said for Tree Ivies, which make fine bushes in the garden, and may be associated with other shrubs in beds. Healthy plants make dense rounded heads of foliage, relieved during the bloom- ing season with many flowers. By far the most important hies, however, are the green-leaved forms, —many, various, and nearly all beautiful in form. What- e\er kinds among these we may prefer, a fuller and more graceful use of the Ivy in or near the flower- garden and its surround- ings is desirable. Hedychium Gaxdneri- anum. — This, though usually grown in the green- house, will flower out-of- doors, and live through an ordinary winter with a little protection. It should be planted out in May, in a loose sandy loam, enriched with manure. While the plant is making its growtba mulching should be given, and in dry weather an occasional watering of liquid manure. It is excellent for choice groups in the sub-tropical garden, in warm sheltered spots. A heap of cinders or half-rotten leaves laid over the crowns in winter will ensure their safety ; or the roots may be lifted in autumn and win- tered in any dry place with Dahlias and Cannas. It is increased by di\iding the roots in spring, but each piece must ha\e a young crown attached. Hedysaxum (French Honeysuckle). — Plants of the Pea order, mostly weedy, only a few perennials being ornamental. H. coronariuni, a showy plant, 3 or 4 ft. high, bearing in sunmier dense spikes of red flowers. It grows in any ordinary soil, but is not a perennial, though it usually sows itself where it is established. PjTamid of large-leaved Iv>', 7 ft. high. There is a white variety. Among the dwarfer kinds the two following are desirable : H. obscurum, a brilliant and compact perennial ; 6 to 12 in. high, with racemes of showy purple flowers. It is suitable for the rock-garden, for borders, and for naturalisation amongst vegetation not more than i ft. high, chiefly on banks and slopes in sandy loam, and is increased by division or seed. H. Mackenzii is said to be the handsomest of the genus. It grows about 2 ft. high, and has long 5SO HEIMIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HELIANTHUS. racemes of from seven to thirty rather large rosy-purple Pea-like flowers. It is perfectly hardy in any situation, and flowers in June and July. It is rather too tall for the rock-garden, and is more suited for the mixed border. Heimia salicifolia. — A pretty half- hardy shrub from Mexico, from 3 to 5 ft. high, and useful for planting against a dwarf wall unsuitable for tall climbers. It has narrow Willow-like leaves, and bears in late summer an abundance of small yellow flowers. Helenium {Sneeze - weed). — Vigorous Composites from North America, flowering in autumn, and thriving in any soil, and, where rightly used, excellent plants. There are two or three species, the most useful being H. autumnale, about 6 ft. high, bearing yellow flower-heads. The varieties grandiceps and pumilum are very distinct : grandiceps being of gigantic growth with a fasciated head of bloom, which makes it very showy ; pumilum being much dwarfer and better than the type. H. atropurpureum grows 3 or 4 ft. high, and has reddish-brown flower-heads. H. Hoopesi is desirable, as it flowers in early summer, but is a rather coarse grower, with large yellow flowers. The first-mentioned species and its varieties are excellent border plants, and, though vigorous, remain long in bloom. They are very useful for cutting, as they remain a long time fresh. Helianthemum {Sun Rose). — Though strictly shrubby plants for the most part, these dwarf evergreens possess so much the aspect of rock-plants, that they can- not well be separated from them. There are few more brilliant sights than masses of them when in full beauty, and they are of the easiest possible culture, dwarf and compact, bearing in great profusion flowers with fine diversity of colour. The common Sun Rose (H. vulgare) is variable in colour, and from it have sprung the many varieties enum.erated in trade lists ; indeed, we need only this species to represent, for garden purposes, the vari- ation in all the dwarf shrubby species of the family. The colours range from white and yellow to deep crimson. There are also double-flowered kinds and one with variegated foliage. Other pretty, dwarf, shrubby species, similar to H. vul- gare, are H. rosmarinifolium, pilosum, and croceum. There is also a herbaceous perennial species, H. Tuberaria (Truffle Sun Rose), which in aspect differs com- pletely from the shrubby species, and is second to none in beauty. It grows 6 to 12 in. high, with flowers 2 in. across resembling a single yellow Rose, with dark centre, and drooping when in bud. It is suited for warm ledges on the rock- garden in well-drained sandy or calcar- eous soil. When sufficiently plentiful it should be used in the mixed border. It is propagated by either seed or division. When a full collection is required there are other species introduced, but the above fairly represent the beauty of the family. Helianthus {Sunflower) — Perennial Sunflowers. — Usually stout, vigorous, and showy plants, typical of the coarse yellow Composites abounding in North America, of which not a few have found their way into English gardens. All the perennials are vigorous growers, and generally attain a great height, being most precious for the autumnal garden when well placed. Sunflowers may be cultivated with the greatest ease ; they are gross feeders, and the richer the soil the better the result. It is true that not a few of this genus are coarse and weedy, unfitted for the flower-garden, but a good many, some of ^\hich are not yet in general cultivation, could be utilised with striking effect in the best-kept flower- garden ; and for mixed borders, etc., they are valuable. The Sunflowers, like the Michaelmas Daisies, could ill be spared from the autumn garden, where, when most other hardy perennials are beginning to show the sere and yellow leaf, they are generally at their best and in their greatest numbers. Although the flowers are some- what restricted in their range of colouring, the plants \ary considerably in their seasons of blooming, in habit, and also in the positions in which the most may be made of them. From their robust growth, themajorityof them are essentially suitable for borders where plenty of scope may be had, and where attention may be given to the proper grouping of the different species and varieties. Some few of the species which may not be considered showy enough for the flower border proper could be planted in the woods, in isolated beds or among shrubs, where their par- ticular and characteristic habits could be seen to advantage. It would hardly be policy to grow the whole genus in any one garden unless shrubbenes abound on a large scale. H. multiflorus and its varieties, H. ngidus and its varieties, H. decapetalus, and a few others are essentially border plants, where, when doing well and in full flower, they form a feature of no mean beauty. H. lastiflorus, H. orgyalis H tevigatus, and H. divaricatus would make HELIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HELIANTHUS. 55 1 handsome groups in open shrubberies, and giganteus, doronicoides, grosse- serratus and others might with ad\antage be relegated to the wood, where, in open exposed positions, they would form inter- esting groups. They increase so rapidly as a whole that it will be needless to say anything about propagation, which may be done in autumn or spring with good results. Other species not mentioned, but which may be of interest to many, are H. angustifolius, Maximiliani, mollis, and occidentalis, the two last being early- ilowering species rare in gardens. H. DECAPET.\LUS is One of the most charming species in the whole genus ends ; the flowers deep yellow, 2 to j in. in diameter. It is one of the latest to flower, and has been found \'ariable under cultixation, giving rise to several garden names. Moist ground, Canada and Louisiana. H. L/ETIFLORUS is a handsome species, very little known in gardens, although the name was freely used for forms of H. rigidus. It is, as a rule, rather later in flowering than the H. rigidus forms, and unfortunately in cold wet seasons or early winters does not bear good flowers. It is a much taller and stronger plant than H. rigidus, the flowers, 4 to 5 in. across, of a bright yellow with yellow disc. The Double Perennial Sunflower. as a background to mixed borders or as a feature in open shrubberies. It forms large, bushy, well-balanced plants 4 to 6 ft. in height, with strong, much- branched stems, rough on the upper half and usually quite smooth on the lower. The leaves are broadly oval, pointed and thin in texture ; flowers 2 to 3 in. in diameter, of a ricli sulphur-yellow, pro- duced in great abundance, and \ery showy. It is found plentifully on the banks of streams in Canada and Georgia. H. GIGANTEUS is a \ery tall, elegant plant. The stems often exceed 10 to 12 ft. high, the leaves narrow, tapering to both leaves are thin, entire, or coarsely toothed, and the bracts of the involucre always acute, a very distincti\e character in this genus. The roots are somewhat similar to those of H. rigidus, perhaps larger, and they certainly travel further. It is a native of prairies and barrens, Illinois, \\'isconsin. H. MULTIFLORUS. — The late Dr. Asa Gray always considered this plant a garden variety of H. decapetalus. There is strong evidence, however, of its being a hybrid, the parents of which it would be difficult now to ascertain with accuracy. It is so very distinct from all the other species so 552 HEI.IANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HELIANTHUS. well known in gardens under its present name, and such a good all-round plant, that it well deserves specific rank. It rarely exceeds 3 to 5 ft. in height, producing numerous large fine rich yellow flowers, remaining a considerable time in good form. The var. maximus has larger flowers with more pointed rays, and the varieties plenus and Soleil d'Or are both very desirable double-flowered forms. All the varieties of H. multiflorus should find a place in collections however small. of all the perennial Sunflowers. It is still found labelled Harpalium rigidum m some gardens, and is often confounded with H. missuricus and H. atro-rubens, the latter of which, so far as I know, is not now in cultivation. Typical H. rigidus is figured in the Botanical Register, t. 508, and Botanical Magazifu, t. 2668, as H. atro-rubens. H. rigidus grows from 4 to 5 ft. in height, with a rough hispid stem, the upper leaves always alternate, dis- tinctly three-nerved and veined. The Sunflowers in vases. H. ORGYALIS, though a small-flowered plant, is yet one of the^best of the genus for the picturesque garden in southern counties. It is one of the late-flowering species, and is often damaged by early frosts. It grows from 6 to 10 ft. high, having numerous linear leaves and bunches of deep golden yellow flowers. It should be grown in sheltered spots, otherwise it requires a great deal of staking. It is a native of dry plains of Nebraska and Texas. H. RIGIDUS.— This distinct, though variable species is perhaps the best known lower ones are opposite, broader, thinner, often serrated, and rarely pointed. All the leaves narrow to a winged petiole, and are easily distinguished from those of any other species. The flowers, bright yellow and very showy, are produced very freely. It is a native of the plains and prairies of Georgia and Texas. The \arieties of this species, most of which have undoubtedly originated in gardens, are superior to the type as garden plants. H. grandiflorus, 'semi-plenus, elegans, and jestivus are all worth a place in the flower border. All should, however be HELIANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, heliotropium. 553 grouped by themselves, as they form underground tubers, which spread a con- siderable distance from the parent plant in the course of a year. Some of these varieties have been tried at Kew and else- where grouped singly in beds, and are always much admired in the autumn months when the members of this genus are so much in evidence. — D. D. Annual Sunflowers.— All the larger kinds are noble plants, requiring plenty of space, a sheltered position, and a good background. They are all easily raised from seed, which may be sown in pans in early March or in the open air in April where they are intended to flower, and thinned out to from a foot to a yard apart according to- the vigour of the plant. The regulation row of Sunflowers along a choice mixed border often ruins its effect, but there are various ways of arranging the annual Sunflowers with excellent effect — among large beds of fine-leaved plants being one of them. H. Annuus [Common Sunflower). — Although often regarded only as a cottagers' flower, the annual Sunflower is one of the noblest plants we have, and one of the most effective for various positions. In order to dispense with support, it should be planted in a sheltered place, as among tall shrubs. Here it assumes a dense branching tree-like habit, and often produces flowers each over a foot in diameter. It requires a strong rich soil, to which may be added a quantity of old cow manure just before planting. There are many varieties in gardens, the most notable being one called californicus, a more robust and darker-flowered form. Macrocarpus, lenticularis, and ovatus, are synonyms or slight varieties of the culti- vated annual Sunflower ; sulphureus, multiflorus, globosus, grandiflorus, and fistulosus are garden variations. The sulphur-coloured variety is charming, and less strong in growth than the richer yellow forms. North America. H. argo- phyllus, little more than a variety of H. annuus, is a charming plant from Texas, for the back of mixed borders, open borders, and in thin shrubberies. The whole plant is white, being covered with soft and silky wool, the flowers large with very broad ray florets. H. Dammanni and H. D. var. sulphureus are said to be garden hybrids between H. argophyllus and H. annuus. H. cucumerifolius, the miniature Sunflower, is a good annual, growing from 2 to 3 ft. high, usually with purple mottling on the stems, the leaves thin, and bright apple-green. The stems are much branched, and when allowed plenty of room the plants form perfect symmetrical specimens. The flowers are yellow, about 3 in. in diameter, nicely set off with the almost black disc. Sandy soil in woods from Texas westwards. H. EXILIS. — A very slender species, rarely more than a couple of feet in height, with lance-shaped leaves and yellow flowers about 2 in. in diameter. N. Cali- fornia. H. PETIOLARIS. — A fine kind rarely seen in gardens, though from its neat habit and profusion of flowers it should be a welcome addition to the mixed border. It grows about a yard high, loosely branched, the stem as well as the leaves being covered with stiff hairs ; flowers yellow, 3 to 4 in. in diameter. The variety canescens is covered with white pubescence. Texas. H. SCABERRIMUS. — A very distinct plant with large deep yellow flowers, stout branching stems, and broad, oval, coarsely-toothed leaves. California. — D. Helichrysum {Everlasting Flower). — Composites, mostly natives of the Cape of Good Hope, of which a few are cultivated. The most important garden plants are H. macranthum and H. bracteatum. They are generally treated as annuals, and, unless exceptionally well managed by being sown early under glass, they com- mence flowering so late that the best period for laying on the brightest colours is lost, and early frosts find them just approaching their best. They are par- ticularly suited for background plants on dry borders. If they are sown in pans or boxes where they can be slightly protected during winter, and are planted out early in April, they have a chance of producing a good crop of flowers for drying. The colours vary from deep crimson to yellow and white. The hardy perennials are not important, and seldom succeed. H. orientale, which furnishes the Immortelle of the French, flowers poorly except in very hot seasons. None of the other hardy kinds are worth growing, except perhaps H. arenarium, which has bright golden- yellow flowers. Heliophila. — Small and charming Cruciferous annuals. H. araboides is a pretty blue annual, of which occasional use might be made, being dwarf, and free in growth and flower. Another kind is H. pilosa. Heliopsis. — Stout yellow Composites not of essential value considering the good plants of the same order now in cultivation. There are several kinds. Heliotropium {Cherry Pie).— A great favourite for flower gardens on account 554 HELIOTROPIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HELLEBORUS. of its delicate fragrance. For the flower garden spring-struck plants are the best. It is a good plan to lift a few plants from the beds in September, winter them in a warm greenhouse, and in spring to put them in a warm place, where they will soon produce plenty of cuttings. These cuttings may be struck on slight heat like Verbenas, potted on, made to grow rapidly, so as to be fit to plant out at the end of May when danger of frost is past. Heliotropes may be raised from Heliotrope. seed and flowered the same year — in fact, treated as annuals. Sown early — in Feb- ruary or the beginning of March— they become sturdy little plants before planting time. When bedded out they should be placed in good dry soil. The following are good varieties, and new varieties are raised from time to time : Anna Turrell, General Garfield, Roi des Noirs, Triomphe de Lidge, and the old H. peruvianum, which many like from its associations if for no other reason. Heliotropes, though quiet in colour, are charming flower- garden plants, either when grown for their own sakes as simple masses or when associated with tall plants which grow above them. Helipterum Sanfordi {Immortelle).— K dwarf, branched, pretty yellow half-hardy annual Composite, but the short life of the spring-raised everlasting annuals leads to a poor result in our climate. Helleborus {Christmas Rose). — One of the most valuable classes of hardy peren- nials we have, as they flower in the open air when there is little else in .bloom. They appear in succession from October till Aprilj beginning with the Christmas Rose (H. niger), and ending with the handsome crimson kinds. The old white Christmas Rose is well known and much admired, but the handsome kinds with coloured flowers have, hitherto, not been much known. Recently too there have appeared some really beautiful hybrids, which add a great deal of beauty to our winter and spring garden, for their flowers withstand the winter, and their verdure and the vigorous growth of their leaves distinguish them throughout the year. The Hellebores, besides being excellent border flowers, are suited for naturalising. There are a few kinds — ^those with incon- spicuous flowers, but handsome foliage — whose only place is the wild garden, such as the native H. foetidus, H. lividus, viridus, and H. Bocconi, which have elegant foliage when well developed in a shady place in rich soil, like that usually found in woods. The Hellebores may be classed in three groups, according to the colour of the flowers — those with white flowers, those with red, and those with green, which last will get little place in the garden. The white-flowered group is the most important, as it contains the beautiful old Christmas Rose. H. niger is a well-known kind, scarcely needing description. It may be recognised at once by its pale green smooth leathery leaves, divided into seven or nine seg- ments, 3 to 6 in. long and i to 2 in. broad. The flowers, which are usually borne singly on stems 6 in. long, are about 3 in. across, and vary from a waxy-white to a delicate blush tint. The variety minor is smaller in every part, and is also known as H. angustifolius. H. altifolius, though sometimes considered a variety of H. niger, is a distinct kind, and much larger than H. niger. It has leaf-stalks over i ft. long, and blossoms 3 to 5 in. across which are borne on branching stems, each stem bearing from two to seven flowers, which have a stronger tendency to assume a rosy hue than the ordinary kind. Another characteristic is that the leaf and flower stems are beautifully mottled with purple and green, while in H. niger they are of a pale green. H. altifolius also flowers much earlier— in some seasons in the begmnmg of October. It has been known a long time under the names of H. niger var. major, maximus, giganteus, and grandiflorus. HELLEBORUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HELLEBORUS. 555 Other white kinds are H. olympicus — a tall slender species with cup-shaped blos- soms that appear in early spring and vary from pure white to greenish-white. H. guttatus is like it, but has the inside of the blossoms spotted with purple. There are several forms ; in some the markings assume the form of small dots, in others of thin streaks. It is one of the parents of the many beautiful hybrids. dark purple. Under good cultivation the leaves attain the length of i\ and 2 ft., forming fine specimens, and flowers are produced from the end of January to the end of March. A fine hybrid has been obtained by crossing it with H. guttatus, the result being a form with large spread- ing flowers lighter than in H. colchicus, and profusely marked with dark carmine streaks. Another hybrid between this Christmas Rose. The finest of the red or crimson kinds is H. colchicus, which is larger than any other, and may be readily recognised by thick dark green leaves, with five to seven broad and coarsely-toothed divisions, the veins of which are raised on the under sides, and are of a dark purple when young. The blossoms, borne on forked stems rising considerably above the foliage, are and H. altifolius resulted in a form with larger flowers of a lighter purple. H. atro-rubens has leaves much thinner and flowers much smaller than H. colchicus, the latter dull purple on the outside and greenish-purple within. It is a native of Hungary, and is common in gardens, but is often confused with H. abchasicus, a taller and more slender plant, the flower- 5S6 HELLEBORHB. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HEMEROCALLIS. Stems of which are longer, and the blos- soms nodding and smaller. H. abchasicus is much superior to atro-rubens, the colour of the blossoms — a deep ruby-crimson — making them very attractive. Other fine varieties of the red-flowered group are Gretchen Heinemann, James Atkins, and Apotheker Bogren, all worthy of culture. Other reddish kinds, such as H. purpurascens and H. cupreus, are not worth growing. ■All the kinds will thrive in ordinary garden soil, but for the choicer kinds a prepared soil is preferable. This should consist of equal parts of good fibry loam and well-decomposed manure, half fibry peat and half coarse sand. Thorough drainage should always be given, as stag- nant moisture is very injurious. A moist and sheltered situation, where they will obtain partial shade, such as the margins of shrubberies, is best, but care should be taken to keep the roots of shrubs from exhausting the border. In the flowering season a thin mulching of moss or similar material should be placed on the soil round the plants, as this prevents the blossoms from being spattered by heavy rains, etc. Any one beginning to grow these useful plants should give the soil a good preparation. If well trenched and manured, they will not re- quire replanting for at least seven years ; but a top-dressing of well-decayed manure and a little liquid manure might be given during the growing season when the plants are making their foliage, as upon the size and substance of the leaves will depend the size of the flowers. The common white Christmas Rose is a fav- ourite pot-plant, and if required for pot- ting its foliage should be protected from injury ; when the blooming season is over it should be protected by a frame until Ifenial weather permits it to be plunged in the open air. Hardy subjects like the Christmas Rose frequently suffer when removed from under glass, for although bardy enough to withstand our severest winters when continuously exposed, their growth, when made under more exciting circumstances, will not withstand sudden variations of temperature. For this reason it is advisable to keep them in as cool a position as possible when in flower, so that the growth of young foliage may not be excited before its natural season. Propagation may be effected by division or by seecls, which, in favourable seasons, are plentiful ; as soon as thoroughly ripened they should be sown in pans under glass, for they soon lose their vitality. As soon as the seedlings are large enough they should be pricked off thickly into a shady border, in a light rich soil ; the second year they should be transplanted to their permanent place, and in the third season most of them will bloom. In division the clumps must be well-established, with root-stocks large enough to cut up. The divided plants, if placed in a bed of good light soil, and undisturbed, will be good flowering plants in a couple of years, but four years are required to bring a Christmas Rose to perfection. By July the Hellebore is in its strongest vigour, and lifting and divid- ing the plants should then be carried out. Helonias bullata {Stud Flower). — A distinct and handsome bog perennial, 12 to 16 in. high, having handsome purplish- rose flowers in an oval spike. It is suit- able for the bog-garden or for moist ground near a rivulet. In fine sandy and very moist soil it thrives as a border plant. N. America. Syn., H. latifolia. Hemerocallis {Day Lily). — The Day Lilies, though not numbering many dis- tinct species, are varied both in habit and flower, and are very useful in the mixed border and in groups by the water-side. Few plants surpass a strong well-flowered clump of Hemerocallis fulva, as we have seen it mixed with a group of male Fern near a brook. The leaves of this Day Lily were overhanging the banks of the stream, intermingled with the Fern fronds, while the flower-heads, tall and straight, were towering upwards. If the ground is well broken up and some lasting manure supplied at planting time, they may be left undisturbed for years. The forms of H. disticha, both single and double, are also useful for clumps by water, or inter- mixed with other robust or bold-foliaged plants ; indeed, there seems no reason why all the Day Lilies could not be treated in this picturesque ^\ay, the trouble entailed being small, and that chiefly at planting time only. For cut- ting, H. flava, minor, and Dumortieri are useful, the flowers lasting a few days and the buds opening well in water. The fragrance of these flowers is delightful, they are readily increased by division, and grow with such rapidity that in the course of a few years they may be in- creased to almost any extent. The following are the species as they are now recognised, with the principal varieties : — H. Dumortieri (Dumortier's Day Lily).— This valuable kind is the first to flower of all the Day Lilies. Coming as it does from Japan and W. Siberia, it proves hardy in the open air. It does HEMEllOCALLIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN: hemerocallis. 557 not require protection during winter, and we have never known it fail to bear freely its charming and fragrant flowers. The blooms are short-lived, but the reserves are so numerous as to keep up the suc- cession for a long time. This Day Lily dwindles in vigour of the plants and size of the flowers if allowed to remain too long in one place. If the plants are examined, the centres will be found to be matted together, the stronger shoots appearing on the outside. If the whole plant is divided and replanted it will amply repay the trouble by increased vigour and flowers. It is closely allied to H. minor, also known as H. graminea, but it is a much stronger plant, however, with leaves twice as broad, the flower- stems short, and the divisions of the perianth divided almost or entirely to their base. The leaves are about five or six to a growth, about 1 8 in. long and half an inch broad, bright green above and pale but not glaucous on the under surface ; flower-stem i to 2 ft. in height, bearing a corymb of large orange-yellow flowers. H. rutilans and Sieboldi of gardens belong to the same species. H. FLAVA (the yellow Day Lily). — Few plants can be grown with so little trouble m the border, and give such a valuable return as this one. The flowers large and in such quantities, emitting such an agreeable fragrance, as to earn the name of yellow Tuberose. The length of time the flowers last enhances its value as a border plant. It is hardy, and though not so robust in habit as H. fulva, it increases rapidly, and where the soil is good might be naturalised. On banks the beautiful light green curving leaves hang gracefully, surmounted by bunches of large yellow heads of flower in June and July. Europe and N. Asia. H. Thunbergi and japonica are forms of this species. H. FULVA (copper-coloured Day Lily) is a much larger plant than- H. flava, and more suitable for extensive planting in semi-wild or rough parts of the garden. It is variable under cultivation, and the numerous forms now grown, many with- out names, are all worthy of attention. H. disticha is a well-known garden variety of this species, notable for the fan-like form of its growths. The flower-stem is forked near the summit, and carries two or three heads of flowers, six to eight blooms on each, of a brown-orange colour. There is also a double-flowered variety of this. H. Kwanso is a variety with varie- gated or striated leaves. It is a handsome plant for edgings or for the rock-garden. Of this there is also a double-flowered form. H. f. var. angustifolia,' narrow- leaved ; longituba, crocea, natives of China, flowering in July and August, belong to this section. H. MiDDENDORFIANA is from Amur- land, in appearance resembling H. Dumortieri ; the leaves are, however, broader, the flowers about the same size, closer, and paler in colour, and with a distinct cylindrical tube half an inch or so long. It is of easy cultivation. H. MINOR, also known in many gardens Yellow Day Lily (Hemerocallis flava). under the highly • characteristic name of H. graminea, from its Grass-like foliage, was formerly classed by the older botanists as a variety of H. flava, though now con- sidered distinct. It is the smallest, though not the least showy, and, like flava, sweetly scented, the flowers lasting two or three days. It makes a handsome plant for a rocky bank, and even when flowers are absent the pretty Grass-hke leaves are welcome. It flowers during June and July. It is also known under the names graminifolia and pumila. Siberia. 558 HEMiPHRAGMA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. H. AURANTIACA MAJOR.— This is the name given by Mr. Baker of Kew to a new and handsome kind from Japan, and of which a coloured plate was given in The Garden., November 23, 1895. It is certainly one of the finest new hardy plants of recent years, and reminds one of H. fulva {,syn., H. disticha). The new kind has bold leafage, a glaucous tinge overlying the deep green body colour ; the flowers are rich apricot in colour, open out widely, and of great substance. f> Hemiphragma heterophyllum. — A dwarf trailer of the Figwort fgjnily, with grounds, the banks of rivers or lakes, and other places where they can grow freely and well, and can show their stately growth to advantage. The finest are H. giganteum, lanatum, sibiricum, eminens, Wilhelmsi, and pubescens, all of which, when in flower, are 5 to 10 ft. high. All are increased by seed. Herniaria.;— Dwarf perennial trailers, forming a dense turfy mass, green through- out the year. There are two or three species, but the most important is H. glabra, which has been largely used as a carpeting plant on account of its dwarf compact growth. It rarely requires clip- 'm '..vis*?!..'- Hemerocallis fulva (Day Lily). slender creeping stems of inconspicuous flowers, succeeded by bright red berries about the size of small Peas. It is rather tender, and requires a sheltered and well- drained spot in the rock-garden. Hima- layas. Heracleum((?za;z/Parj;zz^).— Umbelli- ferous perennials, mostly of gigantic growth, having huge spreading leaves and tall flower-stems, with umbelled clusters of small white flowers i ft. or more across. Though well-developed plants of the large kinds have a fine effect when isolated in a position not too obstructive, they are generally suitable only for the rougher parts of pleasure- ping, and is always a deep green, even in a hot and dry season. Hesperaloe yuccaefolia. — A North American Liliaceous plant with Yucca- like leaves, and a flower-spike upwards of 4 ft. in height, furnished thickly on the upper half with orange-red flowers nearly I in. m length. Its hardiness has not been tested, but little is known of its re- quirements under cultivation. Hesperis matronalis {Rocket). — A popular old garden plant, and among the most desirable of hardy flowers. It bears showy, varied, and fragrant flower-spikes. Ihe origmal single-flowered kind grows I to 3 ft. high, and has pinkish flowers. HESPERIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 559 but the double kinds are much more valued. There are two distinct forms of the double white Rocket, as well as of the double purple Rocket in cultivation. One is a tall white, turning to a pale flesh colour with age ; the other is the old white variety, of dwarfer growth, with smaller and more compact flowers. It is met with in the north, but is little known in the south, where it does not flourish so wdl as the common variety. There is the old purple double Rocket and a free- growing dwarf form known as Compact- ness, which has also larger and darker flowers. Rockets require care in cultivat- ing, and will soon be lost if left to them- selves. They should be divided at least every second year and transplanted, for they seem to tire of the soil and to require more change than most perennials. If the young shoots .are formed into cuttings was a yearly transfer of plants from the reserve garden to the mixed border, and the groups look very well. The single Rocket is easily naturalised, and is a showy ' plant in woods or shrub- beries. H. tristis {Night-scented Stock). — A quaint plant with dull-coloured flowers, sweet-scented at night. It is rather tender, and requires a light warm soil and a sheltered position. Hesperochiron pumilus. — A pretty Californian dwarf rock- plant. It is stem- less, with leaves on slender stalks, in a rosulate tuft. The bell-shaped flowers, \ in. across, are of white, varying to a purplish tin^re. It grows in marshy ground, and m damp places in the Rocky Mountains and Northern Utah, and is apparently quite hardy, as it thiives in ordinary soil in well-drained parts of the Bi i B^ &^Eui R ^^M^^mE 1 fi 'k^i- ^g ^1^^ l^^^J^m r^^H HlKi^RyH 1 iE?TfciVs'r<3 ^ |^^^.f^^ m^^ ejH^PI 1 E 1 9 Double White Rocket. when they are about 3 in. long, they strike very freely in the open ground, and the spikes of bloom on the remaining stems are all the finer when some of the others have been removed. When shaded from the sun for about three weeks with a few Laurel branches, the cuttings do better than when covered with a pot or box, as has been advised. They like a rich soil, rather moist, and are all the better for repeated applications of liquid manure if the soil is not as deep and good as it should be. Double Rockets really belong to the garden plants requiring annual attention, and they therefore cannot well be used as true perennials. It is always worth while having a bed of them in the reserve garden in case the plants should be lost or neglected in the borders. We have seen them best grown where there rock-garden. H. californicus is a species of somewhat the same type. Heuchera {Alum Root). — Dwarf, tufted, perennial herbs, with distinct and some- times finely-coloured leaves and modest but inconspicuous flowers. Of little value for their flowers, one or two kinds give pretty effects of foliage either as edgings to or beneath groups of shrubs ; the best are also worth growing for their leaves for cutting for the house in winter, lasting as they do fresh for weeks in winter, the foli- age being good in foi-m as well as colour. Among the best are H. pispida {Richard- soni), atnericana,pubescens, and sanguinea, the last the only one with any showy bloom. They are North American plants, of the easiest cultivation in ordinary soil. Division. Saxifrage order. Hibiscus {Rose Mallow). — Shrubby and 56o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HIERACIUM. herbaceous perennials and annuals. They are numerous in hothouses, but few are suited for the flower-garden. The splen- did hardy Rose Mallows of the woods and swamps of N. America will live with us, but our climate is not warm enough for them, though it would be well to try tufts of them in warm sunny places in the southern parts of England, in deep, moist soil. They have splendid crimson or rosy flowers, as large as saucers, and are from 4 to 7 ft. high. The finest are H. Mos- cheutos, H. palustris, H. grandiflorus, and H. coccineus. They seldom bloom in the open air in England, as they flower late in the season. There are two or three annual kinds, the finest being H. Manihot, which forms handsome pyramids 4 to 6 ft. high, the flowers being 3 or 4 in. across, and pale yellow with a dark centre. H. Manihot should be ti-eated as a half-hardy annual, sown in heat in February, and in May planted out Venice Mallow (Hibiscus Trionum). in good deep soil. H. africanus is a hardy annual with showy pale yellow flowers that only open in fine weather. In light soil it usually sows itself. H. _ Trionum appears to be extremely variable, and has long been cultivated in gardens. It is widely scattered over all the warm regions of the Old World, and is usually described as a common sub-tropical weed, found plentifully in cultivated fields in Afghanistan. It is found in several places in China, and is a very common weed in waste garden ground and rich damp soil throughout the Cape Colony, and has given rise to almost innumerable varieties, a few of which are so distinct as to have at one time been considered species. The great objection to the type is the short-lived flowers, which Gerard says open at eight in the morning and close at nine, and which supposed fact gave rise to the curious appellations, " Flower of an hour,"' " Good night at noon," or " Good night at nine." In a fine form, figured in The Garden, this objection is quite done away with, the flowers opening in the morning, and, on bright days, remaining so until late in the afternoon. Individual flowers do not last very long, but there is a succession on a well-grown plant, and these are large and beautiful. It is quite as hardy as the one usually grown, seeds as freely, and much more striking, especially in bold clumps. Simply scatter the seeds in the open on the spots where they are intended to grow, thinning, where too close together,, to 6 in. or i ft. apart, and leaving the sun, etc., to do the rest. It will even sow it- self, the seeds coming up in plenty the following spring if the winter has not been too severe, but sowings should be made at different times to ensure bloom all through the summer and autumn. H. S3rriacus {Syrian Mallow, Rose of Sharon). — A beautiful shrub, bearing large showy blossoms in late summer and in autumn, when shrubberies would other- wise be flowerless. It is a very old favourite, and in strong moist soils it rises 6 and even 10 ft. high, and as much through. It is a miserable shrub on poor dry soils, but attains perfection in deep ground fairly rich and always moist. The typical form has bluish-purple flowers with crimson centres, but now there are forms representing every tint from pure white (totus albus) to crimson and purple, while the blooms of one sort (Celeste) are almost pure blue. There are also double flowers of varied colours. The best kinds, single and double, are Totus albus. Celeste, Violet Clair, Leopoldi, bicolor, roseus plenus. Pompon Rouge, cameo- plenus. Due de Brabant, albus plenus, puniceus plenus, and anemonacflorus. A few bushes nicely grouped on a lawn with one or two taller trees or shrubs make a pretty feature, and under the partial shade of trees the effect of the flowering bushes is more striking in autumn. The old name for this shrub is Altha;a frutex, by which it is now also known. Hieracium {Hawkweed).~'p^xe.nvi\tA herbs with yellow flowers, verv numerous, and often beautiful in nature, but not much grown in gardens. Among the best are aieranhacum with orange flowers, a good plaiit, but apt to spread too much in the garden ; and villostim, the Shaggy Hawk- weed, a handsome plant with silvery leaves and large yellow flowers. Free in HIPPOCREPIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. IIOUSTONIA. 561 ■ordinary soil. Borders. Division. Daisy •order. Hippocrepis Q,Qr&QZ&{Horse-shoe Vetch). — A small prostrate British evergreen herb about 6 in. high. Its yellow flowers, of which 5 to 8 are borne together in a crown, resemble those of the Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, but are paler and rather smaller. It grows freely in any exposed part of the rock-garden and borders, in any soil. Seed and division. Hippophse rhamnoides {Sea Buck- thorn). — Abeautiful seashore native shrub, ■developing its full beauty in the rich soils ■of inland gardens, though it is happy in any soil but hungry clay and peat. The best position for it is a rather damp spot near a running stream, where the subsoil is always moist. It forms, when wild, a straggling bush, which, when the shrub is sheltered, rises 8 or 10 ft. high. In gardens it grows taller. The Sea Buck- thorn has silvery-looking Willow-like leaves and bears a profusion of orange berries. Hippuris {Maris-tail). — A British ■water-weed, worth growing with the Equisetums and the like by ponds where the growth near is not too rank. Holboellia latifolia. — A beautiful ever- green climbing shrub from the Himalayas, hardy against walls in the southern and the warm districts. The foliage is thick with three or five leaflets of a deep shining |[reen. The flowers are a deliciously fragrant dull purplish green, but it does not bloom so freely out of doors as in a cool conservatory. As it is of tall growth, it must be planted against a high wall, such as that of a house or stable. It is known also as Stauntonia latifolia. The variety angustifolia has smaller and more numerous leaflets. Holcus. — British Grasses, of which one, H. mollis, affords a pretty variegated- leaved form for lines and edgings, re- taining its markings very well. Hordeiun. — Grasses, of which the Barley is the most familiar type, few of ornamental value except H. jubatum {Squirrel-tail Grass), which has long feathery spikes. It grows in any soil in open places, is easily raised as an ■annual, and is one of the most distinct ■dwarfer Grasses. Sow in autumn or spring. Horminum pyrenaicum.— A Pyrenean plant, forming dense tufts of foliage, and having spikes about 9 in. high of purplish- blue flowers, which appear in July or August. It is quite hardy. Hoteia japonica.— A fine tufted her- baceous plant I ft. to 16 in. high, with silvery-white flowers early in summer in a panicled cluster. In a rich soil it is excellent for a shady border. Strong clumps planted in autumn will flower in the following spring. Where there are forced plants to spare they may be planted out when they have done blooming, but will not make much show in the following season. Much, used indoors, is seldom good in the open garden, partly because it does badly in heavy and poor soils. Where it thrives and flowers well it would be a graceful aid in the varied flower- garden. Increased by division in autumn. Japan. Syns., Spiraea japonica, Astilbe barbata. Hottonia palustris {Wafer Violet).— A pretty British water-plant, which, how- ever, thrives better on soft mud-banks than when submerged. The deep-cut Houstonia coerulea. leave? form a dwarf deep-green tuft over the mud, and from this tuft arise stems bearing at intervals whorls of handsome pale lilac or pink flowers. As water and bog may be associated with the rock- garden, this plant may with advantage be grown at its margin in the water or on a bank of wet soil. It grows from 9 in. to 2 ft. high, flowers in early summer, and is abundant in many parts of England. Houstoma coerulea {Bluets). — A very pretty little American plant, forming small, dense cushion-like tufts, and from late spring to autumn bearing crowds of O O S62 HOUTTUYNIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HYACINTHUS. tiny slender stems, about 3 in. high. The flowers are pale blue, changing to white. There is also a white variety. It succeeds best in peaty or sandy soil, in sheltered shady nooks on well-drained parts of the rock-garden. As it sometimes perishes in winter, it is advisable to keep reserve plants in pots. Propagated by careful division in spring, or by seed. H. serpyl- lifolia and H. purpurea are allied species and alike in stature and wants. Houttuynia. — Remarkable plants allied to Saururus, and the only hardy represent- atives of the natural order Piperacese. They are graceful as well as curious plants, and are suited for the bog-garden, where in a rich peaty soil they thrive. They are hardy in the south. H. CALIFORNICA. — This plant is also known in gardens as Anemiopsis cali- fornica ; it is now, however, placed under Houttynia. It was first found by Nuttall in Upper California, and later by Douglas, who sent specimens home. 1 1 is perennial, on long stalks. The flower-stem very hairy, and bearing numerous small in- conspicuous flowers on oval cone. This is surrounded by six large bracts, the inner three spotted with red, the others white. It is a useful plant for the bog- garden, easily managed, and flowers from June to August. H. CORDATA is a perennial, with a creeping root, the stems i to 2 ft. high, the bracts resembling a corolla, and formed of four large pure white spread- ing leaves from the base of the cone of flowers. Thunberg found this curious plant in Japan growing in great abund- ance in ditches by the wayside. It is also found in Nepaul and Cochin China, where Loureiro found it only growing in gardens H. CHINENSIS, which was first named Gymnotheca chinensis by Decaisne, is a native of China, and appears to be a good plant, but we have not seen it in cultiva- tion.— D. Humea elegans.— A very graceful half-hardy biennial, 3 to 8 ft. high, having large leaves with a strong balsamic odour, and forming, when in flower, an elegant feathery pyramid of reddish-brown blos- soms. It is highly ornamental as a back line to a long border, as a single specimen to let into the lawn, as the centre of a bed or vase, or in masses with other elegant foliage plants. Ex- cellent effiscts may be obtained by com- bining it in masses or groups with other good plants. For cutting, its light feathery sprays are useful. The proper time to sow seed is July or August, as plants do not bloom the first year, and, if raised before those months, get too large to. winter , conveniently, often becoming leafless below, and the nakedness of stem detracts from their beauty. To prevent this, they should be well fed during winter with weak liquid manure, and be shifted into larger pots early in spring. Rich soil should be used, as they can only be kept healthy by good feeding. When planting them out in beds, which may be done by the first week in June, put under each a spadeful of rotten manure and mix it up with the soil. As the plants, when large, hold a good deal of wind, they must be securely staked to prevent their being damaged. Compositae. Australia. Humulus Lupulus {Common Hop). — This well-known vigorous twining peren- nial is admirable for bowers, especially when vegetation that disappears in winter is desired ; and is also valuable when allowed to run wild in almost any soil, among shrubs or hedgerows. A slender plant climbing up an Apple or other fruit tree, near the mixed border, looks well. Division. Hunnemannia fumarisefolia. — An erect perennial, 2 to 3 ft. high, with glau- cous foliage, like some of the Fumitories. Its flowers are large and shoviry, of a rich orange, and in form are like Eschscholtzia californica. They continue long in per- fection. Being a native of Mexico, it is rather tender, and not satisfactory for open-air culture. Papaveracese. Hutchinsia alpina. — A neat little alpine plant, with shining leaves and white flowers, in clusters about i in. high, which is quite free in sandy soil, and easily increased by division or seeds. In an open spot, either in the rock-garden or in good free border soil, it becomes a mass of white flowers. Its proper home is the rock-garden, though in borders of dwarf and choice hardy plants it may be grown with success. Central and S. Europe. CruciferEe. Hyacinthus {ffyadnth).~i:\ie familiar garden Hyacinth is not generally included among hardy plants, though it is perfectly hardy, and, when treated as it should be, is most important. The parent of all the varieties is H. orientalis ; this is as hardy as a Daffodil, and its varieties are scarcely less hardy. Hyacinths in the open air are generally the refuse, as it were, of the forced bulbs of preceding years, but even these create a good display in suit- able positions. To have a fine bloom of Hyacinths in the open air, however, it is essential that the bulbs should be good HYACINTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. hyacinthus. 563 and sound, and due regard paid to assort- ment of colour, as tints massed by them- selves are far more effective than a con- fusion of various colours. Now that bulbs may be obtained cheap there is no diffi- culty. The hyacinth will grow well in any good garden soil, but a light rich soil suits it best, and the bed should be effectually drained, for though the plant loves moisture, it cannot stand in a bog during the winter. It is advisable to plant early and deep. If a rich effect is required, the bulbs should be 6 in. apart, but a good effect may be produced by planting them 9 in. or even more apart. The time of blooming may to some extent be influenced by the time and manner of attention until the fiower-stems are much advanced, unless very severe weather intervenes, when a mat or some oiled calico should be thrown over them. Waterproof calico is also useful in very wet weather, as too much water, especially when iced by February frosts and March winds, is by no means good for Hyacinths, which will thrive all the better for a water- proof covering. Hyacinths in the open air seldom require artificial watering, the natural moisture of the soil and the strength of the manure mixed with it being sufficient. When grown in beds they do not require sticks or ties ; simply proper planting. After blooming, the bulbs, if intended to flower again, must be Hy.icinths. planting, but no rules can be given to suit particular cases. Late planting and deep planting both tend to defer the bloom, but make no great difference, and as a rule late bloom is to be preferred, being less liable to injury from frost. The shallowest planting should ensure a depth of 3 in. of earth above the crown of the bulb, but, generally speaking, they will flower better, be a few days later, and form stronger bulbs after flowering, if there is fully 6 in. of earth over the crowns. No protection is better than dry litter, but a thin coat of half- rotten manure spread over the bed is safer if severe frosts are likely to come at any time before the growth has fairly pushed through. The bulbs need no further left undisturbed until the leaves wither or die. The bulbs should then be taken up, dried in a stack for a week or two, and finally placed in the sun for a few hours, the dry leaves being pulled off. Offsets, should also be removed from the bulbs,, and stored in dry sand or earth till the- next planting time. Some take up the bulbs every year, but we have seen hand- some beds that were not disturbed for several years. Offsets, carefully cultivated, in rich light soil for two or three years,, will produce many flowering bulbs, but, as a rule, imported ones are stronger. However carefully cultivated in England, they seldom flower again so well as in the first season, but it is a mistake to throw them away, as many people do. Selections 002 S64 HYACINTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HYDRANGEA. for bedding in distinct colours of red, yellow, white, blue, or mixed are to be Ijought cheap. H. AZUREUS.— One of the earhest as well as the most charming of our early spring flowers. Indeed, one of its chief charms lies in the fact of its producing its numerous dense heads of pretty azure blooms long before we have ceased to expect falls of snow. Many a time have I gone in quest of flowers when the ground was white with its winter covering and have only been able to obtain flowers of this and some Snowdrops and Crocuses. In the case of a dwarf bulb of this kind flowering so early a handlight or bell-glass is simply placed over the clump on the approach of Hyacinthus amethystinuH. a storm, taking the cover off" when all danger is past. The flowers stand any amount of frost without injury, and it is only the chance of their being broken with snow that renders a covering neces- sary. H. azureus is one of those half-way types that one finds so often in the Lily order. It has the habit, appearance, and many of the characters of a Muscari, with the campanulate flowers of a Hyacinth It was first brought to the Vienna Botanic Garden by Kotschy in 1856, and it was some years after before it was in cultiva- tion in England. The bulb is whitish, round, an mch or so in diameter, produc- ing in great abundance stolons or bulbils from the base; the leaves, in number f om SIX to eight to a bulb, are broad, strap- shaped, glaucous, and deeply channelled ; the flower-heads dense, conical, upper flowers sky-blue, campanulate, the lower deep azure blue, and larger than those of the ordinary Grape Hyacinth. It is an excellent plant for the rock-garden, and even in situations where it gets densely shaded by overhanging plants. H. AMETHYSTINUS, though nearly related to H. azureus, is quite different, and flowers a month later and at a time when there is a dearth of flowers of this description in the hardy bulb-garden. It is one of the very old plants, and although cultivated by Miller as early as 1759, it was until recently a scarce plant. The great mistake with a bulb like this is to have two or three or even a dozen in a clump. Instead of the dozen it should be grown by the hundred, and no prettier sight can well be imagined than a large sheet of this graceful Hyacinth, with its loose racemes of vivid amethyst flowers. Its pleasing flowers are produced in May and June, when there is little chance of their being disfigured by frosts. Spain and Italy.— D. K. H. candicans {Galtonia). Hydrangea. — Handsome flowering shrubs, some well known in gardens, others neglected. In warm districts and on good warm soils it would be well worth while to "grow many of the rarer and finer forms of the common Hydrangea, which always flowers best in seashore districts where its shoots are not cut down by frost or by the knife every winter H. HORTENSIA.— The common Hydran- gea (H. Hortensia), from China, may be grown well out-of-doors, but is not always satisfactory in the midlands and the north, being liable to injury in winter. It hkes a sheltered yet sunny spot and good soil. In order to get good heads of bloom, the Hydrangea must be pruned so as to induce the growth of strong shoots. In favoured spots it reaches a height of 6 ft., and as much through, making a beautiful object on a lawn or in the shrubbery margin. From time to time, and especially in recent years, other forms have been introduced and described, some ot them as distinct species. Dr Maxi- mowicz, who has had opportunities of studying them in European and Japan- ese gardens, and also m a «ild state, arranges the following forms under H Hortensia : — {a) H. Hortensia acuminata.— A much-branched shrub, 2 to 5 ft. high ; flowers blue It sports according to locality, and Maximowicz enumerates four such sports, viz.: In open places and h^...T 'T' " '^^t°"ter, with erect thick blanches, large, broad, firm leaves, and larger flowers with somewhat fleshy HYDRANGEA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HYDRANGEA. 565 sepals ; under cultivation it becomes more showy, passing into H. Belzonii. In woods and on the shady banks of rivers it grows taller with slender stems, pointed leaves, and much smaller flowers. In a very fertile soil, a stout plant with toothed sepals in the barren flowers, which are commonly of a blue colour. This is the true H. Buergeri of Siebold and Zuccarini's Flora Japonica, and the H. japonica ccerulescens of Regel. Sometimes it produces white or rose-coloured flowers, and then it is the H. roseo-alba, as figured in the Flore des Serres. These varia- tions are all beautiful, but perhaps not constant. {b) H..HORTENSIA JAPONICA.— This is the H. japonica of Siebold and Zuccarini's Flora Japonica, and the H. japonica macrosepala of Kegel's Gartenflora. It is exactly like acuminata, save that the flowers are tinged with red, and the sepals of the barren flowers are elegantly toothed. (c) H. HoRTENSiA Belzonii. — A short stout plant, with beautiful flowers, the inner sterile ones being of an indigo- blue, and the enlarged sterile ones white, or only slightly tinged with blue, and having entire sepals. There is a sport of this in which the leaves are elegantly variegated with white. This was raised by Messrs. Rovelli, of Pallanza. lyd) H. HoRTENSiA Otaksa. — This has all the flowers sterile and enlarged. A very handsome variety with rich dark green leaves nearly as broad as long, and large hemispherical heads of pale pink or flesh-coloured flowers, very fine when well grown. {e) H. HORTENSIA COMMUNIS.— This is the old variety with rose-pink flowers, commonly cultivated in European gardens. It differs from the last in being perfectly glabrous in its longer, less-rounded leaves, and in its deeper-coloured flowers. (/) H. HORTENSIA AzisiA.— This is not in cultivation, but it differs remark- ably from all of the preceding varieties in the sterile flowers, which have a very long, slender calyx tube. {g) H. HORTENSIA STELLATA. — The chief character of this variety is in the flowers, which are all sterile and double. The variety in cultivation has pink flowers, but they are described as being either pale blue or rose, finally changing to a greenish colour, and distinctly net- veined. The white variety Thomas Hogg is a very fine one, now widely cultivated. Most of the above-named deserve the attention of all who have soil and climate suited to these shrubs. H. PANICULATA {Plumed Hydrangea). — A shrub or small tree. According to Maximowicz, the only Japanese Hydrangea which becomes a tree. It grows as much as 25 ft. high, with a dense rounded head and a straight trunk 6 in. in diameter. But it more commonly forms a shrub a few feet high, bearing enormous panicles of flower. With the exception of H. Hortensia, it is the commonest species in Japan, growing throughout that country both in The Plumed Hydrangea. the mountains and the plains, being more abundant in the northern parts, and it is said to vary very much. It is commonly cultivated by the Japanese. The massive clusters of pure white blossoms, terminat- ing every shoot in autumn, are veiy beautiful, and there are few finer autumn effects than a well-flowered mass of this shrub. It must have a good soil, and be well mulched with manure in winter. To encourage the new growth the old and useless shoots must be cut away. It is from 3 to 4 ft. high, and spreads its branches gracefully and widely on all sides. The clusters are often i ft. long and half as much in diameter, but to get such flowers we must cultivate well and prune the shrubs hard down in winter. 566 HYDRANGEA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HYPERICUM. H. HIRTA {Nettle-leaved H)—K dwarf shrub, 3 or 4 ft. high, with slender hairy branches and Nettle-Hke leaves. The leaves and branches become nearly or quite glabrous with age. This, although not a showy species, seems to be a pretty, compact dwarf shrub, with numerous clusters of white flowers. A native of the mountains of Japan. H. viRENS {Changing //:)— This is a remarkable and elegant shrub, varying in height from 2 to 6 ft. The branches, straight, slender, and polished, bearing small, thin, deeply-toothed leaves, 2 to 3 in, long yellowish-green above, and pale beneath, with small clusters of flowers, some of which are sterile. Altogether this is a pretty little shrub, and it is somewhat surprising that it has not been introduced, as it is common in the neighbourhood of Nagasaki, in Japan. H. CHINENSIS {Fortunes /r^.)— Near the last, but of more robust habit, with leaves 3 to 5 in. long, and with cymes of flowers much larger. It differs from H. virens in the leaves being green on both sides, and in the enlarged sepals being nearly equal in size, much thicker, in fact almost fleshy in substance, and remaining on the branches until the fruit of the fertile flowers is ripe. This species was collected by Mr. Fortune in N. China. H. Thunbergi.— A small shrub with slender branches, small leaves, and small cymes of flowers. A few only of the outer- most ones are sterile, and these are not more than \ in. in diameter. Accord- ing to the Gardener^ Chronicle, Messrs. Cripps, of Tunbridge Wells, flowered this species in June 1870. They describe it as hardy, though not so showy as some of the varieties of H. paniculata and H. Hortensia. The sterile flowers are of a delicate Peach-blossom colour. It is a native of the mountains of Sikok and Nippon, Japan. H. QUERCIFOLIA {Oak-leaved ff.)— This is a fine distinct kind, and though not showy like the popular kinds, it is an excellent shrub, and one I have noticed growing with fine vigour in sea-shore gardens. The leaves have a good deep colour in the autumn, and the flowers are beautiful, while old plants have a pictur- esque habit. The whole family is in want of look- ing up by some enthusiastic admirers •who have good soil and other favourable conditions. Although there is a large range of land in Great Britain in which Hydrangeas seem happy, there are other inland and cold districts in which they make poor growth, or are cut down so frequently that experiments come to little. I made a trial myself on a cool hill-side in Sussex without getting any bloom or a healthy growth ; but on the other hand we see, especially in the South of England and Ireland, beautiful results in warm valleys and on sandy and alluvial soils even from the use of one kind, so that I have often thought that any one who should take up the Hydrangeas in earnest, and grow them and group them well, might have some very interesting results. Hydrocharis Morsus-ranse {Frog-bit). —A pretty native water-plant, having floating leaves and attractive yellow flowers, and well worth introducing in artificial water. It may often be gathered from ponds or streams in spring, when it floats after being submerged in winter. Hypericum {St. John's Wort).—Oftm handsome plants, for the most part shrubs and under-shrubs, but including a few herbaceous perennials and annuals. The Rose of Sharon (H. calycinum) is prob- ably the most familiar, but there are other shrubby species of some beauty. Some of the perennials are good border and rock-garden plants, and the best of these is H. olympicum, one of the largest flowered kinds, though not more than i ft. high. It is known by its very glaucous foliage and erect single stems, with bright yellow flowers about 2 in. across. It forms handsome specimens that flower early, and its value as a choice border plant can scarcely be o\-er-rated. It may be propagated easily by cuttings, which should be put in when the shoots are fully ripened, so that the young plants may become -well established before winter. H. elodes is a pretty native plant suitable for the banks of pools and lakes. H. nummularium and humifusum, both dwarf trailers, are also desirable for the rock-garden. Owing to their dwarf compact growth, several of the shrubby species are well suited for the rock-garden. Of these, the best are H. asgyptiacum, balearicum, empetrifolium, Coris, patulum, uralum, and oblongifolium. The last three are larger- than the others, but as they droop they have a good effect among the boulders of a large rock-garden, or on banks. H. Hookerianum, triflorum, aureum, onentale are among the kinds having some beauty, but the species from warmer countries than ours are apt to disappear after hard winters. H Moseri- anum is a handsome hybrid kind raised in !• ranee and well worth a place. HYPOLErSIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 567 Hypolepis millefolium {New Zealand Bracken). — A \er)' elegant New Zealand Fern, with a stout and wide-spreading rhizome, from which arise erect light green fronds, i to i^ ft. high, very finely cut. There can be no doubt about its hardiness, as it has flourished for two or three years in a Surrey garden, and it is also quite hardy and vigorous in Mr. F. Lubbock's garden in Kent. It requires a sheltered nook and peaty soil. Iberis {Candytuft). — Valuable hardy perennials and annuals, the perennials somewhat shrubby and evergreen, and precious as rock-garden, border, and margining plants : — I. corifolia. — A dwarf kind 3 or 4 in. high, and covered %\dth small white blooms early in May. Few alpine plants Iberis jucunda. are more worthy of general culture either in the rock-garden or the mixed border — for the front of which it is well suited. It is probably a small variety of I. sem- pervirens, but is distinct and true to its character. Easily propagated by seeds or cuttings, and thriving in any soil. Sicily. I. corresfolia is known by its large leaves, its compact heads of large white flowers, by flowering later than other ■common white kinds, and both the flowers and the corymb are larger and denser than in the other species. It is an in- valuable hardy plant, and useful in coming into beauty about the end of May when the other kinds are fading. It is excellent for the rock-garden, the mixed border, and the spring-garden, and is well suited for the margins of choice shrubberies, and may be used as an edging to beds. Said to be a hybrid. Increased by cut- tings, not coming true from seed. I. gibraltarica, a beautiful plant, larger in all its parts than the other kinds, with flowers of delicate lilac in low close heads, in spring and early summer. It is a pretty species, but does not rival the best white border kinds. Its hardiness is doubtful, and it should, therefore, be planted on sunny spots in the rock-garden or on banks in light soil, and wintered in frames. In- creased by cuttings, as it rarely produces seeds in our climate. Spain. I. jucunda, distinct, growing about 2\ in. high, the leaves small, the flowers, in small clusters, of a pleasing flesh colour and prettily veined with rose in early summer. It does not possess the vigour of the common evergreen Iberises, but it is valuable as a rock-plant, and is fitted for association with dwarf alpine flowers on warm and sunny parts of the rock-garden in well-drained sandy loam, = yEthionema. I. petrsea, a pretty alpine species, 3 in. high, with a flat cluster of pure white flowers, relieved in the centre by a tinge of red, thriving among the rock-plants. Many cultivators cannot succeed with it, but it thrives in a well-drained position, with plenty of moisture. I. semperflorens. — A shrubby plant, with large dense corymbs of white flowers, and not suited for border culture, but hardy enough to stand our winters when grown at the foot of a south wall or in a very sunny corner of the rock- garden. Under those favourable con- ditions it forms a pretty evergreen bush in bloom nearly all the year. Sicily and other Mediterranean islands. I. sempervirens. — The common rock or perennial Candytuft, and as often seen as the yellow Alyssum and the white Arabis. Half-shrubby, dwarf, spreading, evergreen, and perfectly hardy, it escapes where many plants are destroyed by cold ; and in April and May its neat tufts of dark green change into masses of snowy white. Where a very dwarf, evergreen edging is required for a shrubbery, or for beds of shrubs, it is one of the best plants known, as on any soil it quickly forms a spreading mass almost as low as the lawn-grass. Like all its relatives, it should be exposed to the full sun rather than shaded. Readily increased by seeds or cuttings. Its common garden name is I. saxatilis. I. Garrexiana is not sufficiently distinct to be worthy of cul- tivation ; in fact, it and several other Iberises prove, when grown side by side, to be very slight varieties of I. semper- 568 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ILEX. virens ; it, however, seeds more abund- antly, and is less spreading. I. superba, another variety, is of good bushy habit, and bears many large dense heads ot pure white flowers. . . I. Tenoreana is a dwarf species, witti white flowers, changing to purple. As the commonly-cultivated kinds are pure white, I. Tenoreana will be more valuable from its purplish tone as well as its neat habit. It has not, however, -the perfect hardiness of the white kinds, being very apt to perish on heavy soils in winter ; but on light sandy soils and in well-drained positions on the rock-garden it is pretty. Where no rock-garden exists it should be placed on raised beds or banks, and is easily raised from seed; it should be treated as a biennial. S. Italy. I. umbellata {Annual Candytuft).— Iberis gibraltarica. This and its ally (I. coronaria) are the hardy annual Candytufts. They are varied in • colour, and are among the most beautiful of annual flowers. They may be sown at all seasons, but, as in the case of most other hardy annuals, the finest flowers are from autumn-sown plants, which flower from May to July. They like a rich soil and plenty of room to flower freely. There are a great number of varieties, differing both' in growth and colour. What are known as the dwarf or nana strain are neat and dwarf in growth, are abundant bloomers and showy. I. umbellata nana rosea and alba are two of the most distinct, being about 9 in. high; the dark crimson carmine, lilac, and purple ^orts, about I ft. high, are also fine. The Rocket Candytuft (I. coronaria) in good soil grows 12 to 1 6 in. high, with pure white flowers in long dense heads, and there is a dwarf variety of it (pumila), 4 to 6 in., high, forming spreading tufts i ft. or more across. The Giant Snowflake is. also an excellent variety. These Rocket Candytufts require the same treatment as^ the common varieties. Ilex {//oify). — Beautiful evergreen shrubs of northern temperate countries,, of which the most precious is our own native Holly, Ilex Aquifolium. It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of this plant, whether as an evergreen tree, as the best of all fence-shelters for our fields, or as a lovely ornament of our gardens ; whether grown naturally or clipped as it must be to form fences; embracing also in its numerous varieties the most enduring of variegated shrubs known,— variegation in most other things being mere disease, whereas in the Holly it is quite consistent with health and beauty. No other shrub known to us. may be so often used with good effect near the house and garden, and it will be clear, therefore, how much oiie should consider the common Holly in all its i fomis and ways. Valuable as niany varieties are, probably none are quite so good as seedlings of the common kind. Good seedling plants are the easiest to transplant and establish. The art of grafting — most delusive as well as most curious of arts — should be carefully guarded against as regards Hollies. Hitherto the way has been to graft the many variegated kinds on the common Holly, and although we often see good results in that way, it is by far the safer plan to insist on the \ariegated and j curious kinds being raised from layers or cuttings. Nurserymen are very apt, I having large quantities of stocks of com- 1 mon things, to graft indiscriminately ; and though time seems at first to be ! gained by it, it is dead against the cul- tivator in the end in almost every case. It will perhaps take a long time to recognise the immense superiority of own-root plants, but if purchasers in- quire for and insist upon getting them, it will very much hasten progress. My own experience is that old plants grafted are extremely difficult to move with safety, and, generally. Hollies and other trees are best not moved when old. It is an expensive and troublesome business, and often a failure. Young healthy ILEX. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GJRDEA: incarvii.lea. 569 bushes, seedling or layer, will in a few years beat old grafted trees,— that at least is n\y experience. Very often old specimens from the nursery li\e for a number of )'ears, but their appearance is deplorable, whereas healthy well-grown young plants, from 3 to 5 ft. high, when transplanted in I\Ia\-, are often beautiful from the first. No doubt healthy seed- ling plants might be transplanted at various times, but experience has proved that there is a distinct gain in transplant- ing Hollies in May ; and if ^^■e transplant them carefully at that time we shall probably see good health)' growth the same year. As regards the uses of the Holly, they are so many in the garden that it is difficult even to generalise them. As shelter in bold groups, di\-iding lines, hedges, beautiful effects of fruit in autumn, masses of evergreen foliage, bright glistening colour from variegated kinds ; elegant groups of the most beau- tiful varieties, — every kind of delightful use may be found for them in gardens. According to the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd, who was a very keen observer of the Holly, the following is a good selection of xarieties. In the selection of Hollies it will be well to bear in mind that the variety known as Scotica answers best of any plant near the sea. The variety known as Hodgins's is the most free in growth in a town garden, being less affected by smoke than most others. The most fruitful varieties are catalogued as foemina, glabra, madeirensis, balearica, lutea, and flava. The most distinct and beautiful of the variegated kinds are Golden Queen, Silver Queen, Painted Lady, Broad-leaved Silver, Gold Milkmaid, \\atereriana, and Argentea marginata. The following classification of Hollies in relation to their several char- acters will be useful : — " Male-flowering Hollies. — Cili- ata, Heterophylla, Latispina, Laurifolia, Tortuosa, Gold Tortuosa, Beetii, Cookii, Gold Cookii, Cornuta, Doningtonensis, Ferox, Ferox fol. arg., Ferox aurea, Foxii, Furcata, Ovata, Picta marginata. Golden Queen, Longifolia aurea, Longifolia argentea, Watereriana, Gold Few-spined, Silver Queen, Shepherdii. " Feiiale - flowering Hollies. — Angustifolia, .\ngustifolia aurea pendula, Angustifolia medio picta pendula, Bal- earica, Broad leaf. Dark shoot, Fisherii, Flavo fructo aurea, Fcemina,- Golden Milkmaid, Glabra, Handsworthiana, Silver Handsworthiana, Heterophylla, Hodginsii, Latifolia argentea, Latifolia aurea, Lutea, Madame Briot, Madeirensis, Madeirensis nigrescens, Madeirensis \ariegata, Myrtifolia, Milkmaid, red berry ; Milkmaid, yellow berry ; Moonlight, Perry's weeping, Picta aurea, Platyphylla, Scotica, \\'atereriana. Weeping. " Hermaphrodite-flowering Hol- lies. — Shepherdii, Smithiana, Silver Queen, Heterophylla, Hodginsii, Lauri- folia, Handsworthiana, Lutea, Flava, Scotica, Balearica, Rotundifolia." By far the best of all known Hollies is our native Holly, but there are other Japanese and American kinds worth growing, such as Ilex crenata, and the fine I. latifolia. This, however requires our most temperate districts to thrive. Illicium floridanmn. — An interesting half-hardy evergreen shrub from the Southern States of N. .America, bearing fragrant flowers of a deep red, like those of the Carolina Allspice. I. religiosum, also known as I. anisatum, from China and Japan, with pale yellow flowers, is also interesting, if not worthy of general culture. It may be grown against walls in warm localities. Impatiens {Bahani). — The species of Impatiens that thrive in the open air are all annual and hardy, and sow themsehes freely where they get a chance. The best are — the common I. glandulifera, which attains a height of 4 to 6 ft., and bears numerous flowers, varying in colour from white to rose. It will soon take possession of the shrubbery if not checked ; and it is seen to ad\antage in cottage gardens. I. longicornu is beautiful, and has the same habit as glandulifera, but the lower part of its helmet-shaped flowers is bright yellow, marked by tranverse lines of dark brown ; while the upper part is rose colour. I. Roylei is much dwarfer than the pre- ceding, and has blossoms of a deep rose. I. cristata has light rose-coloured blossoms. I. balsamina {Garden Balsat?i) may be grown in the open air, and makes a pretty display in warm places. The plants should be raised in a frame and trans- planted. Soil which is too rich should be avoided ; but soil manured for a previous crop, and which has been well pulverised by forking, gives the finest flowers and a less sappy growth. Colours and markings in any good and valued strain include the following, and probably a few others, as some sorts sport continually : Pure white, buff-white, rosy-white, lavender-white, pale mau\e, peach, pink, cannine, scarlet-cerise, crimson, violet, purple, purple- white blotch, scarlet-white blotch and others. Incarvillea. — Interesting shrubby plants, hardy only in southern counties. S70 INDIGOFERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. There are few kinds. I. Delavayi has lately come from China, and has proved hardy, Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich, writing that it has been a year or more in the open border, having stood the full brunt of a zero temperature. The flowers are in corymbs, lengthening into racemes, and hke those of Bignonia grandiflora, twelve or thirteen to a raceme, and delicate rose or rose-pink in colour, the throat yellow streaked with purple. Where it is not happy out-of-doors it is worth growing in the greenhouse. I. Olgse was intro- duced earlier from Turkestan and has purple flowers ; it grows from 3 to 4^ ft. high. Indigofera Gerardiana. — A prettyplant which may be grown as a bush or against a wall, which it clothes gracefully with feathery leaves, towards the close of sum- mer, bearing small Pea-like bright pink blooms. In cold districts it may be well to give it protection in cold winters if not against a wall, and the only attention it requires is close pruning in early winter. The kinds known as I. floribunda, I. coronillaefolia, and by other names, are either synonymous with I. Gerardiana or varieties of it. I. decora, from China, is sometimes grown against a wall in warm parts, but is much less hardy than I. Gerardiana, which comes from the Himalayas. Inula. — Perennial Composites, few of which are important for the garden. I. Helenium (Elecampane), a vigorous Inula glandulosa. British plant, 3 or 4 ft. high, with a stout stem, large leaves, and yellow flowers, is well suited for planting with other large- leaved plants, or in isolated specimens on rough slopes or wild places, in good soil. I. Oculus Christi grows \\ to 2 ft. high, and bears orange flowers in summer. I. salicina, niontana, and glandulosa are similar, the last being the finest. Easily propagated by division or seed. lonopsidium acaule {Violet Cress). — A charming little Portuguese annual about 2 in. high, whose dense tufts of violet flowers spring up freely where plants of it have existed the previous season. Its peculiar beauty makes it useful for various purposes. On the rock-garden, associated with even the choicest of alpine plants, it holds its own as regards beauty, and never overruns its neighbours, and it is particularly suitable for sowing near pathways or rugged steps, growing freely in such places ; indeed it would even flourish on a hard gravel walk. It flowers a couple of months after sowing, and often produces a second crop of blossoms in the autumn. Portugal and Morocco. Cruciferas. Ipomsea {Morning Glory). — Beautiful, slender, twining plants of the Convolvulus family, for the most part tropical. A few succeed in the open air when treated as half-hardy annuals. The most popular of these is — I. purpurea, or Convolvulus major as it is called, which is too well known to need description, as it is one of the oldest cultivated plants. Its varieties are numerous ; there are white, rose, and deep violet varieties, while Burridgei is crimson, Dicksoni deep blue, and tricolor striped with red, white and blue. A mixed packet of seed would contain most of these. This beautiful though common plant deserves much attention, as its uses are various. It may be used for the open border, for festooning branches, for covering arbours, treUises, and the like, or for rambling over shrubs, growing freely in any good ordinary garden soil. Seeds should be sown in heat in early spring, and the seedlings transplanted in ;\Iay as soon as large enough. In some localities seed may be sown at once in the open border, but as a rule plants raised under glass succeed best. It is known also as Phar- bitis hispida. Tropical America and Asia. I. hederacea {Ivy-leaved Morning Glory) is somewhat similar to the common Morning Glory (I. purpurea), but has lobed leaves like Ivy. Its flowers, too, are smaller, of a deep blue striped with red. The varieties grandiflora (Hght- blue), superba (light-blue, bordered with white), and atroviolacea (dark-violet and white) are all worth cultivating, and so are THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 571 the Japanese variety, Huberi, and its variegated-leaved form. The Ivy-leaved Morning Glory is somewhat hardier than I. purpurea, and seeds may be sown in the open border in April, in light rich soil, where it will flower from July to September. It is also known as I. Nil. — North America. Other kinds of Ipomasas for open-air culture are I. rubrocoerulea, a half-hardy annual, and I. leptophylla, a hardy perennial from North America, but neither is so pretty as those mentioned above. Ipomopsis. — Graceful biennials from California, thriving in light, dry, and warm soils in the milder districts. There are three kinds ; each forms a tuft of finely- cut feathery foliage, and has slender flower spikes from 2 to 3 ft. high thickly set with flowers that open in succession. In I. elegans the flowers are scarlet and thickly spotted, and in I. superba they are much the same, while in the rosea variety they are a deep pink. The seeds should be sown in spring in pots in the open boi-der in ordinary soil. During the first year the plants make growth, and early the following summer they flower. If planted out to stand the winter it is advisable to give a little'pro- tection. Other kinds mentioned in cata- logues belong to Gilia, of which Ipomopsis is really a synonym. On light soils early autumn-sowing should be tried. These plants are very seldom well grown. Iresine. — Dwarf half-hardy plants, remarkable for their foliage, and much used in the flower garden with other tender plants in summer. There are two types, from which have sprung several varieties. I. Herbsti grows from i to 2 ft. high, and has crimson stems and rich carmine-veined foliage, the brilliancy of which continues until late in autumn, and is more effective in wet than in hot dry seasons. It requires a moist rich soil, and is readily increased by cuttings taken in September and wintered in a green- house. In early spring the plants should be repotted, and grown on in heat, and fresh cuttings taken in March and April will make them fit to put out in May. L briUiantissima and Wallisi are two varie- ties possessing more brightness of colour in their foliage. Lindeni is quite distinct from the foregoing, having more pointed leaves, which are of a deep blood-red. It is compact and graceful, and bears pinching back and pegging down to any height. It makes a good edging plant, and requires the same treatment as I. Herbsti. Amarantaceas. Iris {Flag). — Beautiful bulbous or tube- rous plants 'more than most flowers, numerous in kind and wonderfully varied in beauty. By some. Irises have been com- pared to Orchids, and those who delight in singular and beautiful colour, and to whom greenhouses and hothouses are denied, may find a substitute for Orchids in Irises. The plants are for the most part hardy and have much diversity of habit and colour, varying in height from a few inches to 6 ft. They may be conveni- ently divided ■ into two classes — those with bulbous roots, which are now called Xiphions, and those (the greatest number) with creeping stems. In treating of cul- ture it is well to consider these separately. The bulbous kinds should have a warm and sheltered situation, such as the pro- tection of a south wall, and succeed in almost any light garden soil, but prefer one that is friable, and sandy, not too poor, but enriched with rotten leaf-mould and manure. Sun they must have, and the shelter must be without shade. They need an autumn drought to ripen, and a dry soil in winter to preserve the bulbs and keep them at rest, but in spring, when the leaves are pushing up, they love moderate rain. These obser\ations apply to the Spanish and English Irises as well as the rarer bulbous kinds. The great point is not to meddle with the bulbs as long as the plants are doing well, and, when the soil is exhausted and it is necessary to transplant, the bulbs should not be allowed to become dry or shrivelled. It is advisable to place a thin layer of Cocoa-nut fibre refuse or some similar material for protection during severe weather, and to prevent the flowers from being bespattered by mud during heavy rain. Some kinds produce seeds very freely in some seasons, which should be carefully collected, and when well ripened sown at once. This will be found a ready way of increasing the stock, as they will make strong flowering bulbs in about three years. Most of the non-bulbous Irises like rich soil, the coarser and stronger forms relish- ing even rank manure, but to the more delicate ones this is almost poison ; and all indeed thrive the better if the manure is given in a decayed state. If it is well rotted they can hardly have too much of it. As regards moisture, they vary a good deal. The condition that suits most is comparative dryness in winter and an abundance of water in summer. Un- fortunately, this is the reverse of what they generally get, and they also vary a good deal as to the nature of the soil they like best, some preferring a deep, some- 572 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. what stiff, but rich loam, and their long thong-hke roots reach down an amazing distance, while others pi-efer a lighter, looser soil, richer in vegetable matter. The more vigorous kinds are suited for planting among large shrubs, which ought to be wider apart than they generally are ' in shrubberies ; and may be enjoyed in tufts near water, in isolated groups on the Grass, and also on mixed borders and beds. In the smallest gardens, where there is not space to plant them in these various ways, one of the best ways would be to establish healthy tufts in the fringes of the shrubbery. Another good way is to place them here and there in carpets of low evergreens, above which their flowers would be seen in early summer. Tufts of the finest kinds look very beautiful here and there among dwarf Roses. The flowering season of the Iris extends over the greater part of the year. The follow- ing selection of the more important kinds for our gardens is arranged in alphabetical order for convenience of reference. I. alata {Scorpion Iris). — A beautiful bulbous kind with fine large blossoms, the ground colour delicate lilac-blue, with showy blotches of bright yellow, copiously spotted with a darker hue. The foliage, which appears with the flowers, much resembles that of a Leek. L alata gener- ally commences to bloom in October, and, if the weather is not too severe, flowers also about Christmas time. It is easy to grow, requiring a warm, dry, sunny border ; the bulbs should be planted in autumn in ordinary garden soil. I. asiatiea {Asiatic Flag). — Allied to the German Iris, but the handsome flowers are much larger, the lip especially being very long and broad ; its colour is a very fine pale purplish-blue, the standards a little paler than the falls. A good border kind. I. atro-purpurea. — This Iris may be considered as coming within the iberica group, as the foliage is not unlike that kind, and the stem, though always of some length, never rises very high. The flower is somewhat small, and for the most part of deep purple colouring. The plant varies somewhat, one variety being called " Odysseus." I. aurea {Golden Flag).— This is a fine I ris, a native of the Himalayas, with golden- yellow flowers of great beauty, is a tall stately kind, hardy in the coldest soils. It does well among shrubs or in borders of the best perennials, and groups of it so placed are very handsome. Division and seed. I. Bakeriana. — This is one of the most beautiful of the bulbous early spring flower- ing Irises. It comes from Armenia, and the flowers, which smell like.violets, remind one strongly of those of the netted Iris (I. reticulata). The colouring varies, the yellow streak on the fall, which is con- spicuous in some of the forms, being almost entirely absent in others ; the size 'tfi-. Iris asiatiea. and number of the violet spots and the breadth of the rich violet edging as well as the size and brilhancy of their tints vary in individual flowers. It blooms quite early in the year, and is delightful in pots. I. Barnumse. This Iris, a native of the hills of Kurdistan, belongs to the iberica group. The flower is smaller than that of that Flag, and both falls and standards are vinous red-purple marked \yith darker \-eins, the standard being lighter in colour than the fall and its \'eins more conspicuous. There is a yellow variety described by Prof Foster as " an exceedingly charming plant," and fragrant, the odour not being unlike the Lilv of the Valley. ^ I. biflora. — A handsome Flag, 9 to 15 in. high, bearing large violet flowers on THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 573 stout stems. Similar to it are I. sub- biflora and I. nudicaulis, which is one of the best of the dwarf Flags, from 4 to 10 in. high ; its flowers large, of a rich violet- blue, four to seven on a stem in early summer. It has the vigour of the German Iris and the dwarfness of the Crimean Iris, but is much stui-dier, and is suited for the margin of the herbaceous border and for the rock-garden. I. Bismarckiana. — This "Cushion" Iris, found in Lebanon, is little known as yet, but it is described as having a flower as large as I. susiana, with gray falls and sky-blue standards. I. cristata {Dwarf-crested Iris) is a charming dwarf Flag, flowering in spring and also in autumn, delicate blue and richly marked. It is a fragile plant, 4 to 6 Iris cristata, in. high, with broad leaves, and throws out long slender rhizomes, wholly above ground, thriving in sandy earth in beds, borders, or on the rock garden. I. florentina {Florentine Flag). — Its large delicate flowers are nearly 6 in. deep, faintly tinged with blue, the falls veined with yellow, and green at the base, with an orange-yellow beard, whilst the broad leaves are rich dark-green. A native of Southern Europe, flowering during May and June. The variety albicans is almost pure white. I. foetidissima {Gladwin). — A British plant, 1^ to 2 ft. high, with bluish flowers. There is a variety with variegated leaves. The common green form is worth growing in semi-wild places for its brilliant coral- red seeds. I. G-atesi. — This is a remarkably hand- some Flag from Armenia, and very near to susiana, but the rhizome is more compact, and the foliage smaller, shorter, and narrower, and of a darker green than in susiana. The stem is taller, i^ ft. or even 2 ft., and the flower when well grown larger. The prevailing colour of the specimens so far cultivated is, when the flower is seen at a distance, a soft deU- cate gray, brought about by very thin clear veins and minute dots or points of purple on a creamy-white ground, the dots being predominant on the fall and the veins on the standard. The ripe capsule is as much as 5 in. in length. I. germanica {Common German Flag). — This is common in gardens, and is one of the few plants that succeed well in London. I. nepalensis is a charming form from India, with flowers from 5 in. to 6 in. long, the standards rich dark violet- purple, the falls intense ^'iolet, striped white and purple at the base, with yellow and reddish markings. It flowers during May and June, and may be increased quickly. The German Flags flourish in ordinary garden, dry gravelly soil, or sandy banks, for which they are well suited. A good selection of varieties of the German Iris, all good garden flowers, would be composed of Atro-purpurea, Aurea, Brides- maid, Calypso, Celeste, Gracchus, Mme. Chereau, Queen of May, Rigolette, Vic- torine, and George Thorbeck. I. Histrio. — This beautiful bulbous Iris, when peeping through the ground in winter or early spring, reminds one of I. reticulata, but it is rather taller, and its sweetly-scented flowers are bi'oader and more conspicuously spotted or blotched, the colour being rich bluish-purple, flushed towards the base of the petals with rose- pink, whilst the markings are of the deepest purple, relieved by a crest of- gold. Syria. I. histrioides. — One of the most charm- ing of the spring flowering bulbous Irises. So far, though it has only been in cultivation a few years, it has proved of easy culture. The flowers are larger than those of any of the group, the falls mottled with white and rich lilac both on the claw and on the broad rounded blade. It is a native of Eastern- Anatoha, and blooms in early March. I. iberica {Iberian Flag). — One of the most singular and handsome of .Irises. The flowers are large, the standards white, pencilled and spotted with purple or violet. 574 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. while the falls are veined with dark purple or purple-black on a yellowish ground, with a conspicuous dark blotch in the centre. This is the colour of the commonest form, but there are several, and one, ochracea, is very distinct, is hardy and thrives best in a rich fibrous loam, where it can send its long roots deep into the soil. The rhizome should not be planted deep, but only just below the surface as in most cases the roots perish when planted deeply. Coarse river sand should be used, the rhizome being planted completely in it, and by this means it is kept rather dry during the winter. Dry borders or warm spots on the rock-garden. Iris fostidissima (Gladwin). I. juncea (Rush-leaved Flag) is a lovely bulbous Iris, graceful in habit and with bright yellow flowers of a delightful frag- rance, whilst it can be grown almost as easily as the English Irises. It requires a light, rich deep soil, and will be all the better if planted where it can be kept fairly dry during winter. Spain. I. Keempferi {Japanese Flag). — The many varieties in cultivation under this name have sprung from I. laevigata and I. setosa, and form a fine race of garden plants, whilst every year many beautiful sorts are added, chiefly from Japan, though many seedlings have been raised in this country. The flowers are variable in size and colour, some measuring as much as 9 and 10 in. across. The varieties of I. setosa differ from those of I. Isevigata in having broader and less-drooping petals, and the three inner petals are often of the same size as the outer, so that the flower is symmetrical. I. Ksempferi will grow in almost any soil, but is best in a good loam, with peat added to it, though this is not so much for nourishment as to retain moisture during the hot and di-y summer months, for this Flag likes moisture, and its numerous roots will often go 2 ft. deep in search of it. It dislikes shade, prefer, ring a warm sunny position, being especi- ally happy when planted by the margin of a lake, pond, or stream. Two-year-old seed- ling plants of it bloom in June and July, and amongst them will be found an endless variety of colours from white to the richest plum, the deep blues being very rich. The mottled flowers are objection- able, and unfortunately these are common, but they are poor in effect, nothing like so handsome as the self-coloured kinds, nor do we care about the more double varieties. In these the natural grace and fine outline of the flower are lost. When transplanted this moisture-loving Flag does not bloom well until the second season after planting. Propagated by division or seeds, which should be sown as soon as gathered either in pots or in the open ground; they will vegetate in the following spring. I. Kolpakowskiana. — .A.n ally of I. reticulata and introduced from Turke- stan, it is perfectly hardy in the open air, flowering about the same time, and effec- tive in groups. The chief difference from the netted Iris is in the bulb and leaves, which are narrow, linear, deeply channelled on the inner face, with a central band or rib like a Crocus leaf, and pale-green with- out the glaucous tint usual to this group. The falls are deep violet-purple, with a beardless bright yellow keel from which are purplish branchings, whilst the standards are pale self-lilac with creamy anthers. I. Korolkowi. — Of this the leaves are tall, narrow, and upright, the scape, which is about I ft. or so high, bearing two large flowers of delicate shades of gray and brown, and beautifully veined. Warm and diy spots on the rock garden. I. lacustris {Dwarf Lake Iris).—k. dainty, quite hardy Iris, with beautiful sky-blue flowers in spring and again in the autumn. It belongs to the rhizo- matose group, is free both in growth and bloom, and succeeds in full sun and in sandy soil. North America. I. Lorteti. — This Iris comes from South Lebanon. In general features it is near to I. Sari, but its wonderful colouring makes it, perhaps, the most beautiful Iris in the world. " In a plant flowered by myself this summer (1893)," writes Prof. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 575 Foster, " the falls showed a creamy-yellow ground marked with crimson spots, con- centrated at the centre into a dark crimson signal, while the standards were nearly pure white, marked with very thin violet veins, hardly visible at a distance. I. lupina {Wolfs Ear /m).— This is from Armenia and Central Asia Minor, and resembles both I. susiana and I. iberica. The rhizome is compact and the foliage, though somewhat variable, is dwarf like that of I. iberica, and 3 in. or so in length. The flower, borne on a stem varying from i in. to 6 in. or even more in length, differs in form from both I. susiana and I. iberica in that the fall is distinctly lance-shaped, whilst the colour- ing consists of irregular brownish-red veins on a yellow or greenish-yellow Iris iberica. ground, the red of the veins often merging into purple. The claw of the standard is furnished with quite numerous hairs. I. Mariee, which belongs to the iberica group, was discovered on the confines of Egypt and Palestine. The rhizome is compact, rather slender, the foliage being not unHke that of iberica, but narrower. The flowers, on a stem of about 6 in. high, are somewhat smaller than I. iberica, of a uniform lilac colour, though marked with veins, but the uniformity is broken by a conspicuous "signal" patch of deep purple on the fall. The standard is larger and more rounded than the fall, whilst the claw of the latter is beset by numerous deep purple hairs, which, scattered at the sides, are crowded together along the middle line more after the fashion of the beard of an ordinary bearded Flag. I. Meda is a native of Persia, and has a small, slender, and compact rhizome. The leaves are narrower than 1. iberica, and for the most part erect, the stem being about 6 in. in length, more or less, but seems to vary a good deal. The fall which spreads horizontally, is narrow and pointed, the blade being sharply curled back on itself. The standard is rather larger than the fall, and the style, which lies close down on the claw of the fall, is narrow, ending in two small tMangular crests. I. missouriensis {Missouri Flag). — This was found in the Rocky Mountains, and is a good kind, graceful, and with delicate purplish-blue flowers, which are valuable to cut in the month of May. It grows well in a border of good soil, and is not seen as often as one might expect in gardens. I. Monnieri. — A noble Flag, distinct from any other in cultivation, the leaves being dark-green, and the flower-stem nearly 4ft. high, whilst the outer divisions of the flowers, which are very fragrant, are recurved, and of a rich golden-yellow, margined with white. It is by no means common, and blooms later than most of the other species, in most seasons even after the varieties of Kasmpfer's Flag. It is a native of Crete, and succeeds best in rather moist soil, whilst increased easily by division or seed. I. Monspur is a seedhng, raised by Prof. Foster, between I. Monnieri and I. spuria, and is a very beautiful plant. The variety Notha differs from I. spuria in being altogether larger, considerably more rigid both in stem and, leaves, and with a much longer spathe valve. This plant is. said to be found in the salt marshes of Siberia. When grown well, by no means difficult in ordinary garden soil, it is most effective in full flower. Some of the varieties, such as stenogyna, sub-barbata, &c., have been bandied about between L spuria and the nearly aUied I. Gulden- staedtiana, but the simpler way is to call them all varieties of I. spuria. I. neglecta is amongst the commonest Flags in cultivation, and one of the tallest growing species, having given rise to numerous garden varieties. Its flowers rarely measure more than i\ in. across, the standards being of a pale blue, with darker shading, and the much reflexed falls are of a deep blue, veined with purplish- red ; the crest or beard is bright yellow,, and very striking. I. ochroleuca ( Yellow-banded Flag). — There are few handsomer or more stately Flags than this. It is an old plant in our gardens, but never seems to have become 576 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. common. The foliage is slender, about 4 ft. long, and comes up in a most graceful twist. The spikes usually bear four or five flowers, white or nearly so, with large yellow blotch on the fall, and some reach nearly 6 ft. in height, strong clumps pro- iris ochroleuca. ■ducing four or five. It does not seem particular as to moisture in the soil, and few Flags will thrive better or give more satisfactory results in the ordinary mixed iDorder, where its large flowers and luxuriant foliage present a fine appear- ance. There is a variety called gigantea which has larger and finer flowers, but differs in no other way. I. Kerneriana differs only in its smaller flowers and much narrower leaves. I. orchioides. — There are a great beauty and distinctness in the rich, dark yellow blossoms of this lovely species that are not found in any other Iris of spring, while the black spots on the lower petals only tend . to make the flowers still more effective. Added to this distinct beauty is the vigor- ous leafy growth so characteristic of this kind. Coupled with this is the fact of its being also a profuse flowering species, often bearing as many as six blossoms on a single spike. It is a tuberous-rooted species and a handsome plant when thoroughly estabUshed. It seems hardy and free at least on warm soils. I. pallida {Great Purple Flag).—'Y\i\% is a variety of the comiTion«German Flag and one of the stateliest and most beautifiil of the genus. When in full vigour, the spikes will reach 4 ft. in height, with a succession of from eight to twelve of its large pale-mauve or purple flowers, scented like the elder. It is known also as the Turkey Flag, and there are forms of it, such as the Dalmatian and also Man- draliscae, which have deep blue flowers. It is a fine border-plant, and charming in large groups. I. paradoza. — This is a singular Cushion Iris, a native of West Persia and the Caucasus, and fitly called " paradoxi- cal." The fall is reduced to a narrow strap half an inch or less in width, but the standard is large, erect, and while the small fall is stout and firm, almost leathery, is delicate and flimsy in texture. The ground colour of the claw is a rich crimson or deep pink, but beneath the claw and for some little distance in front of it the crimson hue is all but entirely hid by numerous short dark-purple, almost black, hairs, so thickly set as to imitate velvet very closely indeed. This velvet area, at some distance in front of the end of the style, comes abruptly and squarely to an end, being marked off by a cross bar of rich crimson devoid of hairs. The small portion of the fall in front of this bar is of a creamy-white, traversed by radiating thick dark-purple veins, which are so closely set as to leave little of the ground visible. The plant varies much in size and colour, and the total effect of the flower is very striking and beautiful. I. persica {Persian Iris). — This is one of the most charming of the early kinds, and deserves a place wherever the soil is THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. sn warm and dry. Its flowers, produced from a tuft of bright green leaves that just peep over the soil, are white, suffused with pale Prussian blue, and blotched with velvety purple. It comes from Persia, and is therefore somewhat tender, but in warm Iris pallida. sheltered spots, in light sandy soil, suc- ceeds well enough, and flowers in winter and spring, according to the weather. I. Pseud-acorus {Common Water Flag). —Common as is this Flag, every one who has grown it fairly will admit its beauty. Whoever has in his garden a pond or a ditch, or even a thoroughly damp spot, ought to plant this Flag. I. pumila {Dwarf F/ag).— The best of the dwarf Flags, for to it we owe the many lovely varieties that create such a rich dis- play of bloom in spring. It grows from 4 to 8 in. high, and has deep violet flowers, unusually large for its size. There are several named varieties, the most attrac- tive being the sky-blue (crerulea), which in early spring forms sheets of bright colour edgings in free soil. I. reticulata {Netted /ris).—One of the most beautiful of hardy flowers. While the snow is still on the ground— in January, or even earlier— its leaves begin to shoot, and while these are only a few inches high, the bud opens to the pale wintry sun a beauty of violet and gold. After the flower has faded, the erect narrow leaves grow apace, attaining a height of i ft. or more, and, as in the Crocus, the ripened ovary is in due time thrust upwardsfrom the soil. This little treasure is indeed the Iris companion of the Crocus, and those who have seen large clumps of it growing in some shelteredbut sunny spot in the bright and gusty days of February or March, may well wish that its netted bulbs were as plen- tiful as Crocus corms. The plant comes from some parts of the Caucasus and from Palestine, and there are several varieties. Krelagei may be recognised by flowers of a purple or plum colour, with the yellow marking less vivid, and the whole flower is smaller, also less fragrant, in fact is almost wholly without scent, and it flowers ten or fourteen days earlier. An exquisite gem is I. 1'. cyanea which is very bright in colour, a slaty blue, and dwarf. Sopho- nensis, with red-purple flowers and a bold crest, is a native of Asia Minor, and blooms in early February. I. r. purpurea, a small variety with deep purple flowers, is pleas- ing. A sunny sheltered spot is, however, advisable, that its tall narrow leaves may, after flowering, be protected from the wind. Iris p.ar.idoxa. Sandy soil will do, but it is not particular in this respect. Sometimes, however, it refuses to grow, and in damp places the bulbs rot in summer. Since the flowers; come before the leaves grow tall it makes a good pot plant, and a well-grown clump P P S78 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. is a charming addition to the Christmas table. Unfortunately I. reticulata refuses to grow at all in some localities through disease. Although this disease may be somewhat retarded by lifting and careful storing it is very difficult to eradicate, and Iris persica in wet seasons carries the bulbs off by the thousand. I. Bosenbachiana. — This is a charming bulbous Iris, and found on the movmtains of East Buchara, Turkestan, at an eleva- tion of 6,000 ft. to 7,000 ft., we are told, in two varieties, both growing together, the flowers of one form being blue, those of the other of a fine violet, whilst the bulbs of both the varieties are small, with thin tunics, never reticulated, as in the netted Iris. I. Sari. This derives its name from the river Sar, in Cilicia, in the neighbour- hood of which it was found. It comes near to I. susiana, having a compact rhizome, relatively large foliage, a fairly tall (a foot or less in height) stem and large flowers ; indeed the var. lurida, which Prof. Foster mentions as the only one he has seen in cultivation, is often mistaken by a casual observer for I. susiana. I. sibilica {Siberian Flag). — A slender plant, 2 to 3 ft. high, with narrow grassy leaves and in summer somewhat small showy blue flowers, beautifully veined with white and violet. There are se\eral varieties, the white variety, also called I. flexuosa, being pretty, and so is I. acuta, but the double-flowered form is not. The finest variety is I. orientalis, having larger flowers of a deeper colour, with a different veining, and the falls especially broad and expanding. The Siberian Iris is very hardy and spare plants are easily estab- lished in ditches or damp spots. I. sindjarensis. — This is an interesting species with the habit and general character of I. caucasica, but has bluish flowers and a distinct crest. It flowers however at a time when no other Iris except I. reticulata is in bloom, and possesses a certain distinctive charm. I. stylosa {Algerian Iris). — A beauti- fial plant, flowering in mid winter, its flowers hidden in grassy foliage. When mixed with even the most delicate flowers of the stove or Orchid-house, its silky sky-blue fragrant flowers possess a charm and softness equalled by scarcely any other flower of the same colour. Although the plant is hardy, its flowers are so delicate that it should have protec- tion from heavy rains unless the position is well sheltered. It is perhaps best known as I. stylosa. There are several varieties in catalogues, speciosa being one of the best, this having larger flowers of a deep blue colour. Alba has white flowers. They all require very light warm soil on well-drained or raised borders in sheltered gardens. Division. Iris reliculata. I. susiana {Mourning Iris). — One of the most singular of all flowers, from i^ to i\ ft. high ; the flowers \ ery large and densely spotted and striped with dark purple on a gray ground. It should be grown in sunny nooks in the rock-garden, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 579 or on sheltered banks or borders, but always in light, warm, or chalky soils. We have seen it ilowering well in a bor- der in the Archbishop of Canterbury's garden near Broadstairs, where it is hardy. Asia Minor. Division. I. tuberosa {Snake' s-head^.—TX-ix^ is an interesting if quiet-coloured kind, 12 or 13 in. high, the flowers- small, brownish-green marked with yellow, and a purplish-brown is I. aphylla, with deep lilac falls and white standards veined with purple, whilst there are numerous varieties, the colours of which are varied and beautiful. I.lurida and itsvarieties also come underthis group. I. xiphioides {English /m).— This is a beautiful flower, and the many garden varieties are amongst the finest things we have in early summer. The English Iris got its popular name tinge on the upper part. There are usually two tubers. It is not showy enough for every garden, but where ad- mired it may be naturalised in light soil. S. Europe. I, variegata is a handsome Flag of the Germanica group, i to 2 ft. high, with large, slightly fragrant flowers, having bright yellow standards and claret-red falls beautifully veined. Similar in aspect in a rather curious way, being sent from its Pyrenean home, where its distribution is limited, to Bristol traders, thence to Holland. The Dutch, supposing it to be a native of our shores, called it the English Iris. The flowers are quite dis- tinct in aspect from those of the Spanish Iris and appear a fortnight or so later. They are broad and display a delightful diversity of colour, from deepest purple P r 2 S8o THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. to pure white. Among the good varieties are Leon Tolstoi, Mont Blanc, Grande Celeste, King of the Blues, La Charmante, and Vainqueur. There are, of course, many other varieties in wfhich one gets flowers splashed and mottled with various colours. These are not so fine as the bold self kinds, and raisers should think less of them, rather giving us self colours, which are always more effective both in the gar- den and when gathered for the house. "The English Iris." There is a curious variety called Thunder- bolt, which is of a dusky dull colour. Dr. Wallace, of Colchester, writes as follows :— " The English Irises are easily cultivated and well worthy of a place in all gardens. Flowering at the end of June and during July, they come in when most of the other Irises are over, and a bed of their large flowers is beautiful for several weeks, their strong spikes mostly carrying two oi- more flowers, in all shades of white, blue, and reddish-purple, some splashed and streaked, others with clear decided colours, formidable rivals to the Ins Keempferi, which they closely re- semble in shape and pose of flower but of dwarfer habit. I find them quite hardy here at Colchester planted out in light soil, with plenty of sand round the bulbs. They increase rapidly, and are best taken up and divided about every two years, at the beginning of August when the bulbs are at rest. Starting again into growth early, they should not be planted after the middle of November, otherwise success will be less certain." I. Xiphium {Spanish Iris).^h. very beautiful flower, and an old inhabitant of gardens. The prevailing colours are blue, with various shades of purple or violet, yellow, and white. The blue tints of the cultivated seedlings seem to be derived from the typical Spanish plant ; the yellow hues may be traced to the Portugal variety, sometimes known as I. lusitanica. The Spanish Iris must not be water- logged in autumn and winter, preferring a loose, friable, sandy soil, which, how- ever, should not be too poor, for it repays feeding with thoroughly rotten leaf-mould or manure. Sun it must have, but as its slender stalks suffer from winds it should have shelter without shade. The golden rule of not meddling over-much applies distinctly to the Spanish Iris, as the new roots begin to shoot out almost before the old stalk has withered, and the bulb must not be kept out of the ground. Plant, then, the Spanish Iris in clumps on some rich, loose, friable plot, where their bright colour may be shown to advantage, and let them stay there year after year until the dwindling foliage tells you that they have exhausted their soil. The beautiful varieties of Spanish Iris are well worth a place in the reserve garden for supplying cut flowers. Isopjmiin thalictroides.— A graceful little plant allied to the Meadow Rues, but with prettier white flowers, valuable for its Maiden-hair Fern-Hke foliage. It is well suited for the rock-garden, and for the front edge of the mixed border, is hardy, and easy to grow on any soil. Division or seed. Europe. Ranunculacea;. Isotoma axillaris.— A showy half- hardy plant, resembling some of the dwarfer Lobelias, its growth dense and compact, the flowers \ in. across, star- shaped, and of a pale blue, continuing a long time, even till cut off by frosts. If preserved in a frame during winter, after the manner of bedding Lobelias, it is perennial, and may be propagated in spring by cuttings. New Holland. Ixia.— Charming South African bulbs, slender and elegant in growth, and brilliant in flower. They are not grown much because some are tender and require glass protection. For culture THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. IXIOLIRION. 58 1 outdoors, choose a light loamy soil, thoroughly drained, and with a due south aspect ; if backed by a wall or a green- house so much the better. Plant from September to January, 3 to 4 in. deep, and I to 3 in. apart. As the early plant- ings make foliage during the autumn, it is necessary to give protection during severe frost, and this may be best accomplished by hooping the beds over and covering when necessary with mats ; or if tiffany is used it may be allowed to remain till the danger of severe frosts has ceased. The December and January plantings require no protection in winter, but as they will last is of a beautiful sea-green, a colour quite unique among cultivated plants, and in no case to be omitted. A collec- tion of varieties might include the follow- ing : Achievenient, Amanda, aurantiaca Cleopatra, Conqueror, Duchess of Edin- burgh, Gracchus, Hercules, Hypatia, Isabelle, Lady of the Lake, Lesbia, Loela, Miralba, Nosegay, Pallas, Pearl, Princess Alexandra, Sunbeam, Surprise, Titian, and Vulcan. Ixiolirion {Ixia Zz/^).— Beautiful plants of the Lily Order somewhat resembling each other, and about i to ij ft. high, with grassy foliage, and bearing large Spanish Ins (I. xiphium). flower later in the summer than the early plantings, an aspect where the sun's rays are somewhat broken will prolong the blooming period. On stiff soil, or on soils that lie rather wet in winter, the beds should be raised, and the bulbs should be surrounded with sand, cai'e being taken that they are planted i or 2 in. above the level of the path ; and, where protection cannot conveniently be given, planting should not take place till December or January. A large number of varieties are in cultivation, and the chief species from which they appear to be derived are L crateroides, patens, maculata, fusco-citrina, ochroleuca, colu- mellaris, speciosa, and viridiflora, which trumpet-shaped flowers in a loose elegant manner. L Pallasi has flowers of the deepest shade, and L tataricum of the palest, the intermediate shades being L mohtanum and I. Ledebouri. Such beautiful hardy plants are deserving of a place in the most select collection, and the flowers last long on the plants. They should be treated like the rarer bulbs, such as Calochorti, Habranthi, and Zephyranthes, for though they may be hardy, it is not advisable to plant out such rare bulbs in ordinary borders. They should be grown in an open and dry position — in a sunny border, for example, which is all the better with a wall at the back, so as to catch all the 582 JAMESIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. JUNIPERUS. sun-heat possible in early spring, when the bulbs are pushing up their young leaves. The border should be well drained, and a bed of light, rich loamy soil, about i ft. in depth, placed upon the drainage. When the young growth appears, place a common hand- light over the plants — even two panes of glass will be beneficial — and if similar protection is afforded at the latter part of summer, it will tend to keep the soil dry and warm, and so ripen the bulbs. A handful of dry sharp sand placed in a layer under and around the bulbs is conducive to the formation of roots. Western .^sia. Jamesia americana. — A dwarf shrub from the Rocky Mountains, 2 to 3 ft. high, with deciduous leaves, and in summer many clusters of white flowers, which, with the whitish fohage, give the plant a pretty appearance. It is hardy, of easy culture in ordinary soil, and fitted for association with flowering shrubs of a medium size. Jasione {Sheeffs Scabious). — Dwarf perennials and annuals of the Bell-flower family. J. humilis is a creeping tufted plant, about 6 in. high, bearing small heads of pretty blue flowers in July and August. Though a native of the high Pyrenees, it often succumbs to the damp and frosts of our climate, and it therefore requires a dry well-drained part of the rock-garden, and should have a little protection in winter during severe cold and wet. J. perennis is taller, often above i ft. high, with dense heads of bright blue flowers, from June to August ; it is a rock-garden plant, stronger than the preceding, thriving in good light loam, and a native of the mountains of Central and South Europe. These perennial kinds may be propagated best from seed as they do not divide well. J. montana is a neat, hardy annual with small, pretty bright blue flower-heads in summer. Seed in autumn or spring. A native plant. Jasminum (^Jasmine). — Among the most precious of shrubs for the flower garden, the common hardy Jasmines are so well known that httle need be said about them, but there are a few others equally important that deserve attention. The bright yellow J. revolutum from India is too httle known, it being quite hardy enough for wall culture in all parts ; and it has evergreen foliage, which adds to its value. It flowers profusely, and its golden bloom amidst the deep green foliage is welcome in summer and autumn. It is a common plant in some tree .nurseries, but is seldom sold. An- other hardy evergreen shrub, J. fruticans, has yellow flowers, and may be grown as a bush, or supported by a tree-stump. It comes from South Europe, as does J. . humile, also with yellow flowers, and is quite hardy. The Chinese J. floridum, with yellow flowers in summer, is of less value, but worth growing in a collection. The common white J. officinale should be planted in every garden against a wall, or used for trailing over tree-stumps or arbours. It is one of the most important of all climbing shrubs on account of its extreme hardiness and its vigorous and rapid growth in almost any soil or situa- tion. There are several beautiful varie- ties of it, the best being J. affine, with flowers larger and more numerous than those of the ordinary kind. There is a variegated-leaved kind, not of much importance, and another with golden foliage which is pretty, and there is a rare double-flowered form. J. officinale is an Evergreen, except in cold exposed locali- ties. The winter Jasmine, J. nudiflorum, is another charming shrub for every garden. Though its flowers wreathe the leafless twigs, they are so bright and cheerful in winter that a space should always be found for it against the house walls. JefFersonia ^^\s.s)\li. {Twin-leaf). — An interesting dwarf plant, allied to the Blood- root, from 6 to 10 in. high,i'the flowers white, about I in. across, in early spring. It is a good plant for peaty and somewhat shady spots on the rock-garden, and for the margins of beds of dwarf Ameri- can plants. Seed should be sown in sandy soil as soon as gathered, but careful division of the root in winter is the best way to increase the plant. A native of rich shady woods in N. America. Juncus {Rush). — Water or marsh plants, generally \\ ith long round leaves. J. effusus spiraUs is a \ery singular plant, whose spreading tufts of lea\ es, instead of growing straight, are twisted in a cork- screw form. It is worth cultivating on the margins of water. It is easily multiplied by division of the tufts. J. zebrinus is" apparently a form of the common Rush (J. communis). The long round leaves are barred with bands of yellow and green, and it is a striking plant, as its rigid habit and singular markings stand out in bold relief Juniperus {Juniper Savin). — Often graceful members of the Pine family, but frequently more shrubby than tree- like, and therefore more fitted for the pleasure-ground and as background plants THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. KNIPHOFIA. 583 for the flower garden than for wood- land or forest planting, tew evergreen Shrubs are more beautiful and useful than the common Savin and its forms, but particularly that known popularly as the Tamarix-leaved (J. tamariscifoha). For carpeting the ground, planting on dry banks where little else save the Furze could gi'ow, along the margins of shrub- beries, the Savins are amongst the best of dwarf-growing coniferous shrubs. A pretty combination is afforded in the mteresting garden at Goddendene, near Bromley, by the free use of the Tamarix- leaved Juniper with herbaceous plants, fine broad masses breaking up the beds here and there, an unusual charm to that class of gardening. But to see this same Juniper used as a lawn plant instead of Grass is remarkably strange, and yet that it can be so used, every one who has been privileged to see that velvety lawn has frankly admitted. The plants were inserted when hardly i ft. in spread of shoots, and at about 15 in. apart, the dwarfest in a nursery border being chosen. Great care and attention was necessary for the first three years, so that all up- ward shoots were either cut off entirely, or, where a bare space occurred near at hand, were pegged firmly down. A heavy roller was passed over the ground twice a week, pruning and pegging were regularly attended to, and now the lawn is as level as could well be desired and can be walked across with perfect ease. Growing alone as a garden or lawn shrub the Savin is a plant of the greatest interest, the fine habit of growth and peculiar blue-gray of the shoots being so handsome and the plant so hardy in our severest winters. — A. D. W. Ealmia {Mountain Laurel).— The Kal- mias are among the most beautiful of North American shrubs, evergreen in foliage and charming in flower. The broad-leaved Kalmia latifolia is the finest, as it is also the commonest in gardens. Like the Rhododendron and Azalea, it must be grown in a moist peaty soil, or one light or sandy. It will not thrive in stiff or chalky soils. Its lovely clusters of pink wax-like flowers open about the end of June, when the bloom of the Rhododen- dron and Azalea is on the wane, and last for a fortnight or longer. The broad foliage makes it almost as valuable an evergreen shrub as the Rhododendron. There are varieties of the common kind having, in some cases, larger flowers, and in others, flowers of a deeper colour, the finest being maxima, which is much superior in size of flower and richness of tint. The Myrtle-leaved Kalmia (K. myrtifolia) seems to be only a variety of K. latifoHa, with smaller Myrtle-like foli- age. The growth is dwarf and compact, and the flowers are almost as large as those of K. latifolia. The other species of Kalmia, though very beautiful, are of less value, .because they are smaller, more dehcate, and less showy, but in peat-soil gardens they should be grown. K. angustifolia grows about 1^ ft. high, and bears in early June dense clusters of rosy- pink flowers. K. glauca and K. hirsuta are also pretty shrubs, K. glauca flower- ing in early summer, and K. hirsuta in August. Kaulfussia (syn. Amellus). Kerria japonica {Jew's Mallow).— The double variety of this Japanese shrub is an old favourite in cottage "gardens, where it is most comm.only seen. The large bright yellow rosette flowers, are much more showy than those of the single kind, which is rare. Though usually planted against walls, the Kerria is hardy, and may be grown as a bush except in the coldest parts. The variegated-leaved form of the single variety is more delicate than the double form, or the green-leaved single form. Knautia {Scabiosa). Klliphofia( Torch Lily or Flame Flower). — Handsome and very distinct perennials which are prevented by severe winters from becoming very popular. The genus, as understood by botanists, is restricted to the mountains of Abyssinia and the Cape, with the exception of one species found by Speke and Grant near the Equator, and one or two kinds indigenous to the mountains of Madagascar. There are twenty or thirty species, and none of the six found in Abyssinia is identical with any sort found at the Cape. The Kniphofias, and especially the forms of K. Uvaria, are among the most striking of autumn flowers. Large irregular groups in open spots give a brilliant effect in autumn, and they require no attention beyond an occasional top-dressing of rich soil or well-rotted manure. During the late winters many kinds have perished from frost, but these dangers may be averted by a covering ot dry leaves or ashes in late autumn. The stemless kinds are easily propagated by division and by seed when produced in favourable seasons ; but not the stemmed or caulescent kinds. However, those who wish to increase their stock of the stemmed kinds need not fear to behead them ; in fact, this is the only way in which K. caulescens can be propagated. S84 KNIPHOFIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. KNIPHOFIA. as, Otherwise, it seldom develops offshoots. When so treated it will throw up a large number of shoots, which, if allowed to re- main until a few roots are produced, may be taken off and kept in a close frame for a time, and then potted in a sandy compost. K. sarmentosa is the easiest to increase, as it throws out underground shoots, which may be taken off at any time. K. Quar- tiniana develops small shoots almost at right angles with the base of the stem, and if these be taken off and treated as cuttings they will strike freely. The following are amongst the best of the kinds in cultivation : — Knlphofia grandis. K. aloides {Flame Flower or Torch Lily), or Tritoma Uvaria as it is still called in many gardens, is perhaps the oldest, and is certainly one of the verj' best of its family. It is the Flame Flower of cottage gardens, and is one of the noblest and most brilliant of Lily-worts : an excellent border-plant, it is suitable for all soils, and while few plants are better for picturesque grouping in the pleasure-ground, in the shrubber)', with a fairly open space and with deep rich soil, it forms handsome groups. 1 1 begins to flower in late summer and lasts for many weeks in perfection, and nearly 70. per cent, of the garden varieties are traceable to it. K. pumila is a pretty dwarf form. The variety praecox flowers much earlier than K. aloides, from the middle to the end of May; its leaves are broader than those of the type, and are not glaucous, while the raceme is shorter, the stem being about half as long as the leaves. The variety nobilis, which very much resembles grandis, if indeed it is not the same kind, is a robust and noble plant, its leaves more distinctly serrated than those of grandis, its flowering stem 5 to 8 ft. in height, with flowers ^•ar^•ing from scarlet to orange-scarlet ; the anthers are prominent. It blooms throughout August. The variety serotina is interesting from blooming a month or so after all the other Kniphofias are over ; its flowers greenish- yellow, occasionally tinged with red. The variety Saundersi has bright green leaves and very rich orange-scarlet flowers ; the variety longiscapa has verj' long flower- heads, and is a most desirable form ; the variety maxima globosa has globose heads of yellow and red flowers ; and the variety glaucescens has large flower-spikes, the flowers being \ermilion-scarlet shading to orange. It is a free-flowering plant, and is one of the best for hea\y rich soil. K. Burchelli, introduced by Mr. Burchell from the Cape, is a distinct and beautiful plant with a purple-spotted stem and bright green leaves, firm in texture, 2 to 3 ft. long, which taper gradually to the apex. It flowers soon after midsummer, and just between prsecox and the other forms of K. aloides. The flower-heads are moderately dense, and the flowers are bright red, excepting those at the lower end of the head, which are bright yellow, the style protruding, the stamens being included in the tube. A useful and distinct plant, suited for dry banks and borders. K. camosa is a beautiful plant, forming low spreading leaf-rosettes, from the midst of which a number of flower-stalks rise to the height of i ft., with cylindrical flower- spikes about 3 by I i in. ; the smallness of the flowers is compensated for by their glowing apricot colour, enhanced by bright yellow anthers. The flowers open first on the top side in September. Abyssinia. K. caulescens and K. Northise differ from all other cultivated kinds in their caulescent habit. K. caulescens differs from all the forms of aloides in being smaller, and in having very glaucous leaves, short heads, and smaller and less curved flowers. The stem, at 5 or 6 in. from the ground, can just be spanned by both hands ; the scape is about 4* ft. high, with a dense head of flower 6 in. in KNIPHOFIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. KNIPHOFIA. 58S length of a reddish-salmon colour in its earlier stages, but in the fully-expanded flower it gradually becomes white, faintly tinged with greenish-yellow, producing an effective contrast. The glaucous blue- gray foliage is pretty. Though less brilliant than most of the species, it is one of the hardiest, and is distinct and robust. It is a very striking plant for the bold rock-garden, and it does well and flowers freely on dry slopes in light warm soils, and in open sunny positions. It should have a little protection in severe cold. Suckers or offsets taken off in early autumn root freely in sand in a cold frame. K. comosa seems to be closely allied to K. pumila, and has a peculiar appearance with its long protruding style and anthers. It is much dwarfer than K. aloides, its leaves are much narrower, while its flowers are smaller and its bright green leaves are in dense rosettes, narrow, very pointed, and almost three-cornered. The bright yellow flowers droop in a dense oblong head, the stamen and style being about twice the length of the flower tube. K. comosa is a showy plant, flowering in September, but is rather tender. K. foliosa may be said to be the counterpart of K. caulescens, but it has distinct stems, being' also one of the most robust of all the Kniphofias, and easily distinguished by its broadish leaves and its protruding stamens. The leaves form a dense tuft on the top of a stem I to 3 ft. high and are 3 or 4 in. broad at the base, tapering to a long point : flowers in a dense oblong head nearly 1 ft. long, bright yellow or tinged red, appearing in late autumn. Cape. = K. Quartiniana. K. Leichtlini is a native of Abyssinia, ■ and requires winter protection even in the South of England. Its spreading bright green leaves form a dense tuft ; they are 2 to 4 ft. long, three-cornered, with entire margins, the flower-stems 2 to 4 ft. high, the flower-head about 6 in. long, the droop- ing flowers of a dull vermilion-red and yellow. The variety disticha, which is quite distinct from the type, is more robust, its leaves broader, and flower-tube shorter; two or three heads of bright deep yellow flowers are bomeonthesamesteminAugust. . Some have suggested that it is a hybrid between K. Leichtlini and K. comosa. K. Macowani. — This differs from most Kniphofias in having the segments of its corolla reflexed, and in being of dwarf habit, 12 to 18 in. high, the narrow grassy leaves i to 2 ft. long, the flower-heads small, the flowers of a bright orange-red. It is hardy, and is suitable for rock-gardens. Rigidissima and maroccana are garden synonyms. The variety longiflora has much longer flowers. K. corallina is a robust hybrid. It is exactly intermediate between K. Macowani and K. aloides, and is a very pretty plant. K. Northise. — This is most nearly allied to K. caulescens, but its leaves are much broader, are not keeled, and are serrulate on the margins. The dense flower-heads are about i ft. long, the flowers being pale yellow, but the upper ones are tinged with red towards the tips. S. Africa. K. Booperi is nearly aUied to K. aloides, but is an early, or summer, flowering plant, while the stamens are included in the tube ; the flowers are paler and less curved, and the leaves are broad and very glaucous. K. Rooperi is a native of Caffraria, and requires a little protection during severe winters. It has a fine bold effect when in full flowei', the flower-heads, 6 in. to i ft. long, being crowded with bright orange- red flowers, which get yellowish with age. The plant usually but wrongly called Rooperi flowers in November and Decem- ber, and is a variety of K. aloides. K. sarmentosa is distinguished from K. aloides by its smaller glaucous leaves, the cylindrical flower-heads from 6 in. to I ft. long, the flowers red in the upper half, and yellow, or yellow tinged red in the lower. It is perfectly hardy. There is a good hybrid between K. sarmentosa and K. aloides. Cape. K. triangularis, at first sight, reminds one of K. Macowani, especially as regards the flower-spike, which is about the same size and of a similar tint. The foliage, however, is broader and longer, and in this respect it resembles K. Uvaria. It is desirable because it is earlier in flower than most varieties, and also because it is a free grower. K. Uvaria {,=K. aloides). Other species not noticed in detail are K. pumila, pallidiflora, pauciflora, natal- ensis, Kirki, Tysoni, modesta, Granti. — D. K. Hybrids and Varieties. — As we are getting to know the value of the Flame Flowers, many beautiful hybrids have been raised. We are indebted to Mr. Max Leichtlin for quite a group of them. Others have given us beautiful forms, such as the varieties John Waterer, Otto Mann, Max Leichtlin, and others, but all ' these owe their origin to red-flowered species, and do not much depart from the typical forms. Since the introduction, however, of yellow-flowered species, a new field was opened to the hybridiser. S86 KNIl'HOFIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. KONIGA. The predominating colour in these new hybrids is yellow, in all shades varying through orange to a crimson-scarlet. In habit the plants vary quite as much as in the colour and form of the flower-spikes. Of some, whose parentage to K. Leichtlini must be very near, the foliage is narrow and deciduous, and the spikes not more than 3 ft. high. Other varieties have massive foliage some 3 in. or 4 in. broad. Kniphofia Obelisk. the spikes attaining a height of 7 ft. The variety Obelisk is robust, with broad leaf- age and spikes some 5 ft. in height. The colour of the spikes is a pure golden- yellow, and strong spikes often produce two or three additional spikelets. Other beautiful forms are Triumph, a very fine hybrid ; Star of Baden-Baden, straw-yellow, the spikes more than 7 ft. high ; Ophir, orange-yellow, very free- flowering ; Lachesis, very hardy and rapid in growth, the flower deep yellow, turning to straw colour. Turnmg from the yellow varieties we have Leda, a beautiful and early-flowering form, about 4 ft. high, the flowers coral-red with an orange tinge. Matador seems to have nobilis for one of its parents ; the spikes are large, broad, and the colour a deep red. Van Tubergen, jun., of Haarlem, finds that in his deeply dug, rich sandy soil where water can never be stagnant, all the above Kniphofias safely pass the winter outside if superfluous water is warded off. This gathers in the central parts of the plants, and may prove dis- astrous when suddenly sharp frosts occur. There are now fifty or sixty varieties of these brilliant Torch Lilies, in place of the few known, say twenty years ago, iDut had we only the old Kniphofia (Tritoma) Uvaria, it is a plant capable of yielding very fine effects as planted in quantity either alone or grouped along with other suitable vegetation. AH the hardy kinds grow well in deep well-drained loam and are readily increased by division or by seeds, which some varieties bear freely in mild localities. Once well planted in bold groups, Kniphofias form the most effective masses of colour, and their effect is visible at long distances, so that they are plants of much value to the landscape gardener who may use them on lawns, or wood margins, on banks, and near water, either alone or along with other vigorous plants, such as Spiraeas, Pampas Grass, Arundo, or the Giant Polygonum sachali- nense and P. Sieboldi. A bold group of these flowers backed or partly surrounded by hardy Bamboos, is a sight in October not readily to be forgotten. K. Obelisk is the splendid Kniphofia, of whichan illustra- tion is given in the accompanying woodcut Kochia scoparia {Belvedere). — A curi- ous and seldom-grown annual of the Goose- foot family, forming a neat pointed bush, from 3 to 5 ft. high, the flowers insignifi- cant. The graceful habit of the plant makes it valuable, placed either singly or in groups, especially from July to Septem- ber, the time of its full development It should be sown in April, in a hot-bed, and afterwards planted out in beds or borders. S. Europe. Kcelreuteria paniculata. — A small tree, beautiful when in flower ; the long- divided leaves elegant throughout summer, in autumn die off a rich yellow ; the yellow flowers form large clusters over the spread- ing mass of foliage. The Kcelreuteria is picturesque, valuable for groups, is a native of China, hardy, and thrives in any good soil. koniga {Alyssum) LABURNUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 587 Laburnum {Golden A'a/w).— Beautiful and most graceful flowering trees, of which the finest are the following ; Waterer's Laburnum, with spikes i ft. or more long, and the colour the bright- est yellow, of excellent habit and free- flowering. Parkesi has also very long racemes, and may be identified by flowers of a deeper yellow ; Carlieri and grandiflorum have good flowers, ^\•hile quercifolium, bullatum, and others have peculiar leaves. The drooping variety (pendulum) is a graceful tree, with weep- ing branches. L. serotinum comes into bloom later than the ordinary kinds, and autumnale is said to flower in autumn. There are twenty other sorts enumerated in catalogues. As with other very showy- flowered trees, considerable taste and judgment are required to plant the Labur- num effectiveh'. Instead of dotting it Laburnum. about in a meaningless way, distinct groups should be planted in widely- separated spots, or, at least, where from any gi\en point one cannot see the tree repeated more than once. It is best not to plant large specimens, for few trees are so difficult to transplant when large. The Scotch Laburnum, a most valuable kind, usually flowers when the others are past. It may be recognised by its broader and deeper green leaves, and by the rich yellow of the racemes, which are also longer than those of the ordinary sort. There are se\eral named varieties of the Scotch Laburnum, among them being a drooping kind, pendulum, and fragrans. L. Adami has long been a puzzle to iDOtanists, who even now cannot account for its peculiar character. It is supposed that it originated by grafting the purple- flowered Cytisus purpureus upon the common Laburnum, a graft hybrid being the result. The same tree, and even the same branch, bears racemes of both yellow and purple flowers, and sometimes the colour is a dull purple, like yellow mixed with purple. Old trees of these are singularly quaint and not without beauty. Lagurus ovatus {Hare's-tail Grass). — A pretty annual Grass, about i ft. high, with hare's-tail-like plumes, useful for bouquets. It should be sown in pots in August, wintered in frames, and divided and transplanted in spring, or sown in open ground in April. It flowers from July to September, and it is pretty in the flower garden in large patches as a relief to showy-flowering things. Lamarckia aurea. — A small hardy annual Grass, with silky plumes, becom- ing golden as they mature. It is suitable for bouquets, and may be dried for winter use. Seeds should be sown in spring or autumn, in the open border in light soil. Syn., Chrysurus cynosuroides. S. Europe, N. Africa. Lamium {Dead Nettle). — Perennial herbs of which there are a few plants, occasionally worth a place in poor dry soils, where little else will grow — such as are found on dry banks or beneath trees. L. garganicum, from i to ij ft. high, has in summer whorls of purplish blossoms. L. Orvala is taller and has deep red flowers in early summer. L. maculatum, a native plant, has leaves blotched with silvery-white. Of this species the variety aureum is one of the best golden-leaved plants for edgings. It does not withstand the full exposure that suits the yellow Feverfew, but in sandy or moist soils its peculiar tint is unequalled by any other hardy plant, and its blooms are pretty. It does not require to be constantly trimmed like the Feverfew. Lantana. — S. American plants, usually grown in greenhouses, and also in the summer garden. The Verbena-like heads, of bloom are rich and varied in colour, and range from crimson, through scarlet, orange, and yellow, to white, the colours varying in the same head. They flower freely for about nine months, and are easy to grow, requiring the protection of the greenhouse during winter after being lifted in autumn. Propagated in spring by cuttings or seeds, the plants being grown in rich light soil till planted out in a warm position. There are many sorts grown, and a selection should in- clude Phosphore, Don Calmet, Distinc- tion, Eclat, Victoire, La Neige, Feu FoUet, Pluie d'Or, Ver Luisant, Ne Plus LARDIZABALA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LATHYRUS. Ultra, Eldorado, and Heroine. Like many dwarf half-hardy plants, they have various uses in the flower garden, and may be trained as standards. The pretty L. Sellowi is a good dwarf plant ; but the odour of the plants is unpleasant, and they are not likely to be much used. West Indies. Verbenacese. Lardizabala biternata.— A handsome evergreen climber from Chili, hardy enough for walls in the south and coast districts ; the foliage a deep green, the leaflets thick. Along the south coast it makes a beautiful wall-covering, reaching a height of 20 ft. or more, but its in- conspicuous purple flowers are seldom borne in the open air. It should be planted in light or well-drained soil. Lasthenia glabrata. — A pretty hardy annual, from 9 in. to l} ft. high, with many rich orange-yellow blossoms. It should be sown in autumn or early summer, or in spring for later bloom. Like other annuals, it looks best in broad tufts, but care must be taken that the plants are properly thinned. The autumn- sown plants come in with the Iberis, Wall- flowers, and early Phloxes. L. californica is a variety. California. Compositse. Lastrea. — See Aspidium and Nephro- dium. Lathyrus {Everlasting Pea), — Hardy annual and perennial plants, several of them very beautiful for the garden. The perennial kinds of Peas are valuable, as they are of such free growth and last long in bloom. The kinds worth growing are not numerous, yet sufficient to keep up an unbroken display from May till October. They have long 'fleshy roots, which, when once established, will go on for years without giving further trouble or needing attention. Near a low wall or trellis they succeed admirably, and climb- ing gracefully drape such surfaces with veils of foliage and blossom. Upon banks, raised borders, or on the bold rock-garden few things are prettier, and they never look better than when scram- bling over the face of a rock, flowering as they go. The way to spoil them is to attempt to tie and train them in a stiff or formal way. They may be used with good effect in mixed borders, and they are valuable for cutting from. The best varieties are pretty if allowed to grow through beds of medium-sized shrubs, and there are few effects in gardens prettier than that of the best white varieties when allowed to trail and bloom on a grassy place untrained in any way ; a few tufts so placed are charming and live for many years. Most of the species ripen seed freely, and all may be divided either in autumn or spring. L. latifolius {Everlastin^^ Pea). — One of the hardiest and most easily cultivated of plants, thriving almost anywhere, even in courtyards amongst flags. There are good white varieties and some striped with deeper coloured flowers than the old kind. All are peculiarly suited for rough places, and will scramble over bushes. Staking, tying, and training only spoil them. An old tree-stump, or the side of The While Everlasting Pea (LathjTus latifolius albus). a trellis or summer-house, is where they delight to grow undisturbed, but there are many uses for this fine plant and its forms m the flower-garden, and in rich hedge-banks it would be easy to naturalise. In warm seasons these Peas ripen seed in the south and on ^\arm soil, and advan- tage should be taken of increasing the stock in this way. Generally, however, liUle if any seed is borne. L. grandiflorus {Two-flowered Ever- lasting Pea) is a \ery handsome plant for the early summer garden, succeeding LATHYRUS THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. T.ATHYRUS. 589 anywhere, and, as the name impUes, is the largest-flowered species, the blooms being- as large as those of a Sweet Pea. It is at its best in June and early July, the flowers usually borne in pairs, of a rosy- purple colour, the stems in good soil reaching 6 ft. It is one of the hardiest of the genus, and from its neat and free- flowering habit a \-ery useful border- plant, common in cottage gardens. It has not so far varied in colour as the Ever- lasting Pea, but it may do so yet, and varieties of it would be welcome. L. rotundifolius {Persian Ever- lastiiii^ Pea). — This pretty Everlasting Pea is also known under the name of L. Drummondi, but there is no necessity for this name, as it only leads to confusion. This is a very old species, but it is not so common as the larger kinds, though good from its earliness and free- dom of flowering. It grows about 5 ft. high, the leaves are nearly round, the flowers in large clusters, bright rose-pink, about an inch in diameter, and open in early June. It is of easy culture, and increased by division. Asia Minor and Persia. L. Sibthorpi {Early Everlasting Pea). — This is \aluable because it is so early, being at its best in May and June. It does not grow \ery tall, rarely more than 2 or 3 ft, but it bears many fine spikes of delicate flowers of a beautiful purplish-red colour. In Mr. Thompson's garden at Ipswich there is a fine bed of this pretty and somewhat rare species. The plants are all in a large nursery bed, and are supported -with a few branched stakes, upon which the flowers cluster in rich masses. It has been in cultivation at Oxford Botanic Garden for many years, and is said to have been introduced by Sibthorp. It flowers a month earlier than L. rotundifolius, and may be increased by division or seed, but is not so vigorous in ordinary conditions as the commoner Everlasting Peas, and should until plenti- ful be planted in warm borders. L. tuberosus {Tuber Pea) is a pretty low-growing kind, with flowers of a bright dark pink. It is found in many of our cornfields, and is cultivated in Holland for the tuberous roots, which are said to be edible. The tubers are about 2 in. long, broadest at the root end and tapering to the ape.\. It u'ill be found a useful plant for the flower border, it being a true perennial, of neat halsit, and \ery free- flowering. It climbs like other Peas, but also grows in little tendril-bound heaps with- out an)' further effort at going higher, and then the matted herbage soon becomes densely studded over with the rose- coloured flowers in small clusters of five to seven each. It will thus be seen that this free and long-flowering Pea is suited for draping bold rocks. Europe and W. Asia, naturalised in England. L. magellanicus {Lord Ansofis Pea) is the most beautiful of blue-flowered Peas. In many gardens a particularly bright form of L. sativus will be found under the name of Lord Anson's Pea, which is a true perennial, almost ever- green, the stem and leaves being covered with a bluish bloom. It grows from 3 to 5 ft. high ; the flowers, many in a bunch, are of medium size, violet-blue with darker veins, opening in June and con- tinuing until the end of July. This species is said to have been originally introduced by the cook of H.M. ship Centurion., commanded by Lord Anson, in 1744, and was cultivated by Philip Miller in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. In the Ful- ham Nurseries it stood the winter against a wall. It is a maritime species, and a little salt may help its growth under culti- vation. It ripens seed freely, and may also be increased by division. Straits of Magellan, and probably not quite hardy unless planted near a wall or house. L. maritimus {Beach Pea).—T\a.% is a very interesting native plant, inhabiting the sea-shore, and not so vigorous as the preceding kinds. It is, however, pretty and worth a place on open parts of the rock-garden, in gravelly or gritty soil. The stems are prostrate, 18 in. to 3 ft. long, sea-green in colour ; flowers in summer, purple fading to blue. N. Europe, America, and Asia. L. odoratus {Sweet Pffj).— Perhaps the most precious annual plant grown. There are many ways in uhich it may be prettily used in a garden. A common method is to sow little patches in borders, the seed being generally that of mixed varieties, and, by placing' some stakes against them, to secure pillars of flower. Where it can be done, a hedge of Sweet Peas is an attractive sight, and sometimes Sweet Peas can be used to hide an unsightly place during the summer. Man>' people grow a hedge of Sweet Peas in order to yield a supply of cut flowers, but it is use- less to grow the Sweet Pea except in good soil. Some sow in late autumn ; this is not always satisfactor)', though, when it succeeds, the result is good. By sowing indoors in pots or boxes about the middle of February, and gradually hardening off the young plants when they are i in. high. Sweet Peas may be made to acquire a sturdiness and toughness which, when 590 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GAB DEN. I,ATHYRUS. they are planted out in good well-manured soil in April, conduces to rapid growth and to immunity from birds and slugs, which would otherwise attack the tender shoots the moment they appeared above the ground. The soil should be well trenched, and plenty of good stable manure should be worked in ; and after the plants have been rather thickly dibbled in, sup- ports of hazel stakes or netting should be placed round them. Then, with a little attention during dry weather and the regular removal of incipient pods, they yield abundance of beautiful and fragrant flowers all through the summer and autumn. When getting past their best, they should be cut down level with the tops of the sticks, and the result will be that from the bottom to the top a new growth will spring up, and there will be an abundance of bloom until the end of October. There are now many fine varieties of the Sweet Pea, varying chiefly in colour. Mr. Eckford, of Wem, Salop, now so well known for the many varieties of Sweet Peas he has raised, in writing to me as to their good cultivation, says : " I do not like the Celery-trench fashion. If the ground is in a tolerably good state of cultivation, that is, has been fairly well dug, simply put on a fair coat of stable manure and dig deep, leaving it rough. In the beginning of March when the soil is in good condition, thoroughly break with a fork, which will be sufficient preparation for the seed. To obtain the ijest results, clumps of two or three plants at I yard or 2 yards apart are better than continuous rows. In staking put three or four bushy stakes thus : : round the clump, but well away from the plants, which should have a few smaller sticks to lead them up to the taller ones. Round the whole put a string or bit of wire to keep them together, so that when the plants have grown up a sort of cone may be formed. The sticks should be if possible 8 or lo ft. high, as planted in this way the Peas will, if mulched with half- spent manure or any kind of refuse to protect the roots from hot sun, grow very strong and tall, and if the flowers are cut close every morning, so that no seed can form, they will continue to bloom till the frost puts an end to them. Should the weather prove drj', a soaking of weak manure water two or three times during the season would be beneficial. Should they from excessive growth get untidy, take the hedge-shears and clip them over neatly ; they will in a few days throw out fresh growths and a. profusion of flowers. If this way of growing Sweet Peas is adopted, it is a good plan to put the seed singly into small pots, and when the seed- lings are strong enough to plant them out ; in doing so make the ground very firm about them — they delight in firm ground. If the weather be dry tread well in." Sweet Peas do admirably in Scotland. Mr. Brotherston thus writes concern- ing his mode of treatment at Tynning- hame : Mr. Eckford (the raiser of many charming varieties of Sweet Peas) was here a few weeks ago, and he confessed to be unable to grow them so fine. He said that he had never previously seen the flowers of his own Peas grown to so large a size or so fine in colour. Grow the plants singly, allowing each plenty of room. If you are able to get plenty of good loam, allow each plant one and a half barrowfuls, and of leaf-soil half a barrowfiil, incorporating these with the top spit of the garden soil. Heavy dress- ings of manure produce rank growth when the plants are young. I prefer to add manure as a surface dressing ; my favourite manures for this purpose being soot, pigeon manure, superphos- phate of lime and sulphate of ammonia. Feat litter, which has passed through a stable, is also good. Manure water will of course be also beneficial. For train- ing on, nothing is more satisfactory than a dead Spruce Fir for each plant. Pinch- ing is important, as it not only keeps the plant within bounds, but all through the season it causes the formation of young flowering growths. Seeding is so fatal to the production of bloom, and exhausts the energties of the plant so rapidly and immediately, that in hot weather I should not hesitate to remove everj' flower and opening bud rather than risk leaving them to form seed-pods. A position little exposed to continuous sunshine will be advantageous. I would make a late sow- ing about the middle of June, or perhaps even later, always, however, allowing each plant plenty of room. Some sorts are less given to form seed-pods than others. Captain of the Blues and Car- dinal produce seed the most freely here. Orange Prince, Countess of Radnor, Mrs. Sankey, and Blanche Burpee are shy to set. Other Anxu.vl Peas.— Though none of the other annual kinds of Lathyrus rival the Sweet Pea, there are several pretty ones. Of these the Tangier Pea (L. tingitanus) grows about 3 ft. high, and has small dark red-purple flowers ; the Chickling Vetch (L. sativus) has flowers THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 591 varying from pure white to deep purple. Tlievarietyazurcus isa remarkably elegant dwarf kind with many clear blue flowers ; L, s, coloratus has flowers, white, purple, and blue ; L. Gorgoni, about 2 ft. high, pale salmon-coloured flowers ; L. articu- latus, Clj'menum, and calcaratus are other pretty kuids for borders. Laurus nobilis {Poefs Laurel).— Generally known as Sweet Bay, but to which its true name Laurel should be kept, for it is the true Poet's Laurel, the vigorous Cherry Laurel having wrongly taken the name. Perhaps there is no evergreen shrub wc oftcner see in cottage and other little gardens. In England it is hardy o\er large areas, if it suffers occasionally, especially on cold soils, ■where the ripening of the shoots is not completed. Gardeners in the larger places rather neglect it, and seldom plant it in groups and colonies, as they might well do on dry banks. The plant is interesting in every way for its associa- tions as well as for its beauty. There are se\eral slight varieties, in addition to the common form. It requires some care in transplanting or it will be a long time rooting well. Warm and sheltered places are best for it, if possible on sandy or free soil ; and it might be planted in different aspects with advantage. Lavatera (Tn-c Mallow). — For the most part vigorous and somewhat coarse annuals, biennials, and perennials, few of jjreat \alue in the garden. The most useful is L. trimestris, ii beautiful South European annual, from 2 to 3 ft. high, Tjearing in summer large pale rose or white blossoms, thriving in rich and light soil. It may be sown in the open border in autumn or early spring. Among the taller kinds the best is L. arborea, which has the look of a small tree, in the southern counties sometimes 10 ft. high. The stem branches into a broad, compact, roundish, and \ery leafy head. In rich well-drained beds it would be a worthy ■companion for the Ricinus and the Cannas. It is most at home on dry soils, but during the summer months it does on all kinds of soil. A biennial, it should be raised from seed annually. L. cashmeriana, un- guiculata, thuringiaca, sylvestris, and others of a similar character are not worth growing except in the wild garden, or naturalised. Lavendula {Lavoulcr). — Grey, half- shrubby plants, mostly dwarf with greyish leaves and warm and grateful odour ; mostly coming from warmer countries than ours, but, happily, one of the most beauti- ful sur\'ives on all our light and warm soils, and may Ise cultivated almost every- where, as even if in winter killed in valleys and on cool soils it is easily raised by division or by seeds, and will escape all save the most severe winters. It succeeds best in an open sunny position, in light soil. The white-flowered variety is as sweet as the blue, and flowers at the same time. Though a bush, the Lavender has been for centuries associ- ated with our old garden-flowers. For low hedges, as dividing lines in or around ground devoted to nursery beds of hardy flowers, and many other purposes, it is admirable, and for dry banks and warm slopes. There appear to be two species and a variety in cultivation— L. spica and L. \era ; and there is a dwarf \ariety also, probably of garden origin, which is very pretty. In useful work taller forms might be out of place. abroimioides (Canaries) ; atripUcifolia (Egypt) ; burtnanni (E. Indies) ; cariensis (Asia Minor) ; coro- nipifoUa. (Egypt) ; dtintata (Orient regions) ; Gibsoni (E. Indies) ; tanata (Spain) ; vdnuiotii (Canaries) ; multijida (S. Europe) ; nimmoi (Socotra) ; pcduncu- tata (Spain) ; fiinnnta (Canaries) \fiultesccns (Arabia) ; rodundifolia (Cape Verde) ; scti/era (Arabia) ; spica (Mediterranean regions) ; stcechas (Ditto) ; subnuda (Arabia) ; Tenuisvcta (Morocco) :r;-rt (S. Europe) ; virUiis (Portugal). Leavenworthia aurea. — A pretty cruciferous annual of very dwarf habit, forming a neat rosette-like tuft, from which arise numerous stalks 4 to 5 in. high, each bearing a single flower about J in. across, with white petals stained at the base with deep yellow. Occasionally, when strongly grown, a short stem is thrown up, bearing the flowers on long pedicels. It blooms in May and June, and should be treated as a half-hardy annual. Arkansas. Ledum {Labrador Tea). — Dwarf hardy shrubs, of which the best of the few species Ledum. grown in gardens is L. latifolium, which represents the genus well. Its usual height is under 2 ft., but sometimes it reaches 3 ft. ; it is dense and compact, and has small leaves, of a rusty brown beneath. During the latter part of May it bears clusters of white flowers. It is a \ery old garden plant, and was brought from North 592 I.EIOPHYLLUUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LEPl'lNELLA. America more than a century ago. The Canadian form of it (canadense) is found in some gardens, but does not differ materially from the type. A form called globosum is finer, as the flower-clusters are larger and more globular. L. palustre is commoner than L. latifolium, but being smaller in every part is not so good ; it is dwarf and spreading, and its flowers are white. The Ledums thrive best in a peaty soil or sandy loam, and are usually included in a collection of so-called American plants. They are charming grouped in the bog-garden, fully exposed if possible. North Europe and America. Leiophylltun buxifolium {Sand Myrtle). — A neat, pretty, and tiny shrub, forming compact bushes 4 to 6 in. high, with evergreen leaves resembling those of the Box. The small white flowers are borne in dense clusters in early summer, the unopened buds being of a delicate pink hue, and it is suited for grouping with diminutive shrubs, such as the Partridge Berry, Daphne Cneorum, the small Andromedas, and with Willows like S. reticulata and serpyllifolia, that rise little above the ground. It is generally planted on the margins of peat beds with other American peat-loving shrubs, and it is also a good plant for the rock-garden. A native of sandy " pine barrens " in New Jersey. There is more than one variety in cultivation. Leontice {Lion's Leaf). — Dwarf peren- nials of the Barberry family, natives of Europe and Asia. There are some three or four species in cultivation, all pretty plants, about i ft. high, and bear in spring blight yellow blossoms. L. Leontope- talum, Chrysogonum, vesicaria, and odessana are the kinds grown, and are all perfectly hardy ; but, as they seem to be injured by the excessive moisture of our winters, they are generally cultivated in frames or under hand-lights, to shelter them and preserve their flowers from the effects of the weather in spring. A light friable soil is best to plant them in. The large depressed root-stocks, which resemble the corms of a Cyclamen, should not be placed beneath the soil, but fastened by some means, so that only the bases, from which the fibry roots are emitted, should be in contact with the ground. Leontopodium alpinum {Edelweiss).— A pretty and hoary-leaved alpine plant, the small yellow flowers surrounded by star-like heads of leaves clothed with a dense white woolly substance. Some people are so pleased at seeing this plant in cultivation that they send letters to the Times to announce the fact ; but its culture is not difficult on sandy soils, or even as a border-plant, and it grows too luxuriantly in moist rich soils. To keep a good stock of flowering plants, the old ones should be divided annually or young ones raised from seeds, which in some seasons ripen plentifully. It succeeds either on exposed spots of the rock-garden or in an ordinary border, if not placed too near rank-grow- ing things. Syn. GnaphaUum alpinum. Compositae. Leonurus Leonitis {Lion's-tail). — A distinct and handsome plant of the Salvia Order, allied to Phlomis, about 2 ft high, and bearing in summer whorls of very showy bright scarlet flowers. It is a Cape plant, and is not hardy enough for Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss). our climate during the winter, even when protected by a cold frame, though in warm light soils, in the southern parts of the country, it thrives out-of-doors in summer, and where it will not bloom out-of-doors, it is worthy of a place as a cool green- house plant. Near Paris, established plants placed out for the summer flower well. Where\ er it can be grown in the open air, it would be valuable for associa- tion with the finer bedding and sub- tropical plants. Cuttings strike freely in sprmg— more freely than in autumn— in a slight bottom-heat. Leptinella scariosa.— A very dwarf Chilian plant, with small deeply-cut foli- age, fonning a dense carpet, on which account it is employed for flat geometrical I.EPTOSIPHON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LEUCOJUM. 593 bedding, for, though a fast grower, it does not require clipping to keep it down, and grows m any soil. Its flowers are incon- spicuous. Division. Composite. L. fili- caulis and L. dioica, if not the same, arc very similar. Leptosiphon.— -Pretty Califomian an- nuals. To produce the best results these chju-miug annuals must be strongly grown, and robust specimens can only be obtained by thin sowing. In light dry soils early autumn sowing is recom- mended, suflSciently early to permit the young plants to attain some size before the setting-in of winter. Fair success liowcxcr nia\' be looked for, especially in The Lion's-tail (Leomirus l.cunilis). Engraved fioiii a photograph by Miss W'iUmott. good soils, where spring-sowing will often yield excellent results ; while the advantages of autumn-sowing are best seen in light sandy soils. Of the numer- ous kinds in cultivation the best is L. roseus, which is one of the most charming of hardy annuals, forming dense tufts, studded w'\X\\ rosy-carmine tlowcrs. The \erj' pretty L. luteus and its deeper- coloured \-ariety aureus are scarcely inferior to L. roseus, which thc\- resemble in habit, though with smaller flowers. The hybrid varieties of these are inter- esting for the singular variety of shades occurring among them. The larger- flowered species, L. densiflorus and L. androsaceus, should Ije too well known to need description ; both have lilac-purple flowers, and are most attractive annuals, and of both species there are good white varieties deserving of especial recommen- dation. All natives of California. Pole- moniacea:. Leptosyne. — Califomian plants of the Composite family, resembling some of the Coreopsis. L. Douglasi is a pretty half- hardy annual, about i ft. high, and having large yellow flowers. L. Stillmanni re- sembles it, but is smaller. L. maritima, a perennial, is somewhat tender, and should be treated as an annual. It is a showy plant, about 6 in. high, and bears large iDright yellow flowers. All these plants thrive best in an open sunny position in a light warm soil. The seeds should be sown early in heat, and the seedlings transplanted in May. Leucanthemiim alpinum {Alpine Fevcrfi--iV). — .-V verj' dwarf plant. The leaves are small, and the abundant flowers are supported on hoary little stems I to 3 in. long, are pure white with yellow centres, and are more than i in. across. It is rather quaint and pretty, and well dcservcb cultivation in bare level places, on poor sandy or gravelly soil in the rock-garden. It is sometimes known as Chrysanthemum arcticum and Pyrethrum alpinum. It is a native of the Alps, and is readily increased by division or seed. For other species of Leucanthe- mum see Chrysanthemum. Leucojum {Snowflake). — Pretty bulbs allied to the Snowdrop, but bolder and easily naturalised in rich valley soils. L. aestivum (Suimncr Snowflake). — A vigorous plant, flowers white drooping on stalks I to \\ ft. high. In clusters of four to eight on a stem, the leaves in shape like those of Dafl!bdils. It blooms early in summer (in many places before the end of spring), and is pretty in mixed borders or on the margins of shrubberies. It thrives in almost any soil, but is strongest in deep alluvial soil, and is multiplied by separation of the bulbs. It is excellent for the wild garden, and increases as rapidly as the common Daffodil. A form of L. a;stivum is L. Hernandezi, a native of Majorca and Minorca, growing to about the same height as L. ;esti\um, but with narrower leaves, flowers only half the size, and usually not more than three flowers on each stem, appearing nearly a month earlier. L. vernum {Sprinq- S>umijiake).~.\ Q Q 594 LENCOJUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LIBERTIA. beautiful early flower about 6 in. high. The fragrant drooping flower resembles a large Snowdrop, the tips of the petals being marked with a greenish spot. It is excellent for the rock-garden or borders, and thrives in a light, rich soil. Imported bulbs make little show for the first year or two, but when established they flower freely. L. carpaticum is considered a variety, bearing two flowers on the stem, flowering a month later. Other cultivated Snow- flakes are L. hyemale and L. roseum ; but these are very rare, and somewhat difficult to cultivate. Leucophyta Brownei. — A New Hol- lant plant, with slender hoary stems, in a small state largely used for flat geometrical beds in summer. Increased by cuttings in early spring. Compositje. Leucothoe. — Beautiful evergreen shrubs of the Heath family, most of them very old garden plants, and common in collections of American plants. There is a family likeness among the kinds, the best-known being L. acuminata, \\ to 2^ ft. high, with slender arching stems, in early summer wreathed with white bell-shaped pretty flowers. L. axillaris is similar, and so are L. Catesbsei and L. racemosa, all of which are known under the name Andro- meda. They are natives of N. America, hardy, thriving in light soil, preferring peat, and are suitable for the margins of groups of -American shrubs, and for low parts of rock-gardens. A newer and very beautiful species is L. Davisia;, introduced a few years since from California, and not so hardy as the others. It makes a neat little evergreen bush 2 or 3 ft. high, and has small leaves on slender stems, in May bearing clusters of small white flowers. It is one of the choicest of evergreen hardy shrubs, and thrives with Rhodo- dendrons and Azaleas in peat soil. Lewisia rediviva {Sfiatlum). — A re- markable and beautiful Rocky Mountain plant, allied to Portulaca, very dwarf, i in. or so high, with a small tuft of narrow leaves, from the centre of which the flower- stalks arise. The blossoms are large for the size of the plant, being from i to 2 J in. across, and vary from deep rose to white. The roots are succulent, and can retain life a long time even when dry, and as it sometimes fails to develop leaves annu- ally, is wrongly supposed to be dead. It should be grown in sunshine, for it caimot be flowered in shade, and the crown kept high and dry, though the roots should have moisture. A crevice in the rock- garden is the best situation for it. If grown in pots, the plant should be on broken stones, and the roots in light sandy loam with peat. After flowering, it shrivels up and becomes a withered twisted mass, like so many bits of string. Oregon, Utah, and Rocky Mountains. Leycesteria formosa {Flowering Nut- meg). — A distinct flowering shrub, a native of the Himalayas, nearly hardy throughout these islands, much commoner in Ireland and the west than in the home counties, but it is graceful in flower and form, and reaches 6 ft. high in mild dis- tricts ; the flowers white, tinged with purple ; the leafy bracts purple, succeeded in autumn by purple berries, which are eaten by pheasants, and therefore it is planted in some places for covert. In mild districts it is an evergreen, but generally loses its leaves in late autumn. It thrives in various soils, and under trees. Liatris {Snakeroot). — North American perennials of some beauty, having the flower-heads arranged in long dense spikes. Some are effective border flowers when well grown, and well re- pay good cultivation. L. elegans grows about 2 ft. high, and has pale-purple spikes I ft. or more in length. L. pycnostachya, 2 to 4 ft. high, has deep purple flower-spikes from August to October. L. spicata is one of the hand- somest and neatest, growing i to 2 ft. high, and its violet-purple spikes con- tinue long in beauty. L. scariosa, squarrosa, cylindracea, elegans, and pumila much resemble the foregoing, and, like them, succeed in any rich light soil, and are best here and there in among peat-loving shrubs or in good borders. Propagated by division in spring or by seed. Libertia. — Beautifiil plants of the Iris Order, of which some are hardy enough for the open border. L. formosa is beautiful at all seasons, even in the depth of winter, owing to the colour of its foliage, which is as green as the Holly; and it bears spikes of flowers of snowy whiteness like some delicate Orchid. It is neat, dwarf, and compact, and has flowers twice as large as the other kinds. They lie close together on the stem, and remind one of the old double white Rocket. L. ixioides, a New Zealand plant, is also a handsome evergreen species, with narrow grassy foliage and small white blossoms. L. magellanica is also pretty when in flower. All of these thrive in borders of peaty soil, and in the rougher parts of the rock-garden, but they grow slowly on certain loamy soils, living perhaps, but never showing the freedom and grace UGULAKIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 595 which they do on free or peaty soils In- creased by seed or by careful division in spring. Ligularia, — Large perennials, remark- able for bold foliage, one or two for great size, and strikingly distinct aspect, though not quite beautiful in flower. L. macro- phylla is vigorous, with an erect stem nearly 3^ ft. high, and very large glaucous leaves, the yellow flowers borne in a long spike. Free, moist, and somewhat peaty soil is the most suitable for this plant, which is multiplied by careful division in autumn or in spring ; it is useful for group- ing with fine-leaved herbaceous plants, but will seldom find a place in the select flower garden. Caucasus. L. sibirica, Fischeri, and thyrsoidea are fine-leaved plants, and worth growing with L. macro- phylla for their foliage. The Japanese species, L. Kjempferi and Hodgsoni, are better grown under glass, except in summer, when they may be used among fine-leaved plants in the sub-tropical garden ; but the hardy kinds are most interesting.* Syn., Senecio. Liliuiu {Lily). — The Lilies are among the most beautiful bulbous plants combin- ing as they do stateliness and grace with brilliant and delicately-coloured flowers. The many kinds in culti\-ation afford a rich choice. -All are beautiful, but some are better suited for particular localities than others. The habit and general character of the plants being so \aried, their uses are likewise varied. Some are suited for the rock-garden, others for the mixed border, many for the shrubbery — especially for the Rhododendron beds — while not a few are so robust that they are at home in the wild garden, holding their own against native plants. Their true place, however, is the garden proper, and, when their uses are understood and expressed, there will be a total change in the aspect of the flower garden. Lilies may be grown in various ways : — 1. Under glass you may have Lilies in flower all the year round. 2. In the open border you may enjoy their beauty each in its own season. 3. You may take them up when coming into flower in the border, and plunging them roots and all into a sufficiently large pot with suitable soil, shade them for two or three days, and then transfer them to bloom in a conservatory or balcony, without damage, providing they are kept well- watered. Culture is important, but arrangement and grouping are even more so. There are Lilies which vdll grow in any ordinary soil ; agood,richloamysoil suits thegreater number ; others want plenty of sand, so as to keep the soil free ; while others can be easily grown in ordinary soil if it is mixed with leaf-mould or peat. It will thus be seen that there are no great difficulties in the way of growing a large number of kinds. In nearly all cases Lilies are more vigorous and brilliant where partially protected from severe frosts ; and the flowers last longer when sheltered from the scorching rays of the mid-day sun. The shrubbery border, among Rhododendrons (for those re- quiring peat), and the mixed border between shrubs and herbaceous plants, where the young shoots get a slight pro- tection from the early frosts, are among the best situations. A very safe place is near the edge of a Rhododendron bed ; soil that will grow Rhododendrons will grow most sorts of Lilies, and afford pro- tection from " blight and spot," which in some seasons, notably when cold and wet follow drought, greatly injure the growth and flowering of some species, even though the bulbs be unhurt. It should be re- membered that bulbs of nearly all Lilies occasionally lie dormant a whole season, and push out luxuriantly the following summer, especially the Martagon tribe. 1 Manure should never be dug in with the bulbs, though they accept it gratefully if liberally applied as a top dressing after they have been established a year. The only manure to be dug in at planting is rich peat and sand, in the proportion of two parts of peat to one of sand.^ This is advisedly called manure. In light soils L. auratum and some others are all the better for a top-dressing of dry clay broken small. Though to each brief description below we have appended a word or two upon cultivation, it is per- haps advisable to add a few general remarks. It should be borne in mind that, however beautiful nearly all the known Lilies are, some are extremely fas- tidious ; but there is a rare choice of beauty among those that are easily cultivated. Lilies may be divided into three classes — first, those that are best 1 Experience has shown me that manure may be applied, more liberally than I thought, to the Speciosum group ; while Giganteum literally revels in "muck." 1 have given with much advantage to pot Lilies (Longi- florum, Speciosum, and Henr>'i) Clay's Fertilizer, .\ll)ert's Concentrated and Fish Manure, so that I begin to believe that, given sound healthy bulbs, manure, especially in the liquid forms, may be given to a much greater extent than was originally supposed. I have seen .in acre of Speciosum and Longiflorum Lilies in full luxuriant bloom, whose bulbs were planted at the top of farmyard manure dug in to receive them. — Alexander Wallace. - Sea-sand, where it can be procured, is by far the best kind to use ; all bulbs take to it kindly, as it always attracts moisture. Ci O 2 596 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LILIUM. grown in pots, such as neilgherrense, Wallichianum, philippinense, and nepal- ense; also Wallichianum superbuni (sul- phureum), Lowi primulinum, Bakeri, new Burmese Lilies ; and, in many soils and climates, speciosum, auratum, and longi- florum ; secondly, those that are best grown out-of-doors in loamy soil ; thirdly, those that are best grown out-of-doors in peaty soil. On light soils the following kinds do remarkably well : L. candidum, longi- florum and its varieties, chalcedonicum, excelsum, and the speciosum section ; all of the umbellatum, croceum, and elegans type ; also tigrinum sinense. For deep loamy soil the best kinds are L. auratum, Szovitzianum, Humboldti, the Tiger family, most of the Martagon group ; while in an intermediate soil of leaf-mould, loam, and sand, we advise the planting of Buschianum, philadelphicum, pulchellum, Browni, giganteum, tenuifolium, Krameri, etc. The North American forms require more peat and more moisture than the other groups. Lilies require, so far as their roots are concerned, a cool bottom, abundant moisture, and, for most kinds, a free drainage. The slope of a hill facing south-east or south-west, for in- stance, with water from above percolating through the sub-soil, so as to always afford a supply, without stagnation, would be an admirable site. Propagation'. — This is generally and most readily effected by separating the bulblets or offsets from the parent bulbs, and these, detached and grown in the same way as the parent, in the course of a year or two make good flowermg plants. The scales of the bulbs afford a means of propagation ; but this is a slower method. Raising Lilies from seed is somewhat tedious^ though many kinds in this country perfect seed in plenty, and in the case of such kinds as L. tenuifolium the seedlings flower in three or four years ; though others will not flower for several years. The finest kinds, such as the Japanese and Cali- fornian Lilies, are now so cheap that it is scarcely necessary to propagate from home-grown plants. It will be well, how- ever, if, by rapid increase, or otherwise, they become plentiful enough to adorn the smallest cottage gardens. Several Lilies, chiefly Japanese and Califomian, are largely imported every year. As soon as received, all bulbs should be examined, and decaying matter should be removed. They should then be laid in soil, or, better still, Cocoa-nut fibre in a moderate condition of moisture, until the bulb re- covers its plumpness and the roots are on the point of starting from the base. Then they should be potted or planted out as required ; but, before this, decaying scales should again be removed, as a few of the outside ones are often bruised in transit, and after they have been in the soil a httle time decay sets in, which if not then taken off may contaminate the whole bulb. Of those so imported, L. auratum and Krameri should, when potted, be surrounded with sand, but some do well without it. The most difficult to import among the N. Ameri- can Lilies are L. Washingtonianum and L. rubescens, since, as a rule, they suffer much more than the large, solid bulbs of L. Humboldti, or than those of pardalinum, canadense, and superbum. ^ These soUd bulbs should be treated as above directed, but L. Washingtonianum, rubescens, and Humboldti should not be potted, as they never succeed in that way ; and indeed all the N. American Lilies do much better if planted out. Those grown in Holland, such as the varieties of davuricum, elegans, and speciosum, etc., arrive plump and sound, but it is much better to lay even these in soil a little while before potting. L. Alexandras. — A beautiful new dwarf Lily, apparently a hybrid between longi- florum and auratum, bearing a large, well- opened, reflexed flower, broad petalled and pure white, from a southern Japanese Island ; and therefore grows best under glass. Its nati\'e name is Uke uri. L. auratum. — Some fonns have flowers nearly i ft. across, with broad white petals copiously spotted with reddish-brown and having broad bands of golden-yellow down the centre. The poorest forms have starry flowers and scarcely any markings. Several named \arieties are particularly distinct ; and the chief are cruentum and rubro-vittatum, which have deep crimson instead of yellow bands down the petals. Rubro-vittatum : this variety has a very distinct bulb, the foliage is darker, and it is a hardier, better doer than the type. Platyphyllum is also more easily grown than the type. The white-petalled \ ariety of platyphyllum, generally called \ irginale, is perhaps one of the mostbeautfful fonns. \\ittei and \irginale, the flowers of which have no colour but the golden bands ; rubro-pictum, with a red stripe and spots ; platyphyllum, with \eiy large flowers and broad leaves ; and Emperor, a grand flower, with reddish spots and centre. There are also some beautiful hybrids raised between L. auratum and some of the other species ; for example, L. Paikmanni (between L. auratum and L. speciosum), which has large white flowers banded and spotted with cai-mine-crimson. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 597 It grows freely in peat or loam, a mixture of both with a little road-scrap- ings best fulfilling its requirements. Where the soil js naturally poor, light, and sandy, it should be taken out to a depth of 1 8 in., and replaced with the compost above mentioned, or some fine, well-enriched mould. The bulbs should be planted in this, and, as soon as growth commences in spring, should be mulched with decomposed manure or short Grass. If the garden soil be fairly good, it need <3nly be well stirred and manured, but the manure should be thoroughly decomposed. A sheltered situation should be chosen, and if possible screened from the mid- day sun, and protected from westerly and southerly gales and from heavy driving rains ; for this Lily is very susceptible to injury by cold draughts and cutting winds. No better place can be chosen than a snug nook sheltered from the north and east by shrubs, but at the same time open to the sun. The best examples that have been seen were grown in a Rhododen- dron bed, and planted in a deep, moist, peaty soil, where they have been for years undisturbed. When planted among other things the young and tender uprising shoots are greatly protected in spring. As to propagation, there is scarcely any need to enlarge upon that, as bulbs are imported so plentifully ; and it is only necessary to separate the young bulbs and replant them in good soil. Those who increase this Lily from seed must be pre- pared to exercise a little patience, as the seed is long germinating and the seedlings are several years before flowering. The seed should be sown, as soon as ripe, in a frame. The seedlings should be planted out as soon as the bulbs are of an appre- ciable size. L. Browni is a fine Lily in the way of L. japonicum, but with larger flowers. It is readily distinguished from any other kind by the rich brownish-purple mark- ings on the exterior of the blossoms, which in well-grown plants are sometimes g in. in length. It is hardy and vigorous, and succeeds without giving much trouble. In a soil and position which suits L. auratum it flourishes, and need only be lifted every few years and replanted in fresh rich soil. It grows from 2 to 4 ft. high, and has deep green foliage distinct from allied kinds. The variety Colchesteri is handsome. Quite recently, some re- markably fine and strong-growing varieties of this Lily have been obtained from the district whence L. Henryi came ; namedby Mr. Baker Chloraster and Leucanthum. L. bulbiferum is one of the handsomest of European Lilies, and is about 2 ft. high. It bears large crimson flowers shading to orange. The variety umbellatum is finer and stronger, and has large umbelled clusters of flowers. This Lily is generally distinguished from its congeners by bulblets on the axils of the leaves. It grows freely in ordinary soil, and flowers in early summer. A capital plant for bold groups, and thriving under partial shade or in the open. L. canadense {Canadian Lily). — This beautiful flower is among the oldest of cultivated Lilies. It is 2 to 4 ft. high, and bears, on slender stems, terminal clusters of drooping blossoms usually orange, and copiously spotted with deep brown. It also occurs with red flowers (rubrum) and with yellow flowers (flavum). L. parvum, L. Bolanderi, L. Grayi and L. maritimum resemble it, and like it re- quire a partially-shaded position and a moist, deep peaty soil enriched by decayed leaf-mould. It flowers late in summer, and is very attractive in bold masses, such as are often seen in nurseries about London. Like its allied forms it makes elegant groups among choice shrubs such as Azaleas and Rhododendrons ; and by such an arrangement we get a second bloom and a variety of form from beds that had only one blossoming ■season, and were poor and stiff in outline ; we prevent senseless digging when the groups are once in place ; and we keep the shrubs from growing into a solid ugly mass, while they shelter our Lilies. L. candiduiu. — One of the best-known and loveliest Lilies, seen in almost every cottage garden, and producing snow- white blooms in summer. It dislikes coddling or being meddled with, and thrives best when undisturbed for years in good garden soil. Any attempt to deal with it like the more delicate ones generally results in failure. The best- flowered plants are in old gardens, where the bulbs are allowed to run as they like with no attention whatever. Iii bold masses, no plants can compare with the common white Lily when in bloom. It is so fair a flower that there is scarcely a place which a good plant or well-grown group of it will not adorn. But the care- ful growth and the proper placing of such lovely hardy plants give the highest charm to the garden. For years it has been difficult to find even a miserable tuft in many "show" gardens, though they displayed nothing there so good as a tall white Lily in a cottage garden. Moist loam seems to suit it generally, though, like other Lilies, it will grow in 598 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. a variety of soils. The varieties pere- grinum, striatum, and monstrosum are not so fine, but the striped-leaved variety aureo-marginatis is valuable for its foliage in winter. L. chalcedonicum {Scarlet Martagon) Lillum candidum (White or Madonna Lily). is a very old and handsome Lily, of tall and graceful growth, and bears several pendulous, vermilion, turban - shaped blossoms about the end of July. It is one of the easiest to cultivate, thrives in almost any soil, and is best when well estabhshed and left undisturbed. There are a few varieties, majus being the largest and best. The others are grsecum, rather taller than the type and having smaller flowers ; pyrenaicum, with yellow flowers ; Heldreichi, tall and robust, flowering a week or two earlier ; and maculatum, a very handsome form. Nati\e of Greece and Ionian Isles. Similar to the scarlet Martagon is the Japanese L. callosum, a pretty Lily, \\ to 3 ft. high, with slender stems, bearing in summer several brilliant scarlet blossoms. L. camiolicuiii, of a similar char- acter, is I to 3 ft. high, and pro- duces in early summer turban- shaped nodding blossoms of bright vermilion or yellow. L. concolor. — A pretty little Lily from Japan, I to 3 ft. high, bearing three to six bright scarlet flowers, which are spotted with black, star-shaped, and erect. There are some three or four varieties — pulchellum, or Bus- chianum, an early \ariety from Siberia, l^ to 2 ft. high, \yith crimson blossoms ; Coridion, with flowers somewhat larger than the type, and of a rich yellow spotted with brown ; sinicum, a Chinese form, with four to six crimson flowers hea\ily spotted and larger than the type ; and Partheneion, with scarlet flowers flushed with yellow. This charming Lily and its varieties are quite hardy, though they require some atten- tion in cultivating. They suc- ceed in half-shady places in a soil composed of two parts of peat, one of loam, and one of road-scrapings ; but seem to require renewing every few years. L. croceum (Orange Lily) is one of the sturdiest and hardiest, and therefore one of the com- monest of Lilies. It grows in almost any soil or position, and bears in early summer huge heads of large rich orange flowers. In the mi.xed border it is attractive, but shows best on the margin of a shrubbery, where its stems just overtop the surround- ing foliage. It is always best after some years' growth. A native of the colder mountains of Europe, it is one of the Lilies that may be naturalised, but is never so strong as in rich garden- ground. Lilies are said not to like manure, but we have never seen this one so fine as when in well-manured ground after several years' growth. Indeed, we have planted it over a subsoil, so to say, of solid cow manure, and have had bulbs and flowers of enormous size in two years. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 599 L. davuricum is a slender European Lily with moderate - sized red flowers, spotted with black. Like L. elegans, it has several varieties, the chief being Sappho, incomparable, erectum, multiflorum, Don Juan, and-Rubens. Being strong growers and flowering freely, they are fine plants for the mixed border, for margins of shrubberies, or for groups or masses, thriving in partial shade as well as in sunny places. L. elegans. — One of the best and most generally grown of the early Lilies. It is commonly known by the name of Thun- bergianum. It is very x-ariable, and there are about a dozen named varieties. The type grows about i ft. high, and has stout erect stems, which bear numerous narrow leaves, and are terminated by a bright orange-red flower, 5 or 6 in. across. A native of Japan, flowering with us about the beginning of July. Most of the varieties are so distinct as to merit a slight description. They are — marmora- tum and marmoratum aureum, two of the earliest forms ; alutaceum, not more than 9 in. high, with a large pale apricot- coloured flower, copiously spotted ; arme- naicum (venustum), about \\ ft. high, with several moderate-sized flowers (in autumn) of a rich glowing orange-red ; atrosanguineum, about l^ ft. high, with large flowers of rich deep crimson ; Bate- mannise, about 4 ft. high, with several moderate-sized flowers, in late summer, of a rich unspotted apricot tint (L. Bate- mannise and L. Wallacei are put by Mr. Baker as allied to L. Leichtlini and the Tiger group. I do not consider the above two species to be Thunbergianum) ; bicolor, about I ft. high, with large flowers orange- red, flamed with a deeper hue ; brevi- folium, \\ ft. high, with flowers pale red and slightly spotted ; citrinum, like armenaicum,' but taller ; fulgens, I to l^ ft. high, with four to six large flowers of a deep red ; sanguineum, i to i|^ ft. high, with one or two large blood-red flowers ; L. Horsmanni, a dwarf form with richly-coloured flowers of a blood-red mahogany tint, and Splendens, the early form of L. Wilsoni ; Alice Wilson, the beautiful, scarce, lemon-yellow, dwarf form ; Van Houttei, \\ ft. high, with very deep crimson-red flowers, spotted with black ; Wallacei, 2^ ft high, with rich orange- red flowers, spotted with black ; Wilsoni, 2 ft. high, with large apricot-tinted, yellow striped flowers— one of the latest to bloom. All the L. elegans group are perfectly hardy ; they grow vigorously m almost any soil, but prefer a deep loamy one with an admixture of peat. They like an open position, and are suitable for planting around the margins of shrub- beries. Small groups are beautiful in the open spaces that should exist in every shrubbery or Rhododendron bed. They are all excellent border-plants, and the dwarf kinds may be introduced into the rock-garden. In all cases they must be placed in sunny situations. L. giganteum. — A noble Lily of huge growth and in aspect different from any other. Its bulb is large and conical, and develops spreading tufts of handsome shining heart-shaped foliage. The flower- stems are stout and erect, 6 to 10 ft. high, terminated by a huge raceme, i to 2 ft. in length, of about a dozen long nodding fragrant flowers, which are white and Lilium giganteum. tinged with purple on the inside. It is one of the hardiest Lilies, and gives very little trouble. It flourishes best in a sheltered position, where there is an undergrowth of thin shrubs to protect the growth in spring. The soil must be deep and well drained, and must consist of sandy peat and leaf-mould, strengthened by a little rich loam, and plenty of rich manure. Years sometimes elapse before the tufts of foliage send up bloom. Nepaul. L. cordifolium, a Japanese plant, is a similar, but inferior, species, very rare in cultivation. It requires the same treatment. Cordifolium is said to grow naturally in Japan in shady damp places, cool and moist. A small group of three or four plants' will do well in an open spot among shrubs, in a free peaty soil, and 6oo THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. that when in flower the effect will be all can be desired. L. Hansoui. — A handsome Japanese species, about 4 ft. high, having whorls of bright green leaves and a terminal spike of about a dozen bright, orange-yellow, brown-spotted flowers. It flowers about the beginning of June, is quite hardy, and succeeds in sheltered situa- tions in a soil consisting of two parts of peat, one of loam, and one of road- scrapings. L. Humboldti is very graceful. The singular beauty of the blossoms and the elegant manner in which they droop from their slender stalks, make it most desir- able, and its flowers, on ac- count of their great sub- stance, are more lasting than any other Califomian Lily. The stout and purplish stems attain a height of 4 to 8 ft. The leaves are in whorls of from ten to twenty each, and are of a bright green. The flowers differ considerably in colour and markings, but are usually bright golden- yellow, richly spotted with crimson-purple. The variety ocellatum or Bloomerianum is dwarf, and has petals tipped with brownish-crim- son. It grows best in an open border of rich peaty or leafy soil of a good depth. Columbianum, syn. Nitidum, seems to be a smaller variety of this Lily. L. japonicum, or Krameri as it is more often called, possesses the most delicate beauty of any. The flowers are of the shape and nearly as large as those of L. auratum. They are either pure white or delicate rosy- pink — generally the latter L. japonicum is I to 3 ft. high, and sometimes bears five blooms — but generally only one or two. It is some- ' ' '^ what difficult to grow, owing to its delicate constitution, but the best specimens produced in this country were grown under the same conditions as L. auratum and speciosum. On account of its beauty it deserves the most careful attention. It is a lovely plant for a select spot between choice dwarf shrubs, in free peaty soil or deep sandy loam with vegetable soil in it. When Mr. Kramer first sent me this Lily he wrote that he obtained it from a mountainous slope at a high altitude. L. longiflorum {White Tru7nj)et Lily). — This is among the most beautiftil and most valuable of garden Lilies. The Lilium Humboldti. typical form is i to 3 ft. high, the stems in summer being terminated by reflexed, tubular, waxy-white flowers, which are sweetly scented. There are several varieties, the best being the early variety now called prjecox, of rather dwarf habit, with long, pointed, three-nerved, dark-green foliage ; THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 60 1 the flowers are of great substance, tubular, and but little reflexed at the tip, which flowers a fortnight earlier than the type, bears larger and more numerous flowers, and is in every way superior to it. Takesima is recognised by a purplish tint on the exterior of the blossoms and on the stem. Wilsoni, or eximium, the finest variety, with bold dark foliage, nearly 4 ft. high, with numerous flowers about 9 in. in length. Takesima is the latest to bloom. Madame Von Siebold is also a fine variety. L. longiflorum giganteum is the variety generally ob- tained from Japan ; strong bulbs will bloom well in borders, but care should be taken that they are not injured by spring frosts. L. longiflorum is so early that, unless protected by the leaves of evergreens, its growth is apt to be checked. A well-drained light loam, well enriched with leaf-mould, suits it admirably. L. Wilsoni is benefited by a lighter soil and by a warmer and more sheltered position. When just pushing the growth in spring it is advisable to encircle the plants with a few dead branches, if unprotected by shrubs. Where this fine species and its forms fail in the ordinary soil of the garden, success Lilium longiflorum Harrisi. send up a head of from 8 to 12 flowers widely opened ; the foliage is bright green ; under glass this Lily may easily be forced. L. formosanum, the variety from Formosa, has its flowers ribbed and flushed with rosy-brown ; they are some- what smaller in size than the type. L. Harrisi is L. longiflorum altered by growth in a tropical climate. Bermudas, S. Africa, &c. Jama -Jura and Liukiu are native names for the varieties men- tioned. The variegated - leaved form (albo-marginatum) is desirable, as the variegation is distinct and constant. L. longiflorum and its varieties sometimes may be ensured by making a special soil of rotten manure, leaf-mould, or cocoa fibre. In such a mixture, so free and open that the hand could be pushed down below the bulb, we have seen them perfectly grown where the natural soil was too stiff and impervious. The hardier varieties are admirable for artistic gardening, their fine forms being very effisctive when tastefully grouped on the fringe of beds of choice bushes and when touching and seeming to spring out of the Grass. They are also good in beds either specially devoted to them alone or in combination with other plants. Similar to L. longiflorum are 602 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. L. neilgherrense, philippinense, Walli- chianum, and nepalense, but none is hardy and all are poor and unsatisfactoiy, except, perhaps, for the greenhouse. L. Martagon (Juries-cafi Lify).—This is so common that we need only mention its varieties. These are very fine, especi- ally dalmaticum, which has flowers larger than the type and of a shining blackish- purple, a contrast to the loveliness of the pure white variety (album). Cattanise is a form of dalmaticum and scarcely differs from it. Like the type, the varieties thrive freely in a good loamy soil ; they are perfectly hardy and are rather partial to shade, growing freely in grassy places, open woods, or copses. Some of the finer White Martagon Lilies. varieties are good garden plants, and should be grouped in the spaces between hardy Azaleas or similar flowering bushes. Mr. R. A. Jenkins writes as to the white Martagon : " The white Martagon Lily is one of the most distinct of the family, and if given a suitable soil and position there are but few of its relatives that excel it in beauty, hardiness, or freedom of bloom. As to its free-flower- ing quahties, suffice it to say that three bulbs in my garden after being planted as many years ago gave me no less than 167 blooms, two of the stems carrying forty- two and forty-nine blooms. Even in the summer immediately after planting the Lilies sent up forty blooms. This I attribute to their being moved early in September, for if planted late in the year, most of the Martagon section refuse to bloom in the ensuing summer. I find that this Lily does best in good deep soil enriched with leaf-mould, and without manure or sand. As the above-mentioned soil suits such plants as Anemone sylves- tris and Lily of the Valley to perfection, 1 have carpeted the ground with them, and they serve to keep the soil cool during the summer, while in May they furnish me with countless flowers." L. monadelphum is a magnificent Lily of noble growth. The stout flower-stems vary from 3 to 5 ft. in height, and are terminated by a pyramid of six to twenty turban-shaped flowers, ranging in colour from a rich canary-yellow to a pale lemon- yellow. Some forms have spotted flowers, and some are much larger than . others. The varieties are known as L. Szovitzi- anum, colchicum, and Loddigesianum. L. monadelphum thrives best in moist deep loamy soil, well enriched with good manure at the time of planting ; but does not show its true character till it has been planted several years. It rarely fails, and is one of the least disappointing of all. It may be readily increased from root-scales, a fact which is taken advantage of by many cultivators, and is the only method of increasing and keeping pure any really good or marked variety. Seed is, however, the readiest way of acquiring a stock of this truly charming plant. The seeds are usually sown in large shallow pans as soon as ripe, and remain there for two years, by which time the bulbs have attained a considerable size ; they are then planted in beds in rows 6 in. apart, with 4 in. between the bulbs, re- planting when necessary. By this treat- ment flowers are frequently produced by seedling plants four or five years after sowing. L. Parryi is a new and distinct species from California. It is of elegant slender growth, and 2 to 4 ft. high, bearing grace- ful trumpet-shaped flowers of rich yellow, copiously spotted with chocolate-red, and delicately perfumed. The flowers being borne horizontally, render it very distinct. It grows in elevated districts in South California, in boggy ground. Not much is known of its culture, but the finest plants have been produced where the soil was two thirds common peat and one third loam, with plenty of coarse sand. A bed in a shady spot was selected, in which the bulbs were placed at a depth of 4 in., having underneath about i ft. of THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 603 the soil. Here the strongest bulbs threw up stems 4 ft. in height, and the greatest number of blossoms on one stem for the first season was six. L. pardalinum {Panther Zz'/j/).— One of the handsomest of the Californian Lilies, and one of the most valuable for Lilium monadelphum, var. Szovitzianum. English gardens, as it makes itself thoroughly at home in them and grows as vigorously as in its native habitat. It is 6 to 8 ft. high, and has large drooping flowers of bright orange, spotted with maroon. There are several varieties, the most distinct being — Bourgtei, one of tlie finest, having stout stems 6 to 7 ft. high, with twelve to twenty flowers of bright crimson, shading to orange, and freely spotted with maroon, and blooming a fortnight later than any other ; pallida, a dwarf variety, scarcely 5 ft. high, bears flowers nearly double the size of the type, and paler in colour ; californicum, a more slender variety, 3 to 4 ft. high, and the brightest in colour ; pallidifolium (pube- rulum), a small form, with lighter flowers ;. and Robinsoni, a robust variety, with stout stems 7 to 8 ft. high, and with massive foliage, large flowers of a bright vermilion shading to yellow, and freely spotted. This last is the noblest, and should be grown if possible. The Panther Lily is one of the most satisfactory of all Lilies ; it has a strong constitution, in- creases rapidly, soon becomes established, and rarely pines away, as many kinds do. It likes a deep, light, good soil, enriched with plenty of decayed manure and leaf- soil, where the roots can receive ample moisture. It should always be in a sheltered position, like the sunny side of a bold group of shrubs or low trees. In a special bed the near shelter of hedges is desirable, though their roots should be kept away. Bare borders are not the places where this noble Lily does or looks best — there is no shelter or support for plants which in their own country have many shrubs for companions and are sheltered by the finest trees of the northern world. L. polyphyllum. — A rare and beautiful Lily, 2 to 4 ft. high, and having large turban-shaped flowers of a waxy-white, copiously spotted and lined with purple. North India. Mr. M'Intosh, of Duneevan, Weybridge, who has been most successful with it, writes : " Sandy loam, peat or leaf-mould, sand, and charcoal, with a slight admixture of pulverised horse - droppings, and good drainage under the bulbs, are all I have to tell ; and I think early staking and tying may have something to do with many growing taller than they otherwise might." L. pomponium. — This lovely Lily must not be confounded with the L. pomponium usually sold as such, this latter being simply the red variety of L. pyrenaicum. L. pomponium is elegant and vigorous, and blooms earlier than the varieties of chalcedonicum and pyrenaicum, to which it is related. It is about 3 ft. high, is erect, and has long linear leaves. The flowers appear in a lax raceme i ft. through, and a well-established plant will ^04 LILIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. bear as many as twenty flowers. In rich loam it grows luxuriantly in sunshine or shade, and no difficulty is experienced with either home-grown or imported roots. Maritime Alps. L. pyrenaicum, a similar but smaller plant, with small yellow flowers, is a variety of L. pomponium, and the red form is much inferior to the true L. pomponium, though generally sold for it. These varieties require the same culture as L. pomponium. L. pomponium has an extremely offensive odour, and is not, therefore, likely to be used for cutting. L. speciosum, or lancifolium as it is ■erroneously called, is one of the most popular for pot-culture, and is no less ■desirable for the open air, though, being Lilium Parryi. ■somewhat delicate, it is grown to per- fection under glass. It is well known, and we need not describe it, but we will mention the chief varieties. There is the true speciosum, which has large deep rosy blossoms, richly spotted ; vestale, pure white ; album, white or faintly tinged with pink ; rubrum, deep red ; roseum, rosy- pink ; punctatum, white spotted with pink ; KrKtzeri, very large white flowers with greenish stripe on the exterior ; album novum, a somewhat finer variety with light orange anthers, and broader petals of great substance ; fasciatum album and fasciatum rubrum, two monstrous varieties bearing numerous flowers on flattened stems. Among the more beautiful Japanese forms are roseum, superbum, and formosum, and rubrum macranthum, cruentum, compactum, and, darkest of all, Melpomene (not the Ameri- can Melpomene). In this group must also be included the fine L. Henryi, an orange- coloured speciosum, first sent to this country by Dr. Henry from Central China, and ap- propriately named after him. It is a strong grower, perfectly hardy, and from its unique tint and bold growth a grand acquisition to our gardens. Other fine varieties have originated in America, and among these Melpomene is very distinct. The beautiful hybrid, Mrs. A. Waterer, is large, white, and spotted with pink. All the varieties require shelter from winds and draughts, and a rich loamy soil mixed with peat and leaf-manure. They flower for the most part in September, and last longer in bloom than many other Lilies. In good soils, very happy use can be made of these handsome Lilies in warm and sheltered places where their blooms may be fully developed. L. superbum {Swamp Lily). — One of the state- liest of N. American Lilies, bearing late in summer beautiful orange- red flowers, thickly spotted. It may be recognised at once by its purple-tinged stems, which rise 5 to 10 ft. high, and which are very graceful, wa-,'ing with the slightest breeze. A pyra- mid of flowers terminates each stem. L. superbum delights in moist deep soil consisting chiefly of peaty and decayed leaf-manure, and IS one of the best Lilies for growing in shady woods when the undergrowth is not too rank. In the garden it should have snug glades and nooks protected by shrubs, and moist rich soil. L. caro- hnianum is a less showy fonn. L. tenuifolium.— A most elegant dwarf Lfly, especially valuable for eariiness in flowering. It is i to i^ ft. high, and has narrow lea\es on slender stems, furnished with a cluster of about a dozen brilliant red turban-shaped flowers, which shine like sealing-wax. It succeeds in open warm borders of light sandy loam, but is all the better for a hand-light or frame, as It flowers veiy eariy. Siberia and N. China. L. callosum and its form, steno- phyllum, are similar but less showy. LILIUM. THE ENGLISH FLO]VER GARDEN. HMNOCHARIS. Goj , L. testaceum {Nankeen Z?7j/).— This IS a distinct-coloured Lily, and should always be grown, being of easy culture and thriving in any ordinary soil, though preferring one that is peaty. It has the growth of the white L. candidum, but the flowers are a delicate apricot, or nankeen, colour. When well grown it is 6 or 7 ft high, and bears se\'eral flowers in a large head. Other names for this Lily are L. excelsum and isabellinum. It is one of the plants that t;roN\- freely in London. L tigrinum {Tiger Z?7j/).-This is one of the commonest kinds, and is too well known to need description. No garden should be «-ithout it, for few plants are so attractive or ha\e such stately growth. The common kind is handsome, but the variety splendens is much finer, having larger flowers with larger spots, is pro- duced later, and gro^vs 7 ft. high. For- Lilium testaceum. tunei is an early form and as desirable as splendens. The double-flowered %-ariety (flore-pleno) is showy and vigorous. Erectum also is distinct and desirable. L. pseudo-tigrinum and the \arieties of Ma.ximowiczi, though referred to other species, much resemble L. tigrinum. The Tiger Lily is \ery easy of cultivation, thriA-ing best in deep sandy loam \-\ith an open, but sheltered position. The earliest varieties begin to flower at the end of August, and the latest last till the end of October. The Tiger Lily may be quickly propagated by the bulblets, which form in the a.xils of the leaves. L. Washingtonianum.— A lovely Cali- fornian Lily, 2 to 5 ft. high, bearing a cluster of large, white, purple - spotted flowers that become tinged with purple after expansion. Nearly allied to this, and by some considered a \ariety, is L. rubescens, which has smaller flowers which are of a pale lilac or nearly white. These flowers are erect— not horizontal, as in the Washington Lily. Neither L. Washingtonianum nor L. rubescens is. easy to grow, owing, probably, to their being but little understood at present. The best results have been obtained in partially-shaded situations, in loose, peaty,, well-drained, but moist soil. Known species : — Lilium alpinuin, Hungary • aiiratuiii, Japan ; bolanderi, California ; ImlHjcrvm, S. Europe ; callosnm, Japaji ; canadetisc, N. America '; candidvm, S. Europe ; camiolicum, S. Europe ; Catesbari, N, America; clmkidonicuin, Carniola ; coluiidnamiiii, N. W. America ; coiicotor, China ■ cordi/olitim, Japan; crocctcni, S. Europe; da«ri- cum, Dahruria ; Davidi, China ; ekgmis, Japan ; for- mosissilmim ; formosum, Japan ; Fortune!, do. ; Gk- Imi, &a.\Gray!, N.W. America ; /.'(inAcM/, Manchuria ; Hamoiti, Japan ; Heldnkhii, Greece ; Hookcri, Himalayas; Hilmboldtii, California \japonkuiii, Japan; Jcffersoni ; lancifoUum, Japan ; Lck/itlinii, do. ; lilia- cinuin ; loii^ijtorum, Japan ; iiiaculaUaii, do. ; mnri- tlmuiii, California ; ntartagon, S. Europe ; iiicdcoloidcs, Japan ; monadclphtivi, Caucasus ; ncUglurrenst-, e! Indies; tiepaknsc, Himalay.as;«!'//(f7/7«, California;krj'- />ctaluiu, Himalayas ;/arrfatf«!(;«, California; Parry:, do. ; parvum, do, ; perskum, Persia ; philadelpltkum, N. America ; p/iilippiitense, Philippines ; tolypkyllum, Himalayas ; pomponium, Siberia ; pantkutn, Asia Minor; puhruluju, N. America; puklicUum, Dah- ruria : py^intiuin ; pyrenakum, Pyrenees ; recurmtvi ;, wsfiiui, K. indies ; rubescens, California ; Skboidi, Japan; specksum, do,; siiperbum, N. Amer. ; tenui- Joliuiii, Dahruria; testaceum, Japan ; tigrinum, J^Ljmn; ll'ci-lltcltiamnn, Himalay.^is ; Washingtonianum, Cali- fornia. Limnanthemum nymphaeoides {Frinoed Buckbean). — A pretty nati\e water-plant, growing in ponds or slow streams, with floating tufts of leaves, and bright yellow flowers i in. or more across. Where not plentiful in a wild state it is worth getting for lakes and ponds. Pro- pagated by division or seed sown in mud, as soon as gathered. Syn., Villarsia. Gentian order. Limnanthes Douglasi.— A vigorous though dwarf hardy annual, ^'alu- aljle because so early ; the flowers yellow and white, and there is a pure white variety. Few annuals are hardier, severe winters not injuring it, and it requires neither a deep nor a rich soil,, but thrives where the earth is poor as well as in ordinary garden soil. It often sows itself on light soils, and gives no further trouble ; but if wanted for a special purpose in spring, the seed should be sown in autumn in boxes or in the open ground ; for summer- flowering sow in the spring. Plains of California and foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Limnocharis Humboldti.— An inter- esting water-plant, in summer covering the surface with heart-shaped leaves and soft }'ellow flowers, for several months ; it will thrixc either in running 6o6 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. or still water, if planted 6 to 9 in. below the surface, and may also be grown in tubs sunk in the ground. These tubs should be about i^ ft. in depth, should be half-filled with loamy soil, and then filled up with water. In fountain-basins and clear, still waters, where the plant is fully exposed to the sun, it flowers freely during summer, but it will not survive out-of-doors in winter, except in the mildest districts, and unless placed at least 18 in. below the surface. Plants put out of a warm aquatic house in May soon begin to grow in the open air in tanks well exposed to the sun. Division. Butomacese. Linaria ( Toadflax). — An interesting family, which includes some beautiful garden annuals and perennials, varying from dwarf alpines to tall coarse plants. L. alpina {Alpine Toadflax) forms dense, spreading, dwarf, and silvery tufts, covered with bluish-violet and intense orange flowers. It is usually biennial ; but in favourable spots, both wild and culti- vated, becomes perennial. It sows itself freely, being one of the most charming sub- jects that we can allow to " go wild " in sandy, gritty, and rather moist earth, or in chinks in the rock-garden. In moist dis- tricts it will establish itself even in gravel walks, is readily increased from seed, which should be sown in early spring in cold frames, or in the places where it is to remain out-of-doors. It is found on moraines and in the ddbris of the Alps and Pyrenees. L. antirrhinifolia.— This elegant little rock plant forms a very neat spreading mass about 2 feet across and about 6 to 8 inches high and has the advantage of not spreading so rapidly as some of its con- geners, and its bright purple flowers are produced incessantly during the summer and autumn. The plant is of the easiest possible culture, and can be highly re- commended for the rock-garden. L. cymbalaria {Ivy-leaved Toadflax) often drapes walls in a graceful way, and is grown by cottagers as a window plant, '• a common name for it being " Mother of | Thousa,nds." A moist half-shady place ! best suits it, and the white variety is even prettier than the species. L. dalmatica is a handsome plant, 3 to 5 ft. high, much branched, and with, ' in summer, a profusion of large showy ' sulphur-yellow blossoms. It thrives best in warm places in light well-drained soil, and when once established can be eradi- cated with difficulty. L. genistEefolia, which also has yellow flowers, is similar but inferior. L. macedonica is a new and distinct ■ plant, from 2 to 3 ft. high, and throwing up shoots from the base. It differs from L. dalmatica in its broader leaves, and is quite hardy. L. purpurea is a pretty kind with spikes of purple flowers, and one oc- casionally sees it on old walls, as it thrives well in dry spots. L. triornithophora is a beautiful plant when well grown, i to l\ ft. high, and with large purple long-spurred flowers in whorls of three. It is rather delicate, and, though perennial, should be raised yearly from seed. L. triphylla is similar. Linaria antirrhinifolia. L. vulgaris {Common Toadflax).— This is well known, and is very pretty as one sees it growingin wild orneglected gardens, but is also a good garden plant. The British variety Peloria is a handsome Toadflax, flowering freely after mid- summer in a wann sunnj' border, and is effective in a mass. A few other perennial Linarias that may be mentioned are L. hepaticjefolia (Hepatica-leaved Toadflax), from Corsica, and is nearly always in flower in summer and autumn ; L. saxatilis, which has dark brown and yellow flowers; and L.anticaria, a good rock-plant, forming little tufts and sowmg Itself freely. The finely-veined flowers are dull white tinged with lilac. Annual Toadfl.\xe.s.— Some of the annual species are among our prettiest border flowers, growing about i ft high, and very effective in broad masses. Seed I.INDELOPHIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 607 should be sown in ordinary garden soil in early spring, and the seedlings will flower in July and August. The best are L. reticulata, with small purple flowers ; the variety, aureo-purpurea, being a charming plant, with flowers which vary from rose-purple to dark orange. L. bipartita is also \'ery variable, the colours ranging from deep purple to white. Perezi has small yellow flowers ; whilst the flowers of maroccana vary from violet to pink ; and those of multipunctata, the dwarfest of the group, are black spotted with yellow. Lindelophia spectabilis. — A showy perennial, about li ft. high, bearing in early summer drooping clusters of deep purple-blue flowers. It is suitable for borders in sandy loam, and is quite hardy in well-drained places, but is not so \alu- able as other plants of the same order. Seed or division. North India. Borage Order. Linnsea borealis {Twin Flower). — A little evergreen creeper, the slender up- right stalks bearing two flowers each, delicately fragrant white, often tinged with pink, and drooping. It is usually found in moist woods, where it forms a dense carpet and is wrongly supposed to be difficult to cultivate. Little need be done beyond planting healthy young plants in a moist sandy border or rock- garden. I have often seen it thriving, where the air was pure and the soil suit- able ; and it is excellent for a moist rock- garden, growing rapidly, and forming a charming fringe to groups of small alpine shrubs, in cool borders or on cool parts of the rock-garden. N. Eur., Asia, and Amer. ; also Scotch mountains. Linosyris vulgaris {Goldilocks).— h. showy native plant, i to 2 ft. high, in late summer and autumn bearing clusters of bright yellow flowers. It grows in any ordinary soil, but is scarcely a garden plant. =Chrysocoma Linosyris. Com- posite Order. Linum {Flax). — Plants of marked elegance and lightness of growth, and including some pretty garden plants. L. campanulatum ( Yellow Herbaceous Flax). — .\ perennial with yellow flowers on stems 12 to 18 in. high, distinct and worthy of a place. A native of the south of Europe, it flowers in summer, and flourishes freely in dry soil on the warm sides of banks or rock-gardens. Similar to it is L. ' flavum, or tauricum, also a handsome and hardy plant with yellow flowers ;. but L. arboreum, a shrubby kind, also with yellow flowers, is not hardy in all districts, though where it thrives it is a pretty little evergreen bush for the rock-garden. L. grandiflorum {Red Flax) is a showy hardy annual from Algeria, with deep red blossoms. By successive sowings it may be had in bloom from May till October. Seed sown in autumn will give plants for spring-blooming, and sowings made from March to June will yield a display through the summer and autumn. By sowini; seeds in pots in good rich soil in summer, and plunging in a sunny border with plenty of water, plants may be obtained for the greenhouse or window during October and November. If protected from frost the plant is perennial. L. monogynum {New Zealand Flax). — A beautiful kind with large pure white blossoms blooming in summer. It grows about l-^ ft. high in good light soil, and its neat and slender habit renders it particu- larly pleasing for the borders of the rock- garden or for pot-culture. It may readily be increased by seed or division ; it is hardy in the moi'e temperate parts of England, but in the colder districts is said to require some protection. L. can- didissimum is a finer and hardier variety. Both are natives of New Zealand. L. narbohnense {Narbonne Flax). — A beautiful kind, bearing during summer many large light sky-blue flowers, with violet veins, growing best on rich light soils, and is a fine plant for borders, or for the lower flanks of the rock-garden, forming lovely blue masses 15 to 20 in. high. Southern Europe. Other similar but inferior blue-flowered kinds are the common L. perenne, usita- tissimum, alpinum, sibiricum, alpicola, collinum, and austriacum ; all are hardy European species, and make pretty border or rock-garden plants. The white and rose varieties of L. perenne are pretty plants. L. salsoloides ( White Rock Flax) is a dwarf half-shrubby species, essentially a rock-garden plant ; its flowers, white with a purplish eye, reminding one of some of our creeping white Phloxes. In the rock-garden, in a well-exposed sunny nook, the plant is hardy, and tx'ails over stones, flowering abundantly. It pro- duces seeds rarely, so that it must be increased by cuttings of the short shoots taken off" about inidsummer ; these will strike freely, and make vigorous plants when potted off in the following spring. Mountains of Europe. L. viscosum, with pink flowers, is a closely allied plant not so pretty. The Common Flax, which gives us the linen fibre, is a pretty annual plant worth 6o8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LOBELIA. a place for its beauty among annual flowers. Lippia. — L. nodiflora is a dwarf peren- nial creeper bearing, in summer, heads of pretty pink blooms. It grows in any situation or soil, and is a capital plant for quickly covering bare spaces in the rock-garden where choicer subjects will not thrive. Liriodendron tulipiferum {Tulip Tree). — One of the noblest of flowering trees. It is only when the tree has reached maturity that it bears its beauti- ful Tulip-like flowers of pale green and yellow. Young Tulip trees should be planted on lawns in free or ordinary soils, as the flowers are very pretty in a cut state for the house and the tree a beauti- ful one at all times. N. America. Lithospermum [Gromweir). — A few of these Borage-worts are pretty and worth growing. One of the finest is L. prostratum, a spreading little evergreen Lithospermum prostratum. having flowers of a lovely blue, with faint reddish-violet stripes, in great profusion when the plant is well grown. It is hardy, and valuable as a rock-plant from its prostrate habit and the fine blue of its flowers — a blue scarcely surpassed by that of the Gentians. Its shoots may be allowed to fall down the sunny face of a rocky nook, or to spread into flat tufts on level parts of the rock-garden. On dry sandy soils it forms an excellent border- plant, and becomes, if the soil be deep and good, a round spreading mass, i ft. or more high. In such soils, it is suited for the margins of beds of choice and dwarf shrubs, either as a single plant or in groups. In heavy or wet soil it should be in the rock-garden, or on banks, and in sandy earth. It is sometimes grown as L. fruticosum, but the true L. fruticosum is a little bush, and not prostrate. Easily propagated by cuttings. S. Europe. L. petraeum {Rock Gromwell). — A neat, dressy, dwarf shrub, something like a small Lavender bush, with small grayish leaves like those of the Lavender. Late in May, or early in June, all the little gray shoots bear small oblong purplish heads, and early in July the plant is in full blossom,, the full-blown flowers being a beautiful violet-blue. The best position for it is in the rock-garden somewhere near or on a level with the eye, on a well-drained^ deep, rather dry sandy soil on the sunny side. Native of dry rocky places in Dalmatia and Southern Europe. Pro- pagated by cuttings, or seeds if they can be obtained. L. purpureum-ccEruleum, a British plant, L. Gastoni, L. canescens, L. gramini- folium, L. tinctorium, and L. rosmarini- folium, are very pretty plants, but coming from sunnier lands than ours are not really at home in our climate, and for the most part they can only be grown well on dry ledges of the rock-garden in the most favourable districts. Lloydia serotina {Mountain Spider- wort). — A small bulbous Liliaceous plant, suitable for the cool parts of the rock- garden, and not of the showy order of beauty. It is one of the first flowers the early visitor to the Alps sees by the pathway over the high mountains. Alps. Loasa. — Curious prickly annuals with singular flowers and stinging foliage. L. hispida is pretty, growing about l8 in. high, with deeply-cut foliage and short stinging hairs, the flowers I in. across, of a bright lemon-yellow, the centre prettily marked with green and white. It blos- soms several weeks in succession during August and September. The other kinds in cultivation are the beautiftil L. vul- canica, with its pure white flowers and red-and-white striped centres ; L. lateritia, a twining species, with orange-red flowers ; and L. triloba. All are natives of the cool regions of Peru and Brazil, and can be grown in the open air during summer. Treated as half-hardy annuals, and grown in a light fertile soil, they are interesting for open borders ; the climbing species, such as lateritia, require branches to twine among. All may be freely raised from seed. Lobelia. — Distinct and much varied perennials and annuals, some of high \alue for the flower garden. The peren- nial Lobelias, of which L. splendens and L. syphilitica may be taken as types, are amongst the most useful of autumn flowers. Although fairly hardy, they are impatient of excessi\e moisture, and in most districts require protection during winter. This may be done by placing ashes in the shape of a cone over LOBELIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LOBELIA. 609 the crowns, or lifting and storing in a dry shed or frame. The latter method, though perhaps more troublesome, is safer, as the plants arc always under control and easier propagated in spring. By storing the roots in frames they begin to grow earlier, and where large stocks are re- quired it is most convenient. Although imf)atient of moisture during the resting period they rc\-cl in it when in active growth, and where beds can be prepared in the \ icinity of lakes or streams, better results will be obtained than in the mixed border or flower beds. In propagating in early spring they can be divided into single crowns, and these potted on soon form sturdy plants ready to plant out on the approach of warm weather. They thrive best in a free vegetable soil and like plenty of sun, unless in the case of L. cardinalis, which I find thrives best in a partially-shaded bed. In some districts with light soils and often near the sea these plants do not require protection in winter. L. caxdinalis {Cardinal Flower).— TXvs. true plant is one of the rarest and one of the prettiest of the genus. The brilliant effect produced in autumn by tufts of this species well repay any trouble it may give, for though by no means fastidious, the difficulty of growing it well in small gardens in the absence of shade and moisture is great. It is a bog-lo\ing plant, being found in wet ground in Brunswick, Florida, and the borders of Texas, and is not very hardy. It is, how- ever, a true perennial, although maybe a short-li\'ed one, and should be frequently raised from seed to make sure of keeping up the stock. This species is not so liable to disease as L. splendens and its yar-ieties. Grown on an ordinary border, it invariably has a weak, stunted appear- ance, but in a free rich soil, in a shady position and well supplied with moisture, I have often seen it 3 to 4^ ft. high and flowering profusely. The flowers are of the most vivid scarlet, and as they last a long time in bloom it well deserves care. So far as I know, there are no varieties of this species in cultivation. Dr. Gray mentions its varying to rose colour and even white, but this, it seems, is rare. Parkinson mentions it as " cherished in our garden in 1629," and gives it as " growing near the river of Canada where the French plantation in America is seated." It is hardier than L. fulgens, living through the winter in open beds and with little or no protection. Its leaves are shorter and greener than those of L. fulgens ; the flowers, too, are smaller, but more numerous on the spikes, and of a vivid scarlet colour on spikes from 2 to 3 ft. in height. L. Gerardi is a hybrid raised by Messieurs Chabanne and Goujon from that superb \ariety of L. cardinalis named Queen Victoria, the seed parent being an The scarlet Lobelia. improved variety of L. syphilitica, with taller and more robust flowering stems than those of the typical species. The raisers named the hybrid in compliment to Mons. Gerard, director of the botanical collections in the park of Tete d'Or, under whose supervision the experiments and culture were carried on. Lobelia Gerardi is a vigorous growing and very continuous flowering plant. Be- fore the flowering stems make their ap- pearance it forms a rosette of leaves of a very pure green colour, and resembling R R 6 10 LOBELIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER. GARDEN. the rosette of the wild Chicory. The running roots are abundantly furnished with fibres. When fully grown the plant attains a height of 4 to 5 feet ; the strong- est flowering stems are as thick as one's thumb at the base, and branch with from twelve to fifteen clusters of fine broad flowers, which all bloom together, the whole forming a compact, rigid pyramid needing no stake or prop to support it. All parts of the stems and leaves have lost the reddish tint of the Queen ^'ictoria and also the somewhat glaucous hue of L. syphilitica, and are of a fine green colour ; the calyx, however, is slightly reddish and ciliated on the margin of the sepals. L. splendens. — This species is also called L. fulgens, and is a brilliant and precious plant for the flower garden. Its leaves are long and narrow, and the flower-stalks taller and thicker than those of L. cardinalis, the flowers larger with broad over-lapping petals. The best known, and a handsome form of this, bears the name Queen Victoria. Its leaves are a deep purple colour, and the flowers a brilliant crimson-red. Firefly is the handsomest variety in this section, and was raised in Ireland. In good rich soil it attains to a height of 5 ft., whilst in colour the flowers are intensely vivid and rich. A merit of this kind is that it bears lateral flower-spikes around the central one much more freely than Queen ^^ictoria, and these keep up a succession of bloom after the leading spike is past its best. Huntsman is another variety, brighter in colour than Firefly. Sir R. Napier, Rob Roy, and other varieties have been obtained from it. These vary in colour and habit very much, and as they are all robust, free-flowering plants, they are valu- able in thcautumn garden, giving brilliant effects until cut down by frost. The variety ignea has broader leaves and larger flowers. This Lobelia suffers from a kind of rust, which fastens on the main fleshy roots when the plants are at rest, and rots them. This disease, working as it does at a time when growth is at a standstill, is not perceived in time to be checked, and makes its appearance towards the end of October or the beginning of November, especially if the weather be cold and wet. The plants should then be carefially taken up, reserving as much of the roots as possible, the soil being shaken off, and the roots well washed. The disease will be readily dis- covered by its rusty-looking spots, which must be cut out with a sharp knife, as the least portion will suffice to destroy the I plant. After the plants are examined they may be potted or laid in a frame in some free sandy soil, and very fine speci- mens may be obtained by potting and plunging in a slight bottom-heat, keeping the top quite cool. In about a fortnight they will have made fresh fibre, and all danger will be past. They may then be kept in a cold frame during the winter, and planted out where desired in spring. The bottom-heat, however, is not indis- pensable. ; for th ey will succeed if carefiilly and sparingly watered after potting. All the plants of the fulgens group show their great beauty only on peaty or deep leafy and moist soils ; often on loamy soils the growth is short and weak, the flowers poor, and under such conditions they may not be worth growing. S. syphilitica. — A variable species, not very showy, hardy and robust in free moist soils, it stands our winters well, and is prolific in ^■arieties of violet and purple, varj'ing to rose and white. L. hybrida of gardens appears to be a hybrid between L. splendens and L. sj-philitica, though this is uncertain. Its fine rich violet, purple flowers mark it out for special dis- tinction. It is valuable for grouping in the flower garden or mixed border,' and is one of the hardiest of the hardy Lobelias. It may be left out during winter with safety, and can be lifted, divided, and replanted in spring. The leaves are almost as broad as those of L. cardinalis, glandular, hair)-, and -vAxh the long sepals and hairs of L. syphilitica. L. Tupa. — This is also known as Tupa Fuelli, and although a native of Chili, will be found to stand ^vell in the south protected with sifted ashes, gravel, or other loose material in autvunn. It is best, however, against a south wall or in front of a house, and when doing well often attains a height of 6 to 8 ft. ; the flowers large, brick-red, in large racemes, from July to September. L. Cavanillesi IS said to be amenable to the same treat- ment as above. In deep free soils near the sea L. Tupa is sometimes a very distmct and handsome plant, and is best fitted for borders among large plants or for a wanii comer among shrubs. L. Erinus.— The dwarf section of annual Lobelia is one of the most im- portant, bemg much used among half-hardv beddmg plants. The chief points to start with are good soil and well-grown established plants. The soil should be light and rich, and rest on a dry bottom perfectly drained. On a porous bottom It mav be plentifully watered during a dry t,m» '" summer without fear of injuring time THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LONICERA. 6ir the roots. The roots cannot make way, nor can the plants thrhe in a strong ad- hesixe soil of clay or heavy loam, and if the soil be heavy, it must be lightened by a plentiful addition of leaf-mould, sand, or peat. This Lobelia thri\es admirably in equal parts of some sandy loam and leaf- mould with a sand to keep it open. Charcoal dust and peat form good ad- ditions to loam, as also does spent manure from Mushroom beds. A slight mulching of one-year-old sifted hot-bed manure will be found useful for keeping out the drought and nourishing the roots through a dry season. One of the difficulties in carrying dwarf Lobelias in full beauty through the season is the freedom with which they seed, and the moment the flowers fade they should be picked off e\ery week through- out the season. Dwarf Lobelias may be propagated by seeds or cuttings, or by lifting the plant, potting it, and placing it in a gentle bottom-heat until established ; then setting it on a light airy greenhouse or forcing-house shelf, when it may be in- creased by cuttings and root-di\ision in the spring. Increase by cuttings, and potting a few old plants in autumn, is the best -method of preserxing and increasing special varieties. They strike freely in a brisk heat in a moist pit or frame in spring. The cuttings should be potted by the end of May in the same way as seedlings sown in heat in September, October, or February. Those who want early Lobelias from seed should sow in the autumn, and prick the seedlings off in boxes or pans, or shift them into nh-m. pots before winter ; store them on shelves near the light, and well exposed to air ; shift them again in March into 6-in. pots of equal parts of leaf-mould and loam, and they will be perfect for planting by the end of Ma)'. Spring-sown seedlings may go into smaller pots, and be planted rather more closely, but will not flower so early nor so well. On the whole, autumnal propagation, by cuttings or seeds, is preferable to sowing in spring. The varieties are numerous, and it is difficult to make a selection to suit every locality. L. Erinus is divided into five sections — viz. compacta, of which there is a white form ; speciosa, of which the best are Blue Stone, Ebor, Blue Beauty, Emperor William, Blue King, Lustrous, Brilliant ; ramosoides ; pumila, of which grandiflora and niagnifica are fine forms, as is also the pure white Mrs. Murphy ; and Paxtoniana, which is a lovely blue. The double variety is also beautiful where it succeeds but it is hardly to be depended upon. Sometimes it forms a sheet of bloom, and at others the shoots run up through it, as it were, and prevent it from blooming, gi\'ing it the appearance of tufts of Grass. Other dwarf Lobelias are ramosa, with large light-blue flowers, and coronopifolia, also with large blue fiowers. Both are half-hardy annuals, requiring the same treatment as L. Erinus. L. ilicifolia is another dwarf trailing species, a native of the Cape, and is best suited for grow- ing in suspended pots in greenhouses, though in some localities it succeeds as a rock-garden plant. Loiseleuria procumbens.— A wiry little shrub, growing close to the ground, the plants forming tufts with small reddish flowers in spring. Its bloom is never at- tracti\-e, and the plants transferred to gardens from the mountains usually perish, because perhaps the strongest specimens are selected instead of the younger ones. Its true home is the rock-garden, and it prefers deep sandy peat. Syn. Azalea procumbens. Heath Order. Arctic and alpine Europe and Asia and higher Scottish mountains. Lomaria. — Ferns, for the most part tropical, and requiring artificial heat ; but in mild parts two or three thrive in the open air. L. alpina, a native of New Zealand, is dwarf and produces, from a creeping rhizome, abundance of dark shining green fronds, 4 to 6 in. in height. It is specially adapted for the rock-garden, should receive similar treatment to the Ceterach (to which it forms a charming companion), and should, like it, be as- sociated with Sedums and alpine plants. L. crenulata is similar, but not quite so hardy, though it succeeds in the mildest locahties, as will also the Chili L. chilensis, a Tree Fern of noble growth. These Ferns should be placed in the snuggest quarters of the hardy fernery, and care should be taken to protect them during severe cold. Lonicera {Honeysuckle). — Graceful and fragrant woody climbers and bushes precious for gardens. The Txvining Honeysuckles fonn a distinct group of species with whorled clusters of flowers terminating the young shoots. The Erect-growing or Bush Honeysuckles have the flowers axillary and generally in pairs. Among the twining species there are a few that have axillary flowers, and of these Lonicera japonica is a typical example, while the commonest example of the Bush Honeysuckles is the Tartarian Honeysuckle. They all flourish best in a light rich soil in a fully-exposed sunny position. It is a mistake to plant Honeysuckles at the base R R 2 6l2 LONICERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. of shady trees and expect them to climb up and produce crops of flowers as they do when in the open. Honeysuckles naturally delight to twine upon other plants, but in shade they do not flower. One often sees a thicket overrun with common Honeysuckle, but until the trees have been cut the Honeysuckle does not flower so well. It loves to ramble over a hedge, as we see it by the wayside, and in the garden one can make various hedge combinations with it and some other hedge plants, such as Sweet Brier and Holly. To cultivate Honeysuckles to perfection, they should not be planted near any other living shrub, but should be supported by a dead tree trunk or trellis, as then the Honeysuckle gets all the food from the soil. This is why one sees plants of Honeysuckle on a wire trellis bearing much finer blooms than is the case when growing over trees or hedges. A good jplan is to plant some in good soil agamst wooden posts at distances of 12 ft. apart, and when they have reached the top of the posts to connect them by a festooning chain from post to post, as Roses and Clematises are often dorie. Some attention is required in pruning, especially the European and American deciduous species. The old stems should be cut away so as to encourage new ones, otherwise if allowed to go unpruned the plants die out. The Japanese Honey- suckles are more vigorous, and only require pruning to keep them in check. This is especially the case with L.japonica and its variegated form, which soon form an impenetrable mass of shoots, and that is why they should not be grown on an arbour or over a walk, as owing to the dense shade the under side becomes full of dead leaves and shoots. The Dutch and similar growing kinds are best suited for arbours. L. Caprifolium ( The Goats-leaf Honey- suckle) is a common plant, but not a true native, though it occurs occasionally in a naturalised state. The flowers, borne in clusters, have long tubes, yellowish and blush tinted, and very fragrant, coming in May and June, succeeded in autumn by yellowish- berries. It is a robust, twiner, and grows wild in chalky districts in hedges and woods. There are numerous recorded names of varieties of this Honeysuckle, among them being rubella, paUida, verna, villosa, atrosanguinea, and Magnevillei. The last-named is one of the most distinct. L. confusa of De CandoUe is the beautiful Honeysuckle that is grown I under the name of L. Halleana. A slender plant with long twining branches, the leaves are ovate and not pinnatifid, as in L. japonica, deep green, with not such a ruddy tinge as in L. japonica, neither is there a variegated form. The flowers are in pairs from the axils of the leaves on the tips of the young shoots, pure white when first expanded, changing to yellow, and this is the character that makes the plant so beautiful apart from its fragrance and free flowering. It flowers throughout the summer, and its lithe, slender stems will soon reach the top of a wall or tree stump. L. flava (also named L. Fraseri in collections) is a moderate climber, with broad ovate leaves, pale green beneath, and terminal clusters of flowers, bright rich yellow fading to a deeper shade, and delightfully fragrant. It grows most luxuriantly in the more Southern 'States, and hence is best when planted against a sunny wall in this country. L. flexuosa. — Out of flower this re- sembles L. confusa, but the leaves, though ovate and of a ruddy tinge, show no in- clination to become pinnatifid or sinuated. The flowers are tubular, reddish outside, whitish inside, and fragrant. At midsum- mer it produces quite a mass of sweet- scented blossoms and continues for a long time in bloom. L. grata (The American Woodbine). — This is a vigorous grower, having broad glaucous leaves (almost evergreen). The flowers are in clusters, whitish, with a purple tube fading to a yellowish shade, and fragrant. It flowers in May, and grows wild in rocky woodlands in the New England States. L. japonica {Japan Honeysuckle). — This is as hardy as the common Honey- suckle, and retains its foliage during winter. It may be distinguished from the other two Japanese species by its slender growth, deep green shining leaves, which have a marked tendency to vary from the normal ovate form to a pinnatifid or Oak- leaved form, and this tendency is most marked in the varieties named hetero- phylla and diversifoha, though at all seasons it is evident in the true plant. The flowers of L. japonica are in pairs on the tips of the young shoots, tubular, slender, white tinged with red, and frag- rant, from midsummer till the beginning of autumn. Being hardy, there is no need to protect by a wall, but it is generally seen, especially the variegated form aureo-reticulaia, as a wall-covering Syns: Brachypoda, chinensis, aureo- reticulata, and many others. LONICERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 613 L. Periclymenum {Honeysuckle: Wood- bine). — A native of the middle of Europe and northwards, and is a true native in England, where it is generally seen in hedgerows and thickets. Numerous varie- ties of this species have sprung up either wild or under cultivation. Some differ in Another variety, belgica, is popularly known as the Dutch Honeysuckle, as distinguished from the Late Dutch, and it is a stronger growing plant than the type. Its branches are purplish and its flowers are reddish outside, yellowish within. L. semperfloretis is probably a \ariety Lonicera periclymenum (Honeysuckle). regard to colour of flowers, others in time of flowering, and these are the most im- portant. The wild form flowers about midsummer, according to the season, but the variety serotina continues to flower till autumn, and is known as the Late Dutch Honeysuckle, as its flowers are decidedly redder than those of the type. of Periclymenum, though Koch places it as a variety of the allied species L. etrusca. The Oak-leaved Honeysuckle {guerci- folia) is a variety of the common form, having leaves sinuated like those of the Oak. L. sempervirens (Trumpet Honey- suckle) the most beautiful Honeysuckle 6i4 LONICERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. LUPINUS. that has come to us from America, both for the greenhouse and the open garden, where it flourishes well in the southern counties, and none of the Honeysuckles have such brilliant flowers. It is a robust- growing climber, quite evergreen when protected. From the beginning of summer till the end it bears loose clusters of long, tubular flowers, which are scarlet outside, yellow within. It is best against a warm wall in the cooler parts of the country. There are several named varieties of this plant but not very distinct. — W. G. The Winter Honeysuckle {Lonicera Fragrantissimd). — Among the earliest of all hardy shrubs whose flowers greet the new year are this species and its close ally, L. Standishi. Neither of them can be called showy, yet they are both well worth growing, because their flowers, although small, are abundant, and have besides a fine fragrance. L. fragrantis- sima is one of Fortune's introductions from China. It is a deciduous shrub (not evergreen, as the books so frequently have it), of low spreading growth, with short leaves, which, except when young, are nearly or quite devoid of hairs (L. Stan- dishi, on the other hand, has hairy ciliated leaves). The flowers are in several pairs from the joints of last year's wood, and they are creamy white or pale yellow. This Honeysuckle is useful for early forcing, a few plants in flower filling the greenhouse with their fragrance. In the open it likes a sunny, sheltered spot, not because it is tender, but because it blooms more freely, and the flowers, appearing as they do in these inclement January days, deserve all the protection that can be conveniently given them. — B. Lophospermum scandens. — A tender climber with long slender stems, pale green hairy leaves, and large pink flowers. It thrives in the open air in summer, and is a beautiful plant for festooning old stumps, or for trailing over dead branches placed against a warm south wall. It may be easily raised from seed in heat in early spring or autumn and kept through the winter, but the best plan is to lift the plants in autumn and to winter them in a greenhouse. 'j; Lotus {Bird's-foot Trefoil). — Trailing or half shrubby herbs. The one best worth growing being the native L. corniculatus, which occurs in almost ■every meadow, or pasture, forming tufts of yellow flowers with the upper part often red on the outside. Though so common, it is worthy of a place in the garden. The double-flowered variety is the best, as the flowers continue longer in perfection. L. creticus, maroccanus, sericeus, are found in botanical gardens, but are not so pretty. L. Jacobseus, a tender species with almost black flowers, succeeds in the open air in summer, and is all the better for planting out. The Lotus is best planted so that its shoots may fall in long and dense tufts over the face of stones. Lunaria biennis {Honesty). — When well grown this old-fashioned plant is beautiful, not only on account of its fra- grant purple blossoms, but from the silvery flat seed-pods that succeed them. In borders, on the margins of shrubberies, and in half-shady situations, it is effective in April and May, in any ordinary light garden soil. Honesty is charming in a semi-wild state on chalky or dry banks and in open bushy places. Seed should be sown every spring, and the plants Lunaria biennis (seed vessels of Honesty). should be thinned out during growth in order to make good ones for the next year. L. rediviva is a perennial similar to the Honesty, but with larger and more showy flowers. It is 2 or 3 ft. high, and flowers m early summer, doing best in half-shady borders of good light soil. Division or seed. Mountain woods of Europe. Crucifera. Lupinus (Z2^/z«^)._Beautiful annuals, biennials, and perennials, chiefly from N. America. The species in cultivation are tew, t.iough the names occurring in catalogues are numerous. The best of the perennials are — L. arboreus ( Tree Lupine).~K precious plant for dry soils and rough rocky banks THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 615 or slopes, the scent of a single bush reminding one of a field of Beans. Its purplish variety is good, though not nearly so valuable, and there are some inferior yellowish varieties. The best \ariety is the yellow, because while there are good blue perennial Lupines, there is no other good yellow. It forms a roundish bush, 2 to 4 ft. high, and is easily raised from seed; handsome forms are increased from cuttings. It may be killed in severe winters, but is worth raising from time to time where the soil suits it. L. polyphyllus, one of the handsomest hardy plants, 3 to 6 ft. high, with tall flower-spikes crowded with blossoms, varying from blue and purple to reddish- purple and white ; in summer thriving in open positions in any kind of garden soil. It is a fine plant for naturalising, as it holds its own against stout weeds. The principal varieties are argenteus, flexuosus, laxiflorus, Lachmanni, rivularis, and grandiflorus. N. America. Division: seeds. L. nootkatensis is a dwarfer species, and has large spikes of blue and white blossoms. It flowers earlier than L. polyphyllus, and continues in bloom for a long time, but it is not a good perennial, and requires to be frequently raised from seeds. N. W. America. Annual Lupines are among the most beautiful of hardy annuals, extremely varied in colour, and of the simplest culture. As they grow quickly, they need not be sown till about the middle of April. They thrive in any coriimon soil. L. sub-carnosus is a beautiful ultramarine blue, and should always be grown. L. hybridus atrococcineus is the finest of all, having long and graceful spikes of flowers of a bright crimson-scarlet, with white tips. Other excellent sorts are mutabilis, Crtiikshanki, Menziesi, luteus, superbus, pubescens, Hartwegi, and the varieties of Dunnetti. Many other sorts are so much alike that they are not worth separating. The smaller annual Lupines are very pretty, and could be charmingly used to precede late-blooming and taller plants. Luzuriagaradicans. — Asmall Liliaceous evergreen from Chili almost hardy in the mildest localities, though even in these it does not thrive so well as in a cool house. It is worthy of a trial in a cool bed of peat, on the north side of the rock-garden, among the larger alpine shrubs. Lychnis iCampiott). — Plants of the Pink family, among which are a few well suited for the garden. All are perennial. L. alpina is a diminutive form of L. Viscaria, the tufts being seldom more than a few inches ;high and not clammy. In cultivation it is pretty and interesting, if not brilliant, and may be grown without difficulty in the rock-garden, or in rather moist, sandy soil. A British plant. L, chalcedonica. — An old border plant, 1 1 to 4 ft. high, with large dense heads of brilliant scarlet flowers, and of easy Lupinus polyphyllus. culture in any good ordinary soil. There is a handsome double scarlet variety. The double white and single white kinds are less desirable. Division. L. diurna. — The double deep purple-red sort of this common native plant is very de- sirable, being very hardy and very showy, 6l6 LYCHNIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. and never failing in any soil to produce a fine crop of bloom in early summer. There are two double red varieties of L. Flos-cuculi (Ragged Robin), pretty border plants. Division. L. grandiflora. — A handsome plant, typical of the numerous varieties now in cultivation under the names of Bungeana, and others which grow i to 2 ft. high, and bear flowers in a cluster of a dozen or so, each flower being i to 2 in. across, fringed at the edges, and varying from vivid scarlet to deep crimson, and from pink to white. If exposed to strong sun the colour of the flowers soon fades, but in a partially-shaded place they retain their true colour for a considerable time. They are good border flowers, thriving in Lupinus arboreus. warm sheltered situations in light soil, for though quite hardy they are apt to suffer from moisture and cold. They are greatly benefited by frequent transplanting, say every other year. All the varieties may be raised by seeds or from cuttings. L. fulgens, a Siberian plant, is similar to the forms of L. grandiflora. L. Haageana is a reputed hybrid between L. fulgens and L. coronata or grandiflora. It is one of the best of this valuable group of border plants, in itself extremely variable, affording nearly every shade of colour, from the brightest scarlet to white. The flowers are large, of good substance, and produced in the greatest profusion all through the summer months ; indeed, as a permanent "bedder" we have rarely seen its equal. Where it can be managed, a partially shady spot should be chosen for the most brilliantly coloured forms, as the flowers fade somewhat when exposed to bright sunshine. Apart from this they will be found to grow more strongly, and continue longer in beauty in a cool spot. The plants vaiy in height considerably, and this should be taken into account when choosing for permanent bedding use. The variety called hybrida is a veritable gem, dwarf, compact, and giving an abundance of prettily fringed, vivid scarlet flowers. The colours seem fixed, and we have now good distinct scarlet, crimson, pink, salmon, and several white forms, all worthy of attention, and suitable as substitutes for Geraniums in summer bedding. They can be increased with the greatest ease either by cuttings, division, or when in quest of new forms by seed, which is best sown as soon as ripe in boxes and placed in a cold frame. The seedlings by the end of May will be ready to plant in their permanent quarters. They may almost be treated as annuals or biennials, especially in heavy soils, where the hopes of their living through severe winter in northern counties will be limited indeed. In the neighbourhood of London they give very little trouble, and are a source of much enjoyment. L. Lagascae. — A lovely dwarf alpine plant, with many bright rose-coloured flowers, about % in. across. It is suited for adorning fissures on the exposed faces of rocks, associated with the smallest alpine plants. It is easily cultivated in the rock-garden in any free sandy, or gritty soil. An exposed position should be preferred, as the plant is \ery free in growth. The flowers appear in early summer, and if not iveakened by shade, or by being placed in frames, are in fine condition when the plant is about 3 in. high. Readily increased by seed. Syn., Petrocoptis Lagascas. L. Viscaria {German Catchfly).~K British plant, with long Grass-like leaves, bearing m June many showy panicles of rosy-red flowers, on stems 10 to nearly 18 in. high. The bright-coloured %ariety called splendens is the most worthy of cultivation. L. Y. alba, a chammg white variety, is worthy of a place in gardens, as also IS the double \ariety, which has rocket-hke blooms. They are excellent for the rougher parts of the rock-garden, and as border plants on dry soils. The double variety is used with good effect as an edging plant about Paris. Easily pro- pagated by seed or division. Lycium {Box TX/o^?). — Rambling I.YCOPODIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 617 shrubs, the best-known being L. europfeum, a common climber on cottage walls. Though not a showy flowering shrub, few others are so rapid in growth, so graceful, and so indifferent to the nature of the soil. It is also suited for covering porches, pergolas, and arbours, and in late summer and autumn, when every long" drooping branch is thickly hung with small orange- scarlet berries, it is pretty. The flowers are small, purple and white, and the unripe berries are of the same tints. The description of L. europteum may be taken as applying to the other kinds in gardens, as they are all much alike, though differing more or less in a botanical sense. The commonest kinds are L. chinense, from Double Ragged Robin. China ; L. barbarum, from North Asia ; L. afrum, from North Africa ; L. Trewia- num, and L. ruthenicum. They are of rapid growth, and therefore suitable for covering high walls, though all are deciduous. Sometimes hedges are made of Box Thorns, for, as they al! throw up numerous suckers, the hedge soon becomes thick. There is a species named L. chilense against one of the walls at Kew, which seems to be more rapid in growth than the rest. Lycopodium dendroideum {^Ground Pine).— Pi. very distinct Club Moss, worth a place in the rock-garden, its little stems, 6 to 9 in. high, much branched, and clothed with small, bright, shining green leaves. It flourishes best in a deep bed of moist peat in a low part of the rock- garden, where its distinct habit is attractive at all seasons. Difficult to increase, it is rare in this country. N. America, in moist thin woods. Lygodium palmatum {Climbing Fern). — An elegant North American twining fern, hardy in a deep, peaty, moist soil if in a sheltered and partially shady position. The wiry stems are furnished \\ ith delicate green fronds. It may be allowed to trail on the ground, but it prefers to twine around the branches of some shrub. Lyonia. — Plants allied to Andromeda ; indeed the species belonging to it, numbering about three, are sometimes called Andromedas. The)' are not im- portant, but would add interest to a col- lection of peat-loving shrubs. The chief are L. ligustrina, frondosa, and rubiginosa, which have evergreen foliage and small white blossoms. Lysimachia {Loosestrife). — Plants of the Primrose family of much diversity of habit. The most familiar example is the common creeping Jenny (L. Nummularia), than which there is no hardy flower more suitable for any position where long- drooping, flower-laden shoots are desired, whether on points of the rock-garden, or rootwork, or in rustic vases, or on steep banks, growing in any soil ; in moist soil the shoots attain a length of nearly 3 ft., flowering throughout their extent ; it is easily increased by division, and flowers in early summer and often throughout the season. There is a yelloAV-leaved variety (L. N. aurea), which retains its colour well, can be readily increased, is useful for rock-gardens or borders, and merits its name. The other kinds are tall and erect. L. vulgaris, thyrsiflora, lanceolata, ciliata, verticillata, punctata, and davurica are all 2 to 3 ft. high, have spikes of yellow flowers, and, delighting in wet places, are suitable for the sides of ponds, lakes, streams, and similar spots. Indeed, they grow almost anywhere, but in a border they must have a place to themselves, as by their spreading they soon de- stroy weaker subjects. L. clethroides, a Japanese species, is a graceful plant, 2 to 3 ft. high, with long nodding dense spikes of white blossoms, and the leaves in autumn of brilliant hues. L. Epheme- rum is a similar plant, from S. Europe, but is scarcely so fine. There are some beautiful species, such as L. atropurpurea and lupinoides, which are rare. Lyttrum {Purple Loosestrife). — The common waterside L. Salicaria is the most familiar plant of this genus, and one of the showiest. It is well worthy of culture A\-here it is not plentiful. The beauty of the ordinary wild kind is -618 MACLEAYA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MAGNOLIA. surpassed by the varieties originated in gardens, of which superbiim and roseum are the finest. The colour of these is a much clearer rose than that of the wild kind, and the spikes are larger, particularly those of superbum, which, under good cultivation, are 5 or 6 ft. high. These plants are well worth growing by lakes or in boggy ground, and are easily increased by cuttings, which soon make good flower- ing specimens. Isolated plants in good soil make well-shaped bushes, 3 or 4 ft. high and as much through, and look better ■than when planted closely in rows. L. virgatum, alatum, Graefferi, flexuo- sum, and diffusum, smaller plants, and not so showy, are not without beauty. Macleaya {Bocconia). Madaria elegans {Mignonette Vine). — A hardy Californian annual with showy yellow and brown flowers, requiring the treatment of hardy annuals. Magnolia {Lily Tree). — Most beautiful of flowering trees and shrubs, there are about twenty species of Magnolia known, and all but some half-dozen or so are in culti\ation in this country. The head- quarters of these trees are in China and Japan, a few are peculiar to the Himalayan region, and a few more to North America. A glance at the ■engraving, representing a very fine speci- men of the Yulan, will show what glorious effects may be obtained in spring, in the ■ South of England at any rate, by its use. It is true enough, unfortunately, that frosts sometimes injure the flowers and change their snowy whiteness into an unsightly brown. Perhaps the reason that this Magnoha and its allies are not more often met with in gardens is owing to the fact of their not transplanting readily. The best results are obtained if the plants are planted just as growth begins in spring. The fleshy roots when injured rot rapidly, and when autumn-planting has been practised, many succumb to the ordeal, those that do not do so outright often struggling on in a pitiful plight for years. A little care in transplanting in spring, in sheltering with mats from dry winds or hot sun, and in syringing the wood to prevent shrivelling, until the plants are established, would do much to prove that the Magnolias can be planted with every prospect of success. Some species occasionally ripen seed freely in this country, and it is well worth while to sow this seed at once. If dried and kept like other seeds until the following season, all chance of germination will have passed. All the species of the natural order Magnoliaceae have seeds which retain their vitality for but a very limited period. M. acuminata {Cucumber Tree) makes a noble specimen when planted singly in the park or pleasure-ground. It is deciduous, the leaves varying from 5 in. to I ft. in length, and glaucous green, the flowers yellow-tinged, bell-shaped, and slightly fragrant. There are fine examples of this tree at Kew, in the gardens of Syon House, and Claremont. In its native country it attains a height of from 60 to 90 ft., with a trunk from 2 to 4 ft. in diameter. The yellow Cucumber tree (M. cordata) is regarded by Professor C. S. Sargent as a variety of M. acuminata. It is a rare plant in a wild state, as it does not appear to have been collected since Michaux found it in Georgia. M.Campbelli, one of the most gorgeous of Indian forest trees, has not fulfilled the expectations of those who took so much trouble in introducing the species to British gardens. In a wild state it attains a height of 150 ft., and the fragrant flowers, varying from deep rose to crimson, come before the leaves. Probably the finest specimen in the British Islands is the one at Lakelands, near Cork, which ten years ago was 35 ft. high. In 1884 it flowered for the first time, and it has also flowered well at Fota in the same district. M. conspicua.— In its typical foi-m this has snowy-white flowers, which are borne in the greatest profusion in the latter part of April and beginning of May. Splendid specimens of this beautiful Chinese and Japanese tree are to be seen at Gunners- bury House, Syon House, and Kew. M. Yulan aiid M. precia are names under which this is found in some books and gardens. Several hybrid forms between this species and M. obovata occur in gardens ; of two of these, M. Lenne and M. Soulangeana nigra, coloured plates have been published in The Garden. M. Soulangeana has flowers similar in shape and size to those of typical M. conspicua, but they are deeply tinged with red ; M. Soulangeana nigrahas dark plum-coloured flowers. Both these bloom a week or ten days later than the type. Other seedling forms or slight varieties of the Yulan are M. Alexandrina, M. cyathifomiis, M. speciosa, M. spectabilis, M. superba, M. tnurhphans, and M. Yulan grandis. M. Fraseri, a native of the southern United States, is recognised by its green spathulate leaves, measuring about 8 in. to I ft. in length, and about 3 or 4 in. across at the widest part, the flowers, 3 or 4 in. in diameter, are creamy-white in colour, and Magnolia in a Japanese garden. 620 MAGNOLIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MAGNOLIA. appear later than those of any other cuhi- vated species. In a wild state the tree attains a height of from 30 to 50 ft. M. glauca, the Laurel Magnolia or Sweet Bay of the eastern United States, is a delightful sub-evergreen shrub, ^^'ith leathery leaves, bluish-green above and silvery below. The flowers are globular in shape, very fragrant, opening of a rich cream colour and gradually acquiring a pale apricot tint with age. In a wild state this species occurs in swamps and attains a heig:ht of 20 ft. It is hardy and easily grown in Britain in peat soil. M. grandiflora, the great Laurel Mag- nolia of the southern United States, is— in England — best treated as a wall-plant ; under these conditions it thrives well and flowers freely. In order to form some idea of the beauty of this species it is necessary to see it in large symmetrical stately trees in the west of France, where climatic conditions obtain which more nearly approach those of its native habitats. A correspondent in the West of England writes to The Garden as to the culture of this plant : " At one time it was thought necessary to protect the trees with mats during the winter, but this practice, which necessitated re- stricting the growth considerably, has largely ceased, and the trees in some instances have attained a very great height. For instance, there is one under my charge that is now fully 50 ft. high. The bole of the stem is shghtly over a yard in circumference. In some seasons several scores of blooms are borne by this tree, but during the winters of 1 89 1 and 1892 many of the more ex- posed points were badly injured by frosts, and the bloom lessened in quality accord- ingly- l^ very exposed position is not suitable for this heavy-foliaged tree, and shelter from cold winds is desirable. Where the evergreen Magnolia does best is m the nooks between bay windows or ii-- regular fronts of dwelling-houses, but- tresses on extra high walls also affording a good shelter. The best instance of what can be done in the way of clothing extra high yet sheltered walls with evergreen mag- nolias is to be seen at Canford Manor, Wimborne, Dorset, while there are also several fine specimens against high walls at Ashton Court, near Bristol. It is quite useless to plant them in a tiny hole, but the site should be well prepared by trenching' or forking peat and leaf soil freely into common garden soil, or, better still, fresh loam, a space not less than 3 ft. by 30 in. being prepared for each tree. Once the trees have attained a good size, no further trouble need be taken with the roots, as they are quite capable of foraging for themselves. In planting, it is advis- able to moisten and then slightly loosen the ball of soil, some of the roots being spread out. During the first summer the soil about the roots should be examined occasionally and watered thoroughly when dry. The tops branch naturally, and all that need be done is to spread them out thinly, and to keep the growths secured to the walls or trellis. In after years the strongest branches will require to be kept to the walls by means of strips of leather and strong nails, the side shoots being tied to these with osier twigs. They ought not to be very closely trained, or so much so as to present a painfully neat appear- ance, but if the branches or shoots are left too long the strong winds may break them off." M. hypoleuca.— This is the wood commonly used by the Japanese in the manufacture of objects to be lacquered; it is preferred for sword sheaths, and the charcoal made from it is used for polish- ing lac. In the southern part of Yesso it is abundant in the forests, and forms fine trees 60 ft. or more in height, with a trunk diameter of 2 ft. The leaves are i ft. or more long, and 6 or 7 in. wide, dark green and smooth above, and clothed ^^•ith white hairs beneath. The flowers are creamy-white in colour, deliciously fra- grant, and when fully expanded measure 6 or 7 in. across, the brilliant scarlet fila- ments forming a striking contrast to the petals. There are no large specimens as yet in this country, but as the species thrives well in the north-eastern United States, it is fair to assume that it will do well in Britain. M. Kobus, a Japanese species, grown in the United States under the name of M. Thurberi. It is hardy in the south of England, having been grown outside for several years at Kew. The leaves are 6 or 7 m. long by about half as much in width, the flowers 4 to 5 in. in diameter, creamy-white. Professor Sargent, who found the species growing in the forests of Hokkaido, in Japan, describes it as a tree 70 to 80 ft. high, with a tall straight trunk 2 ft. in diameter. He says the flowers appear before the leaves, about the middle of May. M. macrophylla.— This, unfortunately somewhat tender in a young state, is worth growing simply for its beautiful leaves, which are green above and clothed with white hairs beneath, and attain a length of upwards of 3 ft. The open bell-shaped tragrant flowers are white with a purple IIAGNOLIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MALCOLMIA. 621 blotch at the base of the inner petals, and measure 8 or 10 in. across. It is a lovely flowering tree on warm soils in the southern counties of England, as at Claremont. M. obovata is a native of China ; in Japan it only occurs in cultivation. It is a dwarf-growing bush, perfectly hardy in the South of England, and bears freely its purple sweet-scented flowers, though not in the same profusion as are those of the white-flowered M. conspicua. This species has a number of synonyms, amongst which the following are the most frequently met with in books and nursery catalogues : M. discolor, M. denudata, M. liliflora, M. purpurea, Talauma Sieboldi, etc. There are several varieties, but these obovate-lanccolate leaves, from i to 3 ft. in length. In a wild state tlie tree rarely exceeds 40 ft. in height. Philip Miller was the first to introduce this fine species to British gardens. Other names for it are M. Umbrella and M. frondosa. M. Watsoni. — A coloured plate of this beautiful Japanese species was published in The Garde7i in December 1883, under the name of M. parviflora ; at that time it had not flowered in British gardens. It is hardy, has large creamy- white fragrant flowers with petals of great sub- stance and deep red filaments, which add materially to the beauty of the blossoms. The true M. parviflora is probably not in cultivation in Britain. — N. Magnolia aaiminata^ N. Amer. ; Bailloni^ Cam- Magnolia stellata. •differ so slightly from each other and from the type, that descriptions without good coloured figures would be next to useless. The best are Borreri, angusti- folia, and erubescens. M. stellata.— An excellent coloured plate of this very beautiful Japanese shrub was published in The Garden in June 1878, under the name of M. Halle- ana. This species is the earliest of the Magnolias to flower, and it should be extensively grown for the beauty of its starry white flowers. A variety with blush-coloured flowers, sent from Japan by Mr. Maries, has not yet been sent out by Messrs. Veitch, but it grows freely in their Coombe Wood Nurseries, and will doubtless become a favourite. Both are dwarf-growing deciduous shrubs. M. tripetala, a native of the southern United States, has large slightly-scented white flowers, from 5 to 8 m. across, and bodia ; Campdelli, Himalayas ; compressa, Japan ; Cordelia N. Amer. ; dealbata, Mexico ; Duperreana, Cambodia ; Figo, China ; Fraseri, N. Amer. ; glauca, N. Amer. ; globosa. Himalayas ; grandiflora, N. Amer.; Griffithii, Himalayas; hypoleuca, Japan; inodora, Chma ; inszgnis, E. Indies ; kobus, Japan ; macrophylla. N. Amer. ; mutabilis ; obovata^ Japan ; patziiflora, pterocarpa, Himalaya Jiipa.n;po!-torice!tsis Porto Rico : pamifolia, Japan ; pumila, Java, China ; pimduana, Himalayas ; salicifolia, Japan ; Schiedeana, Mexico ; stellata, Japan ; Umbrella, N. Amer. ; Vrieseana, Celebes ; Ytilan, China. Mahonia [Berberis). Maianthemum bifolium ( Twin-leaved Lily of the Valley).— Ps. plant allied to the Lily of the Valley, and a native of our own country. Its habit and relationship make it interesting, and it is easily grown in shady or half-shady spots, and under or near Hollies or other bushes. It is not fitted for the border, and is more suitable for the rock-garden. Syn., Convallaria bifolia. Malcolmia ( Virginian Stock). — The old M. maritima is a charming dwarf hardy annual, and grows in any soil. 622 MALOPE. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN The varieties are — the white (alba), alba nana, a dwarfer white than the other, and Crimson King (kermesina), a dwarf deep red sort, and these are all worthy of culture. The Virginian Stock, like many other annuals, does not show its full beauty from spring-sown seedlings, and where it sows itself in the gravel it is often handsome. Being easily raised it is a good surfacing plant in the spring or early summer garden, bolder flowers standing up from its pretty sheets of M. trifida is smaller in every part, but showy. These bold annuals are rarely used with good effect. Like all annuals, they lend themselves to rotation in the flower garden. If from any cause the beds or borders get worn out, it is worth while to try the effect of a crop of the best annuals. The Malopes, being vigor- ous plants, are, as a rule, best in masses or groups. S. Europe. Malvaceas. Malva {Mallow). — Stout and sometimes showy perennial and half-shrubby plants Magnolia obovata var. bloom, and in flakes, or masses, or beds, it is pretty and effective. Malope grandiflora.— One of the most showy of hardy annuals, and effective where a bold, crimson flower is desired. It is 1 8 to 24 in. high, and the better the soil the finer will be its bloom. If the Malope be sown in the open, the ground should be prepared by digging and manuring, the seeds being covered to the depth of I in. in light rich soil, gently pressed down. There is a white variety, M. g. alba. The variety M. g. rosea, white flushed ^^•ith rose, is pretty and distinct. of which there are few pretty garden plants ; the majority being coarse and weedy. One of the most beautiful is the white variety of the native Musk Mallow (M. moschata), which is charming. when in flower. It is a branch- ing bush, with stems about 2 ft. high, and many flowers i to i^ in. in diameter. It is a hardy perennial, will grow in almost any soil, is useful for cutting, and is slightly Musk-scented. M. campanu- lata is a beautiful dwarf plant, but rare and not hardy except in very mild districts. It is dwarf and spreading, and MARTVNIA. THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MATTHIOLA. 623 bears numerous lilac bell-shaped flowers. JNI. Alcea, Moreni, and mauritanica are worth growing in a full collection, and so is the annual M. crispa, 3 to 6 ft. hiyh— an erect pyramidal bush of broad leaxes, with a crimped margin, pretty in groups, beds, or borders. B\- sowing in cool frames and planting it out early in Ma\', strong plants may be obtained early in the season. Martynia lutea.— A pretty Brazilian annual, about i^ ft. high, with large round- ish leaves and handsome yellow flowers in clusters, useful for beds, groups, and borders. It requires a light, rich, cool soil, a warm place, and frequent watering in summer. M. fragrans, another species, has sweet-scented flowers, and, under similar conditions, thrives in the open air in summer. It is best in rich borders, or among groups or beds of curious or distinct plants, M. proboscidea and others are less desirable. Seed. Matricaria {May%i.iecif) — AVeeds, ex- cepting the double variety of M. inodora, which is a pi-etty plant with feathery foliage somewhat like Fennel, and with large white flowers, perfectly double. It is creeping, requires much space, and pegged down forms a dense mass which has a pretty effect in autumn. It is hardy, and perennial on most soils, and is easily propagated by cuttings or di\ision in autumn or spring. 5i7/., Chrysanthemum inodoi-um fl.-pl. Matthiola {Stock). — .'\nnual or peren- nial herbs, sometimes inhabiting sea cliffs. From a few wild kinds have been obtained the numerous varieties of the garden Stocks, which have so long been among the best of our open-air flowers. The principal of these species are J\t. incana, M. annua, and M. sinuata. JM. incana grows wild on cliffs in the Isle of Wight, and is the origin of the Biennial, or Brompton and Queen Stocks ; 1\I. annua has yielded the Ten-week Stocks, and M. sinuata the others. These three primary divisions — the Ten-week, Intemiediate, and Biennials — require each different treat- ment, and Stocks are so easily grown, so fragrant and handsome, that they will ever deserve care in our gardens. Ten-week Stocks, if sown in spring, will flower continuously during the sum- mer and autumn. The finest strain is the large flowering Pyramidal Ten-week, vigorous plants, each branching freely, bearing a huge main spike of double flowers and numerous branching spikes in succession. A bed of these Stocks should be grown if cut flowers are in request during the summer. The seed may be sown at any time from the middle of March onward, but it is always well to get Stocks from seed early. The seed can be sown thinly in pans or shallow- boxes, in a gentle heat, and, as soon as the plants can be handled without injury, they should be transplanted to other pans or boxes and grown on quickly, care being taken not to draw them so as to make them lanky. There are \arious places in most gardens where a bed or patches of Stocks might be grown with advantage, and, given good rich soil, they will amply reward the grower. The German growers have a formidable list of kinds, many of which are more curious than showy. There are, however, sufficient good colours among them, such as crimson, rose, purple, violet, and white, to yield distinct hues. There is a strain of English-selected Stocks, known as Pyramidal, which are of tall growth, and remarkable for their large pyramids of flowers, and there is a ver)' distinct type known as Wallflower- leaved, which was introduced many years ago from the Grecian .Archipelago, and which has shining deep-green leaves, not unlike a \\'allflower. In all other respects the type is like the ordinary German Stock. One of the finest varieties of this t\-pe, and one of the most beautiful Stocks in culti\-ation, is known as Mauve Beauty. It has huge heads of pale, lustrous, mau\-e- coloured flowers. The culture for the Ten-week Stock will answer for this. The autumn-flowering strain is very desirable, as the plants succeed the German varieties, and so prolong the season. Intermediate Stocks may be sown either in July or August, to stand the winter and flower early in the spring, or in March, to flower in the following autumn. The strain is dwarf and bushy, and very free-blooming, and the varieties maybe said to be confined to scarlet, purple and white. There is a strain grown in Scotland under the name of the East Lothian Intermediate Stock, and much used there for beds and borders, the climate exactly suiting it for late summer blooming. It is sown in the usual way about the end of March, planted out at the end of May when 3 or 4 in. high, and blooms finely through August and Sep- tember, and e\en later, as the numerous side shoots give spikes of flowers. Thus, by using the autumn-sown Intermediate Stocks for early blooming, the ordinary large flowering German Ten-week Stock for summer flowering, and the later East Lothian Intermediate Stock for late sum- mer, Stocks can be had in flower for eight or nine months of the ^■ear without inter- 624 MAURANDIA. THE ENGLISH FLO WE K GAliDEN. MECONOPSIS. Biennial Stocks comprise the Bromp- ton and the Queen, and they should be sown in June and July to flower in the following spring or summer. They are closely allied, and are probably only varieties of the same kind ; but the seed of the white Brompton is pale in colour whilst that of the Queen is quite dark. Old growers of the Stock assert that while the under side of the leaf of the Queen Stock is rough and woolly, the leaf of the Brompton Stock is smooth on both sides. Of the Queen Stock there are three colours — purple, scarlet, and white ; and of the Brompton Stock the same, with the addition of a selected crimson variety of great beauty, but somewhat difficult to perpetuate. Both types are really biennials. The seed should be sown at the end of July in beds, and the plants transplanted to the open ground in the autumn. The difficulty of wintering the Brompton Stocks deters many from attempting their cultivation, and many die, even in a mild winter. A well-drained subsoil with a porous surface soil suits them best, and shelter from hard frost and nipping winds is of great service. A second transplantation of the seedlings about December has been tried with success. Maurandia Barclayana. — An elegant Mexican twining plant, often grown in the greenhouse, but hardy enough for the open air in summer, and admirably suited for covering trellises. The deep violet flowers are very showy, and there are also white (alba), deep purple (atropurpurea), and rosy-purple (rosea) varieties. Easily raised from seed sown in early spring in heat ; they will flower in the following summer if planted out in May in good soil and sheltered situations. Scrophulariaceaa. Mazus Pumilio. — A distinct New Zealand plant, vigorous, and creeping underground so as rapidly to form dense tufts, rarely more than \ in. high ; the pale violet flowers are borne on very short stems in early summer, and the leaves lie flat on the soil. M. Pumilio thrives in pots, cold frames, or the open air, and does best in firm, open, bare spots in the rock-garden, in warm positions in free sandy soil. Though not showy, it is an interesting plant, easily increased by division. Figwort family. Meconopsis {Indian Pqppj/).~Ha.nd- some Poppyworts, the most familiar of which is the common Welsh Poppy ( M. cambrica ) ; the other kinds are natives of the Himalayas, hardy, but only of biennial duration. They may be easily raised from seed sown in spring; and, indeed, a. good stock of strong plants can be ensured only by annual sowings. The following is the most successful mode of cultivating them . A piece of ground is prepared by digging in good loam and well-rotted stable manure ; a two-light frame is placed over it, and seedlings are put in about March. As soon as the plants are fairly established the sashes are- re- moved (unless the weather .is frosty), and throughout the summer the plants are well supplied, with water. In the following April and May they will have become large plants, often 2 to 3 ft. in diameter, and are then removed to where they are wanted to flower. This may be readily done without needlessly checking them, as. they form so many fibrous roots that a good ball of soil usually, adheres to them. They are thus grown on as quickly as possible, being treated like biennials. They should be planted , out in a well- drained rock-garden in good soil, with plenty of water in summer, but they must be kept as dry as possible, in the winter; as excessive moisture in cold weather soon kills them. Sandstone broken fine should be placed under the leaves, to prevent contact with the damp soil. A piece of glass placed over the leaves in a slant- ing position helps to protect them from moisture. Many plants take three or four years to flower, and some may be kept in store pots for five or six years without showing any tendency to flower, but they are never so fine planted out after being cramped in this way. After flowering they all die. M. aculeata is a singularly beautiful plant, with purple petals, like shot silk, which contrast charmingly with the numerous yellow stamens. The flowers are 2 in. across, on stems about 2 ft. high. M. cambrica.— For the wild garden or wilderness the Welsh Poppy is one of the most charming of plants. It is a cheerful plant in all seasons, and a determined coloniser, making its home of the wall, rock, and the ruin. In many places -it grows freely at the bottom of walls, or even m gravel walks if allowed a chance. A plant so easily naturalised needs no special care in the garden, where it often comes up unbidden. M. nepalensis has flower-stems 3 to 5 ft. high, which are not much branched, the noddmg blossoms, borne freely, are 2 to 3i m. across, and of a pale golden-yellow. M. simplicifolia has a tuft of lance- shaped leaves, 3 to 5 in. long, slightly toothed, and covered with a short, dense, brownish pubescence. The unbranched flower-stalk is about i ft. high, and bears MFXONOPSIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. menispermum. 625 at its apex a single violet-purple blossom, 2 to 3 in. in diameter. M. Wallichi is the finest kind, and a very handsome plant, iDetween 4 and 5 ft. high. It forms an erect pyramid, the upper half of which is covered with pretty Meconopsis Wallichi. pale blue blossoms, drooping gracefully from slender branchlets. It is a most conspicuous plant in the rock-garden, where it withstands the winter without the least injury. Well-grown specimens have leaves 12 to 15 in. long, and a great number of pale blue flowers, opening terminally. Separate flowers do not last long, but a few expand at a time, and it is fully a month before they are all expanded at the base, by which time the seeds of those which opened first are nearly ripe. Meconopsis species : — Acuieata, Him.ilayas ; Cam- hrica, Europe ; hetcrophylla, California ; Iiorridula, Himalayas ; nepalensis, do. ; guintupHnerira^ Man- churia ; racemosa, China ; robusta, Himalaya ; sim- plici/olm, do. ; IVallichii^ do. Megasea. Syn. Saxifraga. Melianthus major {Cafe Honey Flower). — An effective half-hardy plant for the summer ; its finely-cut, large, glaucous leaves contrast effectively with the garden vegetation, and being of the easiest cultivation, it has become a favourite in sub-tropical gardening. Plants raised from seed early in the season make good growth by planting-out time, and by midsummer obtain a height of 3 to 4 ft. When it is desirable to have larger plants by planting-out time, it is best to sow the seeds in autumn and to keep them growing through the winter, for a stronger and earlier development will result. The Melianthus is all but hardy on a well-drained subsoil in shel- tered nooks in the southern and western counties, for though the stems may be cut down by frost, the roots survive and push up in spring. S. Africa. Melissa officinalis {Common Balm). — A well-known old garden plant, emitting a grateful odour when bruised, 2 to 3 ft. high ; the variegated form is sometimes used for edging, and the common one may be naturalised in any soil by those who admire fragrant plants. Division. Europe. Melittis Melissophyllum {Bastard Balm). — A distinct plant of the Salvia Order, with one to three flowers about i-^ in. long in May. The peculiarly hand- some purple lip reminds one of some Orchids. M. grandiflora is a slight variety, differing in colour from the normal form. The plant is distinct, and merits a place by shady wood and pleasure-ground walks, as it naturally inhabits woods. Woody spots near a fernery or a rock-garden suit it ; it grows readily among shrubs, and in the mixed border. It is found in a few places in England, and is widely distri- buted over Europe and Asia. Seed of division. Menispermum canadense {Canadian Moonseed). — A hardy climber, of rapid growth ; slender, twining, with large roundish leaves, in summer bearing long feathery clusters of yellowish flowers^ It is useful for covering a wall quickly for summer effect or for arbours, trellises, and S S 626 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MENZIESIA. pergolas, and thrives in almost any soil in shade or sun. Mentha {Mint). — Marsh herbs or rock plants of which the variegated form of M. rotundifolia, is common, and use- ful for edgings or for clothing any dry spots. Another is M. gibraltarica, a variety of the native M. Pulegium, used in summer for flat geometrical beds on account of its compact growth and deep green foliage, which retains its freshness throughout the season. It is one of the easiest plants to grow, and may be in- creased with wonderful rapidity, as it bears rapid forcing for early spring cut- tings. Inasmuch as its growth hugs the soil, and throws out roots at every joint, all that is necessary is to keep cutting off little plants and potting them, or planting them in shallow boxes, and in a very short time they will in their turn bear cutting up in like manner. Being a native of S. Europe, it is somewhat tender, and is generally killed in winter. M. Bec[uieni is a minute creeping plant with a strong odour of Peppermint, and trails about among the tiniest plants in the rock-garden. I use it often for covering the ground beneath Tea Roses, and it spreads and grows everywhere. It is the smallest flowering plant grown in gardens. Mentzelia. — Lovely Californian plants, mostly of biennial duration, and requiring more care than most half-hardy plants. A successful cultivator of them writes to The Garde7i : " I find it necessary to sow the seed as early in the season as possible, and to grow the seedlings on in a frame, giving liberal shifts, and using a compost of fibry loam and a small quantity of leaf- mould and sand. After the filial shift they should be plunged in a sunny border until autumn, and then removed to a frame for wintering. In the spring they should again be plunged in the open air, and by occa- sionally assisting them with weak manure water, strong and healthy flowering speci- mens will be produced. When beginning to show flower they should be removed to a cool greenhouse or frame, as excessive humidity at this stage is injurious to them. They may indeed be grown en- tirely in the open air if the weather be favourable, but in our climate the former mode is by ' far the most satisfactory." The following is a selection of the prettiest kinds : M. {Bartonid) aurea I. — A showy golden-flowered hardy annual, i to 2 ft. high. Should be sown in April in groups or patches where it is to remain in light soil and warm situations, the plants being thinned to about i ft. apart. As the seed is very small, care should be taken not to bury it too deep. When well grown it might be used as a bold group, relieved here and there by tall plants. Chili. M. laevicaulis is a good kind, with whitish stem, i to 3 ft. high, both stems and leaves covered with short and stout bristles, the rich yellow flowers opening only in bright sunshine. M. nuda is 2 to 4 ft. high, with flowers resembling the last. M. oligosperma is a perennial, i to 3 ft. high, with bright yellow flowers 3in. across, opening in sunshine. M. omata is a biennial, 2 to 4 ft. in height, with creamy- white fragrant flowers 7.\ to 4 in. across. It belongs to the vespertine section, that is, to those in which the flowers fully expand only towards evening. Menyanthes trifoliata (Buckbeari). — A beautiful and fragrant native of Britain, found in shallow streams or pools, in very wet marshy ground, and in bogs ; its strong creeping, rooting stems often floating in deeper water. The flowers are borne on stout stalks, which vary in length with the depth of the water, and are beautifully fringed and suffused with pink. M. trifo- liata is easy to establish by introducing pieces of stems, and securing them till, by the emission of roots, they have secured themselves. In some moist soils it thrives in the ordinary border. Menziesia. — Dwarf shrubs, resembhng Heaths, and, like them, admirably suited for large rock-gardens or wherever there is a moist peat soil. They are all of neat growth, and bear pretty drooping flowers. M. coerulea is 4 to 5 in. high, and has pinkish-lilac flowers. It is not so beautiful or so brilliant as M. em- petriformis, but merits a place in full col- lections, flowering rather late in summer and in autumn. Europe. M. empetriformis. — A dwarf Heath- like bush, seldom more than 6 in. high, with clusters of rosy-purple bells in summer. Though very rare in gardens, it is one of the brightest gems for the choice rock-garden, and thrives in exposed positions in moist sandy peat soil. Unlike the rather tall and spreading M. polifolia, it may be associated with the dwarfest alpine plants. N. America. M. polifolia {St. Dabeods Heath) is a beautiful bushy plant, 12 to 20 in. high ; its erect flower-stems bearing graceful, one- sided, drooping racemes of crimson-purple blooms. The white variety, less common, is as beautiful, and there is a pretty variety, with purple and white flowers, called bicolor. M. polifolia flowers in summer, and forms charming bushes, thri\ing best in peat, but doing well in other soils, and a precious plant for peat beds and for the bold rock- MERENDERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, mesembryanthemum. 627 garden. The white \-ariety is sometimes sold as AI. globosa and M. alba major. Abundant in some parts of Ireland, and hence called Irish Heath. Merendera Bulbocodium. - A bulb, very much like Bulbocodium vernum, but flowering in autumn, the large handsome flowers of a pale pinkish-hlac. Suitable for the rock-garden and the bulb-garden till plentiful enough for borders. In- creased by separation of the new bulbs and by seed. S. Europe. Mertensia. — Beautiful Borageworts, formerly known as Pulmonarias. There is something- about them more beautiful in form of foliage and stem, and in the graceful way in which they rise in panicles of blue, than in almost any other family. There are in cultivation above half-a- dozen species, all of which are pretty plants. M. alpina is a beautiful alpine kind, and should only be associated with the choicest alpine plants. The leaves are bluish-green ; the stem is only 6 to 10 in. high, and has in spring or early summer one to three drooping terminal clusters of light blue flowers. M. dahurica, although very slender and liable to be broken by high winds, is hardy. It is 6 to 12 in. high, has erect branching stems, and bears in June race- mose panicles of handsome drooping bright azure-blue flowers. It is very pretty, and suited for the rock-garden or fjorders, and should be planted in a shel- tered nook in a mixture of peat and loam. Easily propagated by division or seed. = Pulmonaria dahurica. M. maritima {Oyster Plant).— T\\a\x%\ one of our British sea-coast plants, I find that it is very little known among owners of choice hardy flowers. Another in- teresting fact, though a seaside plant and usually found growing in sea sand, it is amenable to garden culture. Given a light sandy soil of good depth, and a sunny position where its long and branching suc- culent flower-stems may spread them- selves out, carrying a long succession of hundreds of turquoise-blue tubular flowers, it is a plant that we may expect to see appearing with renewed vigour year after year. It is a coveted morsel of slugs, and is best on an open part of the rock- garden. M. oblongifolia is another dwarf species. The stems are 6 to 9 in. high, and they bear handsome clustered heads of brilliant blue flowers, and deep green fleshy leaves. M. sibirica. — This species has the beautv of colour and the grace of habit of the old M. \irginica, and grows and flowers for a long period in ordinary garden soil. The small bell-shaped flowers are borne in loose drooping clusters, gracefully terminating in arching stems. The colour varies from a delicate pale purple-blue to a rosy-pink in the young flowers. It is more ^•igol•ous than the Virginian Lungwort (M. virginica), an older and better-known kind. A perfectly hardy perennial propagated by division. M. vifginica {Virginian Cowslip). — The handsomest of all, bearing in early spring drooping clusters of lovely purple- Mertensia virginicap(Virginian Cowslip). blue blossoms on stems i to i^ ft. high, the leaves large and of bluish-grey. In many gardens it never makes the slightest progress ; but a sheltered, moist, peaty nook is the best place for it. The finest specimens are grown in moist, sandy peat or rich free soil, with shelter near. It is a charming old garden plant, and one which unfortunately has never become common. Mesembryanthemum {Fig Marigold). — Dwarf or trailing succulent plants, of which there are several grown in the open air, though none are hardy. The Common Ice Plant (M. crystallinum) is grown for garnishing in most large gardens ; it is also used as a pot-plant ; but it is most effective when planted out in the rock- garden or on an old wall. In a sunny situation, however, it will grow in any good soil. It will grow from 3 to 4 ft. in a season, and on warm days has a refresh- ing look. Its flowers, unimportant com- pared with the stems and fohage, are bespangled with crystal. Seeds should be sown in heat in March, and the seedlings planted out 6 to 8 in. apart. There are ,S S 2 628 MESPILUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MIMULUS. two varieties — one red and the other white. M. cordifolium is a perennial, the variegated form of which is used in carpet- gardening. M. Pomeridianum is a strong species with broad foliage and large purple and rose flowers. It is not so com- mon as the last, but it deserves a place on a south border, vi/./r/fo/or is the most showy of the annual Mesembryanthemums. It is a neat plant with cylindrical foliage, grow- ing in neat tufts 4 to 6 in. in height ; its abundant flowers, of purple rose or white, afford good contrast. It should be sown in sandy soil in the open garden about the end of April ; it dislikes transplantation, and lasts longer in the ground than in a pot. Those who possess a collection of Ice Plants in pots should turn the whole out on banks or the rock-garden and leave them there, taking cuttings off them yearly. Out-of-doors they attain beauty never seen in pots. Their foliage is singu- lar and diversified, and the brilliant lustre of their flowers — white, orange, rose, pink, crimson — is unequalled. They are children of the sun, and a rock-garden de- voted to a collection in an open sunny sppt is worth seeing. A soil consisting of little besides sand and gravel suits 3| ^T^^^&^ ^■j^P m s Michauxia cainpanulotdes. them perfectly. As the plants have been so little grown in the open we scarcely know which are hardy and which are tender, but experiments would be interest- ing, for some would probably prove almost hardy in the south. Mespilus {Medlar).— Yio,-^ picturesque an old Medlar tree is, what a wide-spread- ing umbrageous head it has, and how beautiful it is in early summer when studded with great white flowers among its large pale green leaves ! The only other species in gardens is M. grandi- flora, also called M. Smithi. It is a per- fect lawn tree, as its great rounded head droops gracefully. It flowers about the middle of May, and is then beautiful, with its numerous white flowers. In some nurseries (especially on the Continent) it is called Cratagus lobata and other names under Cratsegus. Meum athamanticum {Spignel).—h. graceful fine-leaved perennial, dwarf in habit, 6 to 12 in. high, free in ordinary soils, and hardy. In dry seasons it might wither too soon for association with autumn-flowering plants, but it is pretty for the rock-garden, borders, or for mixed arrangements of any sort. A British mountain plant, very aromatic. Division. Parsley Order. Michauxia campanuloides {Michauxs Bellflouuer). — A remarkable plant of the Bell-flower family, 3 to 8 ft. high, the flowers white, tinged with purple, and arranged in a pyramidal candelabra-like head. Sometimes it flowers in the third or even in the fourth year, but is usually considered a biennial, and should be treated as a hardy one. Seedlings should be raised annually, so as to always have good flowering plants. It flourishes best in a deep loam. Its stately form and tall stature are effective in the mixed border or in a nook in a bed of evergreen shrubs. Warm sheltered borders and borders on the south side of walls suit it best. Levant. Microlepia anthriscifolia.— An ele- gant Fern, 6 to 1 2 in. high, hardy, deci- duous, charming in spring and summer, and of easy culture. It thrives in the open as well as in the shade, and may be used with good effect as an edging to a shel- tered border. Mikania scandens {German I-,y).~K slender twining perennial, with Ivy-like foliage and small flesh-coloured flowers. It is hardy in light warm soils and situa- tions, and is used for covering trellises. N. America. Composite. Milium {Millet Grass). — Grasses, some of them graceful. Our native M. effusum is worth cultivating for its feathery plumes. It is suitable for asso- ciating with flowers in summer, and grows in any soil, preferring moist places. There are one or two other kinds worth grow- ing. _ Milla.— The bulbous plants formerly known under this name are now described under the name of Brodiaa. The only true Milla is said to be M. biflora, a beautiful plant with large snow-white blossoms deliciously scented. It is rather difficult to cultivate, but it is well worth any care. Even if it be quite hardy, which IS doubtful, it is too choice to risk in the open border. Mimulus {Monkey-flower).— 1:\\^ cul- MIRABILIS, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MONARDA. 629 tivated species are valuable showy border flowers, and are for the most part natives of California. They love moisture, and are suitable for damp places, such as bogs, moist borders, and the margins of streams and artificial water. The old M. cardinalis is showy when well grown, and is deserving of a place in any garden. There are several varieties of it. The common Musk(M. moschatus) is hardy and enduring, and is worth a corner in heavy or wet soil. M. luteus and its varieties, variegatus, cupreus, Tilingi, guttatus, and others, are typical of the beautiful hybrids which are now in gardens, and which com- bine the dwarf habit and hardiness of M. cupreus with the large flowers, richly spot- ted and blotched, of the other parent, the old M. variegatus. These hybrids, which are known as M. maculosus, bear exposure to the sun better than the parents. There is also a strain with Hose-in-hose flowers, sometimes called double. These sorts should be grown, and a packet of seeds affords a wonderful variety. The seeds of the Mimulus should be merely sprinkled on the soil ; if covered by it they may vegetate less quickly and abundantly. A little damp moss may, however, be laid over the surface, but should be removed as soon as the seeds have germinated. Mirabilis {Marvel of /"^r^).— Hand- some herbaceous plants, the most familiar of which is M. Jalapa, a dense, round bush covered with flowers, nearly 3 ft. high, the flowers about i in. across, white, rose, lilac, yellow, crimson (of various shades), and purple — striped, mottled, and selfs. The plants may be treated as half-hardy annuals, raised from seed in a warm frame, potted on, and planted out in May. They are, however, perennial, and when the leaves are killed by frost the tapering black root must be lifted and stored in sand during the winter. The plants should be started in pots in spring and planted out as before ; but after the second year the roots become unwieldy, and should be discarded. They require a warm soil and all the sunshine of our climate. The seeds ripen rapidly and readily; each flower produces one seed only, and as the seeds are large they can be gathered from the ground beneath the plants. M. multiflora is somewhat similar to M. Jalapa, but dwarfer, and the bright crimson-purple flowers are in large clusters, expanding in bright sunshine. It is a hardy perennial in light warm soils, and is a good border plant. M. longiflora, heaving long tubular flowers with carmine centres, is capital for the foot of a warm ■south wall. Mexico. Mitchella repens {Deer Berry).— K neat, trailing, small evergreen herb, 2 or 3 in. high, with white flowers in summer, succeeded by small bright red berries. It thrives in shady spots on the rock- garden or the hardy fernery, in sandy peat. Division. N. America. Mitraria coccinea {Mitre-flower). — A bright charming little shrub from Chili, hardy in mild districts, but generally requiring winter protection. It is a small evergreen shrub, bearing in sumnier numerous urn-shaped flowers about l-^ in. long and of a brilliant scarlet, thriving in a mixture of sandy peat and loam, in a moist sheltered spot, with perfect drainage. Molopospermum cicutarium. — A Molopospermum cicutarium. hardy umbelliferous plant, 5 ft. or more high, with large handsome leaves which form a dense irregular bush. It loves a deep moist soil, but thrives in good garden soil. It is a fine plant for grouping with other hardy and graceful umbelliferous plants. Division. Carniola. Monarda {Bee Balm). — Showy border flowers of the simplest culture, thriving and flowering in any position or soil ; and therefore, besides being admirably suited for garden borders, they are excellent subjects for naturalisation in woods and shrubberies. All may be readily divided 630 MOLUCCELLA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. at the root. They have some variety of colour, and the varieties of M. fistulosa alone represent more than half-a-dozen different shades. The red kind scattered through American woods in autumn is very handsome. M. fistulosa (Wild Ber- gamot) is a robust perennial, 2 to 4 ft. tiigh, the flowers variable ; the usual colour pale red, and every gradation almost to white may be found in it. M. didyma (Oswego Tea) is robust, about 3 ft. high, the deep red flowers, borne in head-like whorls, continuing a long time in summer. M. Kalmiana is a showy plant, taller and more robust than the preceding, and is often 4 ft. high, the deep crimson flowers in dense whorls. M. pur- purea is somewhat similar in habit to the last, but the deep purplish-crimson flowers are smaller. All are natives of N. America, and may be increased by division in spring or by seed. Moluccella laevis.— A singular plant of the Dead Nettle family. It is by no means showy, and its only recommenda- tion for the garden is the singular form of its calyces, which are bell-shaped and densely arranged on erect stems about I ft. in height. It is a fine subject for skeletonising, and the stems, bracts, and calyces may be skeletonised intact. For this purpose they should not be cut before autumn, when the plant is fully matured. Eastern Mediterranean. Should be treated as a half-hardy annual. Morina longifolia ( Whorl-flower).— A handsome and singular perennial, with large spiny leaves, resembling those of certain Thistles, and with long spikes of whorled flowers, 2 to 3 ft. high. It grows well in ordinary well-drained soil, but pre- fers soil which is mellow, deep, and moist ; and it is easily multiplied by sowing the seed as soon as ripe in light sandy soil. It is excellent for the mixed border, and for grouping with medium-sized perennials that have fine foliage. Nepaul. M. Wal- lichiana is probably the same, or a slight variety. Dipsacacea;. Seed. Morisia hypogaea.— This is one of the most charming re-introductions of recent years among alpine flowers. It was first mtroduced by a Mrs. Palliser, from the Valentino Botanic Garden, Turin, from seeds presented to her by Professor Moris, who found the plant on the mountains of Sardinia, and in whose honour it is named. It was first flowered by Mrs. Marryat in April, 1834, and is figured in Sweet's British Flower Garden second series, tab. 190. The flowers, as large as a shilling and of ^ bright clear yellow, are on short stalks rising very little above the tufted foliage, in April and May, and the contrast between them and the dark glossy foliage is effective. It seems to do best in a light rich gritty soil, and the seed should be sown directly it is ripe. — D. K. Muhlenbeckia. — These graceful free- growing evergreen trailers are useful as coverings for trellis-work or rocks or stumps. The kinds in cultivation are natives of New Zealand ; the best known M. complexa, a very rapid grower, with long wiry and entangled branches, and small leaves. The white waxy flowers are rather inconspicuous. M. adpressa is larger and has heart-shaped leaves, and long racemes of whitish flowers. M. varia is a small kind, with fiddle-shaped leaves, and is very distinct from either of the above. In severe winters it is advis- able to give a little protection like dried Fern, but this is not necessary in ordinary seasons. Cuttings. Mulgedium Plumieri {Blue Thistle) is a native of the Pyrenees, where it is 4 or 5 ft. high, but in our borders, and in deep strong soils it is frequently as much as 8 or 9 ft. high. Its foliage is beauti- fully varied in outline, and it should be planted in the rougher parts of the wild garden, and left to itself, as nothing seems to interfere with its rapid growth. As an isolated plant on Grass its remark- able foliage at once arrests observation, while its blue flowers are pretty. M. alpinum is a smaller plant. Seed or division. Musa {Banana). — These fine tropical plants are seen in our parks during summer, but less frequent in private gardens. In the London Parks, Musas, especially the smaller ones, are often plunged in the ground in their pots during the summer, but the larger ones are planted out. When they are lifted in autumn, those in pots are stored in houses, but the larger ones are lifted with small balls of earth and placed on shelves in houses with a temperatureofnot less than 45°. Here they are laid on their sides, their leaves being kept close together, and remain through- out the winter, with only a mat thrown over the roots. In February the roots are examined, planted in trenches, and subjected to an increased temperature, when new roots soon fomi and begin to grow afresh. In June, after being gradually hardened, the leaves are tied up, the plants are lifted with as good balls as possible, and placed in their summer quarters. M. Ensete is the kind generally used in the open air, and in form is one of the noblest plants. Any one with a warm house may grow it, and when THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 631 planted out in June, in deep, warm, rich soil, and a sheltered position, it will grow well during summer ; such, at least, is our experience in London and the home counties, but such tender plants must ever have a limited us# in our country. M. Basjoo, a graceful Japanese species that has some pretensions to hardi- ness, has been tried as a plant for the open, but it is not hardy enough for our wmters. Even in winters of ordinary severity it must have protection. Muscari {Grape Hyacinth). — Pretty bulbs of the Lily family, all of the easiest culture and flowering in spring and early summer. Their proper position is either the front row of the choice border or the mosum. Another beautiful kind is M. Szovitzianum, which comes into bloom early and continues in blossom till the latest kinds have done flowering. The blooms are a clear blue, the teeth of the corolla white ; the spike oval and larger than in other species. M. botryoides is a favourite bulb, with little white teeth on blue globose clusters, about 9 in. high, and suitable for the fronts of borders. The varieties pallidum and album are distinct and beautiful ; and pallidum has pale sky-blue clusters. M. Heldreichi resembles M. botryoides, but is larger, and having a longer spike of flowers. It also flowers later. M. comosum monstrosum {Feather Musa Ensete. rock-garden, but they may be advantage- ously grown as window-plants in pots or boxes. In all cases they thrive best in rich, deep, sandy loam, and are easily multiplied by separating the bulbs every third or fourth year. There are many names, but few really distinct kinds. M. armeniaoum is one of the best, and its beauty is enhanced by its flower- ing when most other kinds have finished doing so. Its flower-stems are 8 in. high, and are terminated by dense racemes 3 to 4 in. long, of bright dark blue flowers, with small whitish teeth. The foliage is much the same as the ordinary M. race- Hyaci7ith) is distinct from any of the fore- going — I ft. or more in height ; its beauti- ful mauve flowers, cut into clusters of wavy filaments, bear some resemblance to purple feathers. M. moschatum has clusters of dull yellow flowers, incon- spicuous, but its delicious fragrance amply atones for this. Another sweet-smellmg Muscari is M. luteum, with flowers fading by degrees from a dull purplish hue to a clear yellow. M. racemosum is a familiar old kind, with dark purple clusters and a strong smell of Plums, its long and weak leaves almost prostrate, while in M. botryoides 632 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. and its varieties the leaves stand erect. It will hold its own anywhere, and will wander all over the mixed border, grow- ing like a weed, and in any soil. It has near relatives in M. commutatum (with blue flowers, darkening by degrees into purple) and M. neglectum — also a hand- some kind. There are several other varieties mentioned in catalogues, but the best are those mentioned above. Though coming chiefly from the south of Europe, they are all hardy, and grow in any posi- tion in ordinary garden soil. Mutisia. — There are about forty species of Mutisia known. Eleven of these are natives of Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil, and characterised by a climbing habit and pinnate leaves. The others are natives of the Chilian Andes, and have simple leaves, rigid in texture, whilst the habit is, as a rule, bushy and not climbing. Almost every one of these forty species is remarkable for the size and beauty of its flower-heads. Plants which possess such qualities as these ought, one would think, to be well represented in EngHsh gardens. They are found at elevations sufficiently high to admit of their being grown out-of- doors in England, or at any rate in the warmer parts of the country, and yet the Mutisias are scarcely known in our gardens. Some few cultivators have been successful with M. decurrens ; once or twice M. ilicifolia has been grown and flowered very well. M. Clematis is the least delicate of the garden Mutisias. M. ilicifolia is a native of Chili, where it grows over bushes. The plant has thin wiry stems, and every part is covered with a cobweb-hke tomentum. The leaves are about 2 in. long, the margins spiny- toothed, the texture leathery, and the mid- rib extending beyond the blade, branching and forming a strong twining tendril. The flowers are axillary, 3 in. across, with from eight to twelve ray florets coloured pale pink, or sometimes white with pink tips ; the disc is lemon-yellow. It is a distinct, interesting, and beautiful plant. M. decurrens.— Of this, the most beau- tiful of the three garden Mutisias, a fine plate will be found in The Garden for 1883, p. 553. Mr. Coleman has grown it well amongst Rhododendrons at Eastnor Castle ; Mr. Gumbleton, Mr. Hooke, Mr. Ellacombe, and Kew have also had it in good condition. Most cultivators kill this species by planting it in a hot, sunny, dry position, where it gets baked, and soon becomes sickly-looking, even if it lives. It wants a moist, cool soil, a sunny, airy position, and a few slender Pea sticks to clamber upon. The stems when mature arc wiry, the leaves strap-shaped, with the blade extending a long distance down the stem, forming very conspicuous wings. The midrib is prolonged into a stout wiry tendril, which holds on firmly to anything it once clasps. The flower-heads are ter- minal, 4^ in. across, with fourteen ra)'- florets, each half an inch across, spread- ing, and then curving elegantly down- wards, their colour being brilliant orange. The disc is yellow, and the large involucre is bluish green tinged with purple. M. Clematis. — The first coloured picture of this species ever published in any English work was the plate in The Garden, July 27th, 1883. It is a tal! herbaceous climber, 10 to 20 ft. high, with pinnate leaves, terminating in branched tendrils, the leaflets being covered on the under side with a fine silky down. The plant grows very freely, does not die off suddenly like the others, and when properly treated it flowers freely. It is probable that this species would thrive out-of-doors in Devon, South Wales, and South Ireland. It grows as fast as Cobaea scandens, and is said to be propagated in the same way, viz. by means of cuttings of the young growth. This species is a native of New Grenada, Peru, and Ecuador, at elevations of from 6,000 to 11,000 ft. — W. Myosotidiumnobile {Antarctic Forget- me-Not). — A lovely herbaceous plant about which very little is known. In its native isle it is a seaside plant, in damp sand. It is said not to be difficult to grow, but to be naturally short-lived. It has a thick root- stock, froin which arise the large heart- shaped, shining green leaves, the stalks of which are grooved, and from 6 to 9 in. long ; the flowers are borne on an erect stem which springs from the apex of the prostrate stem and rises to the height of I or i^ ft. ; it is leafy all the way up, and is terminated by a loose corymb of flowers in colour exactly like Forget-me-Not, but the shade of blue varies. After flowering, the plants should be kept in a cool and light position in a frame, and be liberally watered in dry weather. It is a native of the Chatham Islands, a small group in the Pacific, lying 400 miles east of New Zea- land. It was flowered in several gardens of recent years— by Mr. Watson, of St. Albans ; the late Mr. Niven, of Hull ; and very finely by Mrs. Rogers in Corn- wall in the open air. Myosotis {Forgel-me-Not).—^t.s.-a\:\l\i\ perennial and biennial marsh and alpine plants, children of the mountain and marsh land from many parts of Europe and our own land, and of high value and charming in all ways for gardens. MYOSOTIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MYRICARIA. 633 M. alpestris {Alpine Forget-me-Not) a ■compact plant, a cushion of the lovehest ■blue flowers, thriving on the rock-garden, in moist gritty soil. It should be sur- rounded by half-buried pieces of sand- stone. There are various forms, some very dwarf, with white and rose flowers. Princess Maud is a robust variety with rich deep blue flowers. M. azorica {Azorean Forqet-me-Not) is a beautiful somewhat tender kind, with ■dark blue blooms, 6 to 10 in. high, and coming from the extreme western Azores, will not survive except in warm corners of the rock-garden. It grows freely in light soil, and may be raised from seed or cuttings. The var. Imp^ratrice Eliza- beth is a form or hybrid from it. Myosotis alpestris. M. dissitiflora {Early Forget-me-Not), a beautiful and early flowering plant, 6 to 12 in. high, with large handsome flowers deep sky-blue, continuing till midsummer. It is best in broad masses in open spots of the rock-garden, or wherever spring flowers are much valued. M. palustris. — Although common in wet ditches and by streams and canals throughout Britain, M. palustris should be grown in the garden among shrubs in peat beds, or for edgings, or as a carpet to taller subjects, in small beds or borders in moist soil. There are forms of this, one with white flowers, another with larger flowers than the type, whilst one is called semperflorens, from its long season of flowering. M. lithospermifolia.— I thmk this has the largest flowers of any of the true Forget-me-Nots, flowering freely at a heig'ht of 8 in. ; the flowers striking for their size, the leaves distinct and small, but otherwise resembling those of our British Lithospermum purpureocoeruleum. The plant is gay from its abundance of flowers and tbeir large size. — W. M. Eehsteineri. — Under this name I have received one of the prettiest Forget- me-Nots, an effective close-to-the-ground creeper, practically forming a dense cushion of blue for several weeks in April and May. The plant thrives and spreads like a mossy Saxifrage, but keeps flat to the ground. This will be a charming sur- facing plant, through which the rarer Snowdropsand Crocuses may spear during winter and early spring. — W. M. sylvatioa ( Wood Forget-me-Not). — Beautiful woodland plants and of great value for the garden. Is used for flower- beds in spring. There is a white, a rose- coloured, and a striped variety. It should be abundant in a wild state by wood walks, in copses, etc., and sows itself freely in half-shady places. For the garden sow seeds in beds in August every year. Britain. Seed. Myrica {Sweet Gale). — The Myricas, though not showy flowering shrubs, are desirable on account of their scented foliage. The native Sweet Gale or Dutch Myrtle (M. Gale) should be wherever sweet-smelling plants are cared for. It is a thin bush, 2 or 3 ft. high, having fragrant leaves. In a moist spot, such as a bog, it spreads by underground shoots and makes a large mass. The North American species, M. cerifera (Wax Myrtle), M. pennsylvanica, and M. cali- fornica, are less common. The last is a good evergreen of dense growth, with fragrant leaves, green through the winter. It is a vigorous plant, especially in light soils, and is hardy, but is little known outside botanical collections. The Wax Myrtle is met with in old gardens, where it was planted for its spicy foliage. I find our native Sweet Gale free and vigorous in stiff" soils where few things grow well. M. {Comptonid) asplenifolia {Sweet Fern). — A quaint little shrub 2 to 3 ft. high. Fern-like in leaf, the leaves long and cut into rounded lobes, and aromatic. It spreads freely in sandy soils, and may be increased by layers, suckers, or seeds. A pretty plant in the sandy woods of many other parts of N. America. In gardens its place is among small shrubs and on the margins of peat beds. Myricaria germanica {German Tama- rlsk).-r-An elegant shrub, hardly differing 634 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. from the common Tamarisk of our sea- coasts, with feathery foliage and many long plume-like clusters of small pink flowers. It grows 6 or 8 ft. high in warm sandy soils, and, like the true Tamarisk, is a good shrub for dry banks where few shrubs would flourish. Myrrhis odorata {Sweet Cicely).— K graceful native plant, with a peculiar but grateful odour and sweet-tasting stems, 2 to 3 ft. high, with white flowers in early summer,' in compound umbels. Suitable Myrrhis odorata (Sweet Cicely). for naturalising near wood walks and in open shrubberies in any soil, and may be used among fine-leaved perennials. Division. Myrtus {Myrtle).— l-a southern and coast counties the Myrtle is hardy enough to be planted as a bush, for if its shoots are killed by frosts it often recovers the following season. But the common Myrtle is most generally grown as a wall- shrub, and house walls could not have a more beautiful covering, especially if some pretty Clematis or other graceful climber be allowed to ramble amongst the Myrtle. There are many varieties of the common Myrtle, every one with sweet-smelling leaves, and all with white flowers. The chief sorts are the Dutch, Italian, Roman, Rosemary or Thyme-leaved, Nutmeg, Bo.x-leaved, and Andalusian. Besides these there are some with variegated leaves, the leaves being striped with gold or silver, or spotted and blotched. In planting a myrtle against a wall, choice, should, if possible, be given to a space protected from northerly and easterly winds, which in early spring are injurious to the leaves. In old gardens the Myrtle is often grown in tubs or pots for placing on lawns or terraces in summer, and is put under protection during winter ; it is much more worthy of such protection than many of the plants to which our glass- houses are now devoted in winter. Narcissus {Daffodil). — These are the hardiest, showiest; and most variable of early spring flowers. They are to the spring what Roses, Irises, and Lilies are to summer, what Sunflowers and Chry- santhemums are to autumn, and what Hellebores and Aconite are to winter. No good garden should be without the best of the lovely varieties now known. Narcissi vary so much in form, size, colour, and in time of flowering, that a most attractive spring garden could be made with them alone ; provided one had suitable soil, and a background of fresh turf, shrubs, and trees. The best of the commoner kinds should be planted by the thousand, and, indeed, in many cases this has been done with the best results. On grassy banks, on turfy- bosses near the roots of lawn-trees, or in meadows near the house, their effect is delightful. All the best Narcissi, and practically all the forms of the yellow and the bicolor Daffodils, may be planted in June, July, or August, in three ways — in the lawn or meadow, in the beds and borders of the garden, or in 6 or 8 in. pots. Five bulbs should be planted in a pot, and covered over with coal-ashes or sand until January, when they may be placed in a sunny frame, pit, or green- house, or even in a sunshiny window, and a crop of flowers can be secured earlier than on the open ground. The main points in beginning the culture of Narcissi are to get sound and healthy bulbs as early as possible after June, and to plant or pot them at once in good fibrous, sandy, or gravelly loam, or in any \irgin soil. They like fresh deep-tilled loam, and the strongest of the bicolor and star Narcissi do not object to soils rich in manure ; but it is as well to remember, that no manure should be used in its raw or crude state, and that wild species and wild-collected varieties suffer and often fail if planted at once in heavily manured soils. In naturalising the Daftodilon the Grass, the Poet's Narcissus, or the Star Narcissus (N. inconiparabihs in all its forms), do NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOIFER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. 635 not beg-in as late as November or December by planting- the sweepings out of the bulb-stores, since such IjuIIjs are weak and flabby, and are liable to rot in the frozen ground. The time to begin plantmg is June and July, and it is a good rule to refuse to plant in quantity after .'\ugust or September. In grouping border Narcissi, it will usually be found advisable to lift and replant the clumps e\'cry three or four years, but if any delicate varieties do not flower well, or if they show signs of weak- ness or of disease, they should be lifted not later than Juh-, and, after being cleaned, at once replanted, in fresh and good soil, and, if possible, in sandy or gravelly loam free from fresh manures. It is better to dig and replant Daffodils too soon than foo loh: The best time is when the leaves turn yellow in June or July. On well-drained loams resting on gravel, the bulbs lose both leaves and roots in June or Jul)', and may be taken up and re- moved with advantage ; and, indeed, where good round presentable sale bulbs are grown, the rule is to dig them every summer as soon as the leaves wither. Whenever an amateur's stock of bulbs is divided, it is wise to replant some in fresh ground, and any surplus may be naturalised in grass. The rate of in- crease on good soils is surprising, such splendid sorts as N. John Horsfield, N. Empress, N. Grandee, N. Emperor, and N. Sir \\'atkin actually trebling them- selves the second \car after planting. The depth at w hich "the bulbs should be planted \aries according to the texture and the drainage of the soil. In strong or wet and retentive soils, shallow plant- ing, say 3 to 5 in. beneath the surface, is ample, but on' light, sandy, and well- drained soils, or on what are known as warm soils, the depth may xavy from 6 to 12 in. — in a word, the bulbs should be as far as possible below the drought and frost line. The best grown private collections of these flowers I have seen are those at Great Warley, Essex, and at Totley Hall, near Sheffield, where the best kinds are grouped boldly b)- the thousand. If cut flowers are desired, then bold groups on borders, in beds, or on Grass sheltered by hedges or shrubs are desirable. The first crop can be ob- tained from pots or boxes in the green- house, and these will be followed by fully formed and bursting buds, in sheltered and sunny places. These buds will open large, fresh, and fair if placed in pots of water in a warm greenhouse or a sunny frame or window. In March and April comes the prolific har\ost of golden open- air blossoms. In cutting Daffodils or Narcissi for indoor decoration, cut the flowers when the buds are opening, or even just before, and let the stalks be long, as the flowers group better with long stalks. Do not cut the leaves of choice kinds, but use leaves of common sorts with choice flowers. Put each kind in a separate glass, but put together as many of the same kind as you like. Such delicate southern kinds as N. Bulbocodium, N. triandrus, N. calathinus, N. juncifolius, and most of the varieties Narcissu-. H-yi-.f 'l''i of N. Tazetta may be grown in front of sunny walls on prepared peaty or on sandy borders, or else in glasshouses in the garden ; but even in such places their flowers often suffer from spring storms, and the surest plan is to adopt pot-culture in a sunny frame. N. viridi- florus, N. serotinus, N. intermedius, N. elegans, N. pachybolbos, N. Broussoneti, etc., are interesting to collectors ; but the difficulties of their culture are out of all proportion to their beauty, and those who only wish for large and beautiful flowers had better ignore them. Practically, we have only six species of Narcissus worth cultivating — N. Bulbocodium, N. pseudo- narcissus, N. poeticus, N. Tazetta, N. jonquilla, and N. triandrus. Then for naturalisation, or for ordinar)- garden culture, these six may be reduced to three groups — N. pseudo-narcissus, or the Ajax Daffodils ; N. poeticus, or- the Poet's 1636 NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. Narcissus ; and the natural hybrid between these two species, the ubiquitous Star Narcissus ^N. incomparabihs. These kinds are really the only free and hardy ■open-air Narcissi, and are the best for the jneadow or the lawn. Of the newer seedlings, perhaps the finest are N. "Ellen Willmott" and N. Madame de Graaif, which first flowered at Leyden in 1883. N. Glory of Leyden is a yellow counterpart of it. The two were offered, one bulb of each, for 7 guineas only a year or two ago. They are so vigorous, and they increase so fast in good soil, that buyers were amply repaid, high as these prices appear. N. Weardale Perfection, N. Monarch, and some others are so fine and so rare that they are practically not to be had, any- thing less than 10 guineas having been ■refused for a single bulb of N. Weardale Perfection. These are only show flowers, however, and many others not much less "handsome may be had by the hundred •or the thousand at a moderate price. Narcissi flower in continuous succession -from February until June ; and when pot- ■culture and warm-house treatment is .adopted, the double Roman Narcissus and the Italian paper-white Narcissus flower JO. November, and there are always some Narcissi in flower from that time to June. Hybrid Narcissi. — The species which have best lent themselves to the hybrid- iser's art are N. pseudo-narcissus, N. poeticus, N. montanus, N. triandrus, N. jonquilla, and N. Tazetta. The type liybrids are N. incomparabihs, Bernardi (both found wild), Nelsoni, Barrii, Bur- bidgei, Humei, Leedsii, Milneri, tridymus, and odorus. There are wild and garden liybrids between N. Bulbocodium and pseudo-narcissus ; N. triandrus and N. pseudo-narcissus ; N. jonquilla and N. pseudo-narcissus ; N. juncifolius and N. pseudo-narcissus ; N. Tazetta and N. pseudo-narcissus ; N. Tazetta and N. poeticus ; N. poeticus and N. pseudo- -narcissus ; and N. montanus and N. poeticus ; and also N. pseudo-narcissus and N. montanus ; while derivative hybrids have been obtained between some of these hybrids and some of the parent species. It is remarkable that while wild hybrids and garden seedhngs usually enjoy richly manured soils, wild species, and the white -varieties of the Daffodil, N. triandrus, and N. Bulbocodium usually die out on deep richly manured borders, but frequently live on poor, stony, or sandy soils, on dry grassy banks, or amongst the roots on the sunny sides of hedges, shrubs, stone walls, and trees. N. biflorus {Primrose Peerless) is simi- lar in habit to N. poeticus, but has creaniy- white flowers, two on a scape, and the rim of the primrose corona is scariose but colourless {i.e. not purple). N. biflorus is now known to be a natural hybrid between N. poeticus and N. Tazetta, having been found wild with its parents near Mont- pellier by Mr. Barr ; and also raised from its parents in the garden by the Rev. Mr. Engleheart. N. biflorus is naturalised in England and Ireland, but is a native of Europe. It is one of the easiest of all the kinds to naturalise, and spreads rapidly, but is usually supposed not to bear seed. N. Dr. Laumonier (Wilks) is a very fine seedling of this group. Narcissus calathinus. Principal Species of Narcissi. N. (Corbularia) Bulbocodium {The IIoopedPei(icoatDaffbdi[)r&^Ye&^nt&2i^\nA having slender rush-like leaves. In Spain it grows in wet meadows during winter and spring, but is dried up throughout summer and autumn. The types are golden- yellow in Spain and Portugal, sulphur- yellow in S. France, as at Biarritz and Bayonne, one variety in the Pyrenean district (N. GrasUsii) is whitish, but in Algeria grows the exquisite snowy-white N. monophyllus. Hybrids between N. Bulbocodium, N. triandrus, and the Daffodil have been obtained in gardens, and are also found wild. The main varieties are conspicuus, a large, rich, golden-yellow kind with green rushy leaves ; tenuifolius, a small golden form having a six-lobed rim to the corona, and NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. 637- very long rush leaves, which lie on the ground ; nivalis, abundant in Portugal and near Leon in Spain, a small golden kind with short erect leaves ; prascox, a large early-blooming form, found by Mr. Barr in Spain ; citrinus, a pale French form, varying much in size ; Grsellsii, the European white ; and monophyllus, the African white. These are dainty bulbs for pots or for choice borders on warm dry soils. They can rarely be naturalised in our country. N. cyclamineus {Cychnnen Daffodil). — A dainty but not showy species, easily grown in a peat-earth rock-garden or in pots of peaty compost. It seldom exists from year to year in the open air. It has lived on Grass in peat, and, no doubt, could belnaturalised easily enough on sandy peat soils which are wet in winter and spring, and dry in summer and autumn. In April, 1892, I saw a most lovely specimen low down in a damp little grassy bay beside a mill-race at Mount Usher in Wicklovv. N. cyclamineus likes the side of a stream, and is found by streams in Portugal. Like N. triandrus, it is readily raised from seed, and the seed- lings flower the third year. It is 6 to 8 in. high, and the scapes are about the same length, each bearing a bright golden re- flexed flower. It has sap-green leaves. There are large and small forms, and a bicolor variety seems to have been known long ago. N. cyclamineus, although but lately re-discovered, was figured in French books early in the seventeenth century. Like N. Johnstoni, it came from Oporto in 1884-85. N. incomparabilis {Star Daffodil). — To this group belong N. incomparabilis, Barrii, Burbidgei, odorus, Backhousei, Nel- soni, Sabinei, tridymus, and the Pyrenean wild hybrid, Bernard!, which is found wher- ever N. variiformis and N. poeticus occur together. Of N. incomparabilis there are over a hundred named kinds, the best being : Sir Watkin or Welsh Peerless, Gloria Mundi, Queen Sophia, C. J. Back- house, Princess Mary, Gwyther, splen- dens, Beauty, Autocrat, Frank Miles, Cynosure, James Bateman, King of the Netherlands, Commander, Figaro, Goliath, Mabel Cowan, Mary Anderson (delicate, but of a splendid colour), Fair Helen, Lulworth, St. Patrick, and Queen Bess. Mr. Engleheart has a large series of shapely seedlings with richly coloured crowns, such as " Southern Stai"," Lettice Harmer, Red Prince, Beacon, and White Queen. There are three or four hand- some double forms of N. incompara- bilis, long known in gardens. The most abundant of these is incomparabilis fl.-pl. (Butter and Eggs). There is a white variety, with vermilion chalice segments, known as Eggs and Bacon or Orange Phoenix ; and a pale sulphur double called Sulphur Kroon, which is. exquisite if well grown. Sulphur Kroon. is often known as Codlins and Cream. Of Barr's Peerless (N. Barrii, hybrids),, the best are Conspicuus and Sensation,, but Golden Star, Crown Prince, Flora Wilson, Miriam, Barton, Orphde, General. Murray, Albatros, Sea Gull, Maurice Vil- morin, and Dorothy E. Wemyss are all. good, and are useful for extended culture on Grass or for cut flowers. The Burbidge hybrids are like the Barrii forms, but have small crowns. Their chief value lies in the freedom and earliness of their bloom, as they open days Narcissus biflorus. before even ornatus — the early April form of N. poeticus. The best varieties are Burbidgei (type), Agnes Barr, Beatrice Heseltine, Baroness Heath, Constance, Crown Princess, Ellen Barr, John Bain, Little Dirk, Model, Mrs. Krelage, and Mary. Of Leeds' silver star forms the best are exquisite on good sandy soils, and their whiteness and delicate purity and grace render them most acceptable as cut flowers. The best are : N. Leedsii (type), amabilis, Beatrice, Hon. Mrs. Barton, Katherine Spurrell, Duchess of West- minster, Madge Matthew, elegans, Minnie Hume, superbus. Princess of Wales, Magdalina de Graaff, Gem, Grande 63S NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. Duchess, Acis, and Palmerston. Hume's hybrids are deformed Daffodils, the best being Giant and concolor. Sabine's hybrid (N. Sabinei) is a bold white bicolor, with a shortened trumpet, and so are the so-called Backhouse hybrids — Wolley Dod and William Wilks, a shapely and effective flower of good substance and with \-igorous leaves. More starry, but with smaller cups, are Nelson's hybrids ; tall, free, and distinct habit ; the best, Nelsoni major, minor, pul- Holland for forcing in pots. Much grown at Grasse, Cannes, etc., for its perfume. N. stellaris has narrow perianth lobes, and N. jonquilloides is a robust form from Spain. The varieties gracilis and tenuior are now supposed to be hybrids between the Jonquil and some other species, or between N. intermedius and juncifolius, N. intermedius itself being a hybrid between some form of N. Tazetta and the Jonquil. The Jonquil, when strongly grown on a warm border, is Narcissus Sir Watlcir ■chellus (perfect shape), Mrs. C. J. Back- house, aurantius (orange-red cup), and William Backhouse. Collected bulbs of N. Bernardi are very variable in size and form, and some, like E. Buxton, have fine -orange-red cups, which resemble N elson's aurantius. N. tridymus is a variable hybrid between the Daffodil and N. Tazetta with two to three flowers on a scape. N. jonciuilla {Jonquil).— Lon% known .in gardens, and imported from Italy and handsome and very sweet, and N. gracilis is the latest of all single Narcissi, as it blooms with N. poeticus fl.-pl. in May or early June. The double Jonquil is rarely seen doing well in open ground, but as a pot plant it is handsome. S. France and Spain. N. juncifolius {Rush Jonquil).— K small plant, suitable only for sheltered borders, for stone edgings, and for pot- culture in a cold frame. It is very \'ariable, and rupicola, minutiflorus, and scaberulus NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. 639 are well-known variations. Its small Jon- quil-scented flowers have very large cups, often widely expanded, which are crenulate at their edges. The var. rupicbla flowers and seeds annually in the rock-garden at Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, and seems hardier than the type. N. odorus {Great Jonquil). — This plant, although found wild in S. France, Portugal, and N. Spain, is now believed to be a hybrid = N. jonquilla x N. pseudo- narcissus. The leaves are rushy, and two or three yellow starry flowers are borne on each scape. The best kinds are N. odorus (Campernelle), and rugulosus, a more robust form, with larger flowers. A double form, very handsome on warm soils, is known as Queen Anne's Jonquil. N. poeticus {Poefs or Pheasanfs-eye Narcissus). — One of the oldest, sweetest, and most popular of garden flowers, and erroneously supposed to be the Narcissus of the Greek poets. It is widely distributed in France and Germany, and extends to the Pyrenees. In upland meadows of the Pyrenees it is very abundant in June and July. It flowers from the beginning of April until June. The older forms of N. poeticus are now far surpassed by Mr. Kngleheart's newseedlings, such as Danle, Petrarch, and many others. N. ornatus is now grown by the million for Easter decora- tion. N. grandiflorus is a very large floppy variety, N. poetanam has a saffron-red crown, and N. tripodalis has reflexed seg- ments and a bold crimson-scarlet ring. The typical N. poeticus is a tall plant, with a small shapely flower, but is not often seen. N. Marvel has a bladder-like spathe like an Allium, and a pale and shapely flower. N. patellaris has a broad crown and a saffron rim, and blooms late ; but the form usually met with early in May is N. recurvus, the Pheasant's-eye of cottage-gardens. N. recurx'us has a green eye and a crimson- fringed crown. All the forms, especially ornatus and recurvus, naturalise perfectly, and of recent years bulbs have been dug on the P)'renees by the thousand for natural- isation. They are so variable in habit, size, shape, and colour that any number of varieties could be selected from them. The June-flowering double form of N. patellaris, or Gardenia Narcissus, is very fine. It does well on deep sandy borders. It is a shy flowerer, and many of its buds go blind, so that half the stock should be transplanted every year in August. N. stellaris, the latest single form of N. poeticus, flowers in June. Some very fine and shapely seedlings of N. poeticus have been raised by Mr. Engleheart. N. pseudo-narcissus {Common Daffo- dil). — There are several hundred varieties of the Common Daffodil, either wild or cultivated. The only native of Britain is the common English kind, which extends from Cornwall to Fife, and is specially plentiful in the south-eastern counties. In Normandy, Daffodils by millions light up the woods in April, while many fine forms are wild in Spain and in the Pyrenean region, and the richest of golden Daffodils come from Spain and Portugal. The Rev. C. Woolly Dod found N. maximus grow- ing between Dax and Bayonne, probably naturalised. Nearly all Daffodils do well on Grass, if the soil be at all suitable ; and as regards our wild English Daffodil, the Grass is the only place in which to grow it permanently. Daffodils are usually divided into three groups ; first, golden Daffodils, such as N. maximus, Tenby, and . spurius ; secondly, bicolors, such as John Horsfield, Empress, Grandee, &c. ; thirdly, sulphur and white kinds, such as Exquisite, and the white Daffodils, such as the wild Pyrenean and N. moschatus. Nearly all the golden kinds are robust and easily grown, and the bicolor group are even more so, but, speaking broadly, the delicate sulphur and the white sorts are tender and unsatisfactory, except on the most favourable soils. The following are the best in each group : — Golden Daffodil Group — abscissus (mu- ticus), Ard Righ, Emperor, Countess of Annesley, Bastemil, Captain Nelson, spurius, coronatus (General Gordon), Gol- den Spur, Distinction, obvallaris, Henry Irving, Glory of Leyden, Golden Prince, Golden Plover, Golden Vase, Her' Majesty, John Nelson, spurius, major, maximus, M. J. Berkeley, and Mrs. Elwes. Nanus and minor are dwarf varieties, minimus is the smallest of all the Daffodils. Shake- speare, Hodsock's Pride, Fred. Moore, Wide .4 wake. Marchioness of Headfort, P. R. Barr, rugilobus, Santa Maria, Samson, Sir W. Harcourt, Townshend, Boscawen, Stanfield, Croom a Boo (Ard Righ with a frilled trumpet), Weardale Perfection, " Ellen Willmott," Monarch, and many others are not as yet much grown. Bicolor Group — Empress, John Hors- field, Grandee, Dean Herbert, Michael Fos- ter, Alfred Parsons, George C. Barr, Harri- son Weir, J. B. M. Camm, John Parkinson, Mrs. Walter Ware, Mad. Plemp, T. A. Dorien Smith, and variiformis. Carrie Plemp, Princess Colibri, Duchess of Teck, and Victoria are new kinds. White and Sulphur-flowered Group — moschatus, albicans (Leda), cernuus (very variable), Cecilia de Graaff, Colleen Bawn, cernuus pulcher, C. W. Cowan, Narcissas Emperor. NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NARCISSUS. 641 Dr. Hogg, Exquisite, J. G. Baker (volu- tus), F. W. Jiurbidge, Lady (.Jrosvenor, Galatea, Mme. de Graaff, Mrs. F. W. Burbidge, Mrs. J. B. M. Camm, Mrs. Thompson, Helen Falkiner, pallidus pra;cox (the variable sulphur Daffodil of Biarritz and Bayonne), pallidus asturicus, Princess Ida, Sarnian Belle, tortuosus, Wm. Goldring, W. P. Milner, Minnie Warren, Countess of Desmond, Robert Boyle, Silver Bar, Mrs. Vincent. The best of the double Daffodils are — Telamonius plenus (Van Sion), very free and robust, naturalised everywhere ; double English, minor plenus (Rip \an Winkle) ; lobularis plenus ; Scoticus plenus ; plenissimus (Parkinson's great rose double) ; capax plenus (Eystet- tensis), an exquisitely pretty and pale six- rowed double, but requiring a warm sandy soil, and remarkable as being a Hybrid Narcissus Snowdrop. distinct double, of which the single type is unknown ; Cernuus, C. bicinctus ; the last do well in warm, stony soils, and, like other delicate kinds, enjoy the company of tree, shrub, or Rose roots. Johnstoni (Johnston's hybrid Daffodil) was found by Mr. A. W. Tait near Oporto in 1885, and figured in Bot. Mag.., 7012 ; it is a natural hybrid, between N. pseudo- narcissus and N. triandrus, and is vari- able, Mr. Tait having in March 1892, sent me a bicolor form (Garrett x N. triandrus albus). The best forms are N. Johnstoni (type), Queen of Spain, Mrs. Geo. Cammell, Pelayo, and Mr. Tail's new bicolor form to which I have above alluded. The Rev. G. H. Engleheart has repeated crosses between the parent species, and has produced a pale sulphur or white Johnstoni ("Snowdrop") and others. N. Tazetta (Polyanthus or Bunch Nar- cissus). — This is the classical Narcissus of Homer and other poets, Greek and Roman — the flower of a hundred heads that delights all men, and lends a glory to the sea and the sky. Tazetta is focused in the Mediterranean Basin, but extends from the Canary Islands to the north of India and to Japan. It has long been naturalised in the Scilly Isles and in Cornwall ; but its early habit of growth, acquired in more sunny climes, often with us causes the flowers to be injured by frosts and storms. These Narcissi are hardy on warm dry soils, and as pot-plants many of them are handsome, while in deep, warm, sandy borders, which are sheltered by sunny «'alls or by plant-houses, they frequently do well, but as a rule bulbs must be miported from France, Italy, or Hol- land every year. The earliest are the double Roman and the paper-white (N. papy- raceus). One \ariety from China may be grown in a sunny window if placed in water, and the bulbs submerged and held in posi- tion bygravel or stones. The growth of this variety is rapid, and good bulb . produce five to eight spikes. Its shop name is " Sacred Narcissus " or Chinese Joss Lily." The best varieties are Grand Monarque, States-General, Newton, Scilly White (White Pearl), Soleil d'Or, Bathurst, Baselman major (Trewianus), Gloriosus, Sulphurine, Czar de Muscovie, Grand Sultana, Grand Primo Citroniere, Luna, Her Majesty, Queen of the Netherlands, Lord Canning, and Golden Era. N. Baselman minor is now proved by Mr. Engleheart and others to be a hybrid between N. Tazetta and N. poeticus, and a similar hybrid has been found wild near Montpellier. N. triandrus (Ganymede's Cup). — A distinct and elegant species which is rarely happy out-of-doors except on wann, moist, and sheltered borders, or in nooks of the rock-garden, but which as a pot- bulb has no superior for delicate beauty, its flowers rivalling in texture those of the Cape Freezias. The late Mr. Rawson, of Fallbarrow, Windermere, grew it in pots, and his specimens bore fifty to a hundred flowers. His plan \\'as to rest it thoroughly after the leaves faded, and then to top- dress the bulbs, and rarely or never to re-pot them. As a rule N. triandrus is short-lived, but it naturally reproduces itself from seeds, which bloom the second or third year after sowing. The principal \arieties are N. albus (Angel's Tears), N. calathinus (a robust form from the Isle de Glennans), and L'lle St. Nicholas. On the coast of Brittany N. calathinus grows among rocks and short sandy sward close T T 642 NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NEJA. to the sea, and within reach of its spray during rough weather. N. pulchellus has a primrose perianth and a white cup, and is very pretty. In the late Mr. R. Parker's nursery at Lower Tooting, in 1874, it was very strong and heahhy in an open-air bed resting on the gravel, and some of its scapes bore seven or nine flowers. No other Narcissus has a cup paler than the perianth segments. Pulchellus has recently been found wild in Portugal and Spain. New Hybrid and Cross-bred Nar- cissi.— Every year at the Drill Hall and elsewhere we see new and improved seed- lings by the score, and any one may raise seedlings for themselves if they will take the trouble to cross-fertilise the flowers either as grown in pots in cool greenhouse or cold frame, or in open-air borders. In some gardens, as at Chirnside and Kilma- curragh, series of natural cross-bred kinds have appeared spontaneously, and this is doubtless how White Minor, St. Austin, Countess of Desmond, and many other Irish forms appeared. Diseases and Insects. — As Narcissi may be grown on dry warm soils, or in grassy lawns and meadows, the insects and fungoid diseases that would affect them on deep-dug and highly manured borders are few and far between. Neither cattle nor sheep molest them, and game and poultry, and even the most voracious of rabbits and the most impudent of town- sparrows leave the flowers alone. That their leaves and roots are poisonous, or acridly narcotic, may account for this. In some gardens and nurseries the larva of the Narcissus Fly (Merodon equestris) infests old bulbs, and whenever bulbs are imported from abroad or are dug for replanting, this larva should be searched for and exterminated. The bulbs affected may generally be known by their necks feeling soft when pinched. All such bulbs should be cut open and the larvse extracted and killed. Such means are the only cure, as no insecticides will kill the pest without destroying the bulbs. The pest checks both root and bulb growth, but after the larvte are removed the rare bulbs recently infected may be planted for stock, for although the heart be eaten away, the lateral buds at the base of the bulb-scales often produce young bulbs. N. poeticus and its varieties have rarely been infected by a leaf fungus (Puccinia Schroeteri), and so far its ravages have been limited. Bulbs of Xarcissus are now and then found to be afflicted with black canker or "black-rot," probably caused by Peziza cibovioides, but so far little serious injury has been done. The most insidious disease that affects Narcissi is one to which Mr. C. W. Dod some few years ago originally drew attention, under the name of " basal rot." The stunted flowers come up prematurely, while the leaves have a diseased appearance, and are much dwarfed and contorted. The base of the bulb rots away, while no roots are formed from the disc, and the wet and flabby bulb-coats are more or less dis- coloured, as if parboiled. This disease is most prevalent among white Daffodils, white single and double ; but yellow kinds such as Ard Righ and maximus are affected on wet and cold soils, and even N. Tazetta, N. Leedsii, and N. jonquilla are also affected. In many cases this disease is checked by annual digging and re-planting in July or August ; and sometimes bulbs, affected on deep rich borders, have recovered on being trans- planted to Grass or beds of Moss and Briar Roses. Cold and wet, or even richly manured soils, seem especially conducive to this disease, and the only remedy is to alter the conditions of growth as soon as the leaves have died away. A celebrated northern grower of Narcissi tells me that some sorts that formerly failed on level borders do well on the drier and warmer grassy banks to which he transferred them. Facility in altering conditions of growth is often the best way to save plants that show signs of disease or failing in any way. It is a great consolation to know that many of the best and most showy kinds, if broadly and naturally grown on the Grass of meadow or of outlying lawn, are rarely, if ever, afflicted seriously with the above pests.— F. W. B. . Naxthecivim ossifraguin {Bog As- phodel). — A small native plant, somewhat like an Iris, with a spike of small yellow flowers, interesting for the bog-garden. Neillia opulifolia {,Nine Bark). — A common shrub generally known as Spiraea opulifolia. It is usually 3 to 5 ft. in height, but in good soils and in sheltered places it makes a bush 8 or 10 ft. high, and as much through. It blooms about mid- summer, the small white flowers being borne in dense feathery clusters. A more important shrub for ornamental planting is the variety aurea, with golden leaves. The yellow tinge of the foliage is ex- tremely bright, and, at a distance, looks like a glowing mass of yellow bloom. This \ariety is a hardy and vigorous shrub suitable for planting anywhere. Neja. — Small half - shrubby Com- posites. N. gracilis makes a pretty rock- NELUMBIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 643 garden plant on account of its elegant feathery foliage and its bright yellow, Daisy-like blossoms. It thrives in the open air from spring to autumn, but should be wintered in the greenhouse. Brazil. Nelumbium luteum {Yellow Sacred Bean). — The hardiest known Sacred Bean, and therefore the one most inter- esting for northern gardens. Its large blossoms are a pale yellow, and its large round leaves arise boldly out of the water 3 to 4 ft. I have seen it flower strongly in the Garden of Plants at Paris : it re- mained out all the winter in a fountain basin in a sheltered and warm nook in the open air. It would probably flower out-of-doors in a sunny and sheltered spot in the south of England. It is rare, but may be procured from some nurseries, or from America. The beautiful N. speciosum is another noble aquatic, and is well worth a trial wherever there is a contrivance for heating the water of a small pond or tank in the open air. Nemesia. — Pretty hardy annuals of the simplest culture, N. floribunda growing about I ft. high, and bearing in summer fragrant Linaria-like blossoms, white with yellow throats. N. versicolor has blue, lilac, or yellow and white blossoms ; and its variety compacta, blue and white flowers. If sown in ordinary soil in masses in early spring and then well thinned, the plants will have a pretty effect for several -weeks after June. In N. strumosa the flowers display a variety of colours, white, pale yellow, and shades between pink to deep crimson. It grows 1 2 to 1 5 in. high, and has five or six stems, each of which bears a head of flowers, blooming from summer until late in autumn. Sow in heat in March, and transplant the seedlings in May, or sow in the open ground after the middle of May. S. Africa. Nemopllila {Californian Bluebell). — Pretty Californian hardy annuals of much value for our gardens. The species from which the cultivated varieties have been derived are N. insignis, N. atomaria, N. discoidalis, and N. maculata. N. insignis has sky-blue flowers, and its \arieties are grandiflora, alba, purpurea - rubra, and striata. N. atomaria has white flowers speckled with blue. Its varieties are coelestis (sky-blue margin), oculata (pale blue and black centre), and alba nigra (white and black centre). N. discoidalis has dark purple flowers edged with white, and the flowers of its variety elegans are maroon margined with white. N. maculata has large white flowers blotched with violet and its variety purpurea is of a mauve colour. These kinds are all worth growing. They thrive in any soil, and are of the simplest culture. In spring some pretty combinations maybe effected by arranging the masses in harmonising colours. All Nemophilas are well suited for edgings and for filling small beds, as they are compact in growth. The insignis section should always be preferred to the others. Seeds should be sown early in August for spring - flowering, and in April for summer -blooming. To secure a good display of flower, however, the best time to sow is in August, and the soil should be a light one, where the seed can ger- minate freely, and where the plants will not become top robust before winter sets in. If the seed be sown where the plants are to flower, the results will be most satisfactory ; but if transplanting be necessary, it should be done early in the winter. A ball of earth should be attached to each plant, and to secure this thin sowing is indispensable. These plants often grow better and give prettier effects in the cooler northern parts of the country and in Scotland. Hydro- phyllacese. Nepeta {Cat Mint). — Herbaceous plants, of which N. macrantha has rather showy purple flowers, but is too tall and coarse for the border. N. Mussini is an old plant, flourishing in ordinary garden soil, and was once used a good deal for edgings to borders, a purpose for which its compact growth suits it well ; but none of these plants are among , the best perennials. ITephrodium. — The native Nephrod- iums are alluded to under the head of Aspidium. Besides these native kinds there are a few North American species that are hardy, and very handsome, and these thrive under the same conditions as the native kinds. The chief sorts are N. Goldieanum, N. intermedium, N. mar- ginale, and N. noveberacense. Several Japanese and Chinese species thrive without protection in mild localities, but they cannot be recommended for general culture. N. fragrans is a sweet-scented little form. It is somewhat delicate, but thrives in a sheltered situation. Nertera depressa {Fruiting Duckweed). — A pretty creeping and minute plant, thickly studded with tiny reddish-orange berries, and with minute round leaves which are suggestive of the Duckweed of our stagnant pools. It forms densely matted tufts in the open air, best perhaps on level spots in the rock-garden. It T T 2 644 NICANDRA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. is also often grown in pans, and out-of- doors in some places may require pro- tection in winter. N. depressa may be propagated by dividing old plants into small portions and placing them in small pots in a gentle heat until they start into growth, and then removing them to a cooler atmosphere. Rubiaceas. New Zealand. Nicandra physaloides.--A pretty Peruvian half-hardy annual, about 2 ft. high, of stout growth, bearing in summer numerous showy blue and white bell-like flowers, and thriving in an open position in light soil. Seed should be sown in heat in early spring or in the open air about the end of March, and the seedlings should be transplanted in May. One plant is sufficient for a square yard. Solanaceje. Nicotiana ( Tobacco). — Stout half-hardy annuals of rapid growth, and good sub- jects for grouping with other stately plants. The varieties differ chiefly in the stoutness and the height of their stems, and in size of their leaves and flowers, these differ- ences depending largely on cultivation. The best growth is got in rich ground and sheltered positions. Seed must be sown in February in a warm house or frame. Prick off the plants as soon as they appear, and pot them in a genial heat of, say, 60°. Then about the end of May fine plants will be ready for putting out from 6 or 8 in. pots. They will start off at once, and not cease growing until frost comes. The most useful of all is N. affinis, used largely in gardens large and small, in distinct groups or with other things. Some of the best effects are got from this kind in association with Heliotropes and tall plants. It is much smaller in leafage and habit than such kinds as N. macrophylla, and there- fore more suitable for small gardens. N. colossea is a large-leaved kind which has been grown in recent years, but it is eclipsed by its variegated form which is one of the most graceful plants for beds or borders. N. wigandioides is well adapted for subtropical bedding in positions where it will be surrounded by dwarfer plants. Nierembergia. — The only quite hardy Nierembergia is N. rivularis (White Cup), one of the handsomest of all. The stems and foliage trail along the ground like those of the New Holland Violet, while barely pushed above the foliage are open cup-like creamy-white flowers, usually nearly 2 in. across. They continue during the summer and autumn, and have a pleasing effect in the distance, as they suggest Snowdrops at first, and are quite as pretty when closely viewed. To ensure success with Nierembergias have heavy, firm soil, a level surface, and sunny aspect. The tender Nierembergias are N. frutes- cens, a sub-shrubby plant of erect growth, and N. filicaulis, or gracilis as it is called, which has slender drooping branches. Both have pretty white flowers pencilled with purple, and are suitable for the rock- garden in summer or for drooping over the edges of ^ases. Propagate by cuttings in spring in heat. NigeUa {Fennel Flower). — Hardy annuals of the Crowfoot family, all curious and pretty with feathery Fennel- like foliage and bluish or yellowish Nierembergia rivularis. blossoms. N. sativa, N. orientalis, N. damascena (Devil in a Bush), and N. hispanica are the kinds cultivated, N. hispanica being the prettiest, growing about I ft. high, and with showy blue flowers from July onwards. There is a white variety and a variety with deep purple blossoms. All the Nigellas should be sown in March, in light warm soil in the open border. They should be sown in the place which they are to occupy, as they do not succeed so well if transplanted. If sown in autumn, the seedlings often survive the winter and flower early and well. Nolana {Chilian Sellflower^—VreMy hardy annuals from S. America — N. para- doxa, N. prostrata, and N. atriplicifolia among the best. They ha\e slender trailing stems, and flowers generally blue. N. atriplicifolia has beautiful and very showy blue flowers with a white centre, NOTOSPARTIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NYMPH/EA. 64s and there is a white variety (N. a. alba). The Nolanas are suitable for borders or for the rock-garden, as they thrive in any warm open situation in good light soil. As seedlings do not transplant well, seed should be sown in the open in March, and the plants well thinned out. Nolanacese. Notospartium CarmicliaelliBB {Pink Broom of New Zealand). — This is much like some of the Brooms, hence its name, the leafless, graceful shoots studded late in June with small bright rosy pen-shaped Nigella damascena. flowers in clusters towards the point. Its graceful growth is well seen in the bolder arrangement of the rock-garden. In New Zealand it grows 20 ft. in height, and seems to be fairly hardy here, though not a shrub for cold climates or exposed places. Nuphar ( Yellow Water-Lily). — Bold waterplants nearly allied to the Water Lily, but not so handsome except in the foliage. The most familiar Nuphar is the common Yellow Water-Lily (N. lutea), which in- habits many of our lakes and slow-running rivers, in company with the Water-Lily. It has a very interesting little variety called pumila or minima, .which is found wild in some of the Highland lakes, and which has the same vinous perfume as the type. N. advena is the N. American ally of our"yellow Water-Lily, and resembling it, but larger and with leaves which stand erect out of the water, and is a much finer plant. N. Kalmian'a, also a N. American kind, much resembles the small variety of N. lutea, and is an interesting plant to grow in company with it. The cultivation is quite simple — placing the rootstocks in water 2 to 3 ft. deep, when they will soon root in the mud. Nuttallia cerasiformis {Osol>erry).—h. deciduous shrub, and one of the earliest to flower. Hardly before winter is past its abundant drooping racemes of white flowers appear, and they usually do so before the leaves. When in bloom it bears a resemblance to the Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), and forms a dense bush, 6 to 12 ft. high, growing in any kind of soil ; is hardy, but not showy, and scarcely pretty. California. Nycterinia. — Pretty half-hardy an- nuals from the Cape of Good Hope. N. selaginoides grows about 9 in. high, forming dense compact tufts of slender stems, in late autumn, covered with small white, orange-centred blossoms fragrant at night. N. capensis is about the same size as N. selaginoides, and is of similar growth, its flowers larger, and not of so pure a white. N. selaginoides and N. capensis require to be sown early in heat, and to be transplanted in May in light, rich sandy loam in warm borders. N. Lychnidea is a small shrubby perennial with yellowish-white blossoms, thriving in warm borders in summer. It should be propagated either by cuttings in autumn, or by seeds in spring. Scrophulariace^. Nymphsea {Water-Lily). — A beautiful family of water-plants distributed over many parts of the world, some of the northern kinds hardy. Our own native Water-Lily was always neglected and rarely effective, except in a wild state ; but when it is seen that they may have in Britain the soft and beautiful yellows and the delicate rose and red flowers of the tropical Water-Lilies throughout summer and autumn, we will begin to take more interest in their garden water-flowers, and even the wretched formless duckponds which disfigure so many country seats may have a reason to be. The new hybrid kinds continue blooming long after our native kind has ceased, and from the middle of May to nearly the end of October flowers are abundant. Culture of hardy Water-lilies. — These lovely water flowers are not difficult to manage. A simple way of planting is to put the plants with soil in some shallow baskets and sink these to the bottom, and before the basket has rotted the 646 NYMPH/EA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NYMPH^A. plant will have fixed itself to the bottom. Or in ponds where there is a rich muddy bottom I plant by tyfng a drain-pipe or a piece of waste iron to a root and throw it in where the water is between 18 in. to 2 ft. deep. The best season for plant- ing is the spring, and plants . put in in April or May make sufficient progress to flower before summer is gone. They are often grown in brick and cement tanks, sunk in the ground to a depth of from i\ to 3 ft. These, with a foot of soil and the rest water, would grow excellent Water- lilies, and the plants do not want a great Notospartium CarmichaeliEe. depth of water overtheir crowns. It would be well to arrange that at least a foot might cover them in winter, and then they are virtually safe from frost. I find, however, they grow better in the mud of ponds and lakes than under the more artificial con- ditions of the cemented tank. But if neither ponds nor tanks are available, these Water- lilies can still be easily grown, for, as i\I. Latour-Marliac wittily observed, like Diogenes, they can content themselves in a tub ; we may even go further than this and say that they find themselves quite at home in half a cask buried in the ground and half filled with soil and water. On lawns the cask or half cask might be sunk level with the surface, thus giving the leaves and flowers of the Water-lilies the appearance of growing out of the ground. " The enemies of Water-lilies are water- rats and swans and other water birds, especially moorhens, which often pull them to pieces, but the plants can be protected with wire-netting. Moorhens are very destructive to the flowers, and should be closely watched. There is, however, another enemy. We noticed it first by seeing leaves detached and floating. On the water becoming clearer one could see what appeared to be small bits of stick an inch or so long attached ill numbers to the leaf-stalk. It was the grub of the caddis fly with its house upon its back. In the hollow stick it was safe from the fish, and, fastening upon the young and tender leaf-stalk, the grubs fed away until the leaf was eaten asunder. Strong-established plants are not Ukely to suffer, but a watch should be kept on young plants if rare varieties." The comiTion water rat or vole is an active destroyer of the flowers, and where it inhabits water, as it commonly does all ponds and streams, nearly all the flowers will be destroyed if this animal is not con- stantly kept down. N. ' alba ( White Water - /z'/j/).— Our native Water-lily is often in flower before May is over, and in a wild state is usually finest where there is a depth of from 2 to 3 ft. of water over the crowns. Rosea is a pretty pink form, but does not bloom freely. N. a. candidissima has broad, showy, pure white flowers, blooming earl)', and is in beauty often till late autumn. The variety plenissima is remarkable for the number of petals composing the flowers, and maxima, as the name suggests, has large flowers. Alinor is a small-flowered form ; the flow ers very double. N. tuberosa.— This is a North Ameri- can kind, hardy and beautiful. It has not the long, thick, fleshy root-stock peculiar to most Nymphseas, but instead a thick, fleshy tuberous mass of roots ; hence its name. Its flowers, opening in the latter half of summer and throughout the autumn, are white, larger, longer, and broader in the petal than those of other wild species ; and it can be increased, readily by division, and is free in growth even in open unsheltered water. NYMPH/EA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NY.Mrll/EA. 647 N. odorata {Sweet Water-lily).— 'X\i\% North American species is a near ally of N. alba, but has rather larger flowers, and borne from June till autumn, sweetly- scented, and usually white. The species is found in lakes or slow-running streams, and it grows readily, and is easily in- creased by division. There are several varieties. N. o. sulphurea has prettily marbled leaves, and the long-pointed buds are quite 4 in. in length, opening into spreading flowers nearly 8 in. across, and of delicious scent. The colour is a good yellow. The variety grandiflora has yellow, sweet-scented flowers. The large leaves are mottled with brown above, but spotted with red on the reverse side. N. o. rosacea has flowers about 4 in. across, bright rose in colour, with yellow centre, of sweet fragrance ; the petals narrow, the flower being like a pink star floating flowering before all others, and remaining in beauty over a long season. Its leaves are about the size of the palm of a man's hand, and the flowers, which consist of four white petals, besides the inner parts, are, when open, only about 2 in. across. Helvola is a dainty little Water-lily raised by M. Latour-Marliac. It is a seedhng of this species, and has pale, straw- coloured flowers ; the leaves of somewhat oblong shape, marked with brown above, and spotted with red underneath. N. spheerocarpa {Casparfs Lily). — This is thought by some a distinct species, and others make it a variety of N. alba. It begins to flower earlier, and with the water at a lower temperature, than any other kind ; its flowers in shape like those of N. alba, but rosy-carmine in colour, blooming flush of flowers in May and June, but not blooming late in summer. ^> "^•^-."C Hardy American Water-lily (N. tuberosa) in open water at Gravetye, Sussex. Autumn. amongst the leaves. N. o. exquisita is a very deep-coloured kind, the flower being rich rose-carmine — in fact, almost red at the base of the petals. Superba is a fine form, with flowers larger than those of the type, and minor, as the name suggests, is small, but pretty. This is found in the ponds of New Jersey. N. o. Caroliniana is described by Mr. Gerard, of New Jersey, as the finest of the odorata varieties, and it is supposed to be a cross between N. odorata rosea and N. alba candidissima. N. o. gigantea is a large-flowered variety ; but where to get all these fine forms of this hardy Water-lily is a question that many are likely to ask in vain for the present. '. N. pygmaea is the smallest of the Water- lilies. It comes from China and Siberia, N. flava ( Yellow Water-lily). — Instead of having a thick rhizome, this has a mass of fibrous roots, and in addition it sends out long runner-like shoots after the manner of a Strawberry, and' these form young plants. The flowers are canary- yellow. N. Mexicana is apparently botani- cally the same as N. flava, but Mr. J. N. Gerard, of Elizabeth, N.J., says " it is a charming thing and a fine doer, having a cone-like tuber from which runners start out from thong-like shoots and then flower." We fear our climate is not warm enough for these natives of Florida and Mexico. M. Marliac's Hybrids. — These are the gems of the Water-lily family, and there are many of them of the highest beauty, while they are very hardy. 648 NVJIPH^A. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NYMPH^EA. N. M. albida is finer than any other white-flowered Nymphfea ; vigorous ; the leaves bright purple-red when young, lustrous green as they get older; the flowers fully 7 in. across, rich yellow in the centre, the outer petals very long, broad, but gradually shorten towards the centre. N. M. camea and N. M. rosea are similar to the preceding kind, but distinct in colour, the first-named kind ha\ing flowers suffused with pale flesh tint, and in the other the colour deepens into rosy- pink. The Canary Water-lily (X. M. chro- in. in diameter when fully open ; the sepals pale oli\e-gTeen, edged with rose behind and pale rose, nearly white, in front. There are eighteen shapely petals, closely imbricated, and forming a beautiful cupped whorl around the vivid orange-red based stamens in the middle of the flower. The petals are of a deep, but bright rosy- crimson. X. M. flammea varies in colour, which consists of innumerable minute red dots on a white gfround, the outer petals ajH pearing pink, and the colour deepening ta red in the centre of the flower. Bud of hybrid Water-lily, X. Marliacea camea (natural size), gathered from open water at Gravetve Sussex, at the end of October. ' matella) is one of the finest of the hybrids ; the leaves, at first purplish-red, change to deep red, with distinct and beautiful dark brown-red markings, whilst the flowers are large, soft jellow in colour, with deeper centre. X. M. rubra punctata is a shapely flower, 4 in. in diameter, with twenty-two sepals and petals; the four sepals dark olive- green behind, and pale rosy-lilac in front, the petals deep rose-purple and delicately marbled. X. M. ignea is a larger flower, nearly 5 The Laydekeri group ot varieties- em- braces many exquisite forms. Fulgens is a charming Water-lily, the flower small and having fine outer dark green sepals, and about fifteen cupped and shapely crimson-magenta petals, glowing like a ruby in the sun. X. L. fulva has its flowers^ washed and pencilled with bright red on a creamy-yellow ground, the stamens golden-yellow, and the leaves mottled \\ith brownish colour on the surface, but the reverse side spotted with red. NARCISSUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. (ENOTHERA. 649 Liliacea is a dainty flower, only about 2^ in. across when wide open ; the sepals dark sap green, margined behind with pale rose, while the fifteen peach-blossom-tinted petals are in contrast to the small tuft of golden-yellow stamens ; the rosy petals have quite a sihery lustre in the sun- light. N. L. lucida has \ery large flowers of a soft vermilion shade, the stamens orange, whilst the large leaves are spotted with chestnut and with bright red on the reverse side. N. L. purpurata has beautiful flowers, symmetrical in form and rich red in colour, crimson towards the centre ; the stamens are reddish carmine. Seignoureti has delicate yellow flowers, shaded with soft rose and flushed with carmine ; they rise nearly six inches above the water, the leaves being spotted with chestnut on the limb, and on the reverse side with red. L. rosea is a lovely kind, quite the finest of the small \arieties ; the flowers are about 2 inches aci-oss, numerous, and of a rose-purple shade, passing to white at the end of the petals. N. Bobinsoni is a beautiful Lily raised by M. Latour-AIarliac, star-like in form, somewhat larger than N. Laydekeri, and generally of a lo\ely rose colour, deepen- ing towards the centre. It is distinguished by the rose being finel)' spotted through- out with white, though the impression given is rather that of suffusion than of spotting. This is a most distinct flower. Other fine hybrid forms are Andreana Gloriosa and EUisi, and as the plants seed freely no doubt numerous varieties will be raised. Xyinpfuea spLcies : — actitiloba^ China ; alba^ northern temperate regions; alho rosea, Amazonum^ Brazil; aittpia, \V. Indies ; Basniniana, Siberia ; bclia, E. Indies ; blanda, S. Amer. : capcnsiSj S. Africa ; elegaiis, Texas ; Jlava, Florid.i ; Jitivo-virens; fragrantissima^ tropical Africa : Gardneriaiia, Brazil ; gigantea, Aus- tralia; ^/■aCiV/j, .Mexico; hiria, Sumatra \Jatitesoniaiia, Ecuador ; lasiophylta, Brazil ; Lotus, Asia and trop. Africa ; AlaxhitiUani, Brazil ; Mcxicana, Mexico ; niiida, Siberia; nubica, trop. Africa; odorata, N. Amer. ; oxypetala, Ecuador ; Parkcriatia, Guiana ; pauciradiata, Siberia ; ptittctata. Central Asia ; rosea, jE. Indies ; Rudgeana, Guiana ; rufiscctis ; stellata, Asia and trop. Africa ; steuaspidota, Brazil ; Sumat- raita, Sumatra ; teriiiittcrz'a, Brazil ; teti-agmta, Asia ; trisepola, trop- .\merica ; tuberosa, N. Amer. ; tussi- ,tagijolia, Mexico ; uttdulata, Mexico ; vivipara ; // V«- zelii, Amoor ; Zanzibarietisis, trop. Africa. (Enothera {Evening Primrose). — These are amongst the prettiest of hardy flowers, and are easily grown in all soils. From June onward they are in their beaut)', many varieties becoming more full of flowers in late summer. They have large bright yellow or white flowers, in many kinds so freely and con- tinuously borne as to make them of great value. Their name notwithstanding, many are open by day ; as for instance, OS. linearis, speciosa, taraxacifolia, and trichocalyx. Many of the finest Evening Primroses are natives of States west of Mississippi, such as California, Utah, Missouri, and Texas. They all bloom the first season from early seedlings. Some of the true perennials, and par- ticularly the prostrate ones, are shy seeders, but the tall ones seed freely. The largest kinds are \ery beautiful in any position, but from their height and bold- ness they are suited for the wild garden and for shrubberies. Sowing themselves freely, they are apt to become too numer- GEnclhera marginata. ous and somewhat " starved," so that they are best when confined to large groups. In any flower garden not confined to flat beds only, an isolated bed of them looks well. Amongst them we have tall erect sorts like QE. Lamarckiana, prostrate, as in trichocalyx and cjespitosa, and white flowers, as in the last-named two, while coronopifolia and speciosa often change with age to pink or rose. Few plants have finer yellow blooms than missourien- sis and Lamarckiana ; and, moreover, they are \ery large — 4 to 6 in. across. Nearly all are more or less fragrant, par- ticularly CEes'pitosa, marginata, fragrans, and eximia. 650 CENOTHERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CENOTHERA. (E. biennis is a handsome biennial, 3 to 5 ft. high, with large bright yellow flowers. Its variety grandiflora or Lamarckiana should always be preferred to the ordinary kind, as the flowers are larger and of a finer colour, having a fine effect in large masses, and is well suited for the wild garden. CE. fniticosa {Sundrops). — This and its varieties are among the finest of hardy perennials, i to 3 ft. high, with showy yellow blossoms. There are about half- a-dozen distinct varieties, the best being linearis, or, as it is usually called, riparia. ;% M ■^' W^ m -$<^.'^ .^^r'^^Sm jiSf^ S An Evening Primrose (GEnothera Lamarckiana). about i^ ft. high, bearing an abundance of yellow blossoms. It is one of the best of yellow Evening Primroses for small beds, for edgings, or as a groundwork for other plants, and it goes on flowering even after the first frosts. It is always prudent to lift a few or strike a potful of cuttings in case of accident, though in spring the old plants may be divided to any e.xtent. Given sandy loam, these plants thrive in borders or in the margins of shrubberies. N. America. CE. glauca is a handsome N. American species similar to fruticosa. It is of sub- shrubby growth, becomes bushy, and bears yellow flowers. The variety Fraseri is a still finer plant, and where an attractive mass of yellow is desired through the summer there are few hardy plants of easy cultivation so effective. In a large rock-garden a few plants here and there give good colour, and the plants bloom long. CE. marginata. — A dwarf plant, never more than 12 in. high, with flowers in May, 4 to 5 in. across, from white gradu- ally changing to a delicate rose ; as even- ing approaches, coming well above the jagged leaves, retaining their beauty all night, and emitting a Magnolia-like odour. It is a hardy perennial, and is increased by suckers from the roots, and by cuttings, which root readily. An excellent plant for the rock-garden and for borders. Sjfn., ffi. cEespitosa. CE. trichocalyx, a similar species, but probably only an annual, is a beautiful plant well worth growing. CE. missouriensis. — A handsome herb- aceous plant from N. America, with pros- trate downy stems and clear yellow flowers, sometimes 5 in. in diameter, and borne so freely that they may be said to cover the ground with gold. There is no more ^■aluable border flower, and when well placed in the rock- garden it is effective, especially if the luxuriant shoots are allowed to hang down. -As seed is rarely perfected, the plant is better increased by careful divi- sion, or by cuttings taken in April. As a border plant it does not grow so freely in cold clayey soils as in warm light ones. The blooms open best in the evening. Syn., CE. macrocarpa. CE. speciosa. — A handsome plant, with many large flowers, at first white, chang- ing to a delicate rose. The plant is erect and its stems almost shrubby, 14 to 18 in. high. A true perennial, valuable for borders, or the rougher parts of the rock- garden in good loam. It is a native of North America. Di\ision. Seed, and is increased by division, cuttings, or seeds, but does not seed freely in this country. CE. tararacifolia, a Chilian plant, is one of the finest of those Evening Prim- roses characterised by a low trailing growth and large blossoms, which attain their fullest expansion towards evening. It has a fine effect in rich deep soil in the rock-garden, where its trailing stems can droop oxer the ledge of a block of stone. The flowers, 2| to 3^ in. across, are pure white, changing to a delicate pink. CE. triloba is a handsome hardy annual THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 651 species, of dwarf growth, with large and showy yellow blossoms. It is also called QE. rhizocarpa. Other showy annuals are CE. sinuata and its variety maxima, CE. macrantha, odorata, bistorta, Veitchiana, and Drummondi. These are all worthy of culture, requiring the treatment of half-hardy annuals, and ordinary garden soil. Olearia {Daisy Trees). — Pretty ever- green bushes, natives of Australia and New Zealand. The only drawback is their not proving really hardy, except in warm localities in the southern counties. They may exist in other districts, but gardens are the worse not the better for the presence of shrubs not really hardy in them, or perhaps in a half dead or flowerless state, or requiring protection, which has a tendency to make gardens needlessly ugly for half the year. 0. insignis. — The plant is dwarf, branched, the branches as thick as the little finger ; the leaves from 3 to 5 in. long, 2 in. broad, rounded at the ends, thick and hard, shining green on the upper surface. With this exception the whole plant is covered with a thick, felt-like coating of pale brownish tomentum. The flowers are on erect peduncles, which are as thick as a goose-quill and from 6 to 9 in. long ; the flower-heads are a little over 2 in. across ; remaining fresh on the plant for about six weeks. This plant is one of the most inter- esting and prettiest of the composites which are found in New Zealand. It is a native of Middle Island, where it is said to grow on the driest rocks. 0. Haasti, — This is pretty hardy in various parts of England, growing to a large size in the more favoured localities, and if planted in groups it has a good effect when covered with its Aster-like flowers, and even out of bloom it is attractive. In New Zealand, where it is found at altitudes of about 4,000 ft., it forms a small shrubby tree. The flowers are very numerous, in terminal corymbs, the ray florets •J in. long, white, the disc yellow. The plants usually bloom in August, and remain in perfec- tion several weeks. Other kinds grown against walls and on warm soils with some success are ramulosa, ilicifolia, myrsinoides, nilida, macro- donta, stellulata, Traversi, Gunniana, dentata, argophylla, insignis. Omphalodes • {Navelwort). — Pretty dwarf rock or mountain plants belonging to the Borage order and really useful in the flower garden. 0. linifolia, a beautiful Portuguese hardy annual, 9 to 1 2 in. high, withglaucous- g-reen leaves and pure white flowers from June to August ; it may be grown in ordinary soil, the seeds sown in April or in September and October ; the plant often sows itself. 0. Lucilise, a lovely rock-plant, with flowers a pretty lilac-blue, and glaucous grey foliage. It is hardy, and succeeds in the rock-garden, but the soil must be thoroughly drained, for though the plant requires abundance of water during growth, it suffers from stagnant moisture. To pro- tect it against slugs, which are too fond of it, strips of perforated zinc, about 3 in. wide, bent so as to form rings round the plants, are used. Division or by seeds. It grows freely in some light soils, as in Wheeler's nursery at Warminster. Asia Minor. 0. verna {Creeping Forget-me-not).^A pretty little plant, bearing in early spring handsome flowers of a deep clear blue with white throats. The plant is useful for borders and the rock and spring gar- den : noplantismore worthy of naturalisa- tion ; in cool, thin woods it runs about like a native plant ; it thrives by woodwalks, and also in open places, and in any position is one of the prettiest plants. There is a white variety, not so pretty as the blue kind. Onoclea sensibilis {Sensitive Fern). — This Fern belongs to the group known as " flowering Ferns," from the fertile frond being contracted so as to give it the Omphalodes LuciliEe. appearance ofanunopenedspike of flowers. The fronds are a beautiful fresh green, especially in spring. Though not very 652 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ONONIS. fastidious as to soil, it succeeds best in a cool and moist situation, such as the base of the rock-garden, or in the American garden, especially if a little shehered by neighbouring plants. If the fronds are allowed to remain on the plants until they appear to be ripe, it will be found that the spore-cases are open and the spores shed, as they drop while the fronds look quite green, therefore the best -ly =s t" c"*^ "<+ rock-garden, forming dense tufts covered in summer with racemes of pink flowers. The white variety is also good, and is worthy of a better position than the com- mon form, which grows in any soil. No^ plants are more readily increased from seed or by division. It is distinct from the spiny O. campestris, which has stems nearly 2 ft. high, and sometimes more, n rntundifnlia is a distinct and pretty Olcana Hansti. the frond as soon as indications of burst- ing are percei\ed, and to lay it in a sheet of paper for a few days, when all the spores will drop out. N. America. Ononis (Rest Harrotv).- — Hardy plants of the Pea family, of which the wild Liquorice (O. ar\ensis) is one of the prettiest of our wild plants, and is worthy of cultivation on banks and in the rough plant, n hich is hardy, and easily cultivated,, flowering in May and June and through the summer ; it attains a height of 12 to 20 in. according to soil, and is suitable for the mixed border or the rougher parts of the rock-garden. Seeds or division. Pyrenees and Alps. These are the best of about half-a-dozen garden species, which also include0.fruticosa,Natrix, and viscosa- ONOPORDON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. OrUNTIA. 653 Onopordon {Cotton Thistle).— nanA- some vigorous thistle-like plants mostly biennial, and valuable for their stately- port and showy flowers. They thrive in exposed places and among shrubs in sheltered ones, and may be effectively used in a variety of ways. Moderation in their use, however, is desirable, as in some situations they seed so freely as to require judicious keeping down. O. Acanthium (Down Thistle) is a bold and vigorous native plant, with very large, stout branching stems, often more than 5 ft. high, covered with long, whitish web-like hairs, and bearing large heads of purplish flowers. The habit of O. illyri- ■cum is more branching, the leaves and stems are much more spiny, the stems are stiffer and the leaves are greener and more deeply cut. O. arabicum is 8 to 10 ft. high, is erect and very slightly branching, and both sides of the leaves, as well as the stems, are covered with white down. O. grtecum is also a handsome plant. Onosma taurica {Golden Drop).—kr\ Onosma taurica (Golden Drop). evergreen perennial, 6 to 12 in. high, soon forming dense tufts, and bearing in summer drooping clusters of clear yellow almond-scented blossoms. The best place for it is the rock-garden, drained, with a good depth of soil, so that the plants may root strongly between the stones, the soil a good sandy loam, mixed with broken grit. Seeds or cuttings. Greece. Onychiiim japonicum.— This elegant Japanese Fern, often grown in the green- house, is hardy in the outdoors fernery. In sevei'e winters, however, some common Brake may be thrown over it. The fronds are finely divided, an intensely dark green, from I to 2 ft. high, and useful for bouquets, or for placing loosely in vases with cut flowers. Ophioglossum vulgatum {Adder's- tongue) is a native Fern not often seen in gardens ; found in moist meadows ; and the best position for it therefore is in colonies in the hardy fernery or the moist stiff soil in the rock-garden. O. lusita- nicum, a dwarf variety, is interesting, but capricious, and difficult to cultivate. Ophiopogon {Snake^s - beard). — Her- baceous perennials, about l^ ft. high, the flowers, usually small, lilac, appearing late in summer and in autumn in spikes, 2 to 5 in. lon^, rising from grassy tufts of evergreen foliage. They thrive in borders or margins of shrubberies in sandy loam, but are scarcely ornamental. O. japoni- cus, Jaburan, spicatus, Muscari, and longi- folius are the best known, and usually in botanical collections. In Italy they are used to form green turf, in lieu of Grass, which perishes from the heat. Division. Japan and India. Ophrys. — Small terrestrial Orchids, singularly beautiful, and among the most curious of plants. Many have been in cultivation, but these being tender plants, chiefly from S. Europe, they must have protection, and require much attention. A few native species, however, can be grown in gardens, and of these one of the most singularly beautiful is the Bee Orchis (O. apifera). This varies from 6 in. to more than I ft. in height ; it has a few glaucous leaves near the ground ; flowers in early summer, the lip of a rich velvety brown with yellow markings, bearing a fanciful resemblance to a bee. It is usually con- sidered difficult to grow, but it may be easily kept on dry banks in the rock- garden, in a firm bed of calcareous soil, or of loam mixed with broken limestone. It thrives best if the soil be surfaced with some very dwarf plant, or with an inch of Cocoa-fibre and sand, so as to keep it moist and compact about the plants. Other in- teresting species for a collection of hardy Orchids are O. muscifera (Fly orchis), arachnites, aranifera (Spider orchis), and Trolli. Opuntia {Prickly Fig).—T\iS.xe> are several of these succulent plants in culti- vation, but few are hardy enough for the open air in our climate. The hardiest are O. vulgaris, missouriensis, humilis, brachy- antha, and Rafinesguei ; the finest of these is O. Rafinesquei, an evergreen well worthy of culture, bearing in summer large showy yellow blossoms on fleshy branches ; thriving in a sunny corner of the rock-garden in good dry soil, and sheltered from any passing danger to the stems, for it is rather fragile, and anything brushing against it would 654 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ornus europ.ia. injure it ; by the skilful placing of a few rough stones, it is easy to prevent injury without shading the plant. To prevent splashings, the ground might be surfaced with a dwarf mossy Saxifrage or Sand- wort. Snails and slugs are fond of this plant, and in the spring, and even in mild winters, may destroy it. A dressing of soot will keep away these pests. To in- crease the plant, the cutting, a single joint, is potted in sandy soil, and the pot placed in a sunny air)' spot under glass and watered very sparingly, and in a short time it will form roots, and commence to push out young shoots. The hardier kinds are from N. W. America, where the winters are severe. Orchis. — These terrestrial Orchids are beautiful, and well worth cultivation among hardy flowers. Those who do not want a full collection will find the species men- tioned below easily growji if placed under good conditions at the outset ; some of our native Orchids are worth a place, but few succeed with them, chiefly because the plants are transplanted at the wrong season. The usual plan is to transplant just when the flowers are opening, but at this period of growth the plant is forming a tuber for the following year, and, if this is in any way injured, it dies. If, instead of this way, the plants are marked when in flower and allowed to remain until August or September, when the tubers are matured, the risk of transplanting is lessened, pro- \-ided the plant be taken up with a deep sod. The ground where the plants grow may be surfaced with such plants as the Balearic Sandwort, Lawn Pearlwort, and the mossy Sa.xifrages. The situation for Orchids should be an open one, and the soil a deep, fibry loam in a drained border. The following are the kinds most worthy of culture : — 0. foliosa. — A handsome Orchid, one of the finest of the hardy kinds, i to 2 ft. or more in height, with long spikes of rosy- purple blossoms in May, lasting long in bloom. It delights in moist nooks at the base of the rock-garden, or in the bog- garden in deep light soil. Madeira. 0. latifolia {Marsh Orchis). — A fine native kind, i to \\ ft. high, with long spikes of purple flowers in early summer. It thrives in damp boggy soil, in peat or leaf-mould. There are several beautiful varieties, the best being praecox and ses- quipedalis ; the last being one of the finest of hard} Orchids, about i\ ft. high, and a third of the stem is covered with purplish-violet flowers. 0. laxiflora is a pretty species, i ft. to i8 m. high, ^^ith loose spikes of rich purplish-red flowers, opening in May and June, and thriving in a moist spot in the rock-garden. Guernsey and Jersey. Division. 0. maculata {Hand Orchis). — One of the handsomest of British Orchids, finest in rich soil, and if well grown in moist and rather stiff garden-loam its beauty will surprise even those who know it well in a wild state. The \ariety superba is a fine plant, and should be secured. Other beautiful kinds, but more or less difficult to establish in gardens, are O. papilionacea, purpurea, militaris, mascula, pyramidaKs, spectabilis, tephrosanthos, and Robertiana. Oreocome Candollei is a hardy peren- nial, effective for the margins of shrub- beries, or for planting singly, making a pyramid, 5 ft. in height, with large leaves finely divided, recurving gracefolly, of a fresh green colour, with umbels of pure white flowers rising above the foliage. It grows well in any ordinary garden soil Himalayas. UmbelliferEe. Division. Oreodaphne califomica {Californian Bay). — \ handsome and fragrant tree, rare in our country, and though not hardy in every part of the country, there are places where it would thrive. AMien pressed the leaves emit a powerful and agreeable odour, which sometimes has injurious effects. They are largely used for making bay water. — A. D. W. Origanum [Dittany {Hop Plani)\— O. Dictamnus (Dittany of Crete) is a pretty plant, somewhat tender, and best grown under glass rather than in the open air, though during mild winters it may survive. It has mottled foliage, and small purphsh flowers, in heads like the Hop, hence the name Hoi>-plant. O. Sipyleum is similar, and is quite as pretty. In the open air these plants should have a warm spot in the rock-garden. Ornithogaliun {Stat of Bethlehem).— Bulbous plants, some of them hand- some, others not very distinct, but all useful in the Grass and in borders, in any good garden soil— one or two kinds among the hardy species important for choice borders and bulb beds, i.e., pyramidale and latifohum. Among other kinds worth growmg are nutans (free in grass), norben- neuse, sororium, exscapum and umbella- tum— the common kind natives mostly of S. Europe, X. Africa, and Asia Minor. The fine, O. arabicum is not to be grown out of doors, save in ver\- warm gardens m the south. Ornus europaea {Flowering Ash).~.\ handsome flowering tree of medium growth, suitable for lawns, or for grouping ORNus euroivi;a. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 655 with larger trees making a round-headed tree, generally not exceeding 30 ft. in height. Its foliage resembles that of the common Ash ; in early summer, usually about the end of May, it bears large plume-like clusters of flowers of a yellowish white ; a South European tree, it is hardy, although its young foliage is some- Orobus {Bitter fv/c/;).— Often pretty plants of the Pea Order, flowering usually m spring. They are suitable for the mixed border, for the rougher parts of the rock-garden, or for naturalising. We mention only the distinct kinds. 0. aurantius is a handsome plant, 18 to 24 in. high, with orange-yellow flowers Orchis foliosa (M.adeira Orchis).' times injured by late frosts. There are various so-called species of Omus (now placed in the genus Fraxinus) which do not differ materiall)- from the common O. europsea. O. floribunda is a native of the Himalayas, more tender than the European species, but li\es well in warm southern districts. in early summer. O. tauricus is a nearly- allied species, also with orange flowers. Both require to be well established before they bloom freely, and they are useful for borders in ordinary soil. 0. lathsnToides is a lovely border plant, 18 to 24 in. high ; its bright blue flowers borne in dense racemes ; increased freely- 656 ORONTIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER 'GARDEN. OSMANTHHS. by seeds, and thrives in ordinary soil. 0. vernus {Spting Bitter Vetch). — One of the most charming of border flowers. From black roots spring healthy tufts of leaves ^^•ith two or three pairs of shin- ing leaflets ; the flower-buds appearing soon afterwards, almost covering the plant with beautiful purple and blue blooms in April. Besides the type there are varieties : — tenuifolius, with narrow leaflets and flowers similar, though the habit is more lax ; flaccidus, similar to tenuifolius, but brighter and denser, and with broader leaves ; cyaneus, the most attractive, larger and possessing a strange inter- mixture of colours, some a bright blue, others a greenish-blue. Then there is a double-flowered kind and a pure white variety, all thriving in deep warm soils. Some other species useful for borders and the rock-garden are — O. pubescens, Spring Bitter Vetch (Orobus vemus). O. canescens, O. varius, and O. Fischeri, but O. vemus and its forms are the handsomest. All are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil, and are increased by seeds or division of the root. Orontium aquaticum {Golden Club). — A handsome aquatic perennial of the Arum family, 12 to 1 8 in. high ; in early summer its narrow spadix is densely covered with yellow flowers, which emit a singular odour. The plant may be grown on the margins of ponds and fountain- basins, or in the wettest part of the bog- garden. North .America. Osmanthus. — Handsome evergreen shrubs, few hardy in our islands ; but some of these are of value : 0. aauifolium.— In a hardy botanical sense all the Osmanthus in Britain are forms of this species. They can scarcely be called varieties, for it is not unusual to see a plant with two so-called varieties on one branch. For convenience and brevity's sake, however, and especially as they keep true to character in the majority of instances, the common nursery names are here kept up. O. aquifolium is a native of China and Japan. In some of its forms it is curiously like the Holly, and is frequently mistaken for it. It is, however, of looser growth and less thickly furnished with leaves, and is also of dwarfer, more shrubby habit. What is generally accepted as the typical form of this species is the one with the largest and broadest leaves. In this the leaves are 3 in. to 4 in. long, of oblong or oval shape, pointed or toothed, but not so deeply as the smaller-leaved forms known as ilicifolius. They are of a deep green colour and of \ery firm texture. This plant is, according to my experience, the least hardy of this set. It flowers in autumn, and the blossoms are fragrant. 0. ilicifolius. — This is by far the most common and useful kind, and is, more- over, a valuable shrub for tow n planting. The leaves are usually much smaller than those of the plant just described and may be easily recognised by their deep lobing. The largest specimen at Kew is 9 ft. high, with a spreading base and foliage of the deepest and glossiest green. The leaves average i^ in. to 2 in. in length and are cut half way to the midrib into several sharply pointed lobes. Some of the leaves, however, are quite entire, others lobed on one side only, but most of them have the upper half lobed, the lower half entire. The following have been given \arietal names : — AUREO MARGIXATUS. — Leaves similar to those of the green plant, but margined with creamy yellow. Argenteneo-margixatu.^. — Leaves like those of the preceding, but edged with white instead of yellow. L.\tifolius MARGINATUS. — Leaves larger than those of either of the preceding, the margin creamy white : — Purpurascexs. — The young leaves of this variety are tinged with purple, especially on the under side. It is undoubtedly the best of all the Osmanthuses for outdoor work, being much hardier than the variegated forms. At Kew there is a group of this purple- leaved variety near the Palm house, amongst which is planted Lilium candi- dum, and nothing could more happily set off" the beauty of this Lily. O. MYRTIFOLIUS. — There is an Osman- thus at Kew the lower part of which is ilicifolious, the upper part myrtifolious. The origin of the latter is therefore con- clusively proved. It appears, however, to be itself constant, and when grown on OSMANTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 657 its own roots I have never noticed any reversion. It makes a neat bush, with leaves like those of the Myrtle in shape, but larger and firmer in texture. 0. rotundifolius.— This is the dwarfest and slowest growing of all the Osman- thuses, and is, moreover, one of the most distinct. Its leaves are very stiff and leathery, and distinguish the variety by their more or less obovate outline. The margins are not distinctly serrated, but have a very shallow irregular lobing. The leaves are each from i in. to ij in. long and a little more than half as wide. The Osmanthuses may all be propa- gated by cuttings, and although it takes longer to obtain plants on their own roots, they are much to be preferred to those grafted on the Privet. Cuttings should be taken in August when the wood has become firm, and they may be struck in a cool propagating frame. An open soil of fair quality and depth is better than a very rich one for all the forms, but more especially for those that are variegated. — W. J. B. Osmunda {Royal Fern). — So-called " flowering " Ferns made familiar by our native Royal Fern (O. regalis), which is found in many bogs and marshy woods, and is well worth cultivating, as it is the largest and most striking of our native Ferns (sometimes attaining a height of 8 ft.). It should be planted in moist peaty soil, and the most . suitable spots are half- shady places on the banks of streams or of pieces of water. It may also be planted in the water. When exposed to the full sun, it does well, with its roots in a constantly moist, porous, moss-covered soil, if sheltered from strong winds. In shady positions and in deep bog soil it attains a great size. The various North American Osmundas may be associated with it. O. cinna- momea is an elegant N. American Fern with pale green fronds ; the variety angnstata is smaller, and the fronds are less inclined to droop. This species, like O. regalis, is deciduous. O. Claytoniana is another deciduous species, and has \ivid green fronds, 2 to 3 ft. high. O. interrupta is the same. O. gracilis is a native of Canada, somewhat resembling a dwarf form of our Royal Fern, the fronds about 2 ft. high. O. spectabilis is a slender form of O. regalis ; its fronds are smaller, and the young ones come up reddish-purple. North America. These exotic species are of the simplest culture in the hardy fernery, in moist peaty soil. Ostrowskya magnifica {Great Oriental Bell/lower). — This remarkable and hand- some hardy plant was found by Dr. Regel on the higher mountains of Chanat Darwas, in Eastern Bokhara, and is like a huge Platycodon in aspect, but distinct, the flowers being of great beauty, several inches across, of a delicate purple, veined and varying from seed ; the leaves are in whorls. The plant likes a deep sandy loam, as the carrot-like roots when of full size go down to a depth of 2 ft. They must be carefully handled as they are very brittle. The Ostrowskya does not apparently thrive equally in all places, and is often disappointing. Seeds ger- minate readily in a cold frame, but a few years elapse between sowing and flowering. !■ sir-"-" ^^HB ^^w Ostrowskya magnifica. ' Othonna cheirifolia {Barbary Rag- wort). — A distinct Composite plant, with whitish-green tufts, 8 in. to i ft. high, or on rich soils perhaps more. It is a spreading evergreen, flowering sparsely on heavy and cold soil, but on light soils often blooming freely in May ; the flowers yellow, about i^ in. across, but not pretty. It is useful from its distinct aspect on the rough rock-garden or in the mixed border. Cuttings. Perishes in severe winters, at least on clay soils. Barbary. Ourisia coccinea. — A bright dwarf Chilian creeper, bearing in early sum- mer scarlet blossoms in slender clusters, 6 to 9 in. high. Though hardy, it is reputed difficult to grow, and it should be placed against a block of soft porous stone in a moist place, such as the foot of a wall with an east aspect. Its creeping stems will soon run over the stone, and it will flower freely. Scrophulariaceas. U U 6s8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN OXYTROPIS. Oxalis {Wood SorreT). — V)vi2iXi and often pretty perennial or annual plants, for the most part more happy and free in temperate countries, but some hardy with us on warm borders and on the rock- garden. They all thrive best in a sandy soil in the warmest and driest place in a garden. The following are the best kinds for our gardens : — 0. Bowieana. — A robust species, form- ing rich masses of leaves, 6 to 9 in. high, and umbels of rose flowers continuously throughout the summer, suitable for warm borders at the foot of a south wall. In cold soils it seldom flowers, but on very sandy, warm, and well-drained soils it flowers abundantly, and when this is the case it may be used with effect as an edging to beds of autumn - blooming plants, and where it does well it is one of the most precious of hardy flowers. Division. Cape of Good Hope. ^? \'-^ 0. floribunda. — A free-flowering kind, hardy in all soils ; for months in succes- sion it bears numbers of dark-veined rose- coloured flowers. The white-flowered variety flowers as freely as the rose- coloured form, and both are very useful for the rock - garden and for margins of borders, and are easily increased by division. O. floribunda appears to be the commonest kind of Oxalis in cultivation. America. 0. lasiandra. — A distinct and beautiful kind, with large dark green leaves, and in early summer umbels of bright rose- coloured flowers, and useful for warm borders and the rock-garden. Mexico. 0. lobata. — A stemless little plant with three deeply-lobed bright green leaflets, and blossoms about f in. across, rich yellow, the centre delicately pencilled with chocolate. A free-flowering bright little plant during sunshine, thriving in warm sandy loam on well -drained borders. It survi^•es mild winters un- protected. Chili. 0. luteola is one of the prettiest, forming a compact tuft ; the flower-buds \ in. in length, and a soft creamy-yellow, but when open they are as large as a half- crown, and pure white, shading to yellow towards the centre ; it is not hardy, but in light sandy soil will survive a winter if protected. 0. Acetosella (5/«Azf (7r/, Wood Sorrel). — The prettiest of the kinds known so far for our gardens is our native Wood Sorrel, which bore in old times the better name of "Stubwort" — a name which should be used always. This grows itself in such pretty ways in woody and shady places that in many gardens there will be no need to cultivate it. \\Tiere it must be cultivated it will be happy in the hardy fernery or in shady spots in the rock- garden, or under trees, or the lawn, or in any shady or half-shady places in ground not dug. There are other species worthy of a place, especially on very dry sandy soils, and among them are O. Smithi, rosea, Deppei, speciosa, arborea, violacea, versicolor, incamata, tetraphylla, venusta, and comiculata. O. comiculata rubra is sometimes used for bedding, and should always be encouraged where there are old quarries and rough rocky places, especially in a calcareous district, for this handsome plant speedily covers the most unpromising surfaces. In gardens, however, this Wood Sorrel becomes a troublesome weed. If a collection begrown, it should be borne in mind that it is ^'ery difficult to preserve the correctness of the names, for the minute bulblets become mixed up with the earth, and the elasticity of the seed-pods permits the seeds to scatter in all directions. Oxytropis.— Plants of the Pea familv, nearly aUied to Astragalus, the best of which is O. pyrenaica, a dwarf species, with pinnate leaves covered with silky down, barely rising abo\ e the ground, the flowers a purplish-lilac, barred with white, and borne in heads of from four to fifteen in early summer. It is a native of the Pyrenees, rare in gardens, and increased by seed or division. It should be planted on well-exposed and bare parts of rock- gardens, in firm, sandy, or gravelly soil. O. Halleri has charming, compact flowers, of a decided self colour— as deep a blue as that of the Gentians, and proves a manageable plant in the rock-garden in deep moist loam. O. uralensis, a dwarf species from the Ural Mountains, has rosy-blue flowers in compact heads about 4 in. high. Other kinds are— O montana, foetida, strobilacea, campestris, OXYURA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 659 and its several varieties ; all of these are dwarf, and thrive in sandy loamy soil in open spots in the rock-garden. Oxyura chrysantliemoides. — A neat hardy annual of the Daisy Order, with showy yellowf flowers in summer. It shoviUl be sown in a broad mass in ordinary soil in autumn, and the seedlings well thinned out. California. Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius. —A neat little cxcrgreen shrub from Tasmania, almost hardy in the south and coast dis- tricts, with small, Rosemary-likelea\'es, and about the end of summer bcariny dense clusters of small white flowers. Il thrives in any liyht soil, and should be planted in an open sunny spot or on a warm bank. Helichrysum. and has pale yellow blossoms in May and June. Alpine districts of Carinthia and various parts of Italy. Fieonia {Pccony). — The Pajonies arc amony the most beautiful of hardy flowers, and are indispensable for the garden. They combine stateliness of growth with beauty of colour and, fre- quently, delicious fragrance. Though there are several typical species in botanical collections, by far the most important are the hybrids obtained by intercrossing some half a dozen kinds. Preonies are divided into two groups — the tree or shrubby kinds, comprising the varieties of P. Moutan ; and the herbaceous kinds, of which the common P. officinalis is typical. The hybrid sorts have been O/Citlinninus rosmarinifolius. Pach3rpli3rton braoteosum {Si/vcr />/- the young plants should not usually be planted out till March or April. To increase the stock of any given variety rapidly, the store pots of cuttings rooted in autumn should be put in a gentle bottom-heat in spring, and induced to grow ; if the 670 PENTSTEMON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PENTSTEMON. young growths be taken off when they are 2 in. in length, and put into pans of sandy soil of the same temperature, they will quickly strike, and by May and June, if properly treated, will be healthy plants. Seedlings. — The Pentstemon is a free seeder, and there is no difficulty in obtain- ing seed. Seed should be taken from only the finest varieties showing distinct or novel chai'acter — and such varieties can scarcely fail to yield something worthy of cultivation. The seed should be sown in February or early in March in a gentle heat : it will quickly germinate, and when the plants are large enough to handle, they should be pricked off into shallow boxes, and, after a time, hardened off in a cold frame. Here they can remain till the end of May or later ac- cording to size, and they should then be planted out in well-prepared beds. When they flower, which they will do by August and September, any especially good varieties should be marked to propagate from. If the bed of seedlings be allowed to stand for another season (and this is often a good plan), the seed-stalks should be cut away as soon as ripe, and the bed cleaned, top-dressed with leaf-soil and short manure in spring, and there will be a plentiful harvest of flowers the following summer. Seedlings should be protected by a cold frame during winter, and planted out in April in good soil in a sunny spot. P. heterophyllus. — A dwarf sub- shrubby kind, its showy flowers, singly or in pairs in the axils of the upper leaves, of a pinky lilac ; plants from seed are very liable to vary. Though hardier than many species, it succumbs to severe winters; and plants should be kept in frames. California. P. humilis. — A very distinct alpine species, rarely exceeding 8 in. in height, forming compact tufts, its large blossoms of a pleasing blue suffused %\'ith reddish- purple : it should be planted in the rock- garden in a fully exposed spot in gritty loam and leaf-mould, and during summer the plant should be copiously watered. It blooms in early June, and is a native of the Rocky Mountains, abundant about Pike's Peak. P. Jeffreyanus. — A showy kind, and the best of the blue-flowered class, its glaucous foliage contrasting finely with its clear blue blossoms borne during the greater part of the summer. It is a handsome dwarf border plant, but not being a good perennial, the stock should be kept up by the aid of seedlings, which will bloom much more vigorously than old plants. North California. P. Isetus is a close ally of P. azureus and P. heterophyllus, and, like them, is of dwarf branching habit, with blue flowers in raceme-like panicles about \\ ft. high, blooming in July and August. It is a native of California, and is as hardy as most of the species from that region. P. Murrayanus.— A distinct plant, and one of the most beautiful, 3 to 6 ft. high, with tiers of brilliant scarlet flowers, and broad glaucous leaves. It should be raised from seed annually, and the seed- lings should be grown well for flowering the following summer, as few plants are more worthy of care. It is a native of Texas, and loves a warm sunny soil. P. centranthifolius is similar but not so handsome, though easier to grow, and hardier. P. ovatus, also known as P. glaucus, is a fine vigorous plant, 3 to 4 ft. high, the flowers small, but in dense masses, in colour varying from intense ultramarine to deep rosy-purple ; their brilliant colour, and the handsome form of the plant com- bine to give it a special value. It should be considered a biennial, as it usually flowers so vigorously in the second year as to exhaust itself. Mountains of Columbia. P. Palmeri.— A handsome species of robust habit, in good soil 3 to 5 ft. high ; the flowers in a many-flowered panicle 18 to 24 in. long, peach-coloured and streaked with red, corolla with a gaping mouth. The plant is quite hardy, succeeding in almost any well-drained soil, and flower- ing about midsummer. P. spectabilis is similar. P. procerus is a beautiful little plant, and about the hardiest of all the species, as it takes care of itself in any soil. It is of a creeping habit, sending up from the tufted base numerous flowering stems 6 to 12 in. high. The small flowers are in dense spikes, and, being of a lovely amethyst-blue, they make it channing for either the border or the rock-garden. It seeds abundantly. It is the earliest to blossom of all the Pentstemons. P. nitidus and P. micranthus are synonymous with P. procerus, and P. confertus is somewhat smular. P. confertus has straggling stems, and is a very distinct species, though by no means showy. P. Scouleri is a small semi-shrubby plant of twiggy growth. Its large flowers are of a slaty bluish-purple, and are arranged m short terminal racemes ; they are not produced in great abundance, but, combined with the dwarf and compact f,T- f ^}^^- P^^"*' *'^^y have charms sufficiently distinct to render it worthy of cultivation. P. Scouleri may be readily I'ENTSTEMON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PETASITES. 671 increased in spring by cuttings of the young shoots, since such cuttings strike freely in a little bottom-heat similar to that used for ordinary bedding plants. P. speciosus, a remarkably handsome kind, has stems 3 to 4 ft. in height, and many-flowered clusters of flowers, which are sky-blue, varying to a reddish hue. P. glaber is nearly related to P. speciosus, but is dwarfer. The flowers are of various shades of purple, and early in summer are borne in crowded spikes about i ft. in length. On account of its dwarfness it is better suited for the rock-garden than most of the kinds. P. grandiflorus is very handsome, and allied to P. speciosus and P. glaber. It grows about 3 ft. high, and from July to August produces large flowers of a beautiful pink colour. Another and similar species is P. secundi- florus, which bears in one-sided racemes blossoms of clear blue and violet. It is about i^ ft. high when well grown. P. acuminatus is a beautiful similar kind. These all require to be raised from seed annually, and to be planted out the second year. Perilla nankineusis. — A half-hardy annual, with dark vinous-purple foliage. Generally used in lines, but a few plants in a group here and there in the mixed border or the sub-tropical garden are effective. Seed should be sown about the middle of February in pans or boxes in heat : the seedlings should be transplanted into boxes in soil not over-rich, and after being gradually hardened offi they should be planted out about the end of May. For those without artificial heat in spring it is not a very suitable plant, as it requires heat to get to the requisite size for plant- ing in proper time. It is much used in bedding-out, and often with the worst re- sults, so far as taste is concerned. Periploca grSBCa(527^ Vine). — A rapid- growing shrubby climber of the Stepha- notis order, excellent for walls, arbours, trellises, and the like, but on account of the somewhat unpleasant odour of its flowers it is not advisable to plant it against the walls of a dwelling- house. Its long slender stems and branches form a dense mass, and at midsummer are covered with brownish- red velvety flowers ; it is deciduous, and therefore unsuitable for a winter-screen. A native of Southern Europe, it is hardy in garden soil, and has been grown in English gardens for nearly three cen- turies Pernettya mucronata {Prickly Heath). — A little Evergreen of the Heath family from South America, but hardy enough for our gardens. Its beauty lying mainly in the berries which it bears in autumn, the size of small Cherries, dull purple, but there are varieties with berries of white, rose, pink, crimson, purple-black, and every intermediate shade. They should be planted where the soil is peaty or sandy, and even a heavy soil may be made suitable by adding decayed leaf-mould and sand. For autumn and winter beds on a lawn near the house they are excellent, as they have a cheerful aspect throughout the winter. Petasites fragrans {Winter Helio- trope). — A rampant weed with fragrant flowers 4 to 12 in. high, in December and January, unless the weather is very severe, bearing flowers, deliciously fragrant, of a A.^ The Winter Heliotrope (Petasites fragrans). pale dingy lilac, in a rather short panicle. It is unfit for garden culture, as it runs very much at the root and becomes a weed, but it maybe planted on rough banks, lanes, and in hedgerows, as it is very useful for winter bouquets, and may carpet, so to say, a small clump of shrubbery, where it can be conveniently gathered. Another species, P. vulgaris (Common Butterbur), is a native plant, 2 to i\ ft. high, closely allied to the common Coltsfoot, but having great Rhubarb-like leaves ; the flowers appear in spring before the leaves, and are of a dull pinkish-purple. Exotic plants, with less effective leaves than this have been used in gardens ; but it should not be allowed to come nearer 6/2 PETROCALLIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PHILADELPHUS. to the garden than the margin of some adjacent stream or moist bottom. Di- vision. Petrocallis pyrenaica {Rock Beauty). — A beautiful little alpine plant, forming dense cushions 2 to 3 in. high, when not in flower resembling a mossy Saxifrage ; its flower pale lilac, faintly veined, sweet scented, in April. Though hardy, it is fragile, and is best placed on the well- made rock-garden, in sandy fibry loam, in level sunny spots, where it can root freely in moist soil, mingled with broken stones. It may also be grown in pots plunged in sand in the open air, and in frames in winter, but it becomes " drawn " and delicate under glass. Easily increased by seed or careful division. Alps and Pyrenees. Petunia. — In certain positions, some of Petrocallis pyrenaica. these showy half-hardy plants of the Sol- anum order produce a charming effect in masses ; and all are well suited for large vases, for baskets of mixed plants, for low trellises, and for planting under windows and walls. The spots chosen for Petunias should be open and sunny, and the soil deep and rich, for in low damp situations they mildew and canker as soon as the first cold nights of autumn set in. The best bedding varieties are Spitfire, dark purphsh-cnmson ; Dr. Hogg, purple, with white throat; Miss Amy, crimson and white; Countess of EUesmere, rosy- crimson, with a lighter throat; and Dehcata, «hite, stnped with purple. If they are sown in heat in February or March, good plants may be had for putting out at the end of May, but it is not safe tS plant them out earlier. Seedlings, too are now so good that they are frequently planted m mixed borders for cutting, ihe named kinds must be propagated from cuttings. Cuttings should be in- serted in August in a bed of leaves or other fermenting material at a tempera- ture of 70° to 75", and with a top-heat of 65°, since they strike quickly under such conditions. As soon as rooted they should be taken out of the bottom-heat and placed in cold frames till frosty nights set in ; then removed to an intermediate house and placed on shelves near the glass, remaining there in store-pots till spring, then potted off singly and grown sturdily on till planting-out time. The roots are so brittle that, however well they are rooted, the soil does not ad- here to them ; and this is why it is necessar)' to pot singly, for if the plants , are put in pans or boxes, and transplanted I thence to the beds, they suffer greatly, and I are a long time getting re-established. — W. W. Phacelia. — Califomian hardy annuals ' of easy culture : none of the cultivated kinds very importanL P. congesta is the i best, and smaller than either P. tanaceti- i folia or circinaUs. They have dense heads of small blue or violet flowers. Hydro- phyUaceas. Phalangium (Anthericum). Pharbitis ( Ipomoea). Phaseolus {Kidney Bean).—\ very large genus of the Pea family. The common Scarlet Rimner (P. multiflorus) and the French Bean (P. ^-ulgaris) are i the most familiar examples, and the other species are suitablq only for botanical collections. A pretty effect is often given by the Scarlet Runner on trellises in cottage-gardens. Philadelphns {Mock Orang^e).~Uand- some flowering shrubs, with the exception of P. mexicanus, hardy, and many of them from their beauty deserving a good place. They are generally seen struggling for existence in some choked-up shrubbery border, and often in some shady spot where the bloom is sure to be meagre. Where planted in a group or mass, ample space should be allowed for the access of sun- shine, as upon this will to a very great extent depend the future display of bloom. Ihe larger kinds are seen to great ad- vantage when isolated on the Grass or disposed thereon in a group of three or tour, plenty of room being aUowed each for Its full development. Some of the smallest, and especially P. microphyUus, look weU in a small bed by themselves, or they may be employed as a foreground to the larger kinds. In pruning the Philadelphus, as with most other flowering shrubs, if carried out at all, the main thing should De to remove exhausted and useless wood PHIL.\DEI.PHUS. THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEX. philadelphus. 673 rather than to mterfere with clean recent shoots. The entire genus (and more par- ticularly the larger growing forms) is m a very confused state, and it is no uncom- mon thing to see two names applied to one plant, or a couple quite distmct bearing one name. P. MICROPHYLLI'S. — This forms a dense bush, at tlie most not more than a yard, and frequently less, in height, clothed with small Myrtle-like leaves, disposed in a regular manner on the slender twigs, which in their turn are arranged \eiy regularly. The flowering spray is hand- some ; its fragrance is very different from that of any other kind, being more like a combination of ripe .A.pples and Quince. This little shrub is a native of New Me.\ico and some of the adjacent States. It was not long- in Europe before the hybridist took advantage of such a distinct shrub, and M. Lemoine, of Nancy, raised a variety, Lemoinei, which was announced as the result of a cross between P. micfo- phyllus and the European P. coronarius. It foiTns a shrub in appearance about midwa)' between its parents, and flowers profusely. The blossoms possess the fragrance of its North American parent, without any of the heavy smell common to the Mock Orange. Since P. Lemoinei was sent out, a second form has made its appearance from the same source, under the name of P. Lemoinei erectus. Though of more erect habit, it is in other respects much like the preceding. P. GRANDIFLORUS. — While P. micro- phyllus is the best of the small-growing kinds, tliis is the best of those with large blossoms, and it is certainly one of tlie finest flowering shrubs to be met with in gardens. The blooms are a couple of inches in diameter, white, and with little scent, the bush forming a rounded mass from 6 ft. to 12 ft. in height. There is a variety of this (laxus) less in stature and of a more open style of growth than the type. P. speciosus is now regarded as sjTionjaiious with P. grandi- florus. P. GORDONl.vxus is another large-grow- ing kind, nati\'e of North America, whose blooms are smaller than those of the last named, but they are very numerous, and later in expanding than most of the others, and on that account this species is especially ^-aluable. It was introduced from North-west .\merica in 1S23, and was named in compliment to tlie late Mr. R. Gordon, of the Horticultural Societj'^s Garden, Chiswick. Other species a good deal in the same way are P. inodorus and P. verrucosus, both North American, while P. mexicanus is too tender to be generally planted. P. Satzumi is a slender, yet freely branching bush about 6 ft. high, the flowers rather small, borne in little clusters for some distance along the shoots. Slight forms of this are often met with under diflferent names, and it is also \ery prob- able that the North American species could be reduced in number if grown under similar conditions. P. HIRSUTUS. — This derives its name from the haiiy undersides of the lea\es, while the flowers are, with the exception of those of P. microphyllus, about the smallest of the genus. They are also generally solitary, but are borne in such Philadelphus graiidiflorus. profusion that a specimen is wonder- fully pretty when in bloom. This, as a rule, grows about 4 ft. or 5 ft. high. P. CORONARIUS is the common European Mock Orange, which is well known. There are, however, one or two well-marked varieties, viz., nanus, a little bush about 2 ft. high, that rarely flowers ; variegatus, whose leaves are margined with white ; and aureus, of moderate compact growth, whose foliage retains its golden hue throughout the summer. Several varieties with double blossoms are to be met with, among which may be mentioned flore- pleno, primulaeflorus, and rosseflorus. — T. KnowTi Species P.a^nis, Mexico ; asperifolius, do. ; coroHOarius. S. Europe ; ffodokckcsii, N. Ajuer. ; Gor- danioMUSj Calif. ; grundiflmits, N. Amer. ; hirsutm, W. Amer. ; z/todontSj N. Amer. ; tHsigms ; intcr- ifiedius ; KeUleerii ; Le-^'isii, N. Ajner. : Mcxicatitis^ Me.xico ; microphyUus^ X. ilexico : tiiyrt'.'hfis, Guate- mala; pai^i/laruSy China '.fcmiitHfolius : nibrkinilis- China : scrfiylUhltus. N . Mexico ; sietwfctahz ; trfc/io- " iRica. pctalus-, Costal X X 674 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Philesia buxifolia {Pepino). — An ex- quisite dwarf shrub, with large carmine- red Lapageria-Iike bells (2 in. long) nest- ling among and suffusing with their rich colour the sombre evergreen foliage. It is a precious shrub for the cooler parts of the rock-garden in the more favourable coast gardens, in peat or turfy loam. S. America. Lapageria order. Phleum {Cafs-taiT). — Grasses, some native. The variegated-leaved form of P. pratense is pretty constant, and suit- able for edgings in any soil. Fhlomis (Jerusalem Sage). — Among the finest hardy plants of the Sage family. There are about a dozen kinds in cultiva- tion, showing great diversity of size and habit. Some, like, P. fruticosa, are shrubs, others stout herbaceous plants, while others again, as P. armeniaca, are suffi- ciently alpine for the rock-garden. The most desirable is the South European P. fruticosa, a half-shrubby plant 3 to 4 ft. high, its Sage-like leaves covered with rusty down, while its large rich yellow flowers, attractive in summer, are in dense whorls for about half the length of the branches. It may be grown in the mixed border or associated with shrubs in an open spot. It it hardy in light soils in the southern counties. Of the few other shrubby kinds none is so fine, and though P. ferruginea is similar, it is neither so effective nor so hardy. Of herbaceous kinds the best is P. Herba-venti, a strong plant I to 3 ft. high, its rich purplish- violet flowers in dense whorls. P. tuberosa and P. purpurea, with purple flowers, may be naturalised with it, as they flourish in any soil or situation. The best herba- ceous kinds with yellow flowers are P. Russelliana and P. Samia, both about 3 ft. high, strong growers, and do well for naturalising. The very dwarf P. armeni- aca has silvery leaves and reddish-purple flowers. P. cashmeriana somewhat re- sembles P. Herba-venti, but its flower- heads are denser, and its flowers, besides being larger, have a broad violet-purple lip. All the species are easily propagated —the shrubby kinds by cuttings and seed, the herbaceous sorts by division and seed. Phlox. — For the most part shovi^y garden perennials ; but the annual P. Drummondi alone has produced distinct varieties enough to furnish a garden with almost every shade of colour. The peren- nials are numerous, and present such variety in habit, that for the garden they may be divided into three distinct groups. One is alpine in habit ; of this the beauti- ful P. subulata, or Moss Pink, is the best known, but there are many others in the Rocky Mountains and westward, some of them more truly alpine. Next to these are several that may be grouped as running or creeping Phloxes, perennial, but with prostrate stems. Lastly, there are the well-known tall garden Phloxes, generally called the perennial Phloxes, though all Phloxes but P. Drummondi are perennial. Perennial Phloxes have been so hybridised that the types are quite lost sight of in a vast number of garden forms. P. subulata, for instance, varies so much in the wild state that its forms have been described as species. Early or summer - FLOvi^ERiNG Phloxes have chiefly come from P. suffruticosa. They include many varieties, varying principally in colour, and flowering during June and July. They grow in any good border or bed, and if the subsoil be too wet, it must be drained, and about 9 in. of good Hazel-loam enriched vwth good old manure and a small quantity of broken bones laid on the surface. In the herba- ceous border a pit can be dug — say, 12 in. square and 9 in. deep — and filled with this compost. Summer Phloxes are useful in June and July, as they come between the spring and autumn sorts. The following are twenty-four of the finest : Beauty, Beauty of Edinburgh, Bridesmaid, Con- queror, Caller O', George Eyles, James Nicholson, Mrs. P. Guthrie, Mrs. Burton, Mrs. Gellatly, Philip Pollock, William Mitchell, Allen M'Lean, Dr. Robert Black, Duchess of Athole, Indian Chief, Mary Shaw, Mrs. Ritchie, President, Redbraes, Socrates, The Bouquet, The Deacon, and The Shah. Autumn or late-flowering Phloxes have been obtained by hybri- dising and selecting from various N. American species, principally P. panicu- lata and its varieties acuminata, decussata, and pryamidalis, which are stronger and taller than the early Phloxes, and immedi- ately succeed them in flower, thus prolong- ing the season at least two months from the end of July. They are bright and varied in colour, including all shades from rich vermilion to pure white, but the many shades of dingy purple and magenta are objectionable. There are endless varieties, more or less distinct, but the following will be found a good selection : Coccinea, David Syme, Gavin, Greenshields, Jane Welsh, Jenny Grieve, Lothair, Matthew Mfller, Mrs. Keynes, Monsieur Rafarin, RSve d'Or, Robert Paterson, William Blackwood, Andrew Borrowman, Carna- tion, Henry Cannell, James Alexander, James Cocker, Madame Verlot, Major Molesworth, Miss Wallace, Mrs. Tennant, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 675 Thos. Chisholm, Triomphe .du Pare de Neuilly, and William Veitch. For large beds, and to get bold masses of distinct colour, the following are the most effec- ti\e and can be used according to the shades of colour required, \iz. : Coccinea, rich vermilion ; Carnation, white and spotted with purple ; James Alexander, rich crimson ; Lothair, bright scarlet ; Mrs. Keynes, pure white; Robert Paterson, rich crimson ; William Blackwood, rosy- salmon ; JVIiss Wallace, pure white ; and Major Molesworth, scarlet with a crimson eye. When in beds or borders, the early and late sorts should be planted alternately, and arranged according to height and colour, a mass of bloom, lasting for at least three months, being produced. After planting give each plant a good stake, and tie it up when necessary. In spring the number of shoots should be reduced ac- cording to the strength of the plant and nature of the variety. Phloxes of this group are also improved by a top-dressing of good rich soil every spring; and in vei-y hot and dry seasons good watering will prolong the bloom. The way to propagate Phloxes is by seed, cuttings of the stems and roots, and •division. Seed should be taken from the best sorts, and sown in boxes or pans in good free loam, immediately after being ripe. Keep it in a greenhouse or warm pit close to the glass. The young seedlings will appear in February and March ; and when fit to handle prick them into boxes of good soil and keep close and warm for a sliort time ; they can then be grown with the other plants intended for the flower garden. The strongest will be fit to plant ■out in April and May. They will flower the first season, but will not be strong until the second. In the second year all the best sorts ought to be marked and then grown a third year, to test them with the best named kinds. Cuttings can be taken at all seasons, and in propagating from roots cut the oldest into pieces about \ in. in length, sown, so to speak, in boxes, and treated like seedlings. The leaves also strike, but this is a very slow way. As regards division, this con- sists in taking the old plant and cutting it into small pieces. The habit of the plant should be strong and erect, with plenty of broad and healthy foliage, and not exceed 3 or 4 ft. P, Carolina is a handsome plant, about I ft. high, with slender stems terminated by a cluster of large showy deep rose flowers. P. ovata has broader leaves ; while P. nitida is also handsome. P. glaberrima, is far less important. These kinds flower in summer, in ordinary soil and an open spot. P. divaricata. — A handsome plant from North America, larger than either the Creeping Phlox (P. reptans) or the Moss Pink (P. subulata), and about i ft. high with large lilac-purple blossoms in summer, while the leaves are rounded at the base, and are egg-shaped or lance-shaped. Rock-garden in good soil. Increased by division. P. Drummondi. — One of the most beautiful of half-hardy annuals, varied and brilliant in colour, and not injured by bad weather, like many other flowers. It may be used in a variety of ways, such as a carpet to beds of standard Roses, as it does not interfere with the well-being of the Roses, but hides their naked stems. It is also suitable for rustic vases and boxes ; but it is when in masses that its beauty and diversity of colour are best seen. Seed should be sown about the first week in March in shallow pans or boxes, in a light rich soil, and a warm and rather moist temperature. Prick off the seedlings when fit to handle in boxes or a bed in a warm house in a tempera- ture of 50° to 60^. Here they will soon grow, and place them out in the shade to harden as the weather gets warm. Those growing in a bed should be again trans- planted to a prepared bed in a cold frame, kept covered for a few days, and hardened gradually. When the plants are 3 to 4 in. high, pinch out the main shoot, to induce bushy growth, and prolong the flowering period. The bed should be fully exposed to the sun, and if good moist soil, the plants will be uninjured even in the hottest weather. Although generally treated as an annual, P. Drummondi strikes freely from cuttings in autumn: these are useful for pots and early spring bloom in the conservatory or the greenhouse. Varieties are endless, and some very distinct named sorts differ from the type not only in colour but in growth. P. pilosa is a pretty plant 10 or 12 in. high ; large flat clusters of purple flowers, ^ to j in. in diameter, appearing from June to August. It is one of the rarest of cultivated Phloxes, though a spurious kind is sometimes sold for it. The true plant reminds one of P. Drummondi. Another rare species is the true P. bifida, an elegant plant, the flowers bluish- purple. P. reptans {Creeping Phlox). — This is a beautiful little plant sending up numbers of stems from 4 to 6 in. at the end of April or beginning of May, each bearing from five to eight deep-rose flowers. It is X X 2 676 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PHYGELIUS. useful on the rock-garden or border ; and makes pretty tufts round beds of hardy plants ; thriving in peat or light soils. It is known as P. verna and P. stolonifera as well as P. reptans. P. setacea is sometimes considered the same as P. subulata, but its leaves are longer and farther apart on its trailing stems, the whole plant being less rigid. The flowers are of a charming soft rosy- pink, and have delicate markings at the mouth of the tube. P. s. violacea is a handsome Scotch variety more lax in growth and with deeper coloured flowers, almost crimson. Both the variety and the type are lovely plants for the rock- garden, where with roots deeply seated among the fissures and enjoying coolness and moisture, they thrive luxuriantly in any amount of sunshine. P. subulata [Moss Pink). — A Moss-like little Evergreen, the flowers pinkish- purple or rose-colour, with a dark centre, and so dense as to completely hide the plant. The stems, though 4 in. to i ft. high, are always prostrate, so that the dense matted tufts are seldom more than 6 in. high ; but in moist, sandy, and well- drained soil, when the plant is fully ex- posed, the tufts attain a diameter of several feet, and a height of i ft. or more. P. frondosa is a vigorous form of P. subu- lata, and in any ordinary light garden soil its trailing branches will soon cover almost a square yard of surface. P. nivalis is as trailing, but smaller, and with shorter, more densely arranged leaves. Its flowers are snow-white. P. Nelsoni is no doubt a hybrid between P. subulata and its forms, as it possesses foUage of an intermediate character ; the flowers pure white with a charming pink eye. Besides this, the late Mr. Nelson, of Aldborough, raised a large number of seedlings, as varied in hue as Phlox Drummondi. The dwarf Phloxes are so closely allied that general cultural remarks will suffice. Well-drained ordinary garden soil and sunny exposure are essential. Though perfectly hardy, the damp atmosphere of mild winters is fatal, and as the plants do not seed freely, they must be increased by cuttings. A sharp knife and a careful hand will soon remove the two or three pairs of leaves with their included buds without damaging either the slender stem o the joint. These should be taken off in July, when the branches are just com- mencing to harden, and inserted in sandy soil in a frame where they can be shaded from full sunshine, and given the benefit of the night dews by the removal of the lights. They will soon root and become good flowering plants the following season. With large patches, the readiest way is to sprinkle sandy soil over the entire plant and to work the same gently amongst the branches with the hand. If this be done during the summer or the early autumn, the trailing branches will form roots the following season, and may be planted elsewhere. These Phloxes are charming in spring, being hardy and forming gay cushions on the level ground, or pendent sheets from the tops of crags or from chinks in the rock-garden. Rocky hills and sandy wastes in North America. Known Species P. adstirgens, W. Amer. ; ammna^ N. Amer. ; bifida^ do. ; bijlora. Chili ; breuifolia^ N. ATn&r.',hryoides, N.W. Am&x.\ciespitosa, do.\canescenSy N.W. Amer ; clarkioides ; diz'aricata, N. Amer. ;. Douglassii, N.W. Amer. ; Drutttniondii^ Texas ; elata, N. Amer. ',J2oridana, do. ; glaberriina^ do. ; givmerata, do. ; Hoodii, N.W. Amer. ; intermedia^ do. ; limari- folia ; Listoniana, N. Amer. ; longifolia, N.W. Amer. ; niaculata, N. Amer. ; muscoides, N.W. Amer.; nana, do. ; odorata, N. .^mer. ; ovata, do. ; panicu- iata, do. ; pilosa, do. ; reftans, do. ; Richardsoni, Arctic Amer. ; Roemeriana, Texas ; rosea, N. Amer. ; siberica, Arctic regions ; speciosa, N.W. Amer. ; stel- laria, N. Amer. ; subulata, do. ; suffrtUicosa, do. ; TItovisoni, do. ; tigrina ; I'irginica, N. Amer. Phormium tenax {New Zealand Flax). — This reminds one in habit of a large Iris, forming tufts of broad, shining, leathery leaves, 5 to 6J ft. high, gracefiilly arched at the top. The lemon-coloured flowers are in erect loose spikes just above the foliage. It will generally enjoy a greenhouse, though in genial places in south and west of England and Ireland it does very well in the open air in a light deep soil. A few specimens well grown and plunged in the Grass or in the centre of a bed have a distinct effect. The variegated variety is also pleasing in the open air in wann situations in the south of England and Ireland, and in any case will do out-of-doors in the summer. Division of the tufts in summer. Phragmites communis [Great Reed) is a common indigenous waterside Grass, suitable for the margins of artificial water wherever it is not plentiful naturally. It is excellent as a cover for Ducks. There is a good variegated form. Phygelius capensis {Cape Figwort).— This Cape plant is related to the Chelone and the Pentstemon, but distinct in its general effect. It grows some 3 or 4 ft. high, and its many stems are terminated by a long branching raceme of brilliant scarlet flowers, which open in :\Iay and June and continue far into autumn. It is hardy near London, though it does not flourish so w ell in the open as under the shelter of a wall, where it thrives. It prefers a light rich soil, but in warm sea- shore districts is not fastidious. Readily increased by portions of the root-stock, PHYLI.OSTACHYS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PHYTOLACCA. 677 the bases of the stems being furnished with rootlets. Phyllostachys (Bambusa). Physalis Alkekengi {Winter Cheny). — A handsome and curious South Euro- pean plant, bearing in autumn bright orange-red bladder-like calyces, enclosmg Cherry-like fruits. It is a hardy perennial, requiring a warm border ; i to li ft. high. Division or seed. Solanaceas. Physalis Alkekengi (Winter Cherry). P. Francheti. — A splendid new hardy plant from Japan, possibly a variety of P. Alkekengi, but so distinct as to merit special attention. It is larger altogether than the old kind both in foliage and calyx which is brilliant coral-red in colour, though varying a little in shade, some- times touched with orange, and generally 3 in. in length with a circumference of 7 or 8 in. The plant grows 18 in. high and requires a similar position to P. Alkekengi. Physostegia. — Handsome perennials for associating with the bolder kinds of hardy plants. P. virginiana, i to 4 ft. high, has flesh-coloured or purple flowers crowded in terminal racemes. P. imbri- cata from Texas, has higher and more slender stems, broader leaves, and larger flowers of a deeper colour. P denticulata is similar to P. virginiana, but rarer and less showy. All these kinds flower in summer, thrive in any ordinary soil, and may be naturalised with advantage in moist loam. Division in spring. Phyteuma {Rampion). — The Rampions are neat, pretty, and interesting plants of the Bellflower order, with small flowers in profusion. They enjoy a sunny posi- tion, and some of them are good rock- plants. P. orbiculare is a rare and desir- able native Rampion, i to 2 ft. high, and is best among rock-plants, where it would be free from the destructive effects of the hoe and rake. It flourishes in a dry position in a mixture of limestone grit, peat, sand, and loam, and has violet-blue flowers in July. It is extremely impatient of removal or division, and should be raised from seed sown in autumn in a cool frame. P. Sieberi is neat for the rock-garden, requiring a moist sunny situation, and a mixture of leaf-mould, peat, and sand. It forms cushion-like tufts, and in May and June has dark-blue flower-heads, on stems 4 to 6 in. long. Division. P. humile is a neat tufted plant for the rock-garden, where it can get a dry sheltered position in winter, and plenty of water in summer. The flowers are blue, and produced in June on stems 6 in. high. Division. P. comosum is very slow-growing, and must be particu- larly guarded against slug. It is a genuine rock-plant, suitable for a fissure vertical or sloping to the sun, and does best amongst a mixture of a little loam, peat, sand, or grit, Avhere it can root to the depth of 2 ft. It bears almost stalkless heads of dark purple flowers, has Holly- like leaves in June and July, and comes best from seed. P. Charmeli and P. Scheuchzeri are much alike, P. Scheuch- zeri being dwarfer. It bears pretty blue flowers, on stems from 6 to 12 in. in height, and is evergreen. Sow seed in autumn. Phytolacca decandra ( Virginian Poke). — This North American perennial is from 5-^ to nearly 10 ft. high, with reddish stems, and flower stalks. The flowers, on cylindrical spikes, are at first white, but afterwards change to a delicate rose. In autumn the colour of the leaves is in rich contrast to the pendent purple berries. It grows in almost any kind of soil, and is raised from seed or division. It is scarcely refined enough in leaf for the flower garden, but is effective near the rougher approaches of a hardy fernery, in open glades near woodland walks, or in any like position. P. icosandra is a bushy plant, 2 to 3 ft. high, the leaves similar to those of a Hydrangea. It has rather 678 PINGUICULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PLATYCODON. long spikes of creamy-white flowers, suc- ceeded by fruit-clusters similar in size and shape to Indian Com, but com- posed of ripe Blackberries. Should ha^•e the same treatment and position as P. decandra. Pinguicula {Butterworf). — These inter- esting dwarf bog-plants are pretty in the bog-garden or moist spots in the rock- garden. There are about half-a-dozen kinds, all resembling each other and, except P. vallisneriafolia, natives. P. grandiflora (Irish Butterwort) is the finest. Its flowers are large and blue-purple, the leaves broad, spreading and flat upon the rock or soil. It prefers the shady side of a moist mossy rock, where the face is steep and the narrow chinks are filled with rich loam. If planted in earth Phyteuma comosum. alone, Avhere the drainage is imperfect, it usually perishes in winter. P. alpina differs from all other kinds in having white flowers, marked more or less with lemon-yellow on the lip, but sometimes tinted with pale pink. It roots firmly, by means of strong woody fibres, and prefers peaty soil mingled with shale or rough gravel, and shady humid positions, such as is afforded by a high rock-garden with a north aspect, or by the shelter of a north wall. P. vulgaris grows freely in any sunny position in rich moist peat or peaty loam. A small form, with leaves like those of P. alpina, both in form and colour, is found in alpine bogs in the north of Eng- land. P. lusitanica, found on the west coast of Scotland and in Ireland, is smaller than any of the preceding, and has pale yellow flowers. It grows in peaty bogs exposed to the sun. P. vallisneriajfolia, from the mountains of Spain, differs from others in its clustered habit of growth. Its leaves are pale yellowish-green, and sometimes almost transparent, becoming 4 or 5 in. long, and occasionally even 7 in. towards the end of the season. The flowers are large, soft lilac colour, with conspicuous white or pale centres. Drip- ping fissures and ledges of calcareous rocks (frequently in tufa) suit the plant perfectly, but it requires very free drain- age, continuous moisture, and a humid atmosphere. Piptanthus nepalensis {Nepaul Labur- num). — A Pea-flowered shrub, hardy enough for walls, which it covers with large deep green leaves similar in shape to those of the common Laburnum, and in southern and warm localities with- stands our winters without even this protection. But it is only to be recom- mended for walls, and is not the most desirable of plants even for them. It has evergreen foliage, and in early summer long dense clusters of large bright yellow flowers similar to those of the Laburnum, but larger. It succeeds best in light soils. Himalayan Region. Piptatherum multiflonun. — A large perennial Grass with elegant feathery panicles, useful for arranging with cut flowers. \'igorous in any soil, and hardy. Pisuin maritimuin (Lathyrus). Platycodon {Broad. Bell-flower).— V. grandiflorum, sometimes called Campan- ula grandiflora, is a handsome Siberian perennial, hardy in light dry soils, but im- patient of damp and undrained situations, where its thick fleshy roots are sure to de- cay. Sometimes the decay commences be- low and spreads upward, but it generally begins above and spreads downward, the plant rotting off at the neck. The flowers are 2 to 3 in. across, deep blue with a slight slaty shade, and in clusters at the end of each branch. The branches are 18 in. high, and verj- slender at the base, so that if unsupported in their early stage of growth, they will fall to the ground, and the plant look untidy. Such neglect will be almost impossible to repair when the flowers are nearly developed, as branch after branch will break awav in tying. It is better to leave them alone, merely pegging down the branches to prevent breakage by wind. Perhaps the best position for the plant would be overhang- ing a ledge in some sunny corner of the rock-garden, where its negligent growth is in keepmg with the situation, and its flowers, being on a level with the eye, are shown to advantage. Like most Cam- panulas It has a tendency to revert from blue to white through various modifica- •^'""S. Equally pretty is the white variety, though by no means so common as the PLATYLOMA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, podophyllum. 679 type. A rich loamy soil, good drainage, and an open situation are best. Propa- gate by seeds, which can be readily pro- cured. The young shoots, if taken off when about 3 in. long, in spring, and placed in a gentle bottom-heat, will strike, but not freely. The plant is a bad one to di\ide — division often resulting in failure, and, if attempted, must be carried out in May, when the growth has just com- menced. P. autumnale, or chinense, from China and Japan, is taller and more robust than P. grandiflorum, with narrower leaves, but more dense, and its flowers, though smaller, are pretty e\enly distri- buted along the upper half of the stems. Besides a white \'ariety, it has a tendency to become semi-double, by a sort of " hose- in-hose" reduplication of the corolla, similar to what occurs in many of our Campanulas. The dwarf, JMariesi, from Japan, is distinct. Flatyloma. — In some mild localities the elegant New Zealand Fern, P. rotundi- folium, will thri\e in the open air fernery, but seldom does satisfactorily. P. atro- purpureum is synonymous with Pellfea. Platystemon californicus. — A pretty Californian hardy annual Poppywort, form- ing a dense tuft, studded thickly in summer with sulphur-yellow blossoms. It merely requires to be sown in ordinary soil in the open border either in autumn or spring ; but the seedlings should be well thinned out. P. leiocarpum is a similar kind. Plumbago {LcadiDort). — An interesting family of graceful perennials and half shrubby plants, the hardiest being P. Lar- penta?, the blue-flowered Leadwort, from China. C. capensis, usually grown under glass, may be planted out in summer, bear- ingits lovely pale-blue flowers continuously throughout the summer. The plants should be specially prepared for out-of- doors, young ones being always the best for edgings, though taller ones may be used in certain positions. P. capensis is used with good effect in German gardens. P. Larpentas is perfectly hardy, its wiry stems forming neat and full tufts, varying from 6 to 10 in. high, according to soil and position. In September these are nearly covered with flowers, arranged in close trusses at the ends of the shoots, and of a fine cobalt-blue, changing to \iolet : they usually last till the frosts. A warm sandy loam or other light soil and a sunny warm position should be gi\en, such as above the upper edges of \ertical stones or slopes on the rock-garden. It may also be used for borders, banks, or edgings in the flower garden, particularly in the case of slightly-raised beds. Very easih- increased by division of the roots during winter or eai-ly spring. Poa. — Perennial andannual Grasses, few worth culti\'ating. P. fertilis has dense tufts of long, soft, smooth, slender leaves, 10 to 18 in. high, and arched gracefully on e\'ery side. In the flowering season they bear airy, purplish or violet-tinged panicles, rising to twice the height of the tufts. Isolated on lawns the plant is effective, and if in good soil gives no trouble. P. aquatica is a stout native Grass, 4 to 6 ft. high, usually occurring in wet ditches, by rivers, and in marshes. It is one of the "^-'ffiTsr- 7 * r fcSt^^^ bMflHflH^C^^ ' ^^-Tpftiii ji Platystemon californicus. boldest and handsomest of hardy Grasses for the margins of artificial water or streams, associated with such things as the Typhas, Acorus, Bulrush, and Water Dock. It increases rapidly. Fodolepis. — A pretty half-hardy annual from New Holland is P. gracilis : of slender growth, about i^ ft. high, and bears terminal flower-heads of rosy-purple about I in. across. There is also a white variety. P. acuminata and P. chrysantha are similar, but have yellow flowers. They require to be sown in light warm soils in spring. Podophyllum Emodi {Hitnalayaii May- apple) is similar to P. peltatum, but handsomer. The stem and leaves have a reddish tinge, the fruits 2 in. long, and coral-red. The plant succeeds perfectly in peaty soil if in warm sheltered spots ; and in such positions is useful for the margins of beds of .'^.merican plants. Seed 6So POLBMONIUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. POLYGONATUM. or division. P. peltatum (May-apple) is interesting with its glossy green, wrinkled leaves, borne umbrella-like, on slender stems, about i ft. high. Its waxy-white Christmas Rose-like flowers are produced in May, and succeeded by green Crab- like fruit ; hence the popular name. It is adapted for shady peat borders, or for woods, but requires moist vegetable soil, and shady or half-shady positions. Seed or division. Polemonimn {Greek Valerian). — A small family of Phloxworts, mostly from North America. A few of them are familiar in gardens, and among the best are the following : P. coeruleum /Jacob's Ladder) most people are familiar with. Besides th'e original blue-flowered species, there is a variety with white blossoms, and another handsome form with variegated foliage, which on good garden soil is almost as easily grown as the common one. It thrives best in deep, rich, but well-drained loam. To propagate it, dig up well- established plants, pulling them to pieces, and planting immediately in early autumn in a bed of good soil. Where merely required for borders and rock-garden, take up, divide, and replant the old stools where desired, in the old-fashioned way of deal- ing with herbaceous plants. As the variegated variety is grown for leaf-beauty alone, the flower-stems should be removed. P. confertum.— This is one of the finest of all, with slender deeply-cut leaves, and dense clusters of deep blue flowers on stoutish stems, about 6 in. high. It requires a warm spot in the rock-garden and a well-drained, deep, loamy soil, rather stiff than otherwise. Though it requires plenty of moisture in summer, excessive dampness about the roots in winter is hurtful. It should be allowed to remain undisturbed for years after it has become established. Rocky Mountains. P. humile is a truly alpine pretty plant with pale-blue flowers on stems a few inches high. In a dry situation and a light sandy soil it is hardy, but on a damp subsoil is sure to die in winter. P. mexi- canum is similar but larger, and being only of biennial duration is scarcely worth cultivating. N. America. P. reptans is an American alpine plant, and, though far inferior in beauty to P. confertum, is worth growing. Its stems are creeping, and its slate-blue flowers form a loose drooping panicle, 6 or 8 in. high. Snails devour it -ravenously, espe- cially the scaly root-stocks during winter, and must be watched for. P. sibiricum, grandiflorum, and Richardsoni much resemble P. coeruleum, but are more vigorous, with larger flowers. There are several other species in cultivation, but not important. Polianthes tuberosa {Tuberose). — Though a native of the East Indies, strong imported bulbs from Italy and France of this deliciously fragrant plant, if inserted in warm soil, will flower well in the open air during August. In the neighbourhood of London we have seen the Tuberose flowering freely in the open border, the bulbs in a light, sandy, well- drained soil, in which they had remained all the winter, slightly protected during severe weather by ashes or other dry material. Folygala {Milkwort). — The hardy Milkworts are neat dwarf plants, with flowers much resembling those of the Pea family. P. Chamasbuxus (Box-leaved Milkwort) is a little creeping shrub from the Alps of Austria and Switzerland, where it often forms but very small plants. In our gardens, howe^-er, on peaty soil and fine sandy loams, it spreads out into compact tufts covered with cream-coloured and yellow flowers. The variety purpurea is much prettier ; the flowers are a lovely bright magenta- purple, with a clear yellow centre. It succeeds in any sandy, well-drained soil, best in sandy peat, if slightly shaded from the mid-day sun. Even when out of flower it is interesting owing to its dwarf compact habit, bright shining evergreen leaves, and olive-purplish stems. P. pau- cifolia is a handsome North American perennial, 3 to 4 in. high, with slender prostrate shoots, and concealed flowers. From these shoots spring stems, bearing in summer one to three handsome flowers about three-quarters of an inch long, generally rosy -purple, but sometimes white. It is suited for the rock-garden, in leaf-mould and sand, and for association in half-shady places with Linnsea borealis, Trientalis, Mitchella. Some of the British Milkworts, especially P. calcarea and vulgaris, are interesting and easily grown in sunny chinks of the rock-garden if m calcareous soil. They form neat dressy tufts of blue, purple-pink, and white flowers, borne profusely in early summer. Seed may be gathered from wild plants and sown in sandy soil. Plants carefully taken up from their native positions have also been established in gardens. Polygonatum(5^/o;««j«'j5^a/).— Grace- ful tuberous perennials distributed chiefly m the north temperate regions of the Himalayas, .A.merica, Japan, China, and rOLYGONATUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, polygonatum. 68i Europe, and with \'ery few, if any, exceptions \\ill be found quite hardy enough to withstand the rigours even of an English winter. There are nine dis- tinct species known to us in cultivation, and perhaps as many varieties, and although there is some similarity amongst them in habit, all are distinct as garden plants. They thrive well in almost any position in good sandy soil, and will be all the better for an occasional liberal dress- ing of leaf soil. It is in shady nooks, under the shade of deciduous trees, in the wild garden, however, where they do best and are seen to the best advantage. They are inci-eased by seeds or berries, which, sown as soon as gathered in autumn, germinate in early spring : the P. japonicum. — A distinct species, native of Japan, hardy in this country, flowering in early April, growing about 2 ft. in height, the leaves of a very firm leathery texture, the flowers white, tinged purplish. P. latifolium, the old Convallaria latifolia or broad-leaved Solomon's Seal, seems to be about intermediate between P. multiflorum and P. officinale. It is a native of Europe, and is said to have been found in Syke's Wood, near Ingleton, Yorkshire. A fine robust species, the stems being from 2\ ft. to 4 ft. high, arch- ing, the leaves bright green ; flowers large, two to five in a bunch from the axils of the leaves, greenish-white, in July. P. latifolium var. commutatum differs from the above in being glabrous through- Polygonatum multiflorum (Solomon's Seal). creeping root-stocks may also be divided to any extent, and in good soil soon form nice tufts. A few of the species are also in much request for forcing for early spring use in the greenhouse ; these are gener- ally imported instead of being grown at home, as they might well be. It simply requii-es singling out good crowns and growing them in rich loamy soil, lifting and potting when required. P. biflorum. — A pretty species from the wooded hillsides of Canada, and New Brunswick, of slender graceful growth, the arching stems i ft. to 3 ft. in height, the small flower stems jointed near the base of the flowers, which are greenish white, two or three together in the axils of the leaves. P. pubescens, P. hirtum, and P. canalicu- latum are synonymous of this. out, with a flower-stem 2 ft. to 7 ft. in height ; large white flowers, three to ten in a bunch. N. America. P. multiflorum. — This is the common Solomon's Seal, and is the most grown of all the species. It grows from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, glaucous green; the flowers are large, nearly white, one to five in a bunch in the axils of all the leaves. It is a very robust and free-growing species, its arching stems and drooping flowers being very attractive. There are several garden varieties, notably a double-flowered one, and one in which the leaves are distinctly variegated. P. Broteri is a variety with much larger flowers ; P. bracteatum, a form in which the bracts at the base of the flowers are well developed, flower- ing throughout the summer. 682 POLYGONATUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. POLYMXIA. P. oppositifolilim. — A charming kind confined to temperate regions of the Himalayas and hardy, ahhough usually given as a greenhouse species. It will doubtless do best in a sheltered spot, but even in the open it has given me no trouble, and it is a good plant for shady spots on the rock-garden, the habit grace- ful, 2 ft. to 3 ft. in height, leaves glossy green ; the flowers, white, marked with reddish lines and dots, are borne in bunches of from six to ten in the axils on both sides in late summer. The fruit is red when ripe. P. punctatum. — Another beautifial species from the temperate Himalayas, where it is found at altitudes of 7,000 ft. to ii,oco, ft., and hardy in our gardens ; about 2 ft. in height, the stem angular, with hard leathery leaves, flowers white, with lilac dots, two to three in a bunch, in late summer. P. roseum. — A handsome little plant allied to P. verticillatum. It was first sent to the Royal Gardens, Kew, by Bunge, and is doubtless the plant de- scribed in Flora Rossica. It appears to vary considerably in the length and breadth of its leaves in their being more or less whorled, and also in the size of its flowers, 2 ft. to 3 ft. in height, the leaves in whorls of three or more ; the flowers in pairs in the axils of the leaves, clear rose- coloured, are very pretty amongst the nanow green foliage. N. Asia. P. verticillatmn. — An elegant species distributed over the temperate Himalayas, and pretty general in the northern hemi- sphere. . It was found in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1792, and appears to have been cultivated by John Tradescant, jun., as early as 1656; 2 ft. to 3 ft. high under cultivation, the leaves four to eight in a whorl ; the flowers, two to three in a bunch in the axils of the leaves, are greenish-white, smaller than those of P. multiflorum. The fruits are red when ripe. It flowers in June. — D. K. Polygonum {Knot-weed).— T\\& vast family of Polygonums, comprising 150 species of world-wide distribution, the majority insignificant weeds, neverthe- less includes several noble plants, which are well worth considering for their beauty of form. They thri\-e in any ordinary gar- den soil ; those of a bushy habit should be allowed plenty of space. Tying in the shoots detracts much from their beauty, which consists in the many flower-spikes rising above a gracefully-developed mass of foliage reaching to the ground. The dwarf perennials, most of which are ever- green, need no support and little atten- tion beyond an occasional trimming ; but the annuals, unless grown as single speci- mens, and in sheltered situations, require support. P. affine, one of the Bistorta group, is a pretty alpine feature in the Himalayas, where it grows on the wet river banks and meadows, and hangs in rosy clumps from moist precipices. In cultivation it is 6 to 8 in. high, with rosy-red flowers in dense spikes borne freely in September and October. P. Brunonis is similar and as desirable ; the flowers, of a pale rose or flesh colour, borne in dense erect spikes nearly 18 in. high, and continuing more or less through the summer. P. capitatum is a little spreading annual with numerous globose heads of pink flowers. Once established in light warm soils it sows itself, and fresh plants appear every year. P. compactum is similar to P. cuspi- datum, and forming a compact tuft i to 2 ft. high. It bears white flowers in great profvision, and its leaves are similar to those of P. cuspidatum, though much smaller. It flowers late in autumn. P. cuspidatum (Japan Knotweed), also known as P. Sieboldi, is of fine and grace- ful habit, speckled with purple, and dull green leaves, frequently variegated T\nth faint silvery blotches. Its creamy- white flowers are borne in great profiision, and the plant is then very handsome. It should be grown as an isolated specimen on the turf or in some prominent part of the wild garden. Unfortunately it is weedy, and in light soils springs up everywhere. P. sachalinense. — A native of the island of Sachalien, of similar habit to P. cuspi- datum, but larger, sometimes attaining a height of 12 feet. Its bright green leaves are upwards of a foot in length, whilst the flowers, greenish-white, are in slender drooping racemes. It luxuriates in a moist subsoil near water, where it is effective when associated with bold things, and it makes a fine feature on the turf or in a good position where it can develop its noble proportions. There is no better plant for semi-wild places, or for associa- tion with vigorous things on the turf in the pleasure-ground. P. sphsrostachyum. P. vaccinifolium is very distinct in aspect, quite hardy, and thrives in almost any moist soil, but is best seen where its shoots can ramble over stones or tree stumps. Under favourable conditions it grows rapidly, and produces a profusion of \Vhortleberr)-like leaves and rosy flowers. Himalayas. Polymnia grandis {Leaf Cup) is a half- rOIAPODU'M. THE EXCIISH FLOWER GARDEy. rORTUI.ACA. fiSl hardy shrub from l\[cxico, with large lobed leaves, often nearh- 3 ft. long, presenting striking and luxuriant masses of foliage. The stem and leaf-stalks are spotted with white, and the lea\ es when young covered with soft white down. Like most large soft-growing things, it is best planted out vvhen young- at the end of May to en- sure fresh and unstinted growth. Easily multiplied from cuttings, which freel)- produce roots if placed in heat in Janu- ary. It is best planted out at the end of May. Polygonum sachalinense. Polypodium {Polypody). — This large family of Ferns contains several good hardy kinds, the principal being- the common P. vulgare, which has about a score of cultivated varieties differing more or less widely from each other. The most distinct and beautiful as well as the freest in growth are cambricum, elegantissimum, omnilacerum, and pulcheiTimum. Though preferring shade, they only need a good supply of water at the root during summer, and will thrive e\en exposed to the full rays of the sun. Plant them in fibry loam and tough and fibiy peat, with a liberal admixture of leaf-mould and well-decayed woody matter, to which add a thin top- dressing; of similar material cverv autumn. The every rccn Polypodiums associate well w ith flowering plants that do not require frequent removing, and they may be made to cover bare spaces beneath trees, or to overrun stumps. A beautiful effect, too, is got by their use as a carpet or setting to some of the plants in the rock- garden. Besides P. vulgare and its \arieties, there are several deciduous kinds, such as P. Dryopteris (Oak Fern) and P. Phegopteris (Beech Fern), well known to all Fern lovers. They thrive best in peat, loam, and sharp sand, with some broken lumps of sandstone, and prefer a dry situation in the rock-garden ; or any situation which is not fully exposed to the sun. A slightly shaded spot should be selected, where they might be planted among flowering plants suitable for the same treatment, and affording the needed shelter. P. Robertianum (Limestone Poly- pody) is a beautiful deciduous species, somewhat difficult to manage ; it should have a dry sheltered position, does not mind sunshine, and prefers a mixture of sandy and fibry loam, with a plentiful addition of pounded limestone. P. alpestre resembles the Lady Fern ; the fronds dark green, and sometimes exceed 2 ft. in length. It may with advantage be grouped with Lady Ferns, as it flourishes under similar treatment. P. hexagonopterum, a native of N. America, is hardy in shel- tered positions, and has elegant tapering dark green fronds about i ft. in height. Polypogon {Beard Grass). — Pretty , Grasses, chiefly annual. P. monspeliensis and littoralis are native. P. affinis is an elegant Chilian annual. All should be sown in the open border in spring or autumn. Polystichmn (Aspidium). Pontederia cordata {Pickerel Weed).— One of the handsomest water-plants, com- bining grace of habit and leaf with beauty of flower. It forms thick tufts of almost arrow-shaped, long-stalked leaves, from \\ to over 2 ft. high, crowned with spikes of blue flowers. P. angustifolia has narrower leaves. Both should be planted in shallow pools of water. Division of tufts at any season. North America. Portulaca grandiflora {Purslane). — This bright little annual has been intro- duced many years from its nati\'e home in Chili, and few Chilian plants have spread so widely all over the world. It seems as happy under a tropical sun as in an Eng- lish garden, where no other annual excels it in brilliancy, delicacy, and diversity of colour. It makes itself at home as well on a dry, poor bank as in a rich border among taller things. One can see by its 684 PORTULACA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. POTENTILLA. growth that it is a child of the sun, and that is why one finds it so fine in gardens in the parched plains of India and Egypt, as well as throughout North America. The colours vary from crimson and white through every shade to pure yellow. There are single and double- flowered kinds, and it is difficult to say which are the more beautiful. The double flowers last longer, and greater care seems to have been made in selecting the finest of the doubles by crossing the various sorts. Forty years ago M. Lemoine, of Nancy, raised many beautiful double sorts, to which he gave names, but it was soon found useless to keep named sorts, so one buys seed now in mixed colours, as with lutea, splendens, and Regeli, while another kind is P. Gilliesi from Mendoza. Fotentilla (Cinquefoil). — A large family, many hardy herbs and alpine flowers among them. The most important are the fine hybrid varieties got by hy- bridising showy Himalayan species such as P. insignis and P. atro-sanguinea. These two species are well worth growing. The former has clear yellow and the latter deep velvety crimson flowers. The beau- tiful rosy-pink P. colorata is also useful ; but these three are about the only typical species of tall growth worth cultivating. The double kinds are most showy, lasting in perfection both on the plants and when cut longer than the single sorts. There Polygonum vaccinifolium. Cinerarias. Seeds of the Portulaca should be sown thinly during the month of April in pans in a frame, and the seedlings be planted out early in June. They can be also sown in the open ground about the end of May, for succession after the frame- raised seedlings. The best plants are got when the seedlings, as soon as they are large enough to handle, are pricked out into small pots of rich soil and kept in an airy frame. The seed is best sown in light and rather rich soil, and only just covered. In planting out, choose the sunniest and warmest spots in the garden, and plant in bold masses to get a rich effect. It has proved in India one of the most useful flowering plants for bedding during the cool months. The named varieties of P. grandiflora are Thellusoni, are about three dozen distinct named kinds, all to be obtained from any of the large hardy plant nurseries. These varieties represent e\ery shade of size and colour that it is possible to obtain. The culture of Potentillas, like that of most hardy flowers, is simple. They luxuriate in a light deep soil and exposed position. The following is a good selection of double sorts : M. Rouillard, reddish- crimson ; Belzebuth, dark crimson ; Chro- matella, yellow ; Dr. Andry, scarlet, margined with yellow ; Escarboucle, crim- son ; Bdlisaire, reddish-orange ; Vase d'Or, yellow ; Le Dante, orange shaded with scarlet ; Louis Van Houtte, crimson ; Phoebus, rich yellow ; Le V^suve, crimson with yellow margin ; \'ersicolor, yellow suffused with brownish-crimson ; Vulcan, rOTENTILl.A. THE EXGUSH FLOWER GARDEN. 68s scarlet shaded with >ello\v ; X'ariabilis fl.-pl., yellow with scarlet maryin ; Eldo- rado, scarlet-crimson with yellow margin ; Perfecta plena, bright scarlet - crimson slightly tinged with yellow ; Imbricata plena, orange-scarlet ; Etna, reddish-crim- son ; Panorama, yellow heavily stained with scarlet ; Nigra plena, dark crimson ; Meteor, \ellow suffused and blotched w ith scarlet ; Meirsschaerti fl.-pl., yellow veined and striped with crimson ; William Rol- lisson, deep orange-scarlet with yellow- centre ; Fenelon, orange and scarlet ; Purpurea lutea plena, scarlet - crimson slightly tipped with yellow. Among the dwarf alpine species there are some ver)- beautiful plants for the Flowers of Portulaca gr.'uidiflorn. rock-garden. Of these the following are the best : — P. alba ( W 'hitt- CinqucfcilX—ThR leaves of this pretty plant from the .\lps and Pyrenees are quite sil\er\- and have a dense silky down on the lower sides. It is very dwaif, and not rampant ; its white Strawberry-like flowere nearly i in. across, with a dark orange ring at the base. Easily grown in ordinary soil, and on bor- ders or for the rock-garden. It blooms in early summer, and is increased by division. P. alpestris {Alpine Cinguefoil). — A plant closely allied to the spring Potentilla (P. verna) forming tufts nearh- i ft. high, with bright yellow flowers about i in. across. While enjoying a moist deep soil, it cares little how cold the position is. Though not \"eiy common, it is found on rocks and dr\- banks in several parts of die country. P. ambigua, from the Himalayas, is a dwarf compact creeper, with in summer large clear yellow blossoms on a dense caipet of foliage ; is perfectly hardy, re- quiring only a good deep well-drained soil in an open position in the rock-garden. P. calabra {Ci CingucfoiT). — A veiy silver}' species from Italy and South- ern Europe. It has prostrate shoots, and bears in Ma)- and June lemon-yellow flowers nearly i in. across. It flourishes freely in sandy soil, in the rock-garden. P. firuticosa {Shrubby Cinguefoil). — A pretty neat bush, 2 to 4 ft. high, and bears in summer clusters of show)- golden- yellow flowers. It is suited for the rock- garden or the dry bank. P. nitida {Shining Cinguefoil). — .\ beautiful little plant from the .\lps, a couple of inches high, its silky sih-ery leaves seldom with more than three leaf- lets each. The flowers are pretty and delicate rose. It is w-ell worth a good place in the rock-garden, and is of the easiest culture and propagation. P. pyrenaica {Pyrcnean Cinguefoil). — This dwarf vigorous and showy kind has fine deep golden-yellow flowers. It will grow in the i-ock -garden or in the mi.xed border without particular attention. H igh valle\s in the Central and Southern Pyrenees. Division or seeds. The shrubby kind P. fruticosa and its varieties are w-orth naturalising and growing among small shrubs in rougher parts of the rock-garden. Pratia aiiglllata. — A pretty plant for the rock-garden, creeping" over the soil hke the Fruiting Duckweed ; the flowers white, and like a dwarf Lobelia, numerous in autumn, gi\ing place to violet-coloured berries about the size of Peas. It is hardy. New Zealand. Syn., Lobelia littoralis. Primula {Primrose). — There is so much charm and Ijeauty among Primroses that no garden is complete without them, and there is scarcely a species not worth cul- tivating. They have a great dixersity of habit and growth. Some are at home on the sunny slopes of the rock-garden, others in shade, many make excellent border flowers, and a few exotic species are at home in the woodland with our common Primrose. The family contains nearly a hundred different sorts ; and we have therefore confined ourselves to the most distinct and desirable kinds. There is so much confusion among certain sections, particularly in the alpine and the Himalayan species, that we have not attempted to deal witli these exhausti\ely : w-hile others, such as P. ni\alis, are too little known in gardens to render it neces- sary for us to speak of them. P. amtena {Cauaisian Primrose) is allied to our common primrose, but is quite distinct. The corolla is pui-plish- lilac in bud or when recenth- expanded, but turns bluer after a few- days. The umbel is many-flowered, and the blooms, which are larger than those of P. denticu- 686 rRiMULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PRIMULA. lata, are borne about 6 or 7 in. high ; the leaves are rather large and are woolly beneath and toothed. The blooms come out before the snow has left the 'ground. It is so much earlier than the common Primrose, that while that species is in full flower, amoena has quite finished bloom- ing, and has sent up a strong tuft of leaves very much like that sent up by the common Primrose after its own flowers are faded. A sheltered position slightly shaded will be best for the perfect health and develop- ment of the plant. It flourishes quite freely in common borders, and is one of the most valuable additions to the early spring garden and mixed border that have been made for many years. It is charm- ing for the rock-garden or for well-arranged borders, and, when plentiful enough, will, no doubt, be used in various ways. There is a stemless variety, which would prob- ably prove a great addition to our gardens. P. sibirica is somewhat similar to P. Prada angulata. amoena, but is rare. Division of the root. Caucasus. P. auricula [Common Auricula). — In ■a wild state this is one of the many charming Primulas that rival Gentians, Pmks, and Forget-me-nots in making the flora of alpine fields so exquisitely beauti- ful and interesting. Possessing a vigorous constitution, and sporting into a goodly number of varieties when raised from seed, it attracted early attention from lovers of flowers ; its more striking varia- tions were perpetuated and classified, and It became a "florists' flower." Its cultivated varieties may be roughly thrown into two classes : first, self-coloured varieties, or those which have the outer and larger portion of the flower of one colour or shaded, the centre or eye white or yellow, and the flowers and other parts usually smooth, and not powdery ; second, those with flowers and stems thickly covered with a white powdery matter or " paste." The handsomest of the former kinds are known by the name of " alpines," to distin- guish them from the florists' varieties, and are the hardiest of all. The florists' fav- ourites are distinguished by the dense mealy matter with which the parts of the ■flower are covered. They are divided by florists into four sections — green-edged, gray-edged, white-edged, and selfs. In the " green-edged " varieties, the gorge or throat of the flower is usually yellow or yellowish ; this is surrounded by a ring, varying in width, of white powdery matter, which is surrounded by another ring of some dark colour, and beyond this a green edge, which is sometimes \ in. in width. The outer portion of the flower is really a monstrous development of the petal into a leaf-like substance, identical in texture with the leaves. The "gray- edged" varieties have the margin of a green leafy texture, but this is so thickly covered with powder that the colour can- not be distinctly seen. The same occurs in the " white-edged " kinds, the difference being in the thickness and hue of the powdery matter. In fact, the terms " green-edged," " gray-edged " and " white- edged," are simply used to indicate slight differences between flowers having an abnormal development of the petals into leafy substance. It is a curious fact that between the white and the gray the line of demarcation is imaginary, for both classes occasionally produce green-edged flowers. The " selfs " are really distinct, since the outer portion of the corolla is of the ordinary texture, though a ring of powdery matter surrounds the eye. The classification of such slight differ- ences merely tends to throw obstacles in the way of the general growth and enjoy- ment of the flower in gardens. Let the florists maintain these fine distinctions ; those who merely want to embellish their gardens with the prettier varieties need not trouble themselves with named sorts at all. It should be borne in mind that the florists' kinds are the most delicate and difficult to cultivate. The curious developments of powdery matter, green margins, &c., tend to enfeeble the plant. They are, in fact, variations that in Nature would have little or no chance of surviv- ing m the struggle for life. The general grower will do well to select the free sorts— alpines, and good varieties of the common border kinds. The special merit of these is that they may be grown m the open air on the rock-garden and in borders, while the florists' kinds must be grown in frames. The free-growing kinds are most likely THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 687 to be enjoyed in all classes of gardens. Their culture is very simple, light vege- table soil and plenty of moisture during the growing season being the essentials. In many districts the moisture of our climate suits the Auricula to perfection, and great tufts of it are grown in gardens without any attention. In others it must be protected against excessive drought by stones placed round it, and cocoa- fibre and leaf-mould are also useful as a surfacing. However, as none but good varieties of the alpine section are worthy of even this trouble, we would prefer, wherever practicable, that they should be placed in the rock-garden on spots where they would have some shelter and could root freely into rich light soil. They would cause no trouble beyond taking up, dividing, and replanting. This should be done every second or third year, or as often as they become too crowded or lanky. The very common kinds may be planted as edgings or in beds in the spring garden, but wherever the plant is free, naturally improved varieties should be substituted for the common old border kind. Auriculas are easily propagated by division in spring or autumn, but best in early autumn. They are also easily raised from seed. Seed ripens in July, and is usually sown in a gentle heat in the following January. It should be sown thinly in pans. The plants need not be disturbed till they are big enough to prick into fine rich light soil on a half- shady border. It is most desirable to raise seedlings, as in this way many beautiful varieties may be obtained, and if a desirable variety is noticed, it should be marked, placed under conditions calculated to ensure its health and rapid increase, and propagated by division as fast as possible. As to the florists' varieties, innumerable and precise descriptions of the culture considered necessary have been given, but the essential points may be summed up in a few words. They require protec- tion in frames or pits during winter and spring, and may be placed in the open air in summer and early autumn. In winter they should be put in pits, and placed as near to the light as may be convenient, the lights being left off in mild weather, and air being given at all times, except in severe frosts. Air by night as well as by day is decidedly beneficial. The pit or frame may be the usual one for the winter months ; but as soon as the plants begin to show flower, they . ought to be removed to one with a northern exposure, so as to prolong the bloom. In such a place, with abundance of air, they form objects of much interest and beauty through April and the first weeks of May. After flowering they should be potted in May, and kept shaded till they have recovered. The potting usually consists of carefully shaking away all the soil and putting the plant in fresh compost ; and the practice is a good one, for this plant and its wild allies put forth young roots higher up the stem every year, and the encouragement of these young roots is siu-e to have a good result. The pots generally used (the 4-in. size) are quite large enough where annual dis- rooting is practised, one sucker of a kind being placed in the centre of each pot. The wisdom of potting every plant in this way is doubtful, and it is better to select those that have sound roots, and are set firmly and low in the earth, and while disturbing the ball but little to give them a careful shift into a 5-in. pot. In grow- ing the alpine kinds in pots — and they are as worthy of it as the other kinds — growers should put five or six plants in a 6-in. pot, one in the centre and four or five round the side, so as to form a hand- some specimen. The same principle may be carried out in pans, and applied to the free-growing florists' varieties as well as the alpines. In summer all the plants should be placed in the open air on boards or slates or a bed of coal-ashes, or some substance that will prevent the entrance of worms into the pots. Some careful growers guard the plants from heavy rains, but this is unnecessary if the pots are perfectly drained and everything else is as it ought to be. The florists rarely plunge the pots ; but if plunged in a bed of clean sharp sand, or in any like material on a well-drained bottom, and free from earthworm, they will be safer and less troublesome, because free from the vicissitudes that must attend all plants exposed in a fragile porous shell contain- ing but a few inches of soil. Some pot their plants in August, but the best time is just after the flowering, as if disrooted in the autumn, the plants have not that accumulated strength for flowering which is acquired by a long period of undisturbed growth. The perfect development of the choicest florists' kinds is secured by mixing one part of good turfy loam and one part of leaf-mould with another of well-de- cayed cow manure and silver or sharp river sand. Although we have given such full directions in regard to the cul- ture of the florists' varieties, we again 688 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. earnestly advise all who care for the flower to cultivate the free and hardy forms that thrive in the open air. It is a good plan to select bright or delicate self or other colours that please one. Such kinds should be increased, so that definite effects may be worked out with each colour. P. capitata.— One of the finest of all Primroses. It is like P. denticulata, but is very distinct as a garden plant. It has a tuft of sharply-toothed pale green leaves, not half the size of that of a fully- developed P. denticulata. In autumn it bears dense heads of flowers of the deepest Tyrian purple, which as regards depth is very variable, and is shown to advantage by the white mealy powder in Primula capitata. which the fl^owers are enveloped. It is not so vigorous as P. denticulata, though hardy, and it cannot be termed a good perennial, as it is apt to go off after flowering well. It is therefore advisable to raise seedlings. This is easy, as the plant seeds freely in most seasons, and the seedlings flower in the second year. An open position with a north aspect in good loamy soil well watered in dr)' weather suits it best. P. cortusoides. — A distinct species bearing clusters of deep rosy flowers on stalks 6 to lo in. high. In consequence of its tall free habit it is liable to injury if placed in an exposed spot or open border ; and should therefore be put in a sheltered position, such as a sunny nook in the rock-garden, where it is surrounded by low shrubs, etc., or in any place where it is not exposed to cutting winds, and at the same time not shaded to its injury. It forms a charming ornament for the rock-garden, for a sunny sheltered border near a wall or a house, or for the margin of the choice shrubbery. The soil should be hght and rich, and a surfacing of Cocoa-fibre or leaf-mould is beneficial in dry positions. It is one of the most beauti- ful and easily raised of the Primulas, being readily increased from seed, and hardy in any well-drained and suitable position. Siberia. P. denticulata. — A pretty Himalayan Primrose, of robust growth, 8 to lo in. high. It has large tufts of broad foliage, and produces in spring, on stout erect stems, large dense clusters of lilac blossoms. It is a most variable plant, and some of its more distinct forms have received garden names, of which the principal are mentioned below. It is paler in colour than any of its varieties, and its foliage and flower-stalks are not mealy. P. pulcherrima is a great im- provement on the original. It grows from 10 to 12 in. high, and has a more globular flower-truss, which is of a deep lilac colour. The stalks are ohve-green, and, like the leaves, are sUghtly mealy. It is ver)' beautiful when in flower, and P. Heniyi is a \ery strong - grov^ing variety but does not otherwise differ from P. pulcherrima. It is a \er\' fine plant, often 2 ft. across, and in Ireland it reaches even larger dimensions. P. cash- meriana is by far the finest variety. The flowers are of a loAcly dark lilac, closely set together in almost a perfect globe on stalks over i ft. high. They last from March till May. The foliage is beautiful, and, like the stalk, is of a bright pale green, thickly powdered with meal, in \\ hich as in many other points the plant strongly resembles P. farinosa. All the varieties are hardy, though their foliage is liable to be injured by early spring frosts. They may be placed either in the rock-garden or in an ordinary border, and will grow vigorously in a deep moist loamy soil, enriched by manure. They prefer a shady situation, with a clear sky overhead, and delight in an abundance of moisture during warm summers. If grown in masses in beds, the flowers should be protected by a hand-light or frame placed over them to preserve them. P. erosa is similar to P. denticulata, but is smaller and less hardy, it has paler flowers, and altogether it is an inferior plant. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. P. farinosa {Bird's-eye Primrose). — A charming native species with small rosettes of silvery leaves, and flower- stems generally 3 to 12 in. high, though sometimes more. The flowers, which are borne in a compact umbel in early summer, are lilac-purple with a yellow eye. They vary a little in colour, there being shades of pink, rose, and deep crimson. In our gardens it loves a moist vegetable soil, and in moist and elevated parts of the country it flourishes in the rock-garden and in slightly elevated beds without any attention ; but in most districts a little care is necessary. In the rock-garden it is perfectly at home in a moist, deep, and well-drained crevice, filled with peaty soil or fibry sandy loam. In the drier districts it would be well to cover the soil with Cocoa-fibre, leaf-mould, or broken bits of sandstone to protect the surface from being baked and from ex- cessive evaporation. P. f. acaulis is a very diminutive variety of the preceding. The flowers nestle in the hearts of the leaves, and both flowers and leaves are very small. When a number of plants are grown together, they form a charming little cushion of leaves and flowers not more than ^ in. high. Being so small, the plant should have greater care, whether it is grown in the rock-garden or in pots. P. scotica is a native plant similar to P. farinosa, and recjuires similar treatment. The flowers, which show in April, are rich purple with a yellow eye, and are borne on stems a few inches high. Native of damp pastures in the northern counties of Scotland. P. glutinosa. — A distinct little Prim- rose, rare in gardens. On mountains near Gastein and Salzburg, in the Tyrol, and in Lower Austria, it flourishes, in peaty soil, at a height of 7,000 to 8,000 ft. It is 3 to 5 in. high, bearing one to five blossoms of a peculiar purplish-mauve, with divisions rather deeply cleft. Suit- able for the rock-garden, or for pots in moist peaty soil or very sandy soil. Similar to P. glutinosa are P. tirolensis, Floerkiana, Allioni, and others, all natives of the Alps. P. grandis. — A distinct species from the Caucasus, remarkable only for its large foliage and the smallness of its flowers. P. integrifolia.— A diminutive Prim- rose, easily recognised by its smooth shining leaves, which lie quite close to the ground, and by its handsome rose flowers, which are borne one to three on a dwarf stem, and are often large enough to obscure the plant. There is no difficulty in growing ihis plant on flat exposed parts of the rock-garden, if the soil be firm, but moist and free. The best way is to form a wide tuft, by dotting six to twelve plants over one spot, and in a dry district, scatter between them a few stones or a little Cocoa-fibre mixed with sand, so as to prevent evaporation. P. Candolleana is another name for this plant. P. glaucescens, spectabilis, Clusi- ana, and Wulfeniana are of a similar character. All are natives of the Alps. Division or seed. P. intermedia. — A charming hybrid between P. ciliata and P. Auricula. In habit it closely resembles some of the dwarf alpine Auriculas, and its purplish- crimson flowers have a conspicuous Primula farinosa (Bird's-eye Primrose). yellow eye, and are borne on stout erect scapes. On sheltered portions of the rock-garden its richly-tinted blossoms are seen to ad\antage. It is delicately fragrant. P. japouica. — One of the handsomest of Primroses, and now too common to need description. It is a good perennial, and is not in the least tender. It is a first-rate border plant, and in moist shady spots of deep rich loam it grows as vigorously as a Cabbage, throwing up flower-stems 2 ft. or more high, and un- Y Y 690 PRIMULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PRIMULA. folding tier after tier of its beautiful crimson blossoms for several weeks in succession. It may be grown in the rock-garden as well as in the border, and is an excellent wild-garden plant, thriving almost anywhere and sowing itself freely. It is said to be rabbit-proof. There are several forms differing in colour; there is a white form, a pale pink, and a rose form, but the best is the original rich crimson form. In raising P. japonica from seed it should be borne in mind that the seed remains some time dormant, unless it is sown as soon as it is gathered, and that it must on no account be sown in heat. A cool frame is the proper place for the seed-pan, and till the seed has germinated, care must be taken to pre- vent or keep down the growth of Moss and Liverwort on the soil. P, latifolia. — A handsome Primrose, with from two to twenty violet flowers in Primula nivalis. a head. It is less viscid, but larger and more robust than its alpine congener the better-known P. viscosa. Its leaves sometimes attain a height of 4 in. and a breadth of nearly 2 in., and it grows to a height of 4 to 8 in. Its fragrant flowers appear in early summer, and in pure air it thrives on sunny slopes of the rock- garden, if it has sandy peat, plenty of moisture during the dry season, and per- fect drainage in the winter months. Like P. viscosa, it will bear frequent division, and may be easily grown in cold frames or pits. Alps. P. longiflora is related to P. farinosa but IS distinct from it, being deeper in colour, and is considerably larger than the best varieties of it, the lilac tube of the flower being more than i in. long It IS not at all difficult to cultivate either on the rock-garden or in pots, and the treatment recommended for P. farinosa will suit It. Austria. P. luteola. — One of the handsomest of the yellow Primroses, and a noble plant when well grown. The flower-stems are often i^ to 2 ft. high, though they are usually under i ft. in height. They sometimes become fasciated, and thus carry a huge cluster of flowers 4 to 6 in. across. These flowers are like those of a Polyanthus or an Auricula, but they are borne in more compact heads. P. luteola is hardy. It likes a moist situa- tion in full exposure, and if put out in rich borders of rather moist soil, or on the lower banks of the rock-garden, or in a copse with a good bed of leaf-soil, it will soon repay the planter. Caucasus. It has been well figured in The Garden, from plants that flowered at Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire. P. marginata. — One of the most attrac- tive of the family, and readily distinguished by the silvery margin of its grayish leaves, and by its sweet, soft, violet-rose flowers. Even when not in flower it is pleasing from the tone of the margins and surfaces of the leaves. The flowers appear in April or May. Our wet and mild winters are doubtless the cause of its becoming rather lanky in the stems after being more than a year or so in one spot. When the stems become long, and emit roots above the ground, it is a good plan to divide the plants, and to insert each portion firmly down to the leaves, and this ^nll be all the more beneficial in dry districts, where the little roots issuing from the stems would be the more likely to perish. P. marginata is a charming ornament for the rock-garden, and thrives freely there. In the open ground a few bits of broken rock placed round the plants, or among them if they are grown in groups or tufts, will prevent evapora- tion, and protect them, as they rarely exceed a few inches in height. Alps. P. miniTtia {Fairy Primrose). — One of the smallest of European Primroses. Usually there is only one flower, which is generally rose-coloured, and sometimes white, and appears in summer. The plant is only an inch or so high, but its single flower is nearly i in. across, and almost covers the tiny rosettes of foliage. Bare spots in firm open parts of the rock- garden are the best places for the plant, but the soil should be very sandy peat and loam. It is peculiarly suited for association with the very dwarfest and choicest of alpine plants. Division or seed. Mountains of S. Europe. P. Floerkiana is much like it, and prob- ably IS only a variety, since the sole difference is that it bears two, three, or I'RIMUl.A. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 691 more flowers, instead of only one. It enjoys the same treatment in the rock- garden. .'Vustria. Of both kinds it is desirable to establish wide-spreading patches on firm bare spots, scattering half an inch of silver s.ind between the plants to keep the ground cool. P. Munroi. — This has neither the brilliancy nor the dwarfness of the Primulas of the high Alps, nor the vigour of our own kinds, but it is distinct, and is of the easiest culture in any moist boggy soil. It grows at very high elevations on the mountains of Northern India, in the vicinity of water. Its smooth P. Palinuri.— This is quite different from other cultivated Primroses, inasmuch as it seems to grow all to leaf and stem ; while many of the other kinds often hide their leaves with flowers. In April its bright yellow flowers appear in a bunch at the top of a powdery stem. They are ornamental, though rarely fulfilling the promise of the vigorous-looking plant, and they emit a Cowslip-like perfume. P. Palinuri flourishes as a border plant in rich light soil in various parts of these islands, and nothing more need be said of its culture. It is well suited for some isolated nook on the rock-garden, where Primula rosea. green leaves have a heart-shaped base, and are 2 in. long, and nearly as much across. From them arise flower - stems 5 to 7 in. high, bearing creamy-white flowers witli a yellowish eye, which are more than an inch across. These flowers appeal- from March to May, and are very sweet. Altogether, P. Munroi highly merits culture in .a bog or in a moist spot of the select rock-garden. P. involucrata is a closely-allied kind, also from the mountains of Nortliem India. It is, however, somewhat smaller, its leaves are not heart-shaped at the base, and it is not quite so ornamental. It thrives under the same conditions as its relative. there is an unusually deep bed of soil. Established plants are easily increased by division. Southern Italy. P. Parryi. — A pretty Primrose, bearing about a dozen large, bright, purple, yellow-eyed flowers nearly i in. across. These flowers are borne on stems about I ft. high. Though an undoubted alpine, and growing on the margins of streams near the snow-line, where its roots are constantly bathed in ice-cold water, it has succeeded in the open border in moist, deep, loamy soil mingled with peat ; it is hardy, and requires partial shade from extreme heat rather than protection from cold. N. America. Y Y 2 692 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. P. purpurea.— A handsome Primrose, allied to P. denticulata, but far finer, for the exquisite purple flowers are larger. They are borne in heads about 3 in. across. The leaves are entire, and dis- tinguish it from its near relations. Sheltered and warm but not very shady positions either in the rock-garden, or in the open parts of the hardy fernery, will of the loveliest carmine-pink, produced in heads like the Polyanthus. Its pale green leaves form compact tufts, and the flower- stems, 4 to 9 in. high, are produced in early spring, often as many as half-a-dozen from one plant. It is perfectly hardy, and though only recently introduced from the Himalayas, has become quite acclimatised, and grows vigorously in Primula Sieboldi. best suit it if the soil is a light, deep, sandy loam, and well enriched with de- composed leaf-mould. It never thrives so well as in nooks at the base of rocks, where it enjoys more heat than it would if exposed. It must not be confused with the variety of P. denticulata commonly called by the same name of P. purpurea. P. rosea (Rosy Himalayan Primrose) is a charming little Primrose, with flowers almost any soil, preferring, however, a deep rich loam in a moist shady part of the rock-garden. When plentiful it should be tried in various positions and soils, as it has not yet been thoroughly tested. P. Sieboldi.— Though this handsome Primrose is considered a variety of P. cortusoides, it is very distinct in many important particulars. The size of its flowers, the breadth of its foliage, the THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. I'RIMULA. 693 creeping character of its root, its exclu- sively vernal habit, its pseudo-lobed or grooved seed-vessel, and the roundish flattened form of its seed, all \yarrant the belief in its distinctness from P. cortusoides as a garden plant. It is at any rate one of the showiest and most charming of all the Primulas, and is as easy to grow and as hardy as many others. Since its intro- duction from Japan numerous beautiful varieties have been raised, some of the most distinct being clarkiseflora, lilacina- marginata, fimbriata oculata, vincasflora, coerulea-alba. Mauve Beauty, Lavender Queen, laciniata, and maxima. These possess a great diversity of colour, and some have the petals beautifully fringed. One of the chief merits of these Primulas is that they bloom early, flowering about the month of April when other flowering plants are rare ; and another is, that they are remarkably free bloomers, throwing up successive flower-stems, and lasting a long time in perfection. Their cultivation also is comparatively easy. The best soil for them is light, rich, free material, consisting of fibry loam, leaf-mould, pul- verised manure, and some grit to keep it open. They are impatient of excessive moisture, and when put in open ground should be planted in well-di'ained soil, or in raised positions in the rock-garden. The roots creep just below the surface, and form eyes from which any variety can be easily propagated. P. Sieboldi is a hardy herbaceous perennial, which loses its leaves in autumn and winter, when it goes to rest, and breaks up again early in spring. P. sikkimensis. — This is a robust species, deciduous or herbaceous in our climate, and quite distinct from all other sorts. It throws up strong flower-stems, 15 to 24 in. high, bearing numerous bell- shaped flowers of a pale yellow, with mealy pedicels, and having a peculiar but agreeable perfume. Some of the stems bear a head of more than five dozen buds and flowers, and each flower is nearly i in. long and more than \ in. across: P. sikkimensis starts into growth in April or early in May, and should have a shady position when in bloom, as its delicate Ijlossoms suflfer from cutting winds and bright sunshine. Blossoming in May, it remains in flower many weeks. It is hardy, and loves deep, well-drained, and moist ground ; but spots in the lower parts of the rock-garden near water, or situations in deep boggy places, suit it best. It is readily increased, either by seeds sown in summer as soon as they are ripe, or by careful division in spring or autumn. This Primrose is said to be the pride of all the Primroses of the mountains of India, inhabiting wet boggy localities at elevations of from 12,000 to 17,000 ft., and covering acres of ground with its yellow flowers. P. Stuarti {Stuarfs Primrose). — A noble and vigorous yellow Primrose, about 16 in. high. It has leaves nearly i ft. long, and many-flowered umbels. A light deep soil, never allowed to get dry in summer, suits it well ; but the most suitable place for it is some perfectly- drained and sheltered slightly elevated spot in the rock-garden. It may be planted against the base of rocks, to shelter it from cutting winds, though, when sufficiently plentiful, this precaution is unnecessary. Mountains of India. P. viUosa. — A lovely little Primrose, and one of the oldest cultivated. It is known by dark green obovate or sub- orbicular leaves. These leaves have close- set teeth, and are covered with glandular hairs, and are viscid on both sides. Its flower-stems, also viscid, barely elevate the sweet blooms above the foliage. It is well adapted for the rock-garden, in which it may be grown in any position, but it requires light peaty or spongy loam, about one-half being fine sand, and its roots should be kept moist during the dry season. It is easily increased by division, and may be raised from seed. Varieties are sometimes, but rarely, found with white flowers. . It is sometimes grown under the name of P. viscosa. The variety nivea or nivalis is a beauti- ful plant, dwarf and neat in growth, producing trusses of lovely white flowers, which are quite distinct from any other in cultivation. It is of very easy culture, and may be grown either in pots or in the open ground. It deserves a select position in the rock-garden or in the border, a light free soil, and plenty of water during the warm season. It flowers in April and May. Alps. Similar to P. villosa are P. ciliata, Steini, hirsuta, pubescens, rhaetica, pedemontana, oenensis, and Dinyana, charming little species from the Alps. All thrive under the same conditions as P. villosa. P. vulgaris {Co?n?non Primrose). — Of all the Primula family none excel our native Primroses in loveliness, and they are the earliest of all to flowei". The Gentians and dwarf Primulas do no more for the Alps than these charming wild flowers do for our hedgerows, banks, groves, open woods, and the borders of our fields and streams. In some places the Common Primrose varies a good deal in colour. Some of the prettiest of the 694 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEIf. PRIMULA. wild varieties are worthy of being in- troduced into shrubberies and semi-wild places ; and so long as lovely colour and fragrance are esteemed in the spring flower garden, some of the more distinctly toned varieties should be sought after. Varied hues of yellow, red, rose, lilac, bluish-violet, lilac-rose, and white have already been raised, and if the good single varieties become popular, striking and desirable variations from the commoner types will be much more likely to be preserved. For shrubberies and woodland walks, single varieties will always prove more useful than the old double kinds, because more vigorous and more easily increased. All the varieties are readily increased by division of the offsets, or by seeds, which are produced abundant bloom. Then take them up, divide the offsets singly, doing this, if the day be sunny, in a shed or iii a shady position. New or scarce varieties, or varieties of which a large stock is required, may be divided into the smallest offsets, but where much increase is not desired, the plants should be simply parted sufficiently to allow of their healthy development. As soon as they are parted, plant them in the kitchen-garden or in some by-place. The more rich and moist the soil the better they will grow ; especially if the position be a half-shady one. The alleys between Asparagus beds would do admir- ably if more convenient positions can- not be found. If the weather be very bright, it would be desirable, for a few days after planting, to shade the plants V Ik^. %- p^<^ 1 k:.J^ -j ". jH^|M d^- -'•^ i'A?' ■ An Alpine Pri mrose. in abundance. In woods and shrubberies the plants will take care of themselves, a quality which adds to their charms ; but in the flower garden some system of culture must be pursued. The following very simple one will secure the best results, both as to the production of vigorous free-blooming plants and an abundant stock. In autumn, after the summer occupants of the flower-beds are faded and removed, the Primroses and other spring flowers are planted in beds as the taste of the grower may direct. About the middle or the end of May it will be time to think of preparing the beds for their summer ornaments, and by that time also the Primroses will have begun to fade after yielding a long and by spreading boughs or old garden mats over them, and they should at this time be thoroughly watered. If the plants are strong and regular in their de\elopment, they should be planted in lines, lo or 12 in. apart each way, but if the offsets are small they should be closer in the lines. By autumn they will make fine plants, and may then be taken up ; as much of the root as will come up with ordinary care, but not necessarily any soil or ball, being preserved, and the plants should be transferred to beds in the flower garden or the pleasure-ground. The varieties of single coloured Primroses are so numerous, that it seems a folly to nanie them ; but a few of the most distinct of those propagated by division PRIMULA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PRIMULA. 695 have received names. Among these may be mentioned : Auriculaaflora, one of the finest ; Altaica, or grandiflora, also a beautiful sort ; Rosy Morn, deep rosy- red ; Gem of Roses, rosy-pink ; Queen of Violets, deep purplish-violet ; Crimson Banner, deep maroon-crimson ; Violacea, pale purple ; Faiiy Queen, pure white with good eye ; Sulphurea, large, sulphur colour ; Virginia, pure white ; Brilliant, rich vermilion-red ; King of Crimsons, rich massive crimson ; Violetta, a very beautiful violet-purple ; Lustrous, very deep crimson, with small perfect lemon eye ; and Scott Wilson, a singular bluish- purple. The propagation of these kinds, as well as of all the perennial Primroses, is slow, unless they can be reproduced true from seed. A seedling may produce two others the first year after blooming ; and these may produce six or eight the next year, so that it takes several years to raise a hundred plants, and some patience must therefore be exercised before the newest forms can be circulated largely. Double Varieties.— The forms most precious for the garden are the beautiful old double kinds. No sweeter or prettier flowers ever warmed into beauty under a northern sun than their richly and deli- cately-tinted little rosettes. Once they were in every garden ; but the day came when, like many hardy flowers, they were cast aside to make way for gaudier things ; now, however, people are beginning to grow them again, and are inquiring for old and half-lost kinds which they used to know long ago. The best-known and most distinctly marked are the double lilac, double purple, double sulphur, double white, double crimson, and double red. These and several allied fornis are occasionally honoured with Latin names descriptive of their shades of colour. In catalogues will be found the following : Primula vulgaris alba plena, lilacina plena, purpurea plena, rosea plena, rubra plena, sulphurea plena ; but we had better speak of them in plain English and confine the Latin term to the species. The double kinds are slower-growing and more delicate than the single ones, and require more care, and the development of healthy foliage after flowering should be the object of those who wish to succeed with them. In the double kinds the deeper the hue the less robust the plant. The rich crimsons and the deep purples are usually most difficult to cultivate ; but in the extreme north, where the climate is at once moist and temperate, they grow almost with luxuriance. The chmate of Ireland also favours them, but in the south and midland districts it is necessary to give them shade andabundant moisture during summer, and in winter the pro- tection of glass against the continued frosts and rains. The white, lilac, and sulphur kinds, on the other hand, are very hardy, and, if established, appear to stand our climate well. Shelter and partial shade are the conditions chiefly necessary to their successful culture. Open woods, copses, and half-shady places are the favourite haunts of the wild Primrose. In them, in addition to the shade, it enjoys the shelter, not merely of the tall objects around, but also of the long Grass and herbaceous plants growing near. Taking into account the moisture con- sequent upon such companionship, let these facts guide us in the culture of the double kinds. It will readily be seen that a plant exposed to the full sun on a naked border is under conditions very different from one in a thin wood ; the excessive evaporation and the searing away of the leaves by the wind would be quite sufficient to account for its failure. It is therefore desirable to plant the beautiful double Primroses, in slightly shaded and sheltered positions, in borders of light rich vegetable soil ; and, to keep the earth from being dried up too rapidly, spreading Cocoa-fibre or leaf-mould on it in summer. It would be better to plant them in some favourite spot per- manently than to change them repeatedly from place to place. Indeed, they ought never to be disturbed except for the pur- pose of division. They may, however, be employed as bedding plants, and treated in the manner recommended for single varieties, but they are not then so useful or so pretty as when in good colonies or large informal groups. Double Prim- roses well grown, and the same kinds barely existing, are such different objects, that nobody will grudge them the trifling attention necessary to their perfect de- velopment. Occasionally they may be seen flourishing by chance in some cottage-garden or some old country gar- den, where they find a home more con- genial than the fashionable prim and bare flower garden. Division of the roots. The Polyanthus. — Though the origin of this beautiful old-fashioned flower is somewhat obscure, it is considered to be a form of the common P. vulgaris with the stems developed. Polyanthuses are not at all sufficiently appreciated, con- sidering the wonderful array of beauty they present, and that for rich and charmingly inlaid colouring they surpass 696 r^ THE ENGLISBiFLOWER GARDEN. PRIMULA. all Other flower: It would require the good varietie! Polyanthus was hi; florists' flower, an better deserved the of amateurs ; but neai kinds are now lost, ai really pay any attentii our spring gardensj; ies to describe even ^ At one time the esteemed as a one in existence tion and regard 11 the choice old very few florists to the flower. In consequence, however of the great facility with which varies are raised from seed, nobody neemhe without handsome kinds, especi^fc as raising them will prove interestinBLmusement for the amateur. The rules^^he florists are in this case of a little morffltalue than usual, and Maddock, in the\)llowing passage, describes a very beautiful varia- elegance of form, a richness of colouring, and symmetry of parts not to be found united in any other flower." Here, however, as in most similar cases, the grower will do well to select the most beautiful of his own raising, and not be tied by any conventional rules. As to the capabilities of the various kinds ot Polyanthus, it would be difficuh to name any hardy flower which is so generally usefiiL The finer varieties are worthy of a place in the rock-garden amidst the choicest alpine plants ; while the showier ones are suitable for spring bedding. Numbers of vigorous varieties will form the most appropriate ornaments that can be massed by shady walks in pleasure-grounds, and some may be ^^^^^^^^BJ^^SKHMBSS^^SM I^^^^^^^^BI^I^Mp' |^S.^^^M^^S^M^^^w|(' ^HHp^jK^^^pte^^L^i^HE^ ^^^i^^K^^S^^^^ft^^^SS^^^^^^^B^S^Bs^^^BtS^^ji^^^i^'i^^BB^^^^Si ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^W'^^^^jm^^S^tS^^S^KF^fBt^^B^^Bf^s^f^^SSBSML ■Hj^^afcgf^TJ^ '^'^^'/X^K ,^hiiJ^ > fiMT^ ^^t'^^i^^T^^^^^P^^^BKt^SS^^^t^BWSH^ ^S|^^^,^^^^r^p#^^^^^^^^^8^^^^^^fB ^B^^''^^^^jik^^^''^^ir\i^Kl^^^^v^tS^s^^^^^^^^^iS^^^ ^yHpE^)*-^^P' ™'j^'w^r ' i^E^^S^ xb'Sh^^^B^''<'^^'Ss^-*^3I^^B^^3^ j^^JyFn^jJ^^'i^g^^* !^HL^B^f?'fJ^^^^^^^E^il3^SF^ B^^Sl^^3P^^^aJMri^'B^J^i^P^-^?^^^^''^^^r^^'«j |^HH^^^^n9^K^^^|H9n|^ti^Li-^ ^^^^^!r^^Xvy\M~^'^w^^r^*^'r^^rV^^^^^^^^^fm ■^^^■■■HB^^^^HBRISI^^^^M^E^it-'' ^^^ 'fiBHb^^^^^h^K^^^^Ev'^Y^^^^ jVS'^m ^■HIl^BH^HBB^^s^^i^^lK^^BiSB^w ^^s^r^>3KB^^r'^BIBv^^^^^^^^^^S69l^ij Wf^^S^SS^S^^^^P^BtSKlit^r^^lr^r^l^^^^^^SSf^^SMBtf^^ ^jM^^^^SsB^^^sisSmESBI^^Sl^a.'tSwiSi^XS^^^^IEff &■ Primrose Munstedd Early tion of the flower : " The ground colour is most to be admired when shaded with dark rich crimson resembling velvet, with one mark or stripe in the centre of each division of the limb, bold and distinct from the edging down to the eye, where it should terminate in a fine point." He further says : " The pips should be large, quite flat, and as round as may be con- sistent with their peculiarly beautifiil figure, which is circular, excepting those small indentures between each division of the limb, which divide it into five or six heart-like segments. The edging should resemble a bright gold lace, bold, clear, and distinct, and so nearly of the same colour as the eye and stripes as scarcely to be distinguished. In short, the Polyanthus should possess a graceful employe^ as edgings. Many varieties are wori|j' of being naturalised abund- antly in phasure-grounds and along wood walks, thdhgh the enthusiastic florist grows the^ner ones in pots. Poly- anthuses arq|carcely to be recommended for using in masses in the spring garden as much as Wie finer varieties of the Primrose, sinc^ in order to be admired they require to, be seen rather closely ; but wherever flowers are placed for their beauty rather than their effect as colour, Pol\anthuses are invaluable, and they shoul(% be seen in strong colonies in shrubberies and borders. Their cultivation is almost as simple as that of meadow Grass. They grow vigorously in almost any garden soil, but best in a soil that is somewhat rich THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 697 and moist ; and though they thrive in the full sun, they best enjoy a partially shaded and sheltered position, and are somewhat impatient of heat and drought. When grown for bedding, they are, like the Primroses, removed in early summer from the flower garden to the kitchen- garden or nursery, and replaced there when the summer bedding plants have passed away. There have been lately raised some varieties, a good deal larger in their parts than the type, and these are very easy of culture and very vigorous. There are, however, very few, if any, double varie- ties, but some varieties are curious and interesting from the duplication of the the five bosses characteristic of the Primrose and the Cowslip. Some of its varieties approach the Cowslip, and some the Primrose in character. The treat- ment that suits Polyanthuses and Prim- roses will suit the Oxlip. P. suaveolens is a variety of the Cowslip found in many parts of the Continent, but is not suffi- ciently distinct or ornamental to merit cultivation. P. elatior, the true Oxlip, is not very ornamental, the flowers being of a pale buff-yellow, and readily dis- tinguished by their funnel-shaped corolla, which is quite destitute of the bosses present in the Primrose and Cowslip. It is found on clayey soils in woods and meadows in the eastern counties of Bunch " Primroses. calyx or corolla ; these are popularly known as " hose-in-hose " Polyanthus. They grow with the same facility as the others. The beautiful Gold -laced Polyanthuses are much prized. The best are those raised years ago, such as Cheshire Favourite, George the Fourth, Formosa, Duke of Wellington, Black Prince, Lancashire Hero, and others, and they are mentioned in most florists' catalogues of hardy plants. The common Oxlip is a hybrid more or less intermediate between the Cowslip and the Primrose. It differs from the true or Bardfield O.xlip (P. elatior) in bearing much larger and brighter flowers with longer foot-stalks, and in ha\ing in the throat of the flower England, particularly in Essex, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. It is of eas)' culture, and is most suitable for collec- tions of interesting plants, but is neither distinct nor ornamental enough for limited collections of ornamental kinds. It is also known as the Bardfield Oxlip. The blue Polyanthus (P. e. coeruleus) is a singularly handsome variety of it with slaty-blue flowers. It is now rare in gar- dens, but is well worth growing. Culture. — Where soil is prepared for the choicer varieties, any good loam with a free addition of sand, well-rotted leaf- mould, and decomposed cow-manure will form an admirable compost. The Poly- anthus may be raised with great facility 698 PRUNELLA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. from seed, which should be sown imme- diately after it is gathered, say about the end of June. It will indeed grow with vigour if the seed is not sown till the following spring, but by sowing it imme- diately nearly a year is gained. The amateur wishing to raise choice kinds had better sow the seed in pans or rough wooden boxes, but for ordinary purposes a bed of finely-pulverised soil in the open air will answer to perfection. Sowings in early spring are better made in pans or rough shallow boxes, placed in cold frames, as time will be gained thereby. The best plan is not to lose time by allowing the seed to lie idle in the drawer all the autumn and winter, but to sow it as soon as it is ripe, and have strong plants in the following spring. Known species : — Primula alba^ S. Europe ; algida. As. Min. ; Allionii, W. Europe ; ameihystina, China; a-miBna, Persia ; angTtsiifolia, N.W. Amer. ; auckeri, Arabia ; auricula, Europe ; auriculata, As. Minor ; bella, China ; bellidifolia, N. India ; bractraia, China ; bullaia, do. ; calliantlut, do. ; capitata, Himal. ; capi- tellata. As. Minor, Persia ; camiolica, Austria ; cemua, China ; ciliata, Alps ; Clarkei, N. India ; Clwsiana, Europe ; cordifolia, Hungary ;_ cortusoides, Siberia, Japan ; cuneijblia, Arctic regions ; daonensis, W. . Europe ; darialica, Caucas. ; daintrica, Dahurica ; Delofuayi, China ; denticulata, N. India ; Dickieana, do.; dolffmitis,Vf . Europe ; dryadifolia, China ; egalik- sensis, Arct. Amer.; elatior, Europe ; ellipiica, Himal.; elongaia, do. ; Ehvesiana, do. ; erosa, do. ; /arinifolia, Caucas. ; /aritwsa, N. Ajner. ; Fedschenkoi, Turkes. ; filipes, N« India ; Jimbriata, N. India ; Jiava, China ; Floerkeana, Alp. N. Europe ; Jioribunda, N. India ; /?i3«rfi3ja,Thracia ; Gambeliana, N.India \ geraniifolia, io.', gigantea, Siberia; glabra, N. India; glacialis, China; glaucescens,'W . Europe; glutinosa, do. ; grandis, Caucas, ; Hampeana, Europe ; heterochroma, Persia ; Heydei, Himal. ; hirsuta, N. India; Hookeri, Himal.; imperialis, Java ; iniegri/olia, W. Europe ; involu- crata, Europe, N. Asia ; japonica, Japan ; Jesoana, do. ; Kau/manniana, Central Asia ; Kingii, N. India ; Kisoana, Jap. ; Kitaibeliana, Europe ; lasiopeiala, do. ; Listeri, N. India ; longijlora, Europe ; lutcola, Caucas.; macrocarpa, Japan ; Magellamca,Maee\\!im ; marginata, Europe; maxima Maximffwiczii, N. China ; megastEfolia, As. Min. ; minima. Central Europe ; minutissima, N. India ; mollis, do.; mosckata muscoides, Himal. ; nivalis, Asia and N. Amer. ; ob- conica, China; obtusifolia, N. India; officinalis, Europe and As. Min.; Olgx, T-oAs&t.; pachyscapa, Palinuri, Italy ; Parryi, N.W. tisaex.; pedemontana, C. Europe; peteolaris, N. ItiSm^; pinnatijtda. Cams.; prolifira, N. India ; pulchra, do. ; pumilio, Thibet ; pusilla, N. India ; Reidii, Jap.; reptans, N. India ; reticulata, do.; rosea, do.; rotundifolia, N. India ; Rusbyi, N. Mexico; sapphirina, N. India ; seciindiflora,Cavca. ; septemloba, do. ; serrati/alia, do. ; sibirica, Asia and Arct. Amer. ; SzbihorM, Spain and Greece ; Sieboldi, Jap. ; Sikkim- ensis, N. India ; simplicissima, sinensis, China ; sol- danelloides, N. India ; sonchifolia, China ; spectabtis, Alps ; spicata, China ; stenocalyx, do. ; Stirtoniana, Himal. ; striata, N. Europe ; Stuariii, N. India ; suffrutescens, Calif. ; tenella, N. India ; tyrolensis Alps ; unijlora^ N. India ; urticifolia, China ; vagi- tiata, N. India ; verticillata, Arabia ; villosa, C. Europe ; mscosa, Europe ; vulgaris, Europe ; Wattii, N. India ; Wulfeniana, Europe ; yunnanensis, China. Prunella grandiflora {Large Seljf- ^ra/). — This handsome and vigorous plant is readily distinguished by its large flowers from the common British Self-heal (P. vulgaris), which is unworthy of cultivation. There is a white and a purple variety, both handsome plants, thriving in almost any soil, but preferring one moist and free, and a somewhat shaded position. In winter they are apt to go off on the London clay, at least on the level ground, but are well suited for mixed borders, banks, or copses. The variety laciniata has deeply-cut leaves. Europe. Flowering in summer. P. pyrenaica (Pyrenean Self-heal) is allied to the pre- ceding, and is considered a variety of it. It is about 10 in. high, and its beautiful violet-purple flowers are larger than those of P. grandiflora. It should have the treatment recommended for P. grandiflora. Labiats. Syn. Brunella. Pninus {Plum, Almond, Peach, Apricot, Cherry, Bird Cherry, Cherry-Laurel). — Bentham and Hooker in the " Genera Plantarum" united under Prunus the whole of the species which had at an earlier date been known under one or other of the following names : Amygdalus, Persica, Armeniaca, Prunus, Cerasus, Padus, and Lauro-Cerasus. This arrange- ment, which was necessary from the fact that no well-defined line could be drawn between them, has resulted in some con- fusion in garden nomenclature. And we may see in consequence two Apricots, may be, growing side by side, the older one called Armeniaca, the newer one Prunus. In the following notes the whole of the species dealt with are considered as Prunus and are arranged alphabetically ; and some, not of much garden value, or those not hardy in Britain, are excluded. But it will be of some value perhaps to first show the section to which each belongs. The Almonds and Peaches. — Amygdalus. P. Amygdalus, P. Davidiamt, P. incana, P. nana, P. orientalis, P. Persica, P. Simoni. The Apricots. — Armeniaca. P. Armeniaca, P. hrigantiaca, P. dasycarpa, P, Mume, P. tomentosa^ P. triloba. The Plums. — Prunus. P. alleghaniensis, P. antericana, P. angustifolia, P. cerasijera, P. cerasijera var. atro-purpurea, P. com- munis, P. comntunis z'ar. pruneauliana, P. divari- cata, P. insiiitia, P. spinosa, P. iVatsoni. The Cherries. — Cerasus. P. acida, P. Avium, P. Cerasus, P. Chamacerasus, P. humilis, P. Jacguevionti, P. japonica, P. Maxi- mowiczi, P. pendula, P. pennsykanica, P. prostmta, P. pseudo-CerasHS, P. Puddum, P. pumila, P. ser- rulata, P. subkirtella. The Bird Cherries. — Padus. P. Capollin, P. comuta, P. demissa, P. Makaleh, P- mollis, P. Padus, P. serotina, P. virgimana. _The Cherry-Laurels. — Laurocerasus. P. ilicifolia, P. Laurocerasus, P. lusiianica. P. ACIDA. — One of the species from which the Cherries of gardens have been derived, allied to P. Cerasus ; small, dark-green, shining leaves of firm texture and nearly glabrous. A variety is semperflorens, of drooping habit and bearing white flowers (sometimes double) from May to September, and often carrying PRUNUS. THE EHGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. PRUNUS. 699 flowers and fruit. A dwarf tree, usually grafted standard high. P. Ai.LEGHANiENsis. — Usually a shrub from 4 feet to 6 feet high, but sometimes a small tree three or four times that height. The flowers, \ inch across, at first pure white changing to pink, are followed by handsome fruits, which are blue-purple, nearly globular, and valued for preserving. Pennsylvania. P. AMERICANA (wild Red Plum). — A hand- some tree found in North Ainerica to the east of the Rocky Mountains, and one of the hardiest. It is a tree 20 feet or more high, of graceful habit, bearing at the end of April or the beginning of May many pure snowy white blossoms ; fruits red or yellowish-red, the species being cultivated in the United States on their account. P. AMYGDAI.HS (the Common Almond). — One of the eailiest of trees to bloom, and reaching its bestbefore hardy trees have done more than showsigns of reviving life. There are several naned varieties in cultivation : amara (Bitter Almond) — flowers slightly larger than thse of the common Almond, petals almost wiile towards the tips, deepening into rose at the 'ase. Dulcis ( Sweet Almond) — This has leavesof a grey-green colour, and is one of the eaiest to flower. Macrocarpa — This is a strog-growing tree with larger, broader leaveshan the type ; the flowers, too which are rosetinted white, are larger. This tree is hardyind vigorous in our country. There are als double-flowered and pendulous varieties cultiited under names denoting these characters, vn. Amygdalus communis. P. ANGUSiFOLlA (Chickasaw Plum). — In Britain this ia shrub 4 to 6 feet high, but in America it i* small tree 15 to 20 feet high ; the leaves 3 iches long ; flowers in clusters of one or two'airs, white, sometimes with a creamy tintyne-third of an inch in diameter. Several exclent varieties of this Plum are grown in tbUnited States for the bright red fruits, and tre are variegated forms cultivated in Europe. P. Arm'IACA (common Apricot). — The wild bush 'the cultivated Apricot flowers in February (early March, its blossoms being usually oft pinlcish-white, but there are varieties wi deeper-coloured flowers, and one in which ty are double. N. China. P. Avii (the Gean). — Wild in the British Isles and generally a tree 20 feet to 30 feet high, thisas long been grown as an orna- mental tr and there are three or four good varieties. None is more beautiftil than the double fi) whose pure white flowers are borne in?"ng- The var. decumana is a striking 2 with large leaves, some of which measure nches to 8 inches in length. The var. na' is a curious dwarf plant ; var. laciniatsis cut leaves ; and var. pendula is of weeiS habit. The fruit is sweet or bitter (not: aci p. COLLIN. — A native of Mexico and southwS, where it ranks as a fruit tree ; leaves iOf a dark glossy green, and hanging Primus Davidiana. 70O THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. loose and pendent, as in some Willows ; flowers in erect racemes, white ; fruits round, dark red and like small Cherries ; a tree 30 feet to 35 feet high. In France it ripens seed. P. CERASIFERA (the Myrobalan).— The showiest of all the Plums, flowering whilst the leaf-buds are as yet mere tips of green, the flowers three-quarters of an inch to i inch in diameter, in clusters on the short twigs ; tree round-headed and of spreading habit, 20 feet high. Prunus Pissardi is a variety of this species (var. atro-purpurea, the purple Myro- balan), a variety of Persian origin. Its white blossoms are followed by the beautiful red- purple young leaves, which assume their richest tints when just opening and in late summer P. Cham^cerasus (Siberian Cherry).— A dwarf cherry, the blossoms white, three- quarters of an inch in diameter, appearing in May. One form of this sftcies is represented by a tree 10 feet or more qgh at Kew, but, as a rule, it is only half as h^. It is naturally a small rounded shrub of neat, close habit, but is mostly grown as a standard. There is a drooping variety (pendulajand another with variegated foliage. I P. COMMUNIS (comn*tt Plum).— This species is believed to be thelource from which the cultivated Plums havelbeen derived, al- though in a less degree Ithe Bullace (P. insititia) and the Sloe (P. 3inosa) have each most probably a share in thejr origin. It has, however, some value as an] and reaches a height of 15 f< flowers white. Of the varij ornamental trees, var. pruni the most beautiful. It beai white flowers, not large but! as to cover the twigs. Then flowered form of this variety. P. CORNUTA (Himalayan This is the Himalayan form oi Its leaves are as a rule larger, stouter texture than those of they are also distinct in ha' P. Davidiana. — This is the Peaches to bloom, in mild as January. Its branches are ol growth, the flowers individuall; and completely covering the si (Cerasus Watereri). and autumn. It fruits in favourable seasons, the fruits being coloured like the leaves, even when young. P. Cerasus (the wild Cherry).— A native of Britain, and usually a small tree or even a shrub, bearing its pure white flowers in spring. It is the double-flowered varieties, however, that give the species its chief value in gardens. A very old and beautiful Cherry is the variety known as persiciflora, the flowers of which are •double and tinged with rose. One of more recent origin is Rhexi fl. -pi. , whose pure white, long-stalked flowers, borne in May, hang from the branches in great abundance. It is a small tree, and one of the prettiest of all the Cherries. Syn. Cerasus vulgaris. ornamental tree, to 20 feet, the cultivated as ana is perhaps April many thickly borne > also a double- d Cherry).— Bird Cherry, oader, and of British trees ; stalks, liest of all as early ewhat erect inch across made the preceding year, which are frefently 2 feet along. The petals in one form Iba) are of a pure white ; in the other (rubraMnk, but not so freely borne. P. INSITITIA (the Bullace). often wild in hedgerows, which flowers in pairs during March black fruits are ripe in Octobei several varieties, amongst mentioned that with double with yellowish-white fniits, and red fruits. P. Jacquemoxti. — A pretty of Northern India, where it is fou from 6,000 to 12,000 ft., with bright rosy pink, about half an but borne in great abundance on of the previous summer. The C" mills is nearly related to this. P. japonica (Double Chinesi This is one of the most lovely of ing shrubs. The single form pro cultivation ; the double one has w' with a more or less rosy tint, some,|eed, of a distinct rose colour. The flowers, k about I J in. across, are borne thickly on si stalks from the slender shoots of the prew year. It can be struck from cuttings, but ilbetter to layer the shoots of an old plant.|i that way nice flowering plants can be o two years. Grafted plants neither flower so well, and a constant watch kept for suckers. Syn., P. sinensis. P. Lauro-Cerasus (Cherry Lai another d with |lum). — flower- not in flowers ed in nor to be THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 701 noble evergreen tree often overplanted and misused, and where this is so Cherry Laurels have to be continually cut back to keep them wthin bounds, and their hungry roots prevent the cultivation of better things anywhere near. Several varieties are in cultivation, the best of which are colchica, caucasica, and rotundifolia, all with broader, larger leaves than the common Laurel and preferable to it on account of their hardier constitution. Salicifolia, angustifolia, and parvifolia are narrow-leaved varieties, the last being often grown under the name of Hartoghia capensis. A new \-ariety from the Shipka Pass (shipkaensis) is said to be the hardiest of all. P. LUSITANICA (Portugal Laurel). — A noble evei^een rarely seen in its full beauty, because it is nearly always choked with other things in the shrubbery. It is as an isolated bush or group, and allowed full freedom of growth, that its value both as a winter and summer shrub is seen. But like the Cherry Laurel it is often over-planted. Var. myrtifolia has smaller leaves than the type and its branches are of more erect growth. Being dwarfer it is also better suited for shrubberies. Var. azorica has much larger leaves and fewer, but larger flowers on the raceme. Spain, Portugal, and the Azores. P. JIahaleb (the Mahaleb). — None of the European Cherries surpass this in its spring-tide beauty. The Mahaleb is a native of Central and Southern Europe, perfectly hardy in England. Reaching a height of 20 it. to 30 ft. , of free graceful growth ; especially is this the case with the variety pendula, which, al- though not strictly weeping, is of looser, Izixer habit than the type. The leaves are each 2 in. long, and the pure white flowers appear in rather flat racemes in May. P. Mu.ME. — Under the hands of the Japan- ese cultivators this has varied into numerous forms, and there are now at Kew varieties with flowers red and white, single and double, as well as one of pendulous habit. The wood resembles that of the common Apricot. The plant is leafless at the time of flowering. It has been in cultivation for some years both here and on the Continent, but disguised under other names, one of which is Pninus Myro- balana fl. -roseis. Corea. P. NAN.\ (the dwarf Almond). — This, a native of Southern Russia, is one of the dwarf- est of the Almonds, being from 2 ft. to 5 ft. high. It flowers during March and April when the leaf-buds are only beginning to burst, the flowers being of a lively rose colour and about three-quarters of an inch across. The leaves are narrow, smooth, dark green, and glossy. It is a charming shrub, and can be easily and quickly propagated by layering. The species will thrive in a dry situation better than most Almonds. There is a pretty double form. P. Padus (the Bird Cherrj'). — This beautiful tree, a native of Britain as well as of North and Central Europe and Asia, is often 40 ft. high, the flowers borne in drooping racemes. in the commonest form being 4 ins. to 6 ins. long. There are varieties, however, finer both in the flowers and racemes. A double-flowered variety (flore-pleno) recently obtained from the Continent is the most striking I have seen. A variety also worth special mention is the Manchurian one, with fine racemes, but chiefly notable for coming into flower earl)- in April, and, therefore, long before our Bird Cherry is showing a bloom. There are other named varieties in cultivation, the most distinct being var. stricta, with quite erect racemes. Var. aucubeefolia has its foliage mottled with yellow^ The common Bird Cherry is a tree rather for the park and woodland than the garden proper, but the Manchurian and double-flowered varieties fully deserve a place among flowering trees. Pninus Japonica. P. PENDULA (Cerasus pendula). — A beauti- ful Japanese Cherry and one of the earliest to- come into flower, commencing usually towards the end of ilarch. Its pendent growth has led to its being commonly worked on stocks 5 ft. to 6 ft. high, but it comes true from seed. The leaves are much like those of the common Cheny, the flowers of a lovely shade of soft rose and borne in profusion. In the United States, where the summers are much hotter, it thrives better than in England, and it should, if possible, be planted in a sunny spot sheltered from the north and east. P. PERSICA (the Peach).— Although neither so free-growing nor so hardy as the Almond, the Peach in various forms is beautiful, and iiv 702 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. pterocephalus. positions sheltered from the north and east ought to be planted freely. There is now a number of varieties at the service of the planter, chiefly single and double forms with white or red flowers. There is one also with purple foli^e known as foliis rubris, this colour ex- tending also to the fruit. The many double varieties it is not necessary to specify; they are known by descriptive names, like flore albo pleno. These unfortunately are rarely seen well grown. . P. PROSTRATA (Mountain Cherry). — A rare species, but one of the most lovely of the dwarf Cherries, a native of the mountains of the Levant, and, although not strictly prostrate (at least in cultivation), is a low spreading bush, the long, slender branches arching outwards and downwards to the ground. The flowers, borne on very short stalks, are of a beautifiil lively shade of rose, are half an inch to three- quarters of an inch across, and so plentiful as to almost hide the branches. P. pseudo-Cerasus (the Japanese Cherry). — This is the tree whose flowering marks one of the epochs of the year in Japan. In the forests of North Japan this species becomes a large timber tree, but in England it is not often seen above 20 feet high, and it is the double-flowered varieties that are cultivated in England. They are of various shades of rosy white, and are known under such names as Cerasus Watereri, C. Sieboldi, &c. More so perhaps than any other are these double- flowered Cherries worth extensive planting, never failing to flower, being of surpassing beauty and perfectly hardy. They should be grown on a cool, moist bottom, and the effect they produce in spring is all the greater if room can be afforded for a grove of a dozen or so trees with a backing of Holly or other evergreen. P. serrulata. — This cherry, which is a native of Japan, although scarcely so fine a tree as P. pseudo-Cerasus, is nearly allied to it, and it can be recognised by its peculiar mode of branching. The main stem is erect for a few feet, but then branches off almost horizontally into three or four divisions, and henceforth ceases to send up a defined lead. It is picturesque, representing one of the modes of growth we have come to regard as essentially typical of Japanese tree vegetation, and it comes into flower about a fortnight later. The flowers, whilst scarcely so large as in the finest varieties of P. pseudo-Cerasus, are beautiful, rose-tinted white, and always double. The single-flowered form is not in cultivation. P. SiMONi. — This has leaves of about the same size as the common Almond, but the tree itself is of more erect habit and frequently resembles the Lombardy Poplar in form of growth. The flowers are white, and appearing in February and March. Its fruit is deep purple and ripens early. China. ; P. spinosa flore-pleno (the double Sloe or Blackthorn).— This flowers at the same time as the Sloe, its blossoms white, about half an inch in diameter and not perfectly double, the centre of the flower containing a cluster of stamens. The flowers are thickly crowded on the short spiny branches, the black colour of which serves to show off more vividly the beauty of the flowers. It is one of the most charming of March flowering shrubs. P. TRILOBA FL.-PL. — This, perhaps the most lovely of all the dwarf Prunus, is a native of China and was introduced by Fortune. The flowers are at their best in early April, and each one measures I J in. to 2 in. in diameter. On first opening they are of a lovely shade of delicate rose, changing with age to an almost pure white. This species is perfectly hardy and will thrive as a bush in the open, although not so well as on a wall. The above remarks refer to the double-flowered variety, which for forty years has been in our gardens. Within the last year or two, however, the single- flowered wild type has been introduced. It has smaller rosy white flowers and leaves of the same shape as Fortune's plant, but smaller. — W. J. B. Ftarmica (Achillea). Pteris {Brake). — The Bracken Fern (P. aquilina), the only thoroughly hardy species of this genus, is generally so common as not to need cultivation. If, however, any one wishes to introduce it where it is scarce, he should bear in mind that to transplant it successfially large sods containing the strong creeping roots must be dug up, and planted in light soil ; if peaty, so much the better. In very mild localities, such species as P. cretica and the elegant P. scaberula, from New Zealand, sometimes thrive in sheltered nooks. Pterocephalus Parnassi. — A Scabious- like plant of dwarf compact growth, forming a dense rounded mass of hoary foliage which in summer is studded with mauve-coloured flower-heads. It is a most desirable plant, thriving best in t: ;/'^^ ,:,,,, ,-. >? %S^-.C- ^^^fe- Pterocephalus Parnassi. light warm soils, and is suited either for the rock-garden or the ordinary border. Syn. Scabiosa pterocephala. Greece. PTEROSTYRAX. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. I'YRETHRUM. 703 Pterostyrax Mspidum.— A deciduous Japanese shrub, and quite hardy enough for culture as a bush. It makes a capital wall shrub, being rapid in growth, hand- some in foliage, and very beautiful in flower. The leaves are heart-shaped, about 6 in. long and 3 in. broad ; the small white flowers borne very freely in drooping clusters about the end of July. Another Japanese species, P. corymbosum, is less common, though desirable for walls. Its flowers, which are white or faintly tinged, are in crowded clusters. Both species are 8 to 12 ft. high in this country. They are known botanically as Halesia hispida and H. corymbosa, but ever since their introduction they have been known as Pterostyrax in gardens. Puerari'a thunbergiana (Kudsu). — A remarkable and climbing plant in the north of France, and, so far as we have seen it in England, of almost tropical vigour, growing up poles, colonnades and walls to a great height in a very short time. It belongs to the pea family and is a plant the Japanese make a great econo- mic use of in various ways, but our main concern with it here is for the flower gar- den, and that has as yet been httle tried in England. The flowers are a dull purple, and it is said to be hardy even in N. Germany. Pulmonaria {Lungwort). — These are vigorous and hardy in any soil. Most of them grow well under the shade of trees, and all succeed best in shade. They form dense tufts of foliage, generally hand- somely blotched and speckled with white, and make pretty groups in the spring garden, or m semi-wild places, but are worthy of the best places in the flower garden. There are about half-a-dozen kinds, all like each other. P. officinalis and P. angustifolia are native plants. P. officinalis (sometimes called P. saccharata) has rose flowers turning to blue, and P. angustifolia bears blue flowers. P. mollis is intermediate between the two, and P. grandiflora is somewhat similar to P. officinalis. P. azurea has rich blue flowers. Chiefly natives of Europe. P. dahurica = Mertenzia dahurica. Punica granatum {Pomegranate).— Like the Myrtle, the Pomegranate is grown as a wall shrub, the walls of some old houses being covered with it, and it makes a very beautiful covering with its dense mass of tender green foliage. The type has single flowers of a brilliant scarlet, but the best is the double-flowered sort (flore-pleno), which is also scarlet, and is that most commonly seen. There is also a yellow-flowered sort and a white or almost white kind (albescens) with single and double forms, but these are rare. The flowers are borne freely on the young slender shoots of the previous year's growth, and in pruning these must be left untouched. Puschkinia scilloides {Striped Squill). — One of the most beautiful of spring bulbous flowers. In its growth it is like some of the Scillas, but its flowers are delicate blue, each petal being marked through the centre with a darker colour. The flower spikes are 4 or 5 in. high. There are two forms of the plant — the ordinary one and P. compacta. Compacta is so called from its denser and more numerous flowers, and is therefore the handsomer of the two. P. scilloides is also known as P. libanotica and P. sicula. The Puschkinia delights in a sunny border with a southern aspect near a wall, or an open border slightly raised Puschkinia scilloides. will suit it. The soil should be light and friable, and about i ft. in depth ; and the bulbs planted about 4 in. deep. It will not thrive when mixed indiscriminately with plants of coarse growth, for their shade and consequent dampness injure the bulbs. During winter protect with a mulch, but this should be removed as soon as the severe cold is past. After the flowering season, which is late in spring, quite expose the soil so that it gets warm and dry, and to ripen the bulbs well. Shady situations in sub-alpine districts of Asia Minor. Pyrethrum {Feverfew). — Vigorous per- ennial or rock-plants, by far the most important of which is the Caucasian P. Roseum, which has yielded the in- numerable varieties, both single and double, that have now become such popular border flowers. These varieties have much to recommend them ; they 704 PYRETHRUM. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. are extremely showy, are very hardy and easy to grow, are httle affected by sun or rain, and are invaluable as cut flowers for several months in summer and autumn. The blossoms are continually becoming more varied in colour and more refined in shape. Though Pyrethrums are in their fullest beauty in June, they are seldom altogether flowerless throughout the summer ; and a succession can easily be kept up by judicious stopping and thinning. They are also invaluable for autumn decoration, for if they are cut down after flowering in June they flower again in autumn. They are easily pro- pagated by division or seed. The proper time for propagation is in spring. Take the plants up, shake off" all soil, pull them to pieces, put them in small pots, and place them in a cold frame for a few weeks until they become estabUshed. Do not keep them too close, as they are apt to damp. When they are established they may be planted out. A good rich loam suits them best, though they will grow and flower freely in any good garden soil, and the more we incorporate well-rotted manure with the soil the better they grow and the more luxuriantly they flower. Mulching, especially in dry soils, is very advantageous, as it keeps the ground moist and cool. The varieties are so numerous that it is difficult to make a selection, and new sorts are continually being raised, but the following are some of the best : White and white-shaded — Boule de Neige, Delicatum, Madame Billiard, Nancy, Niveum plenum, Olivia, Argentine, Prince de Metternich, and Ne Plus Ultra. White with yellow centre — Bonamy, Imperatrice Charlotte, La Belle Blonde, Virginale, and Voie lactde. Purple and red — Mrs. Dix, Rubrum plenum, Mons. Barral, Brilliant, and Wilhelm Kramper. Crimson — Michael Buckner, Miss Plinkie, Module, Multiflorum, Prince Teck, Progress, Emile Lemoine, and Marquis of Bute. Carmine and pink — Carmineum plenum, Charles Baltet, Flori- bundum plenum, Gloire de Stalle, Imbricatum plenum. Nemesis, Fulgens plenissimum, Haage et Schmidt, Iveiya- num, J. N. Twerdy, and Rev. J. Dix. Yellow — Sulphureum plenum, Solfaterre. Lilac and rose — Comte de Montbrun, Delicatissimum, Dr. Livingstone, Gaiety, Galathde, Hermann Stenger, Lady Blanche, Lischen Minerva, Uzziel, and Roseum plenum. Most of these are double-flowered sorts ; but there is also a great diversity of colour among the single kinds, and they are quite as beautiful as the heavy-headed double flowers, and are more suitable for vases. Other species of garden value are — P. Parthenium {Feverfew). — The golden-leaved variety of this plant (P. P. aureum or Golden Feather) is now common in every garden. Of this there are several forms. One is called lacinia- tum, and is very distinct from the older kind. These have their uses in geo- metrical borders, where they have a bright effect. Their culture is of the simplest description. Seed is sown in heat in spring, and the seedlings are pricked off in pans, and when large enough trans- ferred to open borders, and there they withstand the winter unprotected. New plants should be raised every year, as after flowering the second year the old plants lose their neat compact growth. P. TcMcliatchewi {Turfing Daisy). — A Caucasian plant, retaining its verdure in dry weather on dry banks or slopes where few plants would flourish ; a dwarf creeper, quickly forming a carpet of green. The flowers have white rays and a yellow disc, and in forming turf of the plant in poor dry soils they should be removed, though for the rock-garden of the rougher kind or for borders the flowers have some claim to beauty. P. uliginosmu is one of the noblest of tall herbaceous plants, and fomis dense tufts 5 to 7 feet in height. These are crowned by lax clusters of pure white flowers, each about twice the size of an Ox-eye Daisy. It is excellent for cutting, and its blossoms are produced late in autumn before the Chrysanthemums come in. It is a stately plant for a rich border, and thrives best in a deep, moist, loamy soil. It may be naturalised in damp places. Division. Syn., P. serotinum. Huneary. Pyrola rotundifolia {Larger Winter- ^reen). — A rare native plant, 6 to 12 in, high, inhabiting woods, shady, bushy, and reedy places. It has leathery leaves, and its erect stems bear long, handsome, and slightly-drooping racemes of pure white flowers, half an inch across, ten to twenty of which are borne on a stem. They have a sweet scent. P. r. arenaria is a very graceful plant, found wild on sandy sea- shores. It differs from the preceding in being smooth, deep green, and dwarfer, and in having as a rule several empty bracts below the inflorescence. Both the type and its variety are beautiful plants for the shady mossy flanks of the rock- garden in free sandy and vegetable soil. They flourish more readily in cultivation than any other species of the family. In America there are varieties with flesh- coloured and reddish flowers, but none of THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 705 these are in cultivation. P. uniflora, P. media, P. minor, and P. secvmda are also interesting British plants, and the first- named is very ornamental, besides being very rare. P. elliptica, a native of N. America, is also found in our gardens, though rarely. Any of the Pyrolas are worth growing in thin mossy copses on light sandy vegetable soil, or in moist and half-shady parts of the rock-garden or the fernery. Pyrus {Pear and .4///^).— Beautiful flowering trees and bushes of which there is now a bewildering number, since botanists have classed all Apples, Pears, and their allies under the one family. Here, however, it will be convenient to adhere to the old classification, which places Pears under Pyrus, Apples under Malus, Beams under Aria, and Mountain Ashes and Service Trees under Sorbus. No one is likely to confuse one with another, and their names are more easily remembered when so classified. These old genera are now placed as sections of Pyrus. The finest flowering trees are those in- cluded under the section Malus, the type of which is the common Crab Apple (M. communis). There is a beautiful flowering variety of the Crab Apple called the Paradise Apple, having large handsome flowers, but it is seldom planted for effect, although in common use as a stock for grafting. The Chinese and Japanese Crab Apples include the finest of our small trees that flower in early summer. The Chinese double-flowered Crab (P. M. spectabilis) is a lovely tree, 151025 ft. high, with a wide- spreading head of branches abundantly wreathed with large semi-double delicate rose-pink flowers. It is not often met with, except in old gardens. The varieties of P. M. bacnata or Berry Apple (so called from its small round fruits) are known as Siberian Crabs. They are graceful in growth, showy in flower, and have highly- coloured fruits, which add much to the beauty of the garden in autumn. The Japanese Crab (P. M. Toringo) has beautiful flowers and fruits. The flowers are white or pale pink, and the very small fruits are hung on long slender stalks. Of the Toringo Crab there are now several forms, differing in colour of flower and of fruit. It is a small tree, and is a large- spreading bush if the leaders are removed. The finest of the Eastern Crab Apples is the Japanese P. M. floribunda. Fully grown it makes a low tree with a dense wide-spreading head of slender branches, loaded every May with a profusion of flowers of a pale pink when expanded, and of a brilliant crimson in the bud. when they are most beautiful. No gar- den is well planted if this tree is wantmg, as it is hardy, grows rapidly anywhere, and costs little to buy. There are a few varieties of it, one called Halleana having larger and more richly-tinted blossoms. The North American Sweet-scented Crab Apple (P. M. coronaria) is a lovely little tree with large pale pink deliciously- scented flowers. There are other orna- mental Apples in the section Malus, but the foregoing include the finest and the most readily obtainable. The charming Cydonia Maulei is now placed under Pyrus, but in these articles it is described under Cydonia. Of the true Pears as ornamental trees little can be said. They are a good deal like orchard and garden Pears in growth and flower, and their fruits are not remarkable. One or two, how- ever, may be planted for ornament. One is P. Bollwylleriana, from Central Europe, which produces in spring an abundance of small white blooms in clusters ; and another, P. Salicifolia (the Willow-leaved Pear), which is well worthy of planting on account of its distinct and beautiful foli- age, has leaves of silvery whiteness. P. oleeagnifolia, or Oleaster-leaved Pear is another Eastern species with hoary leaves. Of the Sorbus section the' common Mountain Ash (P. Aucuparia) is a familiar example, but it is too common to need description. There is a rare kind with yellow berries (fructu luteo), another kind with weeping branches (pendula), a third of erect growth (fastigiata), and a fourth with variegated leaves. The last, how- ever, is not very ornamental, as the variegation is seldom distinct. Other species worthy of attention are P. S, americana, the American Mountain Ash, which is a good deal like our own Mountain Ash ; and P. S. hybrida, a tree of very dis- tinct growth, with a dense pyramidal head. The leaves of P. S. hybrida are intermediate between those of P. S. Aucuparia and P. Aria (the White Beam). The true Service Tree, P. S. domestica, used to be more frequently planted than now. 1 1 is a hand- some tree with elegant foliage. Of the White Beam (P. Aria) there ai'e some very handsome kinds. Even our native White Beam is ornamental. Like the Mountain Ash, it is also one of the best trees for planting in exposed places on poor soil, and no tree thrives so well on chalk. Its broad silvery foliage makes it show in the landscape, and it is a valu- able park tree. Its allies and varieties include some beautiful trees, such as lati- folia, with leaves which are broader than the type and quite as silvery. P. A. Z Z 7o6 PYXIDAXTHERA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. QUERCUS. Hosti is a handsome tree, both in foliage and flower. Its leaves are large and silver)-, and its delicate rose-pink flowers are in broad flat clusters. It is a Central European tree, perfectly hardy, and about lo ft. high. The Himalayan Beam Tree, P. vestita (called also P. lanata and nepal- ensis) is extremely fine, but is not hardy everywhere. Its very large leaves are like those of the Loquat, and are of silvery whiteness. Where it thrives it is 20 to 30 ft. high. Fjrxidanthera barbulata {Pine Barren Beauty). — A curious little American e\er- green shrub, smaller than many ]\Iosses, flowering in summer, rose-coloured in bud, white when open, the effect of the rosy buds and the white flowers on the dense dwarf cushions being singularly pretty : it is plentiful in the sandy dry "Pine barrens" between New Jersey and North Carolina and often found on little mounds in low, but not wet, places. It is a charming plantfor the rock-garden, planted in pure sand and leaf-mould fully exposed to the sun. Division. Polemoniaceje. Quamoclit COCCinea. — A pretty Con- volvulus-like plant, with many small scarlet flo\yers and slender stems of rapid growth, attaining a height of 6 to 8 ft. in a few weeks. It may be treated either as a half-hardy annual, and sown in Februarj- or March under glass or in a hot-bed, but it requires a warmer climate than ours to do its best in. Q. hederas- folia is another pretty species. It has scarlet flowers and lobed foliage, and requires the same treatment as Q. coccinea. Both are excellent plants for sheltered trellises, as they give abundance of flowers from July to September. Quereus {Evergreen Oak). — The oaks of our country are the glory of our wood- land, but losing their leaves in w inter, cannot shelter our gardens with their fine backgrounds of evergreens as the Holm Oaks do. Therefore it is well that some of the favoured shores and valleys of the world have beautiful Evergreen Oaks which we may grow in or near our gardens, the best known of these being the Ilex of Italy, which is, happily, hardy in our country. It is perhaps most beautiful in sea-shore dis- tricts, and many gardens in such districts, both in England and Ireland, have fine specimens. Old trees give excellent shade, and it is a very pretty shelter for the flower garden. Among the most beautiful things I have seen in Nature's gardens are the Evergreen Oaks on the mountains of Cali- fornia, one with a camellia-like leaf, the under side being a beautiful brown-gold colour, the cup covered with fur of the same colour. This, perhaps, is not hardy with us ; but there are other Evergreen Oaks ot much value for our gardens generally, and though they must not stand among the flowers, their near shelter and background of beautiful leaves will be precious in many positions. With such a great shore-line, the opportunities for growing them well are vastly greater than they would be in a Continental country of like temperature to ours. They are lovely shelter trees as groups or groves for gardens swept by sea winds. There are instructive examples of their use in this way in many places, as at St. Ann's, near Dubhn, and Holkar, in Nor- folk, and they are equally usefijl for smaller places. Sometimes after very hard winters the trees look as if they were killed, but afterwards throw off the injured leaves and grow happily again. They should be transplanted with the greatest care when young, and the best way is often to raise plants from acorns, common where the tree grows well, and which may be often gathered in Italy. They should be sown as soon as possible after ripening. The following notes do not include all the species of Evergreen Oak which have been introduced into British gardens, but the most important kinds are referred to. On our warmer shores a number of other kinds besides the common Ilex should be tried. For convenience of reference, these are arranged alphabetically. Q. acuta is a native of Japan, with dark leathery leaves about the size of those of the common Cherry Laurel. It has passed two severe winters vmtouched. This has not been long enough in the country to enable one to judge the merits of an adult tree, but even as a bush it is a fine object. It is met with in books and catalogues under the names of Q. Buerger! and Q. marginata. Q. Bueigeri robusta is a vigorous large-leaved form. Q. agrifolia, the Enceno of the Califomian coast, is a distinct Oak rarely seen in gardens. In general aspect it is not unlike some forms of Q. Ilex, but the leaves are of a different shade of green. Dr. Engelmann says it is "a large tree, with a stout, low trunk, often 8 to 12 ft., sometimes 16 to 21 ft., in circum- ference, and with a spread of branches of 120 ft." Q. alnifolia (Golden Oak of Cyprus).— l\s chief charm resides in the bright gold of the under surface of the Alder-like leaves. Snow Hes for a month on the hills where this Oak is found wild, and therefore there seemed every probability that in the south and west of England it would thrive, but as far as the immediate neighbourhood of London is con- cerned, it has not turned out a success. QUERCr- THE EXGLISH FLOIVER GARDEX. RANUNCULUS. 707 Q. Chrysolepis (Ca!i/onn\m Live OoM) is found along the coast ranges and along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, where it forms a tree 3 to 5 ft. in diameter of stem, or, at higher ele\^tions, is reduced to a shrub. It has not been lon^ enough in cultivation in this country for a dehnite judgment to be formed respecting it, but it has pretty spiny-toothed dark green leaves, somewhat golden on the under surface. In its native country it is a beautifiil evergreen tree. Q. COCcifera is a native of Southern Europe and the Levant, in this country forming a dense bush with small spiny dark green leaves, and very small acorns, often hardly larger than a Pea, which now and then ripen in Southern England. Q. densiflora is a native of California, where it extends from the Santa Lucia Moun- tains, through the coast ranges, and especially among the Red Woods to 5ie Shasta region. It is a tree 50 to 60 ft., or rarely So ft. high, and a foot or two in diameter ; in some positions often a mere shrub 5 to 7 ft: high. At Kew this grows freely in rather sheltered places, and produces fine leathery leaves of a dark green colour, in outline somewhat like those of a small Spanish Chestnut. Q. glabra, another Japanese Oak, has large handsome leaves as large as those of a common Laurel : the acorns are borne in upright spikes and take two years to ripen. Several varieties are mentioned in some continental catalogues, but they are hardly distinct enough to merit attention. At Kew the species makes a large bush and is thoroughly hardy. Q. Ilex. — This is the best-known of all the Evergreen Oaks, and is perhaps the most valuable for Britain. Old trees, which have been allowed plenty of space and have not been pruned, but allowed to grow naturally, resemble in form the Olive trees of the Italian coast and of the Riviera about Mentone; Q. Ilex is one of the most variable of Oaks, but few of the named \"arieties — and there are many — are so beautiful as the old kind. This tree has been thoroughly tried in our countrj', and is of high value. Q. Suber (Ci?r/5 Oai). — The verj- interesting Cork Oak, which, except for the wonderfiil growth of its bark, hardly differs in effect &om the Holm Oak. It thrives at Kew, and has to be protected by iron hurdles to prevent the public firom taking away the bark. There are fine old trees of this at Mount Edgcumbe, Goodwood, and other places, but the Cork Oak is not hardy enough for our climate generally. Q. virens (Live Oai of Virginia) is in its native country a tree of the first economic value, and deserves all the encomiums passed on it by Cobbett in his U'oodlaiuis. All the trees in Ei^land I have seen under this name are, however, forms of Q. Ilex, and I doubt there being any fine trees of the true Q. \-iren3 in cultivation in this countr)'. — X. Bamondia pyrenaica {Rosette Mul- /ien). — An interesting Pyrenean plant, with leaves in rosettes close to the ground, the flowers purple-violet colour, with orange-yellow centre, i to li in. across, on stems 2 to 6 in. long, in spring and early summer. There has been a good deal of writing about its culti\ation, but it is really not difficult ; growing in cool peat borders, on the lower ledges of the rock- garden, or in moist ' chinks. It is found in the valleys of the Pyrenees, on the face of steep and rather shady rocks. There is a rare white variety which does well in borders of American shrubs in peat soil. There is one good and one or more pure white varieties, and the names of new kinds are talked of, such as R. Heldreichi, R. serbica, and R. Nataliae ; the two last found in Servia, and said to be far superior to the old plant, but of Ramondia p>-renaica. this we have to wait for proof. C)Ttan- draceas. Seed and division. Ranunculus {Crowfoot). — Many of these are useless weeds, while others are among the choicest of garden flowers, and ornaments of the border or the rock- garden. They are for the most part of the simplest ctdture ; only R. asiaticus and. its many varieties require special treatment. R. aconitifolius. — The double-flowered \ariety, known as Fair JNIaids of France,, is a pretty plant about 18 in. high, forming for several weeks in early summer a dense tufl covered with small rosette-like white blossoms. A really charming plant in deep moist soils. The single wild plant may be worth a place in collections. R. acris {BaiMors' Buttons). — The Z Z 2 708 RANUNCULUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. RANCNXULUS. pretty double form of this plant is also a useful kind, its rich yellow blossoms borne in button-like rosettes : a border plant, and good in moist soil, fully exposed. R alpestris.— A native of the alpme regions of Central Europe, and found chiefly growing in calcareous soil : a hand- some kind, forming small tufts of shmmg, dark-green, prettily cut leaves ; flowers large pure white, with numerous yellow stamens in the centre, and borne singly on erect stems from 2 in. to 6 m. high m June and July. A good rock-garden plant in light, porous, moist soil.— U R. amplexicaulis is a lovely garden plant, about i ft. high, with slender stems, glaucous-gray leaves, and blossoms i in. across, pure white with yeUow centres, blooming in April and May: a pretty Ranunculus aconitifolius fl.-pL (Fair Maids of France). border and rock-garden plant, doing best in a deep moist loam. Pyrenees and Alps of Provence. B. anemonoides.— A native of the Alps of Styria and the Southern Tyrol : a hand- some species; leaves large, with a purpUsh leaf-staJk, and divisions which are larger and less deeply cut than those of R. rutsefolius ; flowers large, with numerous divisions in the petals, of a greenish white on the inside, and of a very fine pink colour on the outside, appearing before the leaves at the same time as the plants of Anemone Hepatica come into Ijloom. It does best in the rock-garden in a cool place and in moist porous soil. R. asiaticus. — An old garden plant, with neat dressy double flowers of many colours, divided into various sections, such as the Dutch, Scotch, Persian, and Turkish, each representing a distinct race, but all beautiful and well deserving care. The culture of this Ranunculus is simple if a few essentials are observed. The situation should be open, but not exposed and the soil a loam mixed wnth decayed stable manure equal to a third of its bulk. About a month previous to plant- ing, the bed should be prepared to a depth of IS in., and planting should take place about the last half of February ; in some seasons it may take place in October, though such an early date is not the best Drills about 5 in. apart and i^j deep should be made with a small hoe ; the claws of the roots should be placed down- wards and pressed firmly into the soil, which should be raked over the roots and a top dressing of about 2 in. of good loam given. If the surface soil is Ught, it may be gently beaten with a spade in order to obtain a firm surface, and this may be repeated just before the foliage appe^s, say about a month or six weeks after the planting. As this Ranunculus de- lights in moist soil, water should be given if there is a scarcity of ram, and in no case should the roots be allowed to be- come dry. A light top-dressmg of arti- ficial manure or guano just as the fohs^e is above ground will do good. When the flowers are past and the leaves faded, the roots must be taken up, dried, and stored in a cool place in sand till the next plant- ing season, for roots left in the ground are injured by rains and never strong. The Persian varieties are the finest as regards colour, compactness, and s\-mmetry of growth ; but the Turban varieties are of hardier constitution and of freer growth, and therefore are better suited for beds, Unes, and masses. The Scotch and Dutch varieties are also fine for masses in beds, being all of highly effective colours. It is useless to enumerate the different varieties, as they are usually sold according to colour, and are mentioned in nearly every bulb catalogue. The large semi-double French (de Caen) and the Italian forms of this plant are good. The wild plant, which I gathered in Egypt both in the yellow and red forms, is a lovely wild flower, and as well worth growing as any of its garden varieties. R. bulbosus fl.-pL is a showy plant, about I ft. in height, with, in early sum- mer, numerous double yellow blossoms, growing w^l in any soil. Of R. repens there are two double varieties, one neat and the other untidy. R. bullatus is a fine border plant, about 6 in. high, with large orange yellow blos- soms like those of the Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris). It is not so hardy as the majority of the Crowfoots, and should therefore be placed in warm dry soil. RANTNXfLUS. THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDE X. REHMANNIA. 709 R. crenatus. — A nati\e of alpine and siliceous mountains in Styria, the leaves entire and roundish ; the tiowers are large, white, with almost entire petals, two or three together at the extreinity of stem, 3 or 4 in, high in April and May. The rock-gai-den in deep sandy soil in our countr\-, fully exposed to the sun, R. giacialis (L.\— Found on tlie Alps and the Pyrenees, also in the regions of the Xortli. This is the plant of the icy regions, being found near to the melt- ing snow on the loftiest mountain. The whole plant involuntarily reminds one of melting ice. The thick fleshy lea\-es of a dark green, and deeply incised, tlie stem of a brownish-red tint, flexuous, 3 or 4 in. long, glabrous, prostrate on the ground, and healing from one to four flowers, the petals of which are at first of a light pink colour, passing into a bright copper)'-red, and which remain on the plant until the seeds are ripe — everything about this plant presents a glacial and unwonted aspect. In Britain this should be kept without great difficulty in a cool and moist but fully exposed ledge of the rock-garden, in deep gritty soil \nth white stones or sand on the surface to keep it cool. In case of drought it should be well watered, R. gelidus and R. roseus are varieties of R. giacialis, and are cultivated in tlie same way. — C. R. Lingoa, a native kind, is a noble waterside plant. Its leaves rise boldly out of the water, and it has large yellow and attractive flowers. The other aquatic species, such as R, aquaticus and fluitans, are pretty plants for artificial water, but should be introduced cautiously, as when once established they spread rapidly and beconve too plentiful, R. Lyalli {Rock-.cood Lt7y).~A lovely Xew Zealand plant ; in moist places in the Soutliem Alps the plant has large rounded leaves and verj- large handsome waxy white flowers, not unlike tliose of Anemone iajionica, with delicate yellow stamens in the centre. The \-ariety Aiameosa differs in being covered with scattered flaccid hairs, R, Traversi is nearly allied. In some places in Britain this plant is not hardy, but in others it stands the winter wdl. A writer in TAe Garden says of a plant at Kew : " It is growing in a deep pe.tty bed, sheltered firom the north and east, and has been without protection of any kind for over two years. To ^t the seed of this charming plant to gtmim- ate is difficult, as importations in recent j-ears have foiled, and like many other similar pl.ants it seems to do best when let alone. It has flowered in a few gardens, and would seem to require cool rock-garden treatment so far as now known,"— W, K, R, pamassifolios. — A native of the Alps and Pyrenees, at high elevations, where it is i'ound growing in calcareous and granitic dt'bris. A singular-looking plant with thick, entire leaves, woolly on the edges, flowers large, of a pure white colour, borne two or three together on a prostrate stem in the month of i\Iay. In the Pyrenees and on the French Alps it is rare — a circumstance which I am unable to explain — to find a flower of this handsome species which pos- sesses the full number of petals, these being also frequently abortive. A rock-garden plant requiring the same treatment as tlie higher mountain species. R. rutsefolius has Rue-like leaves and white flowers with dark yellow centres. Coming from the highest parts of the Alps, it requires the same treatment as the choicest alpine plants. It should be in a fully-exposed spot in moist soil with plenty of grit in it, R, SeguierL — A native of the Southern, Eastern, and Western Alps : a handsome species with deeply-cut, dark-green lea\es, and diflFering appreciably from R, giacialis, although it belongs to the same group. Flowers of a fine white colour, on erect stems in M.ay and June. On the rock- garden with the alpine buttercups, R. specioSUS is a showy plant, widi compact rosette-like flowers of bright yellow in May, succeeding in any light soil. In a full collection, R. gramineus, chaaophyllus, illyricus, and fumarisefblius may be included. The above is but a selection from a ver)' large family in nature, many of which are little known in gardens, and many of no garden interest. Raphiolepis ovata yj.ipanesc If<7Zi'- t/iorn). — ^A beautiful Japanese shrub, hardy in southern districts, and with a little winter-protection may even be planted in cold parts. Its thick evergreen lea\-es are of a dark colour, and its flowers, which are large, white, and sweet-scented, are in clusters terminating the young branches. It is a low spreading bush, somewhat open and straggling, and should not be crowded with other shrubs. Some of the other species, such as R, indica and R, salicifolia, both from China, are not hardy enough for the open ground, but make good wall shrubs. Rehmannia chinensis.— A handsome dwarf perennial of the Gesnera family. In summer with large tubular flowers of a purplish colour, striped with a darker 710 REINECKIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. RHINOPETALUM. kept dry until November, and it should hue ; not hardy, but succeeding in warm sheltered gardens. The best specimens of it we have seen grew in a moist peaty border under a wall running east and west. It is generally best to winter it under glass. China. Beineckia carnea. — A dwarf Lilia- ceous plant of low tufted growth of which there is a variegated variety. The grassy foliage of the plant is dark shining green in the type, but in the variety is striped with creamy-yellow and green, this mak- ing a pretty edging plant, and succeeding in an open situation in an ordinary soil. Its flowers are not showy. China. Reseda odorata {Mignonette). — The only species worth growing is the com- mon Mignonette and its varieties, which is much admired everywhere on account of its fragrance. Seed sown in the open ground in March or April produces in a few weeks flowering plants, which con- tinue to bloom till late in autumn, yielding an abundant supply of cut flowers. If, however, a few specially fine masses be wished for, the seed should be sown in pans about the end of March, the seed- lings placed singly in 3-in. pots, and planted out in good soil in an open posi- tion. A little attention should be given to thinning out the weak shoots and stopping the vigorous ones. Plants sown in autumn will survive mild winters and produce flowers in early summer, these being finer than those of spring-sown plants. There are many forms, as R. odorata grandiflora, R. o. pyramidalis grandiflora, the compact strong growing variety Machet, with bold spikes of reddish flowers and broad abundant leaves, and dwarf varieties. Machet is the kind grown so largely in pots for the London markets, and it is also a good kind for the open air. Retinospora (Cupressus). Rhaponticum (Cnicus). Rteiim {Rhubarb). — Herbaceous plants of great vigour and picturesque aspect. They may be planted in any soil, and afterwards left to take care of themselves ; and their fine leaves are well seen by the margins of shrubberies and in semi-wild places where luxuriant vegetation is de- sired. They like deep and rich soil. R. Emodi is a fine-leaved plant, for groups in the pleasure-ground, but requiring good soil. It grows about 5 ft. high, and is imposing with its wrinkled leaves and large refl veins. R. officinale, however, as regards foliage, is the most effective hardy plant introduced for many years. All the old Rhubarbs are insignificant beside it. It is effective early in the year, and should be placed near the shrubbery, on the turf, or in the wild garden. In small glades with rich soil a bold effect might be produced by a good selection, embracing Ferulas, Heracleums, Rhu- barbs, Acanthuses, Yuccas, the common Artichoke, Gunnera scabra, and many other vigorous hardy subjects. R. officinale is hardy and easily propagated. R. palmatum is a slow-growing plant, and smaller than its variety, R. p. tanguticum, which increases rapidly, has fine fohage, and will be welcome to those who grow the other hardy species. R. nobile is distinct, forming a dense pyramid of foliage. It is, however, one of the most difficult to cultivate, and in Europe has succeeded only in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Sikkim Mountains. R. Ribes is too rare and delicate for gardens. The common Rhubarbs, said to have sprung chiefly from R. Rhaponticum and R. undulatum, have been planted in Hyde Park, but there they are arranged in masses, which is not the proper way. Those worth notice are R. australe, R. compactum, R. rugosum, R. hybridum, Victoria Rhubarb (with very large leaves and long red stalks), Myatt's Linnaeus, and Prince Albert. Scott's Monarch is the most ornamental of all the garden varieties. Rhexia virginica {Meadow Beauty).— A northern representative of a beautifiil South American family with vivid rosy flowers. It grows 6 or 8 in. high, in sandy swamps in New England and the Eastern States, and is found as far west as Illinois and Wisconsin, thriving only in a boggy or marshy place in peaty or sandy soil. R. Mariana is even scarcer in this country than R. virginica, and less importaiit. It does not grow so far north in America, but is plentiful in the sandy fields of New Jersey, and would probably thrive in sandy heath soil. The Rhexias must not be di\ided too much. Good tufts should be obtained from their native localities, and planted in a sandy peat bed on a cool clay subsoil. RhinopetalTun Karelini.— A bulbous plant of the Lily family, from Central Asia, 4 to 5 in. high, allied to Fritillaria and sometimes classed with it. It bears two or three broad stem-clasping leaves, and in late autumn or early winter a terminal raceme of slightly-drooping bell- flowers which are about i in. across, and pale purple with dark veins, and spots, with a yellowish-green pit at the base of each reflexed segment. According to Dr. Regel's experience, this bulb must be RHODANTHE. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, rhododendron. 711 not be growing or showing bloom before spring. If planted in November, growth is retarded, and the plant blooms in spring, as it ought to do. Plants flowering in autumn mvariably dwindle away, and do not produce any more new bulbs. It should have light soil in well-drained borders with a warm exposure. Bhodanthe {Everlasting). — Charming half-hardy annuals from Australia, valuable as border flowers and for winter bouquets, as they are " everlastings." They are all of slender growth, i to i^ ft. high, and have glaucous-gray foliage and showy flowers. February or March. In the southern counties they may also be sown in the open air in May on warm borders in good soil. In frames, freely watered, and placed in a temperature of 65° to 70°, the seeds quickly germinate, but if in- sufficiently watered, will remain dormant for several weeks. The seedlings should be pricked while young, as they do not transplant well when large. Plant them in a warm open position, and a well- manured light soil — if peaty, the better. They ought to be protected for a few days after transplanting. Rhododendron Nobleanum. The original species, R. Manglesi has fine rose-coloured blossoms with yellow centres, and of which there is a double variety. R. maculata has a deep crimson ring encircling the eye of the flower ; and there is a pure white variety. R. atro-sanguinea differs considerably from R. maculata, being not only dwarfer, but more branched. The flowers, of a bright magenta colour, are rather smaller than those of maculata, but average i in. in diameter. It is rather less hardy than maculata, but sufficiently hardy for the open air. All these kinds should be sown thinly in heat in pots in Bhodochiton volubile. — A beautiful slender plant, usually grown in green- houses, but succeeds in the open in sheltered parts, forming a delightful festoon for arbours and trellises in warm localities. Strong young plants should be placed out in May in good soil. Bhododendron {Rose Tree). — A noble family of shrubs, so popular that they are often over-planted ; that is to say, we are sure to see Rhododendrons in large and often inartistic and ugly masses in many country places where no planting of any other kind worth speaking of is carried 712 RHODODENDRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. rhododendron. out. In districts where they do well, the soil and climate being perfectly suitable, monotonous effects are produced through their over-use, against which all who care for beautiful gardens should protest. There are many other shrubs as well worthy of a place as the Rhododendron. Even frequent misuse of a plant is, how- ever, no reason against its artistic use ; the flower has led people to ignore many things equally good : the charm of the evergreen leaf and the large and hand- some flowers taking Englisli planters by storm. The mild climate of our country and generally our rather mild winters allow many more kinds to grow with us than on the Continent of Europe generally, or in N. America, though that is the home of the Rhododendron. In severe winters some kinds are touched by frost even with us, and therefore we must be on our guard against planting other than the hardy varieties, of which a selection is given here. The hardy American species should be grown more in lowland Valleys, as I find that they stand winters which kill R. ponticum. The vast range in our country over which the plant will grow well, alike in Ireland, England, and Scotland, makes the possession of the finest kinds most important. The proper arrangement of the plants as to colour deserves attention, and in a separate paragraph we mention the colours that go best together. Among the numbers of kinds that have been raised by English nurserymen, a good many poor, dull, or ugly in colour have been sent out, and therefore it is important to get good kinds in this respect and to group and arrange them better than has hitherto been done ; that is to say, not so much 'in flat areas and lumpy beds. A far better way is to break them up into bold and simple groups, holding the colours more together and not scattering them about in indefinite mixtures every- where, but giving a distinct impression of their beauty in different parts of the grounds. It is important to get plants from layers where possible, and not grafted plants, as these are apt to perish and their places be taken by the common stock, of which we have already far too much. Hitherto it has been very difficult to get layered plants ; but if the public would let nurserymen know their wishes, layers would be forthcoming. It makes great difference in the end whether the kind has its own roots and is spread about into many plants, or is on some wretched stock on which it perishes. Rhododendrons are of free growth in I almost any soil except lime soil. In many loamy gardens free from lime the plants do perfectly well, although perhaps never so much at home as on a sandy peat. Over a large area of Ireland where the limestone prevails it is, I think, not worth trying to cultivate Rhododendrons. It is always better to grow things that do best on one's own soil. Given a peaty or limeless soil, the difficulty is to prevent their growing so quickly as to smother each other. They are often too closely planted, and after a few years of rapid growth such plantations cannot show their beauty. It would be much better to plant all the choice kinds rather thinly. Where from previous thick planting the bushes are too close together, thin them promptly and severely, leaving the choicer kinds and the finest-formed bushes. In this way we get light and shade among the plants instead of allowing them to form one flat level head. The excellent plan of placing lilies and the other fine handsome hardy flowers among Rhodo- dendrons and like shrubs tends to keep them more open and delightfiil in every way, their forms as well as flowers being better shown. The plants, forming generally close balls of earth, are more easily transplanted than most shrubs. This is often done in late spring and summer, as for the London flower-shows, where numbers of the finest kinds are brought in spring and taken away in summer. In the case of all choice and rare varieties remove the seed-\essels after flowering, thus saving the strength of the plants for future good growth and flowers. Hardy Rhododendrons seldom flower profusely in consecutive years, but fine displays biennially are usually made. Established plants can take care of themselves and in strong loamy soil artificial waterings are not required. In very dry summers mulching the roots of a few single plants that occupy a rather dry position is often necessary, but where the beds are on le^■el ground they succeed without this attention. This is not so in all cases, as drought in the early autumn months often kills many of the large plants on shallow soils. Rhodo- dendrons are, as a rule, safe from over- dryness at the root until August ; then, if the weather should be dry, a good soaking of water twice a week and a mulch over the roots of half-rotten manure, 3 or 4 in. in thickness, will maintain them in health. The Evils of Grafting.— Apropos of this subject, Mr. Scrase Dickins, who is a good grower himself, writes : " We have RHODODENDRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, rhododendron. 713 a large number of grafted Rhododendrons, planted over thirty years ago, from the base of which every year a thick growth of suckers springs up ; these require to be cleared off in the early summer, and again in the autumn, if the intended variety is to retain its claim to existence ; but the labour entailed is considerable, and many are o\erlooked or passed by for want of time. Occasionally one comes soon makes short work in ejecting the less vigorous intruder. It is very un- fortunate when, after a certain number of years, the labour and money spent in an endeavour to obtain some specially beautiful effect results in a common- place arrangement of lilac and yellow. When the snow has prostrated large Rhododendrons, those that are on their own roots will often raise themselves in a Iree Rhododendron -it Cistlewellan co Down across a great bush of the common ponticum, with a small scraggy piece in the centre to show that once it was meant to be a hybrid variety of special beauty ; but the worst of the whole business seems to be that the older the plant the larger is the base from which the suckers spring, and consequently the larger is the number of suckers. With Ghent Azaleas the trouble is nearly as bad ; the common, yellow form on which they are grafted, being a strong grower, thaw without help ; whereas those that are grafted will most likely have broken off short at the base. If the union between the stock and the scion is so imperfect as to give way under these provocations, it follows that the flow of sap and con- sequent development of the plant must be seriously interfered with. In some cases this may prove beneficial in restraining a coarseness of growth and inducing fertility, but it is the reason why we do not possess in our gardens. 714 RHODODENDRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. rhododendron. finer examples of graceful and well- developed natural specimens. In order to gain new and improved varieties, it is necessary to raise a large number of seedlings. If nurserymen were to give their attention more generally to raising seedlings and layered plants, it might with reason be expected that they would raise a large number of new and improved varieties. If planters, looking forward to the future, as planters as a rule must do, would insist on being supplied by the nurserymen with seedlings only, then our successors would have finer examples to thank us for, and we should be increasing our store of what is beautiful and of value among our treasures in garden and wood." The following is a list of the best hardy varieties : — ■ Achievement. Adrian. Agamemnon. Album elegans. Album grandifiorum. Alexander Adie. Alma. Amphion. , Archimedes. Atro-sanguineum. Auguste van Geert Bacchus. Barclayanum. Baron Schroeder. Beauty of Surrey. Bertram. Blandyanum. Bluebell. Boule de Neige. Bouquet de Flore. Brayanum. Broughtoni. Bylsianum. Caractacus. Catawbiense. Catawbiense album. Charles Bagley. Charles Dickens. Charles Thorold. C. S. Sargent. Chionoides. Ccerulescens. Concessum. Congestum roseum. Coriaceum. Crown Prince. Cruentum. Cynthia. Delicatissimum. Delicatum. Doncaster. Duchess of Bedford. Duchess of Connaught. Duchess of Sutherland. Duke of Connaught. Elfrida. Everestianum. Fair Helen. Fimbriatum. Fleur de Marie. Florence. Francis Dickson. Frederick Waterer. Garibaldi. George Paul. Gloire de Bellevue. Govenianum. Guido. Hamlet. Hannibal. Helen Waterer. Henderson!. Hermit. H. H. Hunnewell H. W. Sargent. lago. Ingrami. Jack Waterer. James Bateman James Macintosh. James Mason James Nasmyth J. Marshall Brooks. John Spencer. John Walter. John Waterer. Joseph Whitworth. Kate Waterer. Kate Alice Waterer. Kettledrum. Lady Annette deTrafford. Lady Armstrong. Lady Clementina Mit- ford. Lady Clermont. Lady Dorothy Neville. Lady Eleanor Cathcart. Lady Falmouth. Lady Francis Crossley. Lady Grey Egerton. Lady Godiva. Lady Olive Guinness. Lady Tankerville. Lalla Rookh. Limbatum. Lord John Russell. Lord Palmerston. Lucidum. Madame Carvalho. Marchioness of Lans- downe. Marie Stuart. Martin Hope Sutton. Mason's White Seedling. ^Maximum. Maximum album. Maximum Wellsianum. Maxwell T. Masters, ^Melton. ^lemoir. Meteor. Michael Waterer. Minerva. Minnie. Mirandum. Miss Jekyll. Miss Owen. ilont Blanc. Morion. Mrs. Arthur Hunnewell. Mrs. Charles Leaf. :\trs. Charles Thorold. Mrs. Fitzgerald. Mrs. Frank Phillips. Mrs. Fredk. Hankey. .Mrs. G. H. W. Heneage. Mrs. Harry Ingersoll. Mrs. John Glutton. Mrs. John Kelk. Mrs. John Penn. Mrs. J. P. Lade Mrs. John Walter. Mrs. John Waterer, Mrs. Mendel. ]\Irs. Milner. Mrs. R. S. Holford. Mrs. Russell Sturgis. Mrs. Shuttleworth. Mrs. S. Simpson. Mrs. Thomas Agnew. Mrs. Thomas Longman. Mrs. Thomas Wain. Mrs. W. Agnew. Mrs. William Bovill. Neige et Cerise. Nero. Nigrescens. Norma. Notabile. Novelty. Odoratum. Old Port, Onslowianum Othello. Paradox. Perfection. Perspicuum. Pictum. Picturatum. President van den Hecke. Prince Camille de Rohan. Princess Christian. Princess Marj- of Cam- bridge. Punctatum. Purpureum elegans. Purpureum grandifiorum. Purity. RHODODENDRONS GROUPED FOR Effect OF Colour. — Reds, rose-colours, and pinks with a few whites, viz. Reds — ^James ^larshall Brooks, John Waterer, Atro-sanguineum, Alexander Adie, Baron Schroeder. Rose and rosy-pinks — Mrs. Penn, Ingrami, Cynthia, Bianchi, Fair Rosamund. Whites — Mrs. John Glutton, Minnie, Pictum, Fair Helen, Madame Carvalho. Rhododendrons of salmon-red colour are best kept separate from others ; of these, good colourings are — Lady Eleanor Cathcart and Mrs. R. S. Holford. Purples must be kept away from reds, but group well with any whites ; some of the best for colour are — Everestianimi, Album elegans fastuosum, Cyaneum, Lady Nor- manton, Reine Hortense, Lucifer. Dwarf Kinds.— There are some dwarf kinds \vhich may be associated with alpine plants in the rock-garden — indeed, some are but a span high. One of the prettiest of these is R. Chamaecistus, which has tiny leaves, and in early summer exquisite purple flowers, of the same size as those of Kalmia latifolia. It is rarely seen in good health in gardens, and is best in limestone fissures, filled with peat, loam, and sand mixed in about equal proportions. .A. native of calcareous rocks in the Tyrol, Ralph Sanders. Raphael. Rosabel. Roseum elegans. Roseum pictiun. R. S. Field. Sappho. Scipio. Sefton. Seraph. Sherwoodianum. Sigismund Rucker. Silvio. Sir Charles Napier. Sir Isaac Newton. Sir James Clark. Sir Robert Peel. Sir Thomas Sebright. Sir William Armstrong. Snowflake. Standard of Flanders. St. Simon. St. Blaise. Stella. Sultana. Sunraj'. Surprise. Sydney Herbert. Sylph. The Cardinal. The Moor. The Queen. The Warrior. Titian. Torlonianum, a hybrid, between Azalea and Rhododendron. Towardii. \"andyck. Vauban. Verschaffeltii. Vestal. Victoria. \'ivian Grey. William Austin. RHODODENDRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 715 and one of the most precious of dwarf rock-shrubs. The well-known R. ferru- gineum and R. hirsutum both bear the name of alpine Rose, and often terminate the woody vegetation on the great mountain chains of Europe. They are easily obtained from nurseries, and are well suited for the large rock-garden, where they attain, in deep peat soil, a height of about 18 in. R. Wilsonianum, R. myrtifolium, R. amcenum, R. hybrid- um, R. dauricum-atrovirens, R. Govenia- num, R. odoratum, and R. Torlonianum are dwarf kinds, which may be used in the rock-garden — the last two being sweet- scented. They should not be planted near minute alpine plants. Himalayan Rhododendrons in Britain. — There has been much interest taken in the Himalayan Rhododendrons, which, unfortunately, are not hardy enough for our country generally — certainly not for inland parts, though, no doubt, from time to time some of them, and also hybrids from them, will be found hardy here and there. Also there are many kinds \ery well worth growing in mild and favoured districts such as the south of England and Ireland. A correspondent in the south of Ireland, in Fermoy, sends to The Garden the following account of the kinds he has found to do well there — quite hardy without protection — and also of his failures : — " As I ha\e taken much pleasure in cultivating and hybridising Rhododen- drons for about twenty-fi\e years, espe- cially with a view to acclimatise those of Sikkim and Bhotan, I think the results at which I have arrived may be interesting. In order to avoid occupying too much space, I shall first give the names, as furnished to me, of those \arieties which I have found perfectly hardy trees without the slightest protection, although some of those which bloom early (about March) have their flowers occasionally spoiled by the spring frosts : — "Alpinum; iEruginosum ; Anthopo^on ; Arboreum album ; Arboreum roseum, veiy beautiful ; Arboreum nepalense ; Barbatum, magnificent ; Calyculatum ; Ciunelliaeflorum ; Campanulatum; Campbelli ; Campylo- carpum ; Ciliatum ; Cinnamomeum ; Cinnabarinum ; Crispiflorum, not bloomed ; Eximium, fine, like Falcon- eri; Falconeri, grand ; Fulgens ; Falconer! superbum, not bloomed ; Glaucum ; Hodgsoni, grand, has not yet bloomed ; Hookeri ; Keysi ; Lanatum ; Lancifolium, not bloomed ; Metternichi ; Massangei, beautiful bloom this year ; Niveum ; Nobile, a ^and plant, never bloomed ; Ochraceum ; Roylei ; Virgatum ; Wallichi, I think same as Niveum ; Wighti, I think not true. " The following were more or less injured last spring (those marked * I have not yet succeeded in acchmatising) : — '* Argentum, much injured, growing well, not bloomed yet ; Aucklandi, much injured, growing well, bloomed well in 1878-7Q-S0 : Calophyllum, apparently^ killed, but growing well ; * Dalhousianum, I do not give this ui) ; * Edgeworthi, I do not give this up ; Formosum Gibsoni, much injured, but growing well ; Jenkinsi, much iiyured, doing well, never injured in twenty years previous ; Kendricki, \ doubt its name ; Longifolium, much injured, growing well, has never bloomed ; Lindleyanum, much injured, growing well ; Madden!, much injured, growing well (I see no essential difference between this and Jenkinsi ; centre of Jenkinsi flower, rose, of Maddeni, yellow) ; Nilghiricum not bloomed, much injured ; * Nuttali, man^ plants killed, I fear hopeless; Thomson!, much injured, but growing; Wmdsori, very much injured, but growing well. _ The last two plants appear to me less hardy varieties of R. arboreum. " I have not included any European hybrids in my list, of which, between Himalayan sorts alone, I know many, and have a great number of my own rearing also, and the reason I do not give up Dalhousianum and Edgeworthi is that I have seedlings from crosses of them which promise well to be hardy, one especially, between Edgeworthi and, I think, Calo- phyllum, which only lost its bloom-buds last spring, I am very proud of; its fragrance is far beyond any I know — Rollisson's fragrantissimum and Lindley- anum being, so far, the best. I have named it the Empress of India in honour of our Queen.— H. H." Bhodora canadensis {Canadian Rho- dord). — A pretty deciduous bush, 2 to 4 ft. high, allied to the Rhododendron, a native of the swamps of Canada, hardy, and needing a moist light soil, though it prefers peat. In very early spring it has clusters of rosy-purple flowers before the leaves unfold. Bhodotypos kerrioides {WhHe Jew's Mallow). — A beautiful deciduous shrub from Japan, with a growth and foliage recalling the familiar old Jev\''s Mallow on cottage-walls, but with white flowers resembling single Roses. It is of slender growth, but makes a dense bush when well grown, and is usually 5 or 6 ft. high, though against a wall it reaches a height of 10 or 12 ft. It flowers in May, and keeps in bloom a considerable time. BIlUS {Swnacli). — Several important ornamental shrubs are contained in this genus, and a few of them are indispensable to all gai-dens. They are mostly remark- able for their elegant foliage and picturesque growth, though the Venetian Sumach (R. Cotinus) and the Stag's-horn Sumach (R. typhina) are beautiful when in flower. The Venetian Sumach, Wig Tree, or Smoke Plant (R. Cotinus), is a re- markable late-flowering shrub, and, being different from all others, is of exceptional interest. Its flowers are inconspicuous, but the feather-like clusters that succeed them are of a reddish-purple and highly attractive, and they remain so for several weeks. This plant is a \ery old intro- duction from Southern Europe ; it is Rhus Cotinus (Venetian Sumach). THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 717 perfectly hardy, and thrives almost any- where, but should always be allowed ample room to develop itself. The Stages-horn Sumach (R. typhina), also called the Vinegar Tree, is a beautiful autumn shrub or small tree. Its dense massive spikes of bright crimson fruits look like velvet and remain until destroyed by frosts ; while the foliage is handsome, for the leaves are long and numerous, and the general growth, being open and irregular, is singTilarly picturesque when fully de- veloped. R. typhina is, therefore, a striking tree whether as a single specimen on a la^vn or when grouped with the dwarfer Sumachs. There are some distinct varieties of it, arborescens being of more tree-like growth and frutescens being dwarf. Crimson seed-clusters are charac- teristic of all the varieties except viridi- flora, in which the seed-clusters are green. The popular name " Stages-horn Sumach " points to the resemblance between the crooked downy branches and the young horns of a stag. N. America. The Smooth Sumach (R. glabra) has elegant foliage. In the variety coccinea the seed- clusters are velvety crimson, but are not so beautifiil as those of R. typhina. The variety laciniata is one of the noblest of fine-foliaged plants, and young and vigorous specimens are most valuable for sub-tropical effect. It grows from 4 to 7 ft. high. It has finely-cut and elegant leaves, and the strongest is about i ft. long when the plant has been established a year or two. These leaves combine the beauty of the finest Grevillea with that of a Fern-frond. When unfolding they re- mind one of a finely-cut umbelliferous plant in spring ; when fully grown the midribs are red ; and in autumn the leaves themselves glow off into a bright colour after the fashion of American shrubs and trees. The variety in the shape, size, and aspect of the foliage makes the bush charming. Its chief merit is that, in addition to being elegant in foliage, it is hardy and very dwarf. R. vemicifera is distinct from the preceding. It has fine pinnate leaves, and is useful for grouping with laciniata or with hardy shrubs of like character. The foregoing comprise the best of the Sumachs, but there are others in cultivation that could be added, and these include R. semialata Osbecki, an elegant Japanese shrub, but not perfectly hardy, except in the south. The creeping or trailing Sumachs, such as R. Toxico- dendron (which is known as Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumach), R. venenata (Poison Elder), and R. radicans, should be excluded from a garden, as the sap of the bruised growth is highly poisonous. Bibes (Currant). — The favourite old Crimson-flowering Currant (R. sangui- neum) is typical of the few species that can be called ornamental shrubs. This shrub is so common that I need only allude to the fine varieties of it that are to be obtained from the best nurseries. Deeper and richer in colour is the variety atro-rubens (called also splendens), though the flowers and racemes are smaller. The crimson-red of its blooms forms a striking contrast to the variety named albidum, whose flowers are almost white, though slightly suffused with pink. The double sort (flore-pleno) is an admirable shrub, with very double flowers, which last a long time in perfection, and, as they expand later than the common kind, prolong the season. The variety glutinosum is dis- tinguished by clammy foliage and large pale rosy-pink flowers. The Yellow flowering, or Buffalo Currant (R. aureum), deserves to be more commonly grown. It is a different shrub from R. sanguineum, having larger flowers of a rich yellow, which appear about the end of April or beginning of May ; the leaves also are smaller, more deeply lobed, and of a paler green. The variety prascox is so named because it flowers earlier than R. aureum, and is most desirable on that account, and the variety serotinum, because it flowers late. Serotinum is even finer than the type. R. Gordonianum, a hybrid between R. aureum and R. sanguineum, is an old and tolerably common shrub — inter- mediate in growth as well as in flowers, which are an orange-red ; it is distinct and showy. It is also known as R. Beatoni and R. Loudoni. Of the numerous other species there is none so fine as the Califomian Fuchsia Currant (R. speci- osum), whose flowers so much reserrible miniature Fuchsia-blossoms that in some places it goes by the name of R. Fuchsi- oides. Its deep red blooms have protrud- ing stamens, and hang from the leaf-axils in clusters of two or three. In growth and foliage it resembles a Gooseberry. A densely-flowered bush is extremely pretty and lasts in perfection a long time. Though quite hardy enough to be grown as a bush in the milder parts of England, it is usually seen against a wall, and there are few more elegant wall shrubs. Grown thus it is 6 to 8 ft. in height. Most of the other varieties have inconspicuous flowers, but one or two are worth growing for the sake of their autumn foliage, which dies away in various shades of crimson. The 7l8 RICHARDIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Missouri Currant (R. floridum), also called R. missourense, is one of the best of these. It is a stock plant in some of the largest nurseries. The Flowering Currants are really an important group of shrubs and deserve the best attention, and instead of being crammed in the usual shrubbery- mixture, should be grouped by them- selves. Bichardia (Calla). — This name has been accepted by botanists for the last three- quarters of a century, although it is not yet generally used by gardeners. -jThe genus consists now of various and is not found within i,ooo miles or so of the Nile, although it is commonly known as the Lily of the Nile. In some parts of this country, for instance Corn- wall, it has become naturahsed in shallow water, spreading and flowering with the same freedom as in the ditches and swamps of the Cape. It varies consider- ably in the size of its spathes. I have seen them lo in. long, and I am told that larger even than this have been grown by cultivators who cut off most of the leaf- blades when the spathes were developing. The plant is useful in ponds and fountain Rodgersia podophylla. species. They all have a perennial tuberous ropt-stock, not unlike that of Caladium, from which spring the annual leaves and scapes, the former with folding stalks, which form a kind of stem, bearing sagittate leaves, the latter erect, stout, and bearing a large spathe. There is a noteworthy difference between R. seihio- pica and the others, the former having a rhizome and never naturally dying down. K. sethiopica {,Lily of the Nile) was first introduced into Europe from S. Africa in 1687. It is emphatically a Cape plant, basins in the warmer parts of our country. Syn., Calla. Eicinus communis {Castor-oil Plant) —It is a much-grown plant in warm countries, growing out-of-doors in the warm months in ours, and used for bold and noble beds near beds of the more brilliant flowers, but it is not well to associate it closely with bedding plants, because of its strong growth and the shading of its leaves ; it is a good plan to make a compact group of it in the centre of some wide circular bed and to surround this with a band of a dwarfer THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 719 plant, say Aralia or Caladium, and to finish with flowering plants. A bold centre may be thus obtained, while the effect of the flowers is enhanced. It requires rich deep earth to form its finest leaves, and to raise the plants a brisk hotbed is needed in February or March, in which to plunge the pots in which the seeds should be sown. The pots should be well drained, and the soil pressed down firmly with a little sifted soil placed over the seeds. By the end of June they may be planted out in the beds ; the more sheltered the situa- tion the better. Dig out holes for them, placing in the bottom a few forkfuls of manure, and, if this be taken from a warm manure-bed, so much the better. Plant and water them with soft rain water, and mulch the surface with manure. During hot weather manure-water will be of use. The best varieties are sanguineus, borboniensis, Gibsoni (a very fine dark Romneya Coulteri. When the plants are large enough, pot them singly into 4-in. pots in soil com- posed of sandy loam and leaf-mould or rotted manure ; keep them in a warm moist temperature, and give plenty of water at the roots ; when the roots have reached the sides of the pots, place the plants in 6 or 8-in. pots. About the end of May gradually inure them to a cool temperature, and after a few weeks place them in a sheltered position out-of-doors. variety), giganteus, Belot Desfougferes (a very tall and branching kind), viridis (of a uniform lively green), insignis, africanus, africanus albidus, minor, hybridus, micro- carpus, macrophyllus, atro-purpureus,, and sanguinolentus, all of which are forms of • R. communis, a native of the East Indies. Bobinia {False Acacia). — Beautiful flowering trees for lawn or shrubbery. The common Acacia or Locust Tree (R.. 720 ROBINIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROMANZOWIA. Pseudacacia) is of quick growth, hardy, and thrives almost anywhere. The ordi- nary form, with its white Pea-shaped blossom in full beauty about the end of July, is the most familiar. Of the numer- ous varieties the following are the best : Decaisneana, with delicate pink flowers ; semperflorens, flowering throughout the summer, and having white blossoms and bright green foliage ; and Bessoniana, the thornless branches of which form a dense globular head of deep green foliage, which is retained until very late in autumn, hence its great value as a town or a street tree. There are many other forms of the False Acacia more or less distinct, such as fasti- gata, of upright growth ; crispa, with curled foliage ; monophylla, with leaves entire instead of pinnate ; umbraculifera, with a spreading head ; macrophylla, with large leaves ; sophora;folia, with leaves like the Japanese Sophora ; and inermis, with a small head of spineless branches. The Clammy Locust (R. viscosa), known also as R. glutinosa, is smaller than the ordinary False Acacia, but is elegant in foliage and beautiful in flower. It so much resembles R. Pseudacacia that the two, when out of flower, can only be distinguished by the clamminess of the bark on the young shoots of R. viscosa. The flowers resemble those of Decaisne's variety of the common Acacia, being of a pale pmk colour, but the clusters are shorter and denser. It is a very beautiful lawn tree, valuable because it flowers while the tree is still small : fully grown it is of picturesque habit, from 30 to 50 ft. high, thriving best in a deep light soil in a sheltered spot. The Rose Acacia (R. hispida) is, like the other two Robinias, a native of North America, and is one of the finest of small trees requiring little room, and not fastidious as to soil. It is naturally straggling in growth, 5 to 15 ft. high; its fohage is much larger than that of the other Robinias ; the clear rose-pink flowers are also larger. A well-flowered specimen is a pretty sight. It flowers in June, but often continues at intervals till autumn. It may be known when not in leaf by the dense rusty hairs covering the young twigs. Its branches are brittle and apt to get broken by high winds, especially if it has been grafted high ; therefore choose a spot sheltered from high winds. If the branches become heavy, especially in flower-time, support them by stakes. It may be grown as an espalier, like a fruit tree, and this will protect it from winds, or it may be trained against a wall. There are several so-called varieties, but none is more beautiful than the type. The variety macrophylla (large-leaved) is of stronger growth and has finer foliage and flowers. Kodgersia podophylla.— A handsome- leaved plant of the Saxifrage family, with bronze-green leaves measuring i ft. or more across and cleft into five broad divisions. The inconspicuous flowers are produced on tall branching spikes. R. podophylla is perfectly hardy, enjoying Flower of Rodgersia podophylla. peaty soil and a shady situation. It is easily propagated by cutting the stoloni- ferous root-stock, and twenty plants can be obtained from a single root-stock in one year. Japan. Rohdea japonica.— A Liliaceous plant from Japan, with thick broad deep green leaves. There is a variegated form, with leaves striped with white and green. R. japonica is hardy, and vigorous only in the most favoured districts, and seldom flowers in the open. JRomanzowia.— R. sitchensis and R. ROMNEYA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROSA. 721 unalaschensis, Alaska, are small dwarf plants forming in summer a dense tuft of foliage studded with tiny white flowers. They are quite hardy, and will grow well in open positions in the rock-garden. They are interesting but not attractive plants. Hydrophyl- laceEE. Romneya Coulteri {White Bush Poppy). — Among plants of recent intro- duction perhaps none surpass in stately beauty this fine Californian Poppywort. In favourable localities it has flowered freely on lengths of the current year's growth, fully 7 ft. high, when with some twelve or fifteen flowers in bloom at the same time, the plant has a charming effect. The flowers are of a peculiarly delicate texture, the petals somewhat transparent, and yet enduring in a good state for days ; their fragrance delicate, something like that of a Magnolia. It is perennial, sub- shrubby, and the deeply-cut glaucous foliage is retained throughout the winter. It does not appear to flower on the last year's growth, though that growth remains in good condition. The flowers are borne mainly on the points of the new shoots and on laterals nearest the points, more sparingly on the lower laterals. It is hardy in genial soils ; enjoys best a warm sandy soil. One-year-old plants in a garden on clay have grown but poorly, while others from the same batch on a warm peaty sand, in an elevated position, have grown vigorously and flowered abundantly, blooming from the end of June to the end of September. Where it will not grow well in the open, it would do so in many places against a wall with a southern aspect. It does best on warm soils in very difl!erent parts of the country, so that no one need doubt the fitness of this noble plant for English gardens. Boiuulea. — Bulbous plants of the Iris family. They are of dwarf growth, and have grassy foliage ; but though their blossoms are showy, they are not per- fectly hardy, and they require to be grown either in frames or in very warm sheltered borders, in light soil. The best known are R. Bulbocodium, ramiflora, and Columnas, natives of South Europe, and R. rosea and R. Macowani from the Cape of Good Hope. The showy Crocus- like flowers of these open fullest in sun- shine. Bosa {Rose). — The flower of flowers has been ill treated in its literature ! It would be difficult to imagine anything more confusing than the writings on the Rose and catalogues of the present day ! Almost useless groups, like the Boursault, are dignified as classes, while more important classes like the noble Teas often receive no due notice ; the confusion arising from the misleading term "hybrid perpetual" has effectually concealed the fact that the true per- petual bloomers are the Tea Roses, so keeping the noblest of all Roses out of gardens even in the southern counties. For many years Roses far superior to the many so-called "perpetual" in point of continuity of bloom have been raised, and yet, as a result of that ill-chosen name, one may go into some of the largest places in the country and hardly see a Rose in the Rose-garden in August. The set idea of the Rose-garden itself, as laid down in all the books, i.e. a place apart where one can only see flowers at A. certain season, was unfortunate and harmful, as it led to the absence of the Rose from the flower garden itself, in which it is the most delightful of all known adornments. Instead of seeing the Rose in many different attitudes in a country place, we see a wretched mob of standards and half-standards rising out of the ground, generally in a miserable formal arrange- ment called the Rosery. Instead of forming beautiful Rose-gardens, many growers have distinguished themselves by growing Roses on tall Briers and other stocks, from which they get perhaps one or two flowers bigger than their neigh- bours' to send to a Rose-show. The Rose exhibitor's Rose-garden is even uglier than the so-called Rosery in the large country-seat. In this way, through the stupidities of books and the curious power for evil of words, the beautiful human and artistic side of the Rose-garden has been forgotten. But there is the dawn of better things, and the following abstract of a paper, read by Mr. T. W. Girdlestone at the Rose Conference at Chiswick, gives a fairer view of the Roses for the Garden. — It is curi- ous how few people seem to consider the value or beauty of a Rose as a growing plant in the garden. Nearly every one, when supposed to be describing some particular variety of Rose, in reality de- scribes an individual blossom. In almost every Rose catalogue it is the same ; the individual flower is described, and only as a cut flower its beauty is dilated upon. The reason is easy to find, but hardly the justification. No doubt the Rose has always been the most popular of flowers for decorating our rooms and houses, a position from which it is never likely to be deposed, and from this it has 3 A 722 ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROSA. probably come about that the Rose is generally estimated only as a cut flower. It is time that more attention should be paid to the Rose as a decorative garden plant. One sees sometimes in catalogues col- lections of (say) IOC Rose trees in as many varieties. Such a miscellaneous assort- ment planted together would certainly not make an effective Rose-bed, nor a decorative display ; and one is tempted to think that those who declare Roses to be always ineffective and untidy, and deserving only of cultivation in the Similarly, effective Rose-pillars can only be made with a limited number of sorts, amongst which few of the ordinary Hybrid Perpetuals are included ; yet who has not seen innumerable attempts made with varieties of this class, of which the out- come has been the production of a solitary shoot I or 2 ft. taller than the rest of the plant, which is carefully tied to the stake, and looks as though it were longing to hide behind the great Larcb post it so vainly essays to cover ? It has often been urged that although Roses are gay enough while they are in Triomphe de Renries. kitchen-garden to supply cut flowers for the house, must have gathered their experience from Rose-growing of this kind. A great source of failure in making a decorative display with Roses has, un- doubtedly, been the frequent and per- verse employment for particular purposes of varieties utterly unsuited thereto. The number of Roses suitable for standards is comparatively small, yet people persist in attempting to grow all varieties in this form ; and when an army of gawky scare- crows is the result, the Roses are blamed. full bloom, for the rest of tlie season they are dull and unsightly. Apart from this being only half true, and becoming annu- ally less so, as more thoroughly perpetual Roses are raised, if the objection is to be admitted, it must apply equally to a great majority of herbaceous and bulbous plants ; and our gardens, hardly emanci- pated from the dreary tyranny of "bed- ding-out," must relapse into the inane monotony of ribbon borders and carpet beds, in the latter of which especially the enforced primness of the poor little plants is as unnatural as children that never THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 723 have grubby fingers or rumpled collars. Those whose sympathies are so strangely arranged as to cause them to love carpet- bedding, are not likely to admit the claim of Roses to be considered as decorative plants ; but it may be hoped that those who . underrate the attractions of the Rose in the garden will eventually be a small and constantly - decreasing minority. There are four ways in which Roses may make a very decorative effect as growing plants in the garden — namely, in beds of dwarf plants ; as large isolated bushes or real tree standards ; for the formation of Rose - pillars ; and as climbers, whether on walls or over arches, &c. In planting dwarf Roses in beds for the purpose of effective display, avoid too many varieties. If a bed of seventy- two dwarf Rose trees is to be planted, half-a-dozen varieties are ample, the twelve plants of each variety being grouped all together ; and these varieties should be selected for freedom of growth, abundance and continuity of flowering, handsome foliage, and for being as little liable to mildew as may be ; and, most important of all, for their sturdy habit and ability to carry their flowers erect, pendulous blooms being necessarily ineffective. The flowers should be sub- stantial and of good quality, capable of enduring sunshine or shower without being burnt or getting all their petals stuck together. It is also important that the plants of a particular Rose should be planted at the distance apart best suited to the habit of that variety. In old days it was commonly recommended to plant Roses 3 ft. apart each way ; and,, no doubt, when the vigorous hybrid Chinas were in vogue, this amount of space was necessary. But there are now so many modern varieties, such as the races sprung from Victor Verdier and Baroness Rothschild, which, although possessing abundant vitality, make such compact sturdy growth, that to make the best display they should not be planted much more than one foot apart. Some of the modem Roses are as vigorous and strong in growth as many of the old sorts, and these will need to be jilanted greater distances apart; but if the distance be carefully proportioned to the habit of the variety, and a dozen or more plants of each variety be grouped together, there will be little fear of the display of bloom being ineffective, or of Rose beds not being decorative. The cultivation for several years of almost every variety of Rose at all gener- ally grown in this country has resulted m the selection of the following kinds as the best for planting in beds, in groups or masses for the purpose of decorative display in the garden : — Varieties of which the plants should stand about I ft. apart. — Baroness Rothschild, White Baroness, Merveille de Lyon, Marquise de Castellane, Earl of Pembroke, Alphonse Soupert, Marie Finger, Caroline Swailes, Mrs. Baker, Hippolyte Jamain, Captain Christy, Mme. Bois, Marguerite de Rohan. Varieties of which the plants should stand about lift, apart. — Cannes la Coquette, a flesh- coloured seedling from La France, and one of the most charming and useful of Roses, whether for massing, for exhibition, or for cut flowers ; Alfred K. Williams; Comtesse de Paris (L^veque, 1882), a very pretty rose colour, immensely free and perpetual ; Viscountess Folkestone ; Annie Laxton ; Duchesse de Vallombrosa ; Pride of Waltham ; Kronprin- zessin Victoria ; Laurette Messimy, a China or Hybrid Tea of the most vivid and lovely rose colour ; Heinrich Schultheis ; Lady Helen Stewart ; Suzanne-Marie Rodocanachi ; Henri Ledechaux ; Sophie Fropot ; and of summer Roses, Rosa Mundi, the brightest and best worth growing of all the striped Roses, and commonly, though wrongly, called York and Lancaster, and the Scotch Roses in variety. Varieties of which the plants should stand about 2 ft. apart. — Mme. Gabriel Luizet ; Charles Lefebvre ; Anna Alexieff ; Prefet Lim- bourg, a most useful dark crimson Rose of great freedom and effect ; Boule de Neige ; Mme. Machury ; La France ; Ulrich Brunner ; Jules Margottin, and his lovely daughter Violette Bouyer, freest and most charming of white Hybrid Perpetuals ; John Hopper ; Julie Touvais, a very early and most distinct and attractive Rose, far too little cultivated ; and Gloire Lyonnaise, a very beautiful Rose, both in plant and flower, and making always a most striking group. It will probably have been noticed that, with half-a-dozen exceptions, the Roses best adapted for effective display in the garden are also among the best for exhibition, and the more they are cultivated with a view to producing exhibition blooms, the more decorative they will be. The plants should be fairly hard- pruned, liberally cultivated, and vigorously disbudded. If the beds are large enough they may be margined or fronted with groups of the ever- blooming miniature Polyantha Roses, of which the best are Mignonette and Gloire des Poly- anthas, pinks ; Anne Marie de Montravel and Ma PSquerette, whites ; and Perle d'Or and Golden Fairy, orange-yellow. The best Tea-scented Roses for massing — that is to say, the varieties that can be relied on to be effective in any season — are Marie Van Houtte ; Mme. Lambard ; Hon. Edith Gifford ; Comtesse de Panisse, 3 A 2 72,t THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. a ver>' handsome Tea that has been un- accountably overlooked by exhibitors ; Anna Ohvier ; Mme. Charles ; Mme. Che- dane Guinoisseau, loveliest of yellow buds; Mme. Hoste, most free and constant, a great acquisition, which may also be said of Ethel Brownlow ; Narcisse ; Princesse de Sagan, a rich velvety maroon-crimson Tea, lacking size and fiilness for exhibi- tion, but ever-blooming and most effective in the garden ; Rubens ; Dr. Grill, Mar- quise de Vivens, Marie d'Orleans, R. indica (Lowe), a lovely single red Tea, of which a group of dwarf plants is charming throughout the entire season ; and Jean Ducher, when the weather is not wet and cold. To obtain large isolated bushes and genuine tree standards, the one thing necessary is the employment of suitable varieties. Of these the best are Anna Alexieff, Mme. Alfred Carrifere, Prefet Limbourg, Marie Van Houtte, Mme. Pemy, Mme. Gabriel Luizet, Glory of Cheshunt, Mme. Nachury, Jules Mar- gottin ; and of summer-flowering Roses, Persian Yellow, Harrisoni, White Pro- vence, ChSn^doUe, Celestial, a Rose similar to, but of far greater beauty than. Maiden's Blush, and the double marbled Sweet Brier ; of these, the first ten varieties named make especially fine large- headed standards. A pillar Rose, so called, and a Rose- pillar worthy of the name, are not of necessity synonymous. The requirements to make a good Rose-pillar are, that it should be very vigorous, but not too long and rampant a climber, verj' free-flowering — perpetual if possible — with handsome and abundant foliage, and a hardy con- stitution. The Roses that make the finest pillars will generally do so from a single plant, but of some varieties it is frequently a good plan to ha\e two or even three plants at the base of each post for the better formation of a first-rate Rose-pillar. The best Roses for pillars are also the best for covering fences of from 4 to 8 ft. high, and for either purpose, were it only an autumnal, Mme. Plantier would be an ideal variety. Although it flowers but once a year, it makes a more beautiful pillar than almost any Rose, for its in- variable profusion of bloom and the pure whiteness of its flowers, its hardiness and vigorous bushy habit, present all the qualities best adapted to the formation of a perfect Rose-pillar, with the sole excep- tion of not being perpetual. In addition to Mme. Plantier, the following varieties are also first-rate Roses for the purpose : Ophirie, a dehghtful coppery - orange Noisette, making a pillar of extreme beauty ; Mme. Alfred Carrifere, whose large creamy-white flowers have a most delicious fragrance ; Bouquet d'Or, and Reve d'Or, both with the additional charm of conspicuously-beautiful foliage ; Climb- ing Captain Christy, the freest and most valuable of all these "climbing" sports; Max Singer, a useful hybrid multiflora with well-formed cherry-red flowers of good size continuously produced in trusses of from three to seven blooms, in spite of the curious fact that it was described when sent out by the raiser Lacharme as "non-perpetual, and producing solitary flowers ; " Bardou Job, an improved Gloire des Rosomanes, with very large semi- double deep crimson flowers vith darker shades ; the summer Roses, Blairi No. 2, and Souvenir de Pierre Dupuy, and Rosa macrantha, one of the most beautifiil of all the single Roses. Of climbing Roses grown against high walls and houses, or over arches of con- siderable span, not much is to be said, except to urge once more the employment only of varieties suited to the purpose and to the position they are to fill. It is not wise, for the sole reason that there is a blank wall or the bare side of a house, to plant against it Mardchal Niel or the tender Climbing Devoniensis, without regard to aspect, soil, or climate. There are abundant situations where such Roses will flourish, but to consider it necessary to attempt to grow Mar&hal Niel in circumstances under which only an ineffective apology for a plant can be produced, merely because it has the reputation of being, when at its best, the most superb yellow Rose as well as the grandest cUmber in the world, is absurd, and involves a waste of time and energy which, if only applied to the cultivation of Roses adapted to less favourable surroundings, would result in a decorative display affording the keenest pleasure. It is the case, that in spite of the unsurpassed beauty of perfect individual flowers of Mar&hal Niel, it is less decorative as a climber, even fairly well grown, than many of the following : \\'illiam Allen Richard- son, Reine Marie Henriette, Reine Olgade Wurtemberg (a magnificent climber, very perpetual, producing bright crimson flowers, and deserving of very extended cultivation), Mme. Berard, Bouquet d'Or, Emilie Dupuy, Aimee Vibert, Celine Forestier, Lamarque, Princesse de Nassan (Musk), Mme. Trifle ; and the summer Roses, Fortune's Yellow, F^licitd-Perpetue, Laure Davoust, Splendens, Ruga, The Gariand, Alice Gray, Flora, Claire Jac- THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 725 quier, the single Rosa multiflora,Rosamult. grandiflora, and the deHciously fragrant Rosa Brunonis {syn. — moschata, Crepin). Mention has been made of some of the most decorative single Roses in the selections given of the best varieties for certain purposes ; but there are a few others which ought to be included in every Rose-garden. The rugosa Roses are so well known that it is only necessary to insist on the exceeding beauty of the white form ; but among those far too rarely seen are the Austrian Briers, Rosa lutea, the yellowest Rose in the world, and its wonderful scarlet variety, R. punicea ; R. rubrifolia, with its red leaves, red stem, red everything, in- The subject may be briefly summed up as follows : — Only employ for particular purposes varieties well adapted thereto. In the case of groups or masses of dwarf Roses in beds — (i) Plant many plants of few varieties ; (2) Cultivate as highly, prune, disbud, and keep clear from insects, &c., as if every bloom were to be re- quired for exhibition. Then a display of bloom will ensue, well deserving the epithet decorative, and likely to be, maintained more or lesS throughout the season. Pegging down Roses. — Instead of annually pruning back the long strong Rose, Celeste. eluding its immense clusters of hips in autumn ; R. lucida, also beautiful in fruit at the end of the season, as in flower and glossy leafage during the summer ; R. bracteata, the very distinct Macartney Rose ; R. damascena, the crimson da- mask ; R. Beggereana, the starry white Rose from Afghanistan, all blooming, and producing the most brilliant little hips imaginable ; and last, but not least, a garden variety classed as a hybrid Sweet Brier under the name of Hebe's Lip, beautiful exceedingly, having large sub- stantial creamy-white petals with a Picotee edge of purple. Nearly all these single Roses only require to be put into the ground and left to themselves to thrive and produce their myriad flowers and fruits. shoots of some of the vigorous Roses it is a distinct gain in beauty and gives a great increase of bloom if the shoots are pegged down. A group of six plants of Mme. Gabrielle Luizet treated thus made a won- derful display, quite hiding the ground, and over 300 buds and blooms were counted in various stages of expansion at one time. Gloire Lyonnaise is also good in this way, and many others that- Dear strong shoots ranging up to 6 or 8 ft. in length. Tea Roses for the Flower Garden. — These are in many ways so superior to all other Roses, that we might place them first, yet there is room for a great extension of their culture in gardens, both large and small. We find even standard works on Rose-growing speaking 726 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. of the Teas as tender and needing pro- tection. Others say that only in a few instances can they be grown in the open ground ; and to have them in full beauty, to ensure a constant succession of flowers, and to produce them in all their loveliness and purity of colour, they must be grown under glass. This is not so. Tea Roses may be grown in hundreds of gardens where they cannot now be found, and I would urge all who love Roses to try them fairly, for none are more worthy. The variety of lovely tints amongst Tea Roses, the delicate odour, the profusion of bloom, the long season over which it is produced, and their charming habit and foliage are great merits. Let us for ever give up the stupid notion of growing our Roses only in a Rosery, in some out-of-the- way spot. The grand Tea Roses now under notice are worthy of the best position in the garden. There are also many excellent kinds for clothing walls, fences, or any other erections about our homes, and we shall need much space if we want to grow all that are good. Here I name all the best Tea Roses, and if we would make our gardens sweet from June to November, these are what we should plant. Every kind is described from ex- perience of it in a flower garden, where the climbing kinds wreathe the walls and the dwarfs are grouped in beds and borders solely for effect. The aim has been to show what can be done with Tea Roses. They are amongst the most precious plants in existence, and beyond all others fitted to adorn our gardens, the variety of tint and freshness of leafage being a charm almost as great as their continuous blooming. None, with me, have ever been protected, but winter winds blow furiously over the garden, and on several occasions more than 20° of frost have been registered among the plants. They may be grown with every prospect of success over quite the southern half of England and in many other favoured spots. As a race they are so beautiful in leaf when there is a temporary cessation of bloom. The dwarfer kinds prefer a soil more light and open than that usually chosen for other Roses. The plants should be either on the Brier Stock or on their own roots. The vigorous and perpetual blooming climbing kinds are the best Roses for walls and fences. Many of the Dijon Teas may be grown away from walls, which for such hardy vigorous kinds only furnish support, shelter not being needed. Plant in groups of from three to twelve plants where they have room to develop ; a stake here and there is all the support needed, and they will make huge bushes and bear flowers by the hundred. In gardens where the dwarf Teas cannot be grown, the Dijon Teas are just the kinds for the place. It would be a gain to destroy a lot of common shrubs that over-run much ground, and plant bold masses of these Roses. One other good use they have is for pegging down. So treated they flower freely, and make fresh strong shoots to peg down another year. Climbing Tea Roses. Apricot or W. A. Richardson. — This is a. popular Rose, classed as a Noisette, but it is more a Tea Rose than anything. The same will apply to one or two other kinds to he mentioned. It is hardy and vigorous, free in bloom, and unsurpassed in its deep orange- yellow shade. The flowers are borne in clusters, and are best in the bud state, being only semi-double when fully open. Bouquet d'Or is a grand Rose to cover high walls, and flowers abundantly. The flowers are a fawn-yellow, with deeper centre, the shape very good, and the buds longer and finer than those of Gloire de Dijon. For bold grouping in the open ground it has no equal. Climbing Devoniensis is not everybody's Rose, but in a sunny favoured spot it some- times grows sufficiently to cover a cottage by itself and flowers proportionately. DucHESSB d'Auerstadt is vigorous in growth, hardy, profuse in bloom, and has large deep rich yellow flowers. Emilie Dupuy is a vigorous and lovely kind, with flowers of great substance, the outer petals sometimes forming a kind of cup round the centre, like the guard petals of a Hollyhock. Gloire de Dijon is one of the first to bloom and last to cease, and does not fail us on walls facing any point, and therefore we may call it one of the great Roses. It is the type, and, in some cases, the parent of a little family called Dijon Teas, because they resemble it in vigour, freedom, and continuity of bloom. ' Henriette de Beauveau appeared in 1887, and has shown qualities that include it among the best Roses of to-day. On a warm wall with little pruning it flowers freely. They are fine, sweet, and of a clear canary- yellow. Lamarque, one of the strongest growing and sweetest of climbing Roses, is unfortunately a little tender, but endowed with such vigour that in spring it soon outgrows all traces of winter injury, and from top to bottom covets itself with great clusters of flowers of pure cream white. LTdeale.— One of the most distinct wall Roses yet raised, is akin to W. A. Richardson in all but colour, and is almost indescribable. The flowers, which must be seen to be fully appreciated, are yellow, and a peculiar shade ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROSA. 727 of red, streaked with golden-yellow — a har- monious mingling of striking hues. Marechal Niel, though grown by thousands under glass, is sometimes good on warm walls outside, and will furnish early flowers. Encourage vigorous growth, lay in young strong shoots, and flowers will be abundant. Mme. Berard, distinct in many respects, is vigorous, and one striking characteristic is that it is almost thornless. Its salmon colour is. fringed with yellow and rose ; the flower fine and well formed. Mme. Chauvry is like Mme. Berard in habit of growth, but distinct from any in its rich yellow colour, shaded with pink, deepening to buff at the base of the petals. Its merits, are as yet hardly known. Mme. B. Levet is a lovely kind ; not quite so vigorous as most of the family, but in other respects good, especially in the rich yellow colour and delightful odour of its flowers. R6ve d'Or, a good wall Rose, will cover a great space. It must be allowed to do so before it will flower with any freedom ; but once it has expended its vigour in growth, it settles down a free-blooming Rose, desirable in many ways. The dwarf Tea Roses are very numer- ous : Adam is one of the oldest, having been in cultivation over fifty years. Half a century of Rose improvement has given us nothing that could fittingly take the place of this kind. It is not so vigorous in growth as most Teas, but is hardy and free in bloom, with large, globular, sweet-scented, salmon-rose-coloured flowers. Adrienne Christophle is lovely, espe- cially in hot years, vigorous in growth, most abundant in bloom, and its flowers are often quite indescribable in colour, being yellow, which deepens into apricot and copper-red, shaded with pink and rose. Amazone. — One of the best dwarf yellow Teas, is most ornamental and useful for cutting. It makes a pretty compact bush, grows well, and flowers freely. Its buds are long, and of the pretty popular shape. They are a deep lemon-yellow. Anna Olivier is as vigorous as any Rose, hardy, strong, and free, making a great bush. In the bud state it is one of the most charming, the buds urn-shaped, flesh-coloured, deepening into buff' at the base of the petals. BouGi;RE is one of the good old kinds now unfortunately neglected. It is as old as the Tea Rose Adam, flowers a, rich salmon shade, globular in form, with petals of great substance. Catherine Mermet is indispensable, for it bears flowers of matchless form. Its habit is rather thin, and in grouping should be thickly planted. It flowers freely, even slender twigs producing magnificent flesh-coloured blooms, deepening into pink. Comtesse de Frignedse, of recent origin, is a decided gain It is a good grower, with plenty of flowers of a rich canary-yellow hue. full and very sweet-scented. Comtesse de Nadaillac. — Unfortunately, this is an uncertain grower, but generally does well in a sunny aspect at the foot of a wall. It is worth a select spot and special care. Yellow, deepening into copper, shaded with pink and rich rose, are the predominating hues. Comtesse Riza du Parc is very charming, and showy in the garden. It is strong in growth, lovely in foliage, and abundant in bloom. The flowers are large, open, and not so good in form as those of most kinds, but unlike any in its rich bright salmon-rose colour, shaded at the base with copper. The shoots are strong, erect, and terminated with large clusters of bloom. Devoniensis is a fine old Rose still, vigorous in growth and free in bloom. The flowers are creamy-white, flesh-tinted, and of great size when fully open. Dr. Grill. — Comparatively new, and a grand Rose for grouping. It makes a big bush, being vigorous, with lovely flowers and buds. Their colours are so varied and har- moniously mingled that it is hardly possible to properly describe them. Ernest Metz is well known. Its flowers are borne on a strong stalk, sturdily erect, very full and fine in shape, of the palest rosy- pink, but brighter towards the centre of the flower. Francisca Kruger is one of the freest- blooming Tea Roses. The buds come in such immense clusters that they cannot all open properly if some are not removed. Its colour is copper-yellow, shaded with peach, the form fine, large, and double. GOUBAULT is an old kind, with rosy-pink flowers that might be forgotten in the present day, but for one great charm — their sweet scent. The buds are lovely in shape and rich in colour. Hon. Edith Gifford. — The best dwarf Tea Rose for grouping. The old leaves are dark green, the young ones of a purplish- crimson, and even without a flower it is the handsomest group in a garden that has all the kinds here named. Then when the flowers come they almost hide the leaves in their pro- fusion, open well, last long, and are good in form. In colour they are flesh-white, with salmon-pink centre. Innocenta Pirola is a good companion to the preceding kind, and one of the best white Teas. It grows vigorously, flowers freely, and is of lovely form. It is creamy-white, with the palest flesh shade,-but is a slow grower on cool soil, at least on the Brier stock. Jean Ducher is fittingly named in honour of its raiser, who raised so many first-rate kinds. It is a grand Rose, especially in a hot year. The flowers are very full and double, yellow, shaded with pink, deepening into buft in the centre of the flower. Jean Pernet bears the name of another noted raiser, and is a first-rate Rose, supposed to be tender, but really as hardy as the 728 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. rest strong in growth, and abundant in bloom, with flowers of lovely form. In colour it is a rich apricot-yellow, shading to pale yellow with age. TULES Finger is one of the best growers, and most free in bloom. The flowers are finely formed and of a clear rose colour, deepening in tint as they expand fiiUy. ,, . j L'^LiGANTE is valuable for its pretty buds, which open well at all times, and are useftil for button-holes. In colour they resemble that ot the Pink China Rose, but shade to pale yellow at the base. The bush is dwarf, but flowers with great freedom. LnciOLE is of great merit ; dwarf in growth, profuse in bloom, with long-pointed buds that as a trio of lovely kinds when in the bud state. For cutting they are most valuable, and all grow freely. The two first-named kinds have pale yellow flowers, whilst those of the other kind are of a deeper yellow tint. Mme. Charles is one of the very best. When growth begins this kind is conspicuous, its shoots and leaves being of a purplish- crimson hue, not uncommon among Teas, but especially bright and effective. Then it flowers well ; its colour apricot-yellow, with a deep buff shade internally at the base. Mme. de Watteville grows strongly, and produces such a quantity of "buds that some of them must be removed. Its great erect double flowers have been aptly compared to Buds of Tea Rose, Anna Olivier. actract attention by their shape and exquisite colouring. They are of the brightest rosy- carmine shade, with a suffusion of yellow, which shades into copper at the base of the petals. Ma Capucine, like the preceding kind, concentrates all its charms in a bud of fine form. When fully open it is little more than a single Rose, but in the early days of the Rose season, long before the double kinds have perfected their buds, it is charming in colour, deep orange-yellow, with red sufficient to make the flower bright. It is a dwarf grower, but the smallest bushes flower freely. Mmes. Chedane Guinoisseau, Caroline Kuster, and Falcot may be mentioned together Tulips. The petals are broad, like shells, white in colour, with a faint salmon or pink shading, which deepens into clear rose at the edge of the petals, ofl:en forming a regular bordering. Mme. Hoste. — Among the pale or straw- coloured Teas this is one of the best. It is a good strong grower, and the flowers are endur- ing, large, and of the most perfect form. Mme. Joseph Godier is one of the newer kinds but not popular, although distinct and charming in colour — a bright rose sufiused and shaded with coppery-yellow. Mme. Joseph Schwartz is a Rose to group for eflect in the garden. At the top of its THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 729 erect shoots it produces great clusters of flowers, white, suffused with flesh and tinged with bright rose on the edges of the petals. Mme. Lambard is lovely, free in growth and bloom, and variable in colour. Generally its flowers are pale rose, but they shade to yellow and apricot, and also at times become very pale pink. Marie d'Orleans is a noble Rose, strong in growth, making a handsome group. It bears freely full, rosy, well-formed flowers. Marie Van Houtte. — This is one of the best Tea Roses, vigorous, handsome in growth, and most profuse in bloom. In colour it is never more lovely than when grown in the sun outside. Marquise de Vivens is sturdy and bushy in growth, and profuse in bloom, with long buds of most attractive colour. They are pale pink externally, shading to straw colour at the base, but as they open show a rich glowing shade of carmine-rose. It is a delightful Rose. Niphetos is one of the great Tea Roses for growing undfer glass, but it should be grown outside also. It is as hardy as any of the rest, as free in bloom, and truly lovely to see with its buds crowning every shoot. I always think that the open-air flowers are more enduring and have much more substance than those under glass. Perle des Jardins requires warm soil to open well. Its flowers are generally borne singly, open well, and vary from pale straw to canary-yellow in colour. It makes a strong bush. Princesse de Sagan is the darkest of Red Tea Roses, a vigorous and free-blooming kind. In the bud and half-open stages it is splendid, a rich dark maroon shade overlying the velvet-crimson colour of the body of the flower. Rubens is first-rate in every way, one of the earliest and most continuous bloomers, strong in growth, and lovely in form. The flowers flesh-white, shading into pink, large and full. Safrano is a well-known button-hole Rose, hardy, free, and good, flowering profusely at all times. In colour it is apricot-yellow, deep- ening into buff. Sappho is nearly new, and resembles Fran- cisca Kriiger, but distinct and very charming. Externally the flower is a pale fawn colour, but deep yellow in the centre, suffused throughout with pale rose. Souvenir de Paul Neron is as hardy as any, with magnificent flowers upon small bushes, the form matchless, the colour creamy- white, edged and shaded with pale rose. Souvenir d'un Ami is one of the finest. It grows strongly, flowers freely, and has splendid foliage setting off the great drooping rosy flowers. These are large, double, and of fine globular form. Souvenir de S. A. Prince, or The Queen, is a white Souvenir, and has taken rank among the best. Sunset. — This is a sport from Perle des Jardins, producing flowers of a deep apricot- yellow shade. It is more vigorous than the type from which it sprang, and is fine during late summer and autumn. The Bride is a sport from Catherine Mermet, with the fine form of the parent and greater vigour, and almost pure white. It is one of the best ; the flowers, of fine form and substance, lasting long either on the plant or when cut. — A. H. Hybrid Perpetual Roses. — The general name " Perpetual " to all the varie- ties of this class is a misnomer, as many are not at all perpetual ; but some varieties, more especially some of our oldest Roses, keep on blooming until November. Amongst the old H.P. kinds one may instance especially La France and Charles Lefehvre, and amongst newer varieties, Viscountess Folkestone and Victor Hugo as true perpetuals ; whereas Mrs. John Laing, Margaret Dickson, Gabriel Luizet, General Jacqueminot and many other H.Ps. do not usually bloom after the month of August. One advantage which H.P. Roses possess over the Teas is that they appear to have no marked preference for locality or position. Give them a fair start by good planting, and they do equally well on heavy or light land, in warm or cold positions, on the side of a hill or on a dead level. There is difference of opinion as to the best stock on which to grow Hybrid Perpetual Roses. My own experience is in favour of the Brier as the best of all stocks. Some consider that maidens on Briers develop their first blooms too late in the season, and therefore those who use this stock are handicapped when they grow maiden plants extensively for ex- hibition. Now which are the best Hybrid Per- petual Roses to grow ? The question might lead to controversy, as our Rose lists alter annually. Each year a few (very few) good, apparently new, Hybrid Perpetuals are brought out. Some last a year or two, some even longer, but the great majority go to the dust-heap or are given to friends who grow Roses in a casual sort of way. Few Hybrid Perpetual Roses have been brought out of recent years which can be said to excel our oldest favourites. No doubt many good ones have been pro- duced, notably Mrs. John Laing, Gustave Piganeau, Jeannie Dickson, Sir Rowland Hill, Viscountess Folkestone (best of all), Her Majesty, and Margaret Dickson, most of which will permanently hold their positions. There is a marked peculiarity in the Roses newly brought out, for we seldom see a really first-class dark and distinct red Rose. In 1890, the late 730 ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Henry Bennett exhibited a new red Rose called Captain Hayward. I think it is one of the few good dark Roses brought out of recent years, the others being Gustave Piganeau, Lady Helen Stewart, Salamander, and Sir Rowland Hill ; the last being the most distinct of all, and a glorious velvety Rose of the darkest class. There are too many new Hybrid Per- petuals of various shades of light and dark pink, and too much alike, such as Jeannie Dickson and Mrs. W. J. Grant ; but if we want new Roses rapidly introduced, Rothschild and Her Majesty. Who would prefer either even in their greatest glory to a really good La France or Mme. Gabriel Luizet, sweetest of all Hybrid Perpetuals ? I think almost all the dark red Hybrid Perpetual Roses are sweet- scented, the want of fragrance being con- fined principally to some of the pink varieties, to MerveiUe de Lyon, Susanne Rodocanachi, and Duke of Edinburgh. Hybrid Perpetuals can be well grown as dwarf plants — in fact those who grow Roses for exhibition have practically dis- Rose, The Bride. we do not want these uncertain hghter colours, but decided shades of red, like the brilliant scarlet of Duke of Teck or Cheshunt Scarlet, or such whites as iMargaret Dickson. We already have too many pink Hybrid Perpetuals similar in shade and shape, and between which at times even experts can hardly discriminate. -Another point, which of late years has not been carefully considered in produc- ing new Hybrid Perpetual Roses, is scent. Surely scent is the crowning point in a good Rose, and the greatest defect in two such good Hybrid Perpetuals as Baroness carded standard Hybrid Perpetuals— but there are many varieties which do equally well on standard Briers ; for instance, La France, Victor Hugo, Mme. Gabriel Luizet, A. K. WiUiams, Marie Baumann, Her Majesty, Charles Lefebvre, Merveille de Lyon, Le Havre, Mrs. John Laing, and several others.— C. J. G. It has been a favourite practice in journals to make strict selections of the most popular Hybrid Perpetual Roses, but we do not follow it here, as it is best not to be narrow in one's selection where there are so many beautiful and welt THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 731 known kinds. It is otherwise with the Tea Roses, which have been unaccount- ably neglected as Roses for the open garden, even by the great Rose-growing nurserymen, and of these a careful selec- tion has been given. Hybrid Teas. — The race of Hybrid Teas was obtained from crossing the beautiful Tea Rose and the Hybrid Per- petuals ; and so we get a group inter- mediate in form and in colour, and often, as in the case of La France and its varieties, very charming and precious. They are also in some cases very endur- ing in bloom, which make them more useful than the usual red Roses of our gardens. The ordinary culture of the Rose-garden suits them well, and the finer kinds should, if possible, be got on their own roots as well as grafted. Among the kinds grown are : Annette Gamon, Antoine Mermet, Augustine Guinoisseau (especially fine in the autumn), Camoens, Cannes la Coquette, Cheshunt hybrid, Comte Henri Rignon, Countess of Pembroke, Duchess of Connaught, Duchess of Westminster, Esmeralda. Gloire Lyonpaise, one of the best Roses for gardens, vigorous, with creamy-white, bold, handsome flowers, large and sweet ; the leaves have a distinct fragrance ; Grace Darling, Jules Bassonville, Lady Alice, Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, La France, Ma- dame Alexandi-e Bernaix, Madame Andr^ Duron, Madame Carle, Madame Etienne Levet, Madame Moser, Marquise de Salis- bury, with glowing crimson flowers and deep green -leaves ; Michael Saunders, Pearl, Pierre Guillot, The Puritan, Wal- tham Climber, Viscountess Falmouth, Viscountess Folkestone. Climbing Roses. — If we look at southern Continental gardens, which have never received a tithe of the labour and care lavished on English gardens, but which enjoy the advantage of warmer climate and more constant sun, we shall see such arcades, bowers, pillars, and climbing masses of beautiful Roses on all sides as will put us out of humour with our own beautiful individual blooms, and will cause us to regret the absence from our gardens of these luxuriant masses that neither receive nor indeed require or obtain any special care from one year's end to the other. If it be un- fortunately the case that Roses which produce such glorious effects in foreign gardens are not hardy enough for us, why not try to raise new varieties that will endure our cold and changeable season ? Surely in a family that ranges from Kamtschatka to India, we may find at least one species that shall be the parent of hardy chmbing varieties, as beautiful in our climate as the Noisette and indica major are in the south of France and elsewhere. We have R. sempervirens, and the sexeral garden varieties, such as Fdlicit^ Perpetu^e, that will climb a pillar or shade an arcade. The Ayrshire Roses, R. arvensis and varieties of the Boursault Rose (R. alpina), though very charming, bloom only in summer. They are all quite hardy and of vigorous climbing growth, but they do not satisfy those who love the Hybrid Perpetual, the Noisette, or the Banksian Rose. We have also the continuous blooming R. rugosa, the semi- double yellow R. Fortunei, and the beauti- ful R. sinica, the parent of the so-called large white Banksian Rose Fortunei. Cannot some hybrids be raised from these and the semperflorens, alpina, or arvensis species? Let us make use of what we have at hand ; let us plant in the wilder parts such hardy climbers as are already mentioned, and make combinations of such red climbing Rosqs as can be found hardy — the excellent Gloire de Dijon and its progeny. The Cheshunt Hybrid, where the temperature does not fall below zero, is perhaps the best for this purpose. The old semi-double Bourbon Rose, Gloire des Rosomanes, will succeed anywhere, and light up an arch with its bright red blooms in autumn as well as in summer. For planting in a bold mass it has few equals and it is one of the sweet- est. When a warm wall needs clothing, the Banksian Rose or the various hybrids of the Noisette and Tea Roses may be used, though they are liable to be cut down in cold situations and seasons. For sweetness as well as continuity of bloom Lamarque's clusters of lemon- white flowers must stand first. Mardchal Niel, though unrivalled for the splendour of its golden blooms, is only a shy bloomer in autumn. Climbing Aimee Vibert, which is'thoroughly hardy, should be in every garden. Its white clusters are so continuously abun- dant and its foliage so persistent that it ranks high as a garden Rose. Reve d'Or is a delightful climber, in a warm situation, and may be called a climbing Madame Falcot, so bright are its half-expanded buds. There are many other charming Roses in this section, but, as a rule, they do not succeed unless in exceptionally good situations. The new single carmine Rose also flowers well on pillars. Monthly or China Roses. — Monthly or China Roses have bright and varied colours, free growth, hardy constitution, and are most constant bloomers. They 7J2 ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. are the first to open in the early summer, and often continue to produce their buds and blossoms almost until winter has merged into spring again, a Monthly Rose bush in a warm nook being scarcely ever without at least a bud. They are per- petual and perennial in the fullest sense. They grow well either in light or heavy soil, preferring that which is light and warm, but not dry. Severe pruning is good for them, though on walls, when the earliest possible flowers are wished for, a brilliant butterflies hovering about, are lovely. Then but once removed from these is the free-growing, semi-double, brilliant scarlet-crimson Gloire des Roso- nfenes. This for a large bed, interspersed with Fellenberg, equally free, and edged with Cramoisie sup^rieur or Louis Philippe, is effective. Alfred Aubert, Eugfene Beauhamais, Nemesis, Prince Eugene, Prince Charles, and St. Prix de Beuze have crimson flowers of various shades. Beau Carmin de Luxembourg, Rose, Gloire Lyonnaise. few shoots may be left their full length. There are many varieties, all more or less distinct in colour or habit, from the lovely pumila alba, with its shell-like flowers, and the other pompon varieties which are suitable for the smallest beds or as edgings to small beds, up to the vigorous Crimson Queen or Cramoisie Grimpante, which will climb to the top of a two-storied house and bedeck it with rich crimson flowers during most of the year. The original single China Rose forms a bush i\ to 2 ft. high ; its crimson blossoms, like Belle de Moutza, Confucius, Hermosa, Hebe, and Sanglant are pink or rose- coloured. Lemesle is one of the most handsome of this colour, deep pink with crimson reverse, which gradually creeps over and suffuses the whole flower ; the leaves of this \ariety have also great substance. Ducher and Rival de Poes- tum have white flowers. The latter is beautiful, the flowers abundant, not full, but of charming purity and form. Madame Laurette Messimy is perhaps the most distinct variety which has yet appeared, ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 733 being unlike in colour any previously- known kind, of vigorous growth, and one of the most constant bloomers. Monthly Roses are also good cottage window- plants. Many are the instances of speci- mens, seldom repotted, having grown on from year to year until they had filled up all the space and become a living curtain. — T. S. Moss ROSKS. — These are divided into two sections — those which bloom only in summer — that is, during May, June, and July — and the so-called perpetual- flowering kinds. Among the early kinds, the old Common Moss Rose may be found, and beautiful it is. This charming Rose has been grown in English gardens for more than a century, and remains one of the best, although it is not seen nearly so much as it might be. In a few gardens I have seen this Rose grown as a standard, but it is not a success. Dwarfs or bushes on their own roots are much the best, sending out long vigorous shoots, if planted in rich soil, and these should be pegged down to the ground. Some of the other kinds may also be similarly grown with advantage. In addition to the Common Moss, there is Little Gem, a charming miniature Rose, with small double crimson and well- . mossedi flowers. Crimson Globe has well- mossed buds, large, and of a deep crimson colour. Lanei, too, with large rosy-crim- son buds. Crested Moss (pale rosy-pink), Marie de Blois (rosy-lilac), Celina (rich crimson), Reine Blanche (pure white), Luxembourg (crimson). Baron de Wasse- nar (bright red), and White Bath (paper- white), are all good. Other Moss Roses of note are classed separately as perpetual or autumn-flowering kinds, but there ap- pears to be no need for diis separation. Blanche Moreau, for example, is one of the best white Moss Roses, but only blooms once. Other so-called autumnal kinds are Madame William Paul, a fine variety with bright rose-coloured flowers, and Madame Moreau, rose - coloured, edged with white. Madame Edouard Ory, with large rosy-carmine flowers, and the Perpetual White Moss, which blooms in clusters, are also worth mentioning. Other good kinds are Salet, and Soupert and Notting (bright rose). The last- named is sweet-scented, but not quite so free in blooming as other varieties. Zenobia is of satiny-rose colour. Con- sidering their charms, it is curious how seldom Moss Roses are well grown in private gardens. They are usually seen at their best in small gardens,' where the owner is kind to his soil. Success with Moss Roses cannot be had except in good rich soil. The Moss Rose is a form of the Provence Rose or "Cabbage," to which the same remarks as to cultivation apply. Scotch Roses. — Varieties of our hardy- native Rose, they are as callous to frost and snow, wind and storm, as the pro- verbial Highlander in his plaid ; and, if only the ground be well broken and manured when the plants are first put in, they are better able to take care of them- selves than any other Rose of garden origin. If carefully planted at first, they will need neither pruning nor protection, training nor top-dressing, they are not victims of green-fly or mildew, and they may be trusted to thrive for a considerable number of years without special attention. Scotch Roses are not particular as to soil ; and, if the soil is poor, a light mulching of short manure in November will keep them in good condition. They should be planted in a place by themselves, when they will throw up their spine-covered suckers freely from the base, soon entirely covering the ground ; and as they do not grow more than 2, or at least 3 ft. in height, they make a very ornamental mass, flowering freely at every joint. Scotch Roses are only summer-flowering, but then their delightfully-fragrant flowers come so long before the generality of Roses that they are especially welcome. One of the prettiest and most sweet-scented varieties is a perpetual, blooming a second time in autumn. This variety was raised at Stan- well, and distributed by Mr. Lee under the name of the Stanwell Perpetual. Inhabit and appearance it differs little from the summer-flowering varieties, but its pretty globular blush flowers, of a most delicious fragrance, are freely produced both early and late, and are not uncommonly found in good condition during October. Numerous varieties of the Scotch Rose have been distributed at various times. Max Singer catalogues about thirty named sorts, chiefly of Prdvost and Vibert's raising, but probably few of these now exist, at any rate in this country. Mr. William Paul records some two dozen more named varieties, but these are now hardly ever referred to or even obtainable by name, being as a rule merely described according to colour, as white, pink, and yellow. There are, unfortunately, in cultivation many very dingy - coloured varieties, which have got these Roses a bad reputation from a decorative point of view. This may to some extent account for the fact stated by the authority above quoted, that Scotch Roses have never really been popular among English 734 ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. amateurs. When only delicately-coloured varieties are grown, nothing can be more charming than a mass of these dwarf, delightfully - fragrant, and very hardy . Roses, the buds of which are in miniature the perfection of form — a quality which is maintained in the globular flowers of the more double varieties ; while in soils and situations where the cultivatio:) of most other Roses would be hopeless, flourishing plants and flowers in abundance may be had of the Scotch Roses. — T. W. G. POLYANTHA RoSES. — These are often of a dwarf bushy habit, rarely exceeding a foot in height. The flowers naturally are very small, but delightfully fragrant. They are equally as hardy as the Tea Roses. They do well grown in pots in ordinary or unheated greenhouses, and make capital window-plants, providing they have proper attention. Rather small pots are best, and a good-sized plant may be grown in one 5 in. in diameter. A mixture of sandy loam and decayed cow-manure suits them well, and it is advisable to repot in the summer, immediately after the plants have flowered. After repotting, stand them in a sunny position outdoors until the end of September, when return them to a cool airy position in a greenhouse or frame, where they may remain at rest all the winter. What pruning is required should be done early in the spring, just previous to starting the plants into growth, and it con- sists in cutting the shoots back to within two or three buds of their base. Com- paratively little water will be necessary during the winter, but give more in' summer, and when showing bloom occa- sional doses of weak liquid manure. Other many-flowered or Polyantha Roses are similar, or, a;t least, some varieties of them, and should be extensively grown in pots by amateurs. They are, however, hardier than the Fairy Roses, and robust in growth. Besides being grown m pots they make charming masses in beds or borders, and are useful for edging Rose-beds. Some nurserymen make a speciality of these Roses, growing them as small standards in pots, and in this manner they are effective when laden with bloom. Among the best varieties are Anne Marie de Montravel, pure white, very free ; Little Dot, soft pmk ; Mignonette, pale rose, very pretty ; Perle d'Or, nankeen-yellow ; Paquerette, white ; Blanche Rebatel ; Clothildei Soupert ; Georges Fernet; Gloire de Polyantha ; Golden Fairy ; Madame AUegatilre ; Marie Pare ; Max Singer ; Souvenir d'E. Chatelaine. There is some danger in taking up seriously new classes of Roses of this kind, because there are very few that are not inferior in beauty to the lovely Tea and other Roses which are now obtainable. Roses that have not the finest forms, and are unfit for cutting for the house, are likely to take a back place, and really deserve it. The Banksian Rose (Rosa Banksise) is a native of China, named in honour of Lady Banks by the botanist Robert Brown. It was brought to England in 1807. The flowers are small, in clusters early in the season, and have a violet perfume, whilst the wood is smooth, slender, and of rapid growth. The leaflets, often but three in number, are long, dark, and lustrous. The best-known sorts are Alba Fortune!, white and yellow, and the Banksian Roses require a warm wall and dry border, with two or three years' growth to bloom in perfection. Merely cut out a few of the old already-bloomed shoots, and any late-growing sappy wood about July. They are very precious for covering house walls in many parts of England, but are not so good on wet and hilly shady places. Remove any growths that have been injured by severe frosts during the winter, but beyond that no spring pruning is needful. Noisettes. — Owing to some of the most important kinds in this group being often classed with the Teas, even in catalogues which class them as Noisettes, there is much confusion. We therefore omit Roses such as Bouquet d'Or, which we group among the Teas. They bloom long and well in clusters, grow freely, and are fragrant and useful for climbing or pillar Roses. The following are some : — Aimfe Vibert, Celine Forestier, Cloth of Gold, Cornelia Koch, Desprez k Fleur Jaune, Fellenberg, Grandiflora, Isabella Grey, Jeanne d'Arc, Joseph Bernacchi, La Biche, Lamarque, Duchess of Mecklen- burg, Madame Carnot, Madame Alfred Carriere, Madame Caroline Kuster, Madame Massot, Ophirie, Solfaterre, Triomphe de Rennes, Unique Jaune. The Damask Rose (Rosa Damascena) is a native of Syria, whence it was brought to Europe about 1270 by Thibault IV., Count of Brie, returning from a crusade in the Holy Land. In Syria this Rose is so common that there is a valley called the " Valley of Roses." It is a parent of the Hybrid Red Roses. The Damasks have pale green leaves, green shoots, with numerous spines, are of free growth and hardy ;• the flowers are pretty in form, and very fragrant. They need but little THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 735 pruning. Among the kinds, besides the common one, are La Ville de Bruxelles, Leda, Madame Heirdy, Madame Stoltz, Madame Zoetmans, York and Lancaster (true). The Provence Rose or Cabbage Rose. — Of this the origin is not known, but growing abundantly in Provence, it has received that name, though the French themselves always call it Rose ct Cent- Feuilles. " The rosarian should devote a small bed of rich soil, well manured, to the cultivation of this charming flower, growing it on its own roots, and pruning closely. The Double Yellow Provence Rose, of a rich, glowing, buttercup-yellow as to complexion, and prettily cupped as Madame Baron VeiUard, Marquis Bal- baino, Mrs. Bosanquet, President de la Rocheterie. Alba Roses. — Two of the newer kinds are Mrs. Paul, a bold, sweet flower, almost white, touched with rose, andLornaDoone, of a deep rosy shade. The Alba Roses are, from their delicacy of colouring, interesting, and thrive under ordinary cultivation. The moderate growers should be pruned closely, not the others. Blanche Belgique, Belle de Segur, Celestial, F^licit^ (Parmentier), Madame Audot, Madame Legras, Maiden's Blush. Evergreen Roses (R. sempervirens). — These are Climbing Roses, with large Rose Harrison!. to form, full of petal, but of medium size, has almost disappeared from our gardens, and I have only seen it at the Stamford, shows, sent there from Burleigh. Al- though common at one time in this country, it seems never to have been happy or acclimatised." — Dean Hole. Bourbon Roses are among the most useful of garden Roses. They seem somewhat capricious, with the exception of Souvenir de la Malmaison, which, however, is often placed among other Roses. There is no hard and fast divid- ing line between them. Among the best kinds are — Armosa, Gloire de Rosomanes, Madame Isaac Pereire, Queen, Sir Joseph Paxton, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Empress Eugfeie, Kronprinzen Victoria, clusters of from ten to fifty blooms each, and holding their dark green shining foliage through a great part of winter ; they are free growers and quite hardy. In pruning, the head should be thinned out, a few of the more pendent shoots being left their whole length. Donna Maria, Fflicitd Perpetuee, Flora, Leopold- ine d'Orleans, Rosea plena. Gallica (R. Gallica). — This is an old group, that used to be important, but is no longer so because of the other kinds that have been raised. The many kinds may be distinguished by their stiiF erect growth ; and require close pruning whilst the flowers are fragrant and varied in hue. The striped varieties of this section (Rosa Mundi, etc.) are often called York and 736 T-HE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. Lancaster. The following are the best known : — Boula de Nanteuil, Blanchefleur, Cynthie, D'Aguesseau, Duchess of Buc- cleuch, Kean, CEillet Parfait, Ohl, Perle des Panach^es, Rosa Mundi, Village Maid. Ayrshire Rose (Rosa Arvensis vars.). — These roses, of native origin, are of rapid growth, often running 15 or 20 ft. in one season, and are of use in covering rough buildings, unsightly banks and trees. They do not require rich soil, and should be pruned very little, or not at all. Bennett's Seedling, Queen of Ayrshire, Queen of Belgians, Ruga, Dundee Rambler, Splendens, and Virginia Rambler, are the best-known sorts. BOURSAULT Rose (Rosa Alpina). — This is a distinct species, but its varieties form a worthless group, which receives its name from M. Boursault. Most of the varieties are free from thorns and have long reddish shoots. Amadis is most grown. It is one of the groups of roses- ' not worth keeping up. Synonyms of Garden Roses. — The following Roses bracketed together have been regarded as synonymous, according to the rule adopted by the National Rose Society ; and the name standing first in each case, being believed to be the original one, is considered as the true name of the Rose, and the one that should stand. {Charles Lefebvre. Marguerite Brassac. Paul Jamain. i Monsieur Boncenne. Baron de Bonstettin. MarSchal Vaillant. Avocat Duvivier. {EugMe Verdier. Marie Finger. / Amadis. \ Crimson Boursault. / Duchesse de Caylus. \ Penelope Mayo. J Prince C. de Roltan. \ La Rosifere. / Marie Rady. \ Comtesse de Choiseul. {Maurice Bernardin. Ferdinand de Lesseps. Sir Garnet Wolseley. Exposition de Brie. {Thoresbyana. Bennett's Seedling, j Devoniensis. \ Climbing Devoniensis. / Adam. \ President. (Madame Bravy. \ Madame de Sertot. j Alba Rosea. ^Josephine Malton. / Fortunes Yellow. \ Beauty of Glazenwood. In shrubberies, woods, and in the case of Roses isolated on turf the more the trees or bushes are left to themselves to wander as they list, the more artistic and beautiful is the effect ; but generally in gardens Roses must be pruned into form and kept in shape afterwards with the knife. No doubt many of them are over- pruned, and not a little of the beauty and all the grace are cut out of them. Still it need not be so. Pruning can heighten beauty as well as mar it, and then we prune for vigour as well as form. By cutting out exhausted branches we cause young and more vigorous ones to spring from their base, and thus we force the Rose to renew its youth. The removal of worthless, unsightly, and dead wood improves the appearance and health of our Roses ; and a branch that has failed should be pruned out before it becomes diseased. Rose Hedges. — If the soil be naturally a good Rose soil, the work will be light. In that case mark out the position of the hedge 2 ft. wide, trench up that space 2 ft. deep, adding as the work proceeds a quantity of well-rotted manure. Where there is any doubt about the staple being of the right sort, remove it, and supply its place with a mixture of three parts loam and one of manure. There are, however, many gardens the soil of which, with the addition of one barrowful of loam to every yard length of hedge, and about half that quantity of manure, will grow Roses well. Plants on their own roots are indispens- able, and if from 2 to 3 ft. high so much the better, as they will form a hedge the sooner. The time of planting must depend on the condition of the plants, but, if only small plants in pots are to be had it should be in April or May. In any case it should be done when the soil is moderately dry, and some finely-sifted mould should be placed round the roots, the ground being made moderately firm. Deep planting must be avoided. The crown should be about 2 in. under the surface, as the soil will afford it some pro- tection during severe weather. As soon as the planting is done, give some support to the branches ; a neat stake and a strong tie preventing them from being blown about by the wind. Place a layer of short rotten manure over the roots. This should THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROSA. 737 be 3 in. thick, and i ft. wide on each side. During the first two years httle pruning will be necessary, but the second spring after planting, any strong shoots that exceed 3 ft. in length should be cut back to that point. In the ground place a few neat sticks, to which tie some of the lower branches to form the base of the hedge and bring it into shape. After the second year the growth will gain more vigour and increase in length. Cut down the strongest shoots to 4 ft. the third year and from that time allow them to increase slowly in height so as to give the lower branches time to fill up the base. Some supports will be necessary to keep the growth in shape. The after-management consists in giving the roots a good dressing of rotten manure every winter. Rake away the soil from over the roots, lay the manure on them, and then replace the soil. Wild and Single Roses. There are many beautiful single Roses, and now that some interest has been awakened in them, we may expect to see them more freely planted. There are vigorous climbers which, allowed to have their own way and a branched tree to support them, will climb to a great height ; others, sturdy and bushy, are suitable for planting in bold groups and masses, and rare ones will merit special care. They are free from the pests that infest the double Roses, and above all things when single Roses are present in the garden a roseless June will not happen even in the worst of seasons. When Dog Rose and Sweet Brier toss from the hedges in early June our gardens might and should show some of the Wild Rose beauty, for the single Roses of many lands are at our disposal. R. ACICOLARIS (The Needle Rose) is a beautiful Wild Rose, which when leafless might well be mistaken for the Japan Rose, it is so armed with the sharpest needle-pointed spines, and it has the same stout, vigorous bushy habit of growth as rugosa. In flower and fruit it is quite different, and is a bright flowered kind, but early and long blooming ; and it is always one of the first to open. Its leaves are smaller than those of rugosa j the flower large, rich red, with a sweet scent. It also has a showy fruit, which differs from that of the Japan Rose, for, instead of being roundish and smooth, it is long and Pear-shaped, of a bright red colour, with its apex covered with spiny bristles. It is a native of Siberia, as hsxAy as any kind known, but as yet un- common in gardens. R. ALPINA (Alpine Rose) is really more worthy of a. place in the garden than the varieties of which it is the parent — the Bour- saults. It grows to a great size, with long, thornless shoots ; does not make such a colour display as most kinds, but it is welcome for its earliness, and a bowl of its rosy-red flowers is pretty in the house in May. R. BRACTEATA ( The Macartney Rose) is a little tender, but it is so beautiful that it repays a little extra care, and is pretty for a low wall, which in a sunny aspect is needed to bring it out in its full beauty. The plant is almost evergreen ; leaves dark green and shining ; the flowers large, milk-white, sweetly scented, of a pretty cupped form. China. R. Brunonis ( White Indian Rose), a very handsome Rose and almost worth growing for the sake of its foliage alone. It is perhaps a little tender, but vigorous; any injury that happens from winter frosts is quickly effaced. July is its month of blooming, the flowers in clusters, pure white, with a yellow centre. Alone it is capable of covering a house, and it must have plenty of room. Better still to let it ramble over trees or shrubs, as it does at Kew near the Cactus house. A single Rose named Pissardi also belongs to the Musk Rose type, and has fragrant Dog Rose-like flowers. Under this same name, however, comes one from Germany with large rose-coloured blooms. R. CAROLINA ( Carolina Rose) is a very pretty Wild Rose, somewhat resembhng R. lucida, but distinct, as it blooms during August, when most kinds are over, and it keeps flowering through September. It is a tall, upright grower, established bushes being 6 ft. high. Its wood is smooth, with few spines ; the leaflets are long and narrow, and the flowers come in clusters of a dozen or more among plenty of foliage, the buds when opening being rich crimson and the expanded flowers bright rosy-red sweet-scented. The leaves when handled have a distinct and pleasant fragrance. R. INDICA (Indian Rose). — This species appeals to all who love Roses, as a parent of the best races. In it we see those excellent qualities, and continuous bloom, that have been kept through numerous generations", and contribute so much to the charm of the Tea and Monthly Roses of the present day. Of this species there are two or three forms in cultivation. At Cheshunt, Mr. Paul grows a lovely form, with flowers of a flesh-pink colour ; another variety has a large crimson-red flower. Like the Tea Roses, this species is ever growing and blooming from early summer till late autumn. R. LUCIDA (Glossy Rose). — One of the best Wild Roses has leaves of a shining green colour, and just when our native and other early single Roses are passing away this comes into bloom in July and goes ort for several weeks. Its flowers are large, opening flat, clear rosy-pink, sweet-scented, in clusters of from five to eight, but succeed one another, so that there is not usually more than one flower open at a time in a cluster. The heps are about as large as a Hazel-nut, deep red, and make a bright effect with the fading leaves, which assume autumn tints. The heps hang all the winter, the leaf- less wood becomes red, and through the dullest time of the year large groups of this Rose are 3 B 738 ROSA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ROSA. pretty to see. A few plants soon spread into a thick mass as it runs freely underground, and it is so easily increased by its suckers, that it offers every facility for free planting. R. LUTEA.— This very distinct Rose is better known through the forms derived from it than in its wild form, pretty as that is, and it would be charming to grow on warm banks. There are two garden varieties, commonly called Austrian Briers, one with yellow flowers, the other orange red, both beautiful for a sunny spot. R. MACRANTHA is one of the early bloomers and a showry kind. The flowers are large and beautiful, chiefly white, but flesh-tinted round the edges and in the centre with a tuft of fine yellow stamens. In the open ground it makes the clusters have long stems, and in the house every bud opens in due course. The buds are of a lovely pink colour before they open. The true name of this Rose is uncertain as yet, but its value is very high. R. NUTKANA, according to the Garden and Forest, is one of the most showy species of Western America, having the largest flowers and fruits. Its habit is described as stout, the leaves ample and broad, the flowers large, white, and the fruits bright scarlet, \ in. in diameter. Paul's Carmine is a garden variety, and a welcome addition to single Roses because of its bright carmine-red flowers. Its vigorous growth makes it. useful for walls, fences, and on pillars it does well. The Austrian Copper Brier. a thick spreading bush, like R. arvensis of our hedges. Europe. Rosa moschata nivea. — The old Musk Rose is supposed to have been introduced nearly 300 years ago, but the kind that bears the above name is of garden origin. It has a vigorous climbing habit, is hardy, not fastidious as to soil, with shoots like Willow wands, and sending up flowers in great clusters of thirty or more, and it is not uncommon to see from nine to twelve fully open at one time. The flowers individually are large, opening wide and flat, white, with a suffusion of pink towards the edges of the petals and a cushion of yellow anthers in the centre, which keep their colour whilst the flower lasts. The leaves have seven leaflets, are of a gray-green colour, and when young scented. The wood is chiefly smooth, but small spines are numerous towards the tips of the shoots. For cutting it is delightful, as Paul's Single White is a vigorous Rose of garden origin, and as we happen to have it growing beside moschata nivea think it not nearly so good. It is rampant, hardy, and has large deep green leaves, the flowers in large clusters, scented, the buds of a tender pink colour, but the flowers do not open out like those of the Musk Rose, and the anthers turn black. It is nevertheless a useful single Rose if placed apart from the others, and it has one merit which they lack in flowering in succession. The vigorous shoots which grow up at the time of the first blooming usually produce a great cluster of flowers at the top when they have completed their growth. R. POLYANTHA (.5ra?«i5/« /?oj-e).— A rampant climber, which will quickly climb a tree, cover a building, or, away from any support, spread into an enormous bush. It has long, spineless shoots clothed with glossy green leaves, THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 739 blooming early in June ; a mass of white flowers crowded in a pyramidal truss, with a powerful scent. The variety grandiflora is an improve- ment, but as yet it does not seem to have been much planted. It has all the vigour of the type, and flowers much larger. They cluster in an immense truss, are pure white and sweetly scented. R. RuBiGiNOSA (Szaeetbrier). — Perhaps as pretty as any Wild Rose in flower, fruit, and delightful fragrance. It is a native Rose, but also distributed through much of Europe and Asia, and, although often planted, is scarcely ever made enough of in country places. It is most useful for forming fences with Quick or even by itself on good banks, as it is so spiny that cattle, which do so much harm to almost every other kind of hedge plant, do not touch this, so that it swings careless in the field where they are. The plant ought to be grown by the thousand, and anybody with a few bushes of it can save the seed for this pur- pose. It is a delightful plant from the time its buds burst in early spring until the birds have eaten the brilliant berries in winter. R. RUBRIFOLIA {Red-kaved Rose) should have a place for its lovely tinted leaves and shoots : it has a rambling or climbing habit, but also grows into a large self-supporting bush. The flowers are red and small, the fruits purplish-red with soft flesh. Its chief charm, however, is in the colour of shoots and leaves. The young, strong shoots are purple-red overlaid with a pale gray bloom, whilst the leaves are of a pecuUar glaucous colour brightly tinged with red. North America. R. RUGOSA {Ramanas Rose). — A strong grower in any soil, it is one of the best, making a handsome bush when isolated, but large gardens should have great groups of it, and in leaf, flower, and fruit it is beautiful ; it is a long and persistent bloomer, and reaches the zenith of its beauty when the secondary flowers come with the glowing orange and red fruits that have succeeded the first flowers. Then a second crop of ripe fruit appears late in autumn, when the leaves turn yellow, showing the Rose in another pretty aspect. It makes a good hedge, and where pretty dividing lines are wanted, it is one of the best for the purpose. There are purple, pink, and white forms, this last being lovely, and quite the best single white Rose of the non-climbers. They are free enough to plant for covert. Rose Rege- liana and R. kamtschatica are forms of this species. Japan. R. SPINOSISSIMA (Burnel Rose). — A pretty native Wild Rose, which will grow and flourish where many Roses fail in the lightest and hottest of soils. It is the parent of the Scotch Roses, some of which are so very pretty in like soils ; the creamy white flowers of the wild plant are pretty and fragrant. R. WiCHURiANA. — A distinct and charming Rose, perfectly prostrate in habit, every branch lyiiig flat on the ground, a rapid grower making shoots 12 fl. long in a season, the leaves lustrous green, and flowers standing a little above the mass of creeping stems, pure white, l§ to 2 in. across. For rapidly covering sunny banks nothing could be more charming than this beautiful Japanese Rose, also for the bolder kind of rock-garden drooping over the larger rocks. It is hardy so far as recent winters entitle one to judge, and easily propagated by cuttings or division. R. sinica is a large, single, white-flowered, climbing species from China or Japan. R. gigantea, the giant of single white Roses, lately introduced from India, is of doubtful hardiness, otherwise it would be a great addition. R. Beggeriana, a North American kind, of lowly growth, has white starry flowers. R. Woodsi, a garden form of R. blanda, has rosy-pink flowers, and continues blooming till stopped by sharp frost. R. pisocarpa, from California, makes a straggling bush, with flowers of medium size and bright red. Are well worthy of a .if" I Sweetbrier. Kosa spinosissima. place in the rock-garden. R. berberifolia Hardyi has flowers like those of a Cistus, rich yellow in colour, with a crimson blotch at the base of each petal, but wants heat and bright sun. Hebe's Lip is a garden form, but a pretty single Rose with a stout bushy habit of growth, and large, creamy white blossoms that have a distinct Picotee edge of red around the petals. The . above is a selection mostly of the best Wild Roses known to us for the garden or shrubberies and fences near the garden. There are many Wild Roses inhabiting northern and temperate countries, and many that have never been in cultivation that are very beautiful and deserving of it. It is to be hoped now that the increased cultivation of these beautiful things will lead to further knowledge of them. 3 B 2 74° ROSMARINUS. THE EXGLISH FLOWER GARDEX. RCBUS. Eosmarinus officinalis {Roseman'). — This well-knomi shrub is not hardy enough evenwhere, but in the embel- Ushment of drj-, warm, rock}' banks it is useful ; all like its fragrance, and the flowers are pretty when on Ary soils. Rnbns {Brambles). — Usually trailing prickly shrubs of the Rose order, all the important sorts of which, with the excep- tion of our native Bramble, are from North America ; the finest of the American kinds is the Rocky Mountain Bramble (R. deUciosus), quite unhke an ordinarj- Bramble, being without spines or prickles, and more resembling the Black Currant. It makes a rounded spreading bush about 4 ft. high, and, in June, bears snow-white flowers about the size of Dog Roses, and like them in form. It is hardy in most Rubus deUciosus. gardens where the soil is light, and in cold districts may be grown against a wall, which it quickly clothes with a beautiful growth, and flowers more abundantly than as a bush. Always select for it the sun- niest and wannest place in the garden. One could have a group of it in an open part of a sheltered lawn, and beneath the bushes a crowd of Daffodils or Squills, so that when these are out of flower the shrub succeeds. By adding autumn Crocuses, Meadow Saffrons (Colchicums), Snowdrops, and winter Aconites the group would be attractive for three parts of the year. R. odoratus is 3 to 8 ft. high, with large- lobed leaves, and from June till August large clusters of rich purple flowers. It may be used in the rougher parts of the rock-garden, or in the wild garden and is very hardy. Like the garden Raspberry, I it sends up strong annual shoots, which in rich soils reach 6 ft. The old shoots should be cut out everj- year, just as one does with the Raspberry. There is no finer shrub for planting under the shade I of large trees ; but it must not be planted where these fill the surrounding gfround with their hungry roots. Once planted in good deep soi^ free fix)m tree roots, it gives no trouble except the annual pruning of the old shoots. B. nutkanus may be described as a white variety of R. odoratus. It is found wild fi-om North California to Nootka Sound, and is rather taller in g^rowth than R. odoratus and flowers somewhat earlier. The flowers, borne in much the same way, are pure white. These two species inter- mixed in a group have a beautiful effect. They are partial to a moist soil, as near the margins of a pond or stream. They are among the best shrubs for the wild garden, where in a short time they spread into large masses if in good soil and partial shade. The Salmon Berry (R. spectabilis), from North-west America, is not important, though its flowers are large and a bright red. It is best in the rougher parts of the rock-garden or for the wild garden. The WTiite- washed Bramble (R. biflorus, or R. leucodermis), from the Himalayas, has tall wand-like stems often 10 ft. or more in height, whitened with a mealy substance on the bark. Its white flowers are not showy, and succeeded by edible-acid. Raspberry-like fruits. R. australis, from New Zealand, is without true leaves, and prickly. In warm situa- tions on walls it grows several feet high. The beautiful R. rossefohus (Rose-leaved Bramble), from the Himalayan region, is scarcely hardy enough for open-air except m favoured spots or against sunny walls. Its double variety (coronarius) has loose clusters of large white flowers, which are very double ; it is often gro\vn as a green- house shrub. .Almost the only native Brambles worthy of notice are the beauti- ful double varieties of R. fruticosus, which flower late in summer. There are the double pink and the double white kinds, both known under various names ; but the names of double pink and double white are sufficient. As they are forms of distinct species or varieties, they differ m habit, the double pink being much the stronger and more free flowering. When well placed the double pink makes a wide- spreading mass like the common Bramble and produces from the middle of August till autumn an abundance of bloom, every RUDBECKIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 741 flower being a perfect rosette of delicate pink petals. The double white is a form of R. tomentosus, and its flowers are larger than those of the double pink, but less double. The double white and the double pink should be planted near each other, and will clothe banks or associate with bold rocks. Another fine Bramble is the Cut-leaved, or Parsley-leaved Bramble, which has a profusion of white blooms, succeeded by large delicious fruits. Some of the so-called American Blackberries, such as the Lawton and Kittaninny, do not succeed in our country. A few of the small kinds, such as R. arcticus (which grows a few inches high and bears numerous rosy-pink blossoms). Rutus nutkanus (the Nootka Sound Raspberry). the Cloud-berry, R. Chamaemorus (also dwarf and with white blossoms), and R. saxatilis, are pretty in partially-shaded spots in the rock-garden in moist peaty soil. Rudbeckia {Coneflower). — North American Composites, with showy yellow flower-heads, usually with a dark centre cone. All are hardy except R. bicolor, "but they are so much alike that the best only should be grown. One of these is R. speciosa, also called Obeliscaria speci- f«).^— Beautiful as is the Maiden- hair Tree in all stages and at all seasons, it is perhaps most attractive during the autumn, just before the leaves drop, since the foliage assumes then a bright golden- yellow hue. Although it differs much from the Conifers, it belongs to that order, and is one of the few deciduous mernbers of it. Probably. its scarcity is accounted for by its not being readily propagated, and by its making slow progress during its earlier stages : since, on this account, it is not popular in nurseries. A rather deep, fairly moist soil of a loamy nature seems to meet its requirements, but it is not very particular as to soil ; for a fine specimen grows on the shallow gravelly subsoil of Kew. As a lawn tree S. adiantifolia is beautiful. Its fruits are said to be eaten in China and Japan, but they are rarely produced here. There are two or three varieties of the species, and, when raised from seed, there are individual differences. The Salisburia is also known as Ginkgo biloba. Salix ( Willow). — There are no .trees in the world more beautiful for our country than our own Willows, such as the white Willow, the Osier, and its scarlet-barked variety called the Cardinal Willow, and also the Weeping Willows of various kinds ; all of which, though they cannot be grown with flowers, should often come into the garden picture, not only beside water, but in other situations not too near the flowers. Some minute alpine Willows are interesting for the rock-gar- den or the margins of beds of dwarf shrubs, but they are . more suited for SALPIGLOSSIS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 743 botanical collections. The dwarf creeping kinds grown in gardens are — S. herbacea, S. lanata, S. reticulata, S. retusa, and S. serpyllifolia, all natives of the northern parts of Europe and America. They grow well among stones in ordinary garden soil. Salpiglossis sinuata. — A beautiful plant of the Solanum family, and one of the finest of half-hardy annuals ; it is slender, and has an erect stem, i to 2 ft. high, bearing large funnel-shaped blos- soms that have dark veins on a ground which varies from white to crimson, yellow, orange, or purple, and intermedi- ate shades. As the colour of the blos- soms is so variable, the plant is known as S. variabilis, and its varieties have Salpiglossis sinuata. Latin names according to their tints. It is difficult to make a selection, but a packet of mixed seeds will produce a pretty variety of colours, and will yield a fine display, lasting from late summer till autumn. S: sinuata thrives in light, rich, sandy loam, and should be treated as a half-hardy annual. Chili. Salvia {Sage). — The Sages are found in almost all sub-tropical and temperate countries; but principally in the moun- tains of Tropical America and in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. The best hardy sorts are from the Mediterranean region, and the showiest kinds are from the-mountains of Tropical America, especially those of Mexico. Few of the Mexican species are really hardy, but many of them- are among the best autumn and winter ornaments of the conservatory and the greenhouse, while, during summer, others are pretty in beds and borders. Few of the Sages require special treatment. The herbaceous per- ennials may be rapidly propagated by division or seed, and the half-shrubby species by cuttings of the young soft shoots in heat. The hardy perennial species require only a little care in the selection of a suitable situation and soil, but they are few in comparison with the half-hardy kinds. One of the hand- somest of the hardy sorts in S. pratensis, a native species sporting into several varieties, which differ from each other in colour, and are called alba, rubra, bicolor, and S. sylvestris is even hand- somer, and has long showy spikes of deep purple flowers. The well-known S. Sclarea and its variety bracteata are good plants for a mixed border, and so is S. Forskohlei, a species similar to them in habit and in colour. The finest of all is S. hians, which is, however, rarely seen. Some of the forms of the common garden Sage (S. officinalis), especially the variegated-leaved kind, are pretty ; and so are the blue - flowered North American S. Pitcheri, and its white variety. The pretty purple red-topped Clary (S. Horminum) is a South European annual of easy culture. The tufts of coloured bracts which terminate its stems make it useful for cutting as well as for border decoration. The silvery Clary (S. argentea) is also an excellent border plant. It has silvery leaves, 6 to 12 in. long, which are handsome when well grown. S. candelabrum, a native of the south of Spain, is a half-shrubby species like the kitchen Sage, and has similar foliage, with ample panicles of rich violet and white flowers, borne on long stalks clear of the leaves. S. taraxacifolia is equally handsome. Of the half-hardy species, S. patens is the most brilliant, being equalled by few flowers in cultivation. Although not hardy, it is easily preserved through the winter, and it is readily increased from cuttings. In some districts, in light warm soils, it survives an ordinary winter, but as a rule it is safer to lift the plants. S. cacalise- folia is a beautiful plant similar to S. patens, but of the same hardiness as those mentioned below. S. porphyranthera is a dwarf close-growing species with rich crimson flowers. It rarely fails in the open border. S. farinacea is a beautiful kind bearing light lavender blossoms with a white lip, and having a flower- spike covered with white powder. S. interrupta, a very fine species from Morocco, has large white and light blue flowers. S. Grahami, a very old 744 SAMBUCUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SANTOLINA. Mexican kind, has a distinct habit and bears bright carmine blossoms. S. angustifolia and S. azurea are blue kinds, worthy of open-air culture, as are also several of the sorts usually grown in greenhouses, such as S. Heeri, S. fulgens, S. gesnersefolia, S. elegans, S. tricolor, S. rutilans, S. splendens, and their varieties; for, though some of them do not flower till autumn, their use for indoor decoration is improved by their being planted out during summer. In summer some tender kinds have a fine effect in the open border, and are uvia patens. all easily propagated by cuttings. In August and September they should be raised in a close cold frame, and in spring they should be treated like Heliotropes or Ageratums. When large plants are i-equii-ed, the old ones can either be potted, or put close together in deep boxes ; and, if potted, they should be cut down to within 6 in. of the soil. Both old plants and potted cuttings are easily wintered in any dry place where frost is excluded. The tender Sages are not particular as to soil, thriving jn any good garden soil. Sambucus {Elder). — The common Elder (S. nigra) is not generally admired, but Its cut-leaved, golden, and variegated varieties are often planted. A large Elder with branches sweeping the turf is no mean object on a lawn at midsummer, when covered with its flower-clusters, or when in berry. The golden Elder (foliis aureis) is becoming very common — too common, in fact, — for, like all conspicuous objects, it requires to be employed with caution, or a spotty eflfect will b.e produced. The same remark applies, but in a less degree, to the variegated golden-leaved and silver- leaved Elders. The Parsley-leaved or cut-leaved Elder (laciniata) is a most elegant shrub, and should be preferred to the common Elder, as it is ornamental even in a small state. It should be allowed to form itself into a small tree or a round symmetrical bush. A pretty shrub is the Scarlet-berried Elder (S. racemosa), which resembles the common Elder in habit, save that instead of bearing black berries it has clusters of brilliant scarlet fruits. Unfortunately, it is capricious in English shrubberies, and is seldom seen in perfection of berry. Its natural home is in alpine valleys, where in August and September it rivals the Mountain Ash in splendour. In hill districts it may be grown and fniited, but it must have a cool moist spot. Its cut- leaved variety (serratifolia) is an elegant shrub, with pinnate leaves deeply cut. S. Ebulus is a herbaceous Elder, having spreading foliage, cut into elegant leaflets, that may be planted in coverts, dry banks, and rough shrubberies ; scarcely suitable for border culture. It is hardy, and may be readily increased by division. Samolus littoralis.— A pretty trailing plant, with long slender stems, and small evergreen foliage, and in summer, with numerous pink blossoms. It is suitable for the bog-garden or for moist spots in the rock-garden, as it delights in plenty of moisture, and a peaty soil suits it best. New Zealand. Primulaceae. Sanguinaria canadensis {Bloodroot). A pretty and distinct hardy plant, its thick creeping root-stocks sending up glaucous leaves about 6 in. high, the flowers, borne singly on stems as high as the leaves, are i in. across, white, with a tassel of yellow stamens in spring, in good-sized tufts having a pretty effect. It grows well in any border, but under the branches of deciduous trees on lawns It spreads about, and, without attention, becomes a charming wildling, in moist soil. It may be increased by division m autumn, but its fleshy stems must not be kept long out of the ground. Papaver- acese. Santolina {Lavender Cotton).— Ttwari half-shrubby plants, of neat habit and pretty hoary foliage. One of the most SANVITALIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SATYRIUM. 745 distinct and useful of them is S. incana, a small gray shrub, with close habit and narrow leaves covered with dense white down. The pale greenish-yellow flowers are small, not showy, but the plant is useful from its form and silvery hue, for groups and edgings, growing readily in ordinary soil on the level border, or on slopes of the rock-garden. It is con- sidered a variety of the better-known S. Chamsecyparissus (Lavender Cotton), which is pretty for banks and rock-gar- dens, forming silvery bushes 2 ft. high, but it is not suited for association with very dwarf alpine plants. Other species of Santolina suited for rock-gardens are S. pectinata and S. viridis, which form bushes something like the Lavender Cotton. S. alpina is of more alpine habit, forming dense tufts close to the ground, from these arising slender stems bearing yellow button-like flowers. S. alpina grows in any soil, and may be used in the less important parts of the rock- garden. It is easily increased by division. Cuttings of the shrubby species strike readily in spring or autumn. Sanvitalia procumbens. — A hardy annual from Mexico, with trailing branches and bright yellow flowers. In the single- flowered kind the blossoms have a dark purple centre, but in the double (S. procumbens fl.-pl.), which is by far the showier, they are a bright yellow. S. procumijens flowers from July till late in September, and owing to its dwarf com- pact growth, it is useful for masses in beds or for the front rows of borders, or in suspended baskets, as the slender branches droop gracefully over. It may be sown in any ordinary garden soil — in autumn for spring flowering, or in March and April for summer flowering. Com- posite. Saponaria {Soapwort). — This genus of the Pink family has a few garden plants. S. csespitosa is a neat little alpine perennial, good in the higher regions of the Central and Eastern Pyrenees, flower- ing in August, but in the lowlands its beautiful rose-coloured blossoms appear towards the end of June. It forms rosettes of linear leaves, thick, glabrous ; the flowers, forming a thick cluster, are supported by short stout stems. This graceful little plant is valuable for the rock-garden. A sandy soil suits it best, and it endures our winters. S. calabrica is a pretty prostrate hardy annual, 6 to 9 in. high, its slender stems covered with small pink blossoms all the summer. There is a white variety. S. calabrica is much used for beds and edgingsT. Seeds may be sown in the open border in April, or earlier in heat if bloom is required early in the season. The plant thrives best in rich sandy loam. S. ocymoides is a beautiful trailing rock-plant, with prostrate stems, its rosy flowers completely covering its leaves and branches in early summer. It is most valuable for clothing arid parts of the rock-garden, where a drooping plant is desired, as the shoots fall over the face of the rocks, and become masses of rosy bloom. It is also excellent for old walls, and the seed should be sown in mossy chinks where a little soil has gathered. It thrives in ordinary soil, and is often a good dwarf border plant. Seeds and cuttings. Stony and rocky places in Southern and Central Europe. S. officinalis {Soapworf). — This is a handsome native plant about 2 ft. high, with large blossoms, usually rose-pink. The double variety is the best. It is a rambling plant, and soon spreads rapidly; ' therefore it should not be planted in select borders, but is pretty for rough places in the pleasure-ground and wild garden, as it grows in any soil. Division. Sarana kamtscliatica ( = Fritillaria). Sarracenia purpurea {Huntsman's Horn). — This singular plant belongs to a family of Pitcher-plants, natives of North America, it being the hardiest, and handsome when well grown. Its curious leaves, hollowed like a horn, are blood- red in colour, and form a compact tuft i ft. or more in height and the same in breadth ; the flowers, singular in shape, are not very showy. It is a good plant for the bog-garden or for damp spots in the rock-garden, in an open and fully-ex- posed position with the choicer bog- plants, in fibrous peat well mixed with Sphagnum Moss, which is common in marshy places. A layer of living Moss should be placed round the plant to keep it moist, and the soil must be kept always moist. The plant is hardy under these conditions, but precautions should be taken to prevent birds from disturbing the soil and exposing the roots. It is not easy to propagate, but may be raised from seed. Some of the hybrids between it and others may be hardy. S. flava, the hardiest species next to S. purpurea, is rarely satisfactory in the open air. Satyrium. — Beautiful terrestrial Or- chids, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and therefore scarcely hardy enough for open-air culture. With attention, how- ever, they succeed fairly well in sheltered and warm localities if protected in winter, 746 SAUSSUREA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SAXIFRAGA. but they thrive best under glass. The handsome S. carneum and aureum are in cultivation. Saussurea (5aw-wor^).— These Com- posite plants have aThistle-hke aspect, and are suitable mainly for botanical collec- tions. Some, such as S. pygmtea, grow only a few inches high, and may be cultivated in the rock-garden. The leaves of S. discolor are white underneath, and con- trast well with the light purple blossoms. S. alpina is a native species. All grow well in any soil. Saxifraga {Rockfoir).—T\a% %e.xms. in- cludes, perhaps, more true alpine flowers than any other. In the Arctic circle, in the highest alpine regions, on the arid mountains of Southern and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa, and throughout the length and breadth of Europe and of Northern Asia, they are found in many interesting varieties of form and colour. One might expect them to be as difficult of cultivation as most alpine plants, but they are the easiest to grow of all. They were com- mon in collections of alpine flowers where few other families were repre- sented. Of late years many pretty species have been introduced, and the variety of the family is now so great that a very interesting garden might be made of Saxifrages alone. For the purposes of cultivation some rough division is con- venient, as Saxifrages are very different in aspect and uses. The most ordinary form is the Mossy or hypnoides section, of which there are many kinds in cultiva- tion. Their delicate Moss-like spreading tufts of foliage, so freshly green, especi- ally in autumn and winter, when most plants decay, and their countless white flowers in spring, make them very pre- cious. They are especially suited for the tasteful practice of carpeting the bare ground beneath taller plants. They are also admirable for the fresh green hue with which they clothe rocks and banks in winter. Next to these we may place the very extensive silvery group. These have their grayish leathery leaves mar- gined with dots of white, so as to give to the whole a silvery character. This group is represented by such kinds as S. Aizoon and the great pyramidal-flowering S. Cotyledon of the Alps. Considering the freedom with which they grow in all cool climates, even on level ground, and their beauty of flower and foliage, they are perhaps the most precious group of alpine flowers we possess. Anybody with a cottage garden can grow them. The London Pride section is another of great beauty, the plants thriving under ordinary conditions in lowland gardens, and soon naturalising themselves in lowland woods and copses. But the most brilliant, so far as flower is concerned, are found in the purple Saxifrage (S. oppositifolia) group and its near allies. Here we have tufts of splendid colour in spring with dwarfness and perfect hardiness. The large leathery-leaved group, of which the Siberian S. crassifolia is best known, is also of much importance ; the plants thriving in ordinary soil and on the level ground. There are various minor groups. Such of the smaller and rarer alpine species as require any particular attention should be planted in moist sandy loam mingled with grit and broken stone, and made very firm. Very dwarf and rather slow-growing kinds, like S. cassar and S. aretioides, should be surrounded by half- buried pieces of stone, to prevent their being trampled on or overrun. Stone will also help to preserve the ground in a moist healthy condition in the dry season, when the plants are most likely to suffer. Very dry winds in spring sometimes have a bad effect when such precautions are not taken. Established tufts are apt to throw out stem-roots into their own cushions, so to say. These cushions are frequently moist during the autumn and winter months. When the tufts are suddenly dried, the plants suffer if the ground-roots be dried too. The following are among the most im- portant cultivated kinds, though the list excludes many species that are difficult to grow or to procure, and which are found only in very full collections. S. aizoides. — A native plant, very abundant in Scotland, the north of Eng- land, and some parts of Ireland, and generally found in wet places and by the sides of mountain rills or streams. At the end of summer or in autumn it* has an abundance of flowers, \ in. across, bright yellow, dotted with red towards the base. It forms dense masses of dwarf bright green leaves, and has leafy branched flower-stems, which distinguish it from other yellow Saxifrages. Although a mountain plant, it is easy to grow in lowland gardens in moist ground. Wher- ever a rill or streamlet is introduced into the rock-garden or its neighbourhood, S. aizoides may be planted to form wide- spreading masses, as it does on its native mountains. Easily propagated by division or by seed. S. autumnalis is similar. S. Aizoon is a good rock, border, and edging plant. Plants established for two or three years form gray-silvery tufts, SAXIFRAGA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SAXIFRAGA. 747 which do not flower so freely as the wild plants, but this need not be regretted, as it is the silvery mass, and not the flowers, that is sought. This Rockfoil is often grown in pots, but it flourishes as freely as any native plant, and is best perhaps when exposed to the full sun. There are several named varieties. S. pectinata, S. Hosti, S. intacta,^S. rosularis minor, S. australis, S. cartilaginea, and others are only slight variations from the type. Division in spring. S. Andrews!. — Among the green- leaved Saxifrages there is no better kind than this. Its flowers are freely pro- duced, prettily spotted, and larger than those of S. umbrosa. The plant is finer in the rock-garden than London Pride, grows as freely on any border soil, and merely requires to be replanted occasion- ally, when it spreads into very large tufts, or to have a dressing of fine light compost sprinkled over it annually. The variety Guthrieana is distinct from the Pyrenees. S. aretioides. — A real gem of the en- crusted section, forming cushions of silvery rosettes about \ in. high, and almost as small and dense as those of Androsace helvetica. It has rich golden- yellow flowers, in April, on stems a little more than i in. high, and remind one of the flowers of Aretia Vitalliana. S. aretioides requires a moist and well- drained soil, and being so tiny, must be protected from coarser neighbours. Seed and careful division. S. Burseriana. — None of the Rockfbils surpass S. Burseriana in vernal beauty. It is almost Moss-like in habit, forms broad patches, and spreads rapidly over the earthy interstices of warm moist sand- stone, if planted where it will not suffei: from stagnant moisture. The blossoms are borne singly on slender red stalks, which rise 2 or 3 in. above the general surfaee of the plant, and are pure white, the margins of the overlapping petals elegantly frilled or crisped. They appear freely in January and February. Before they are expanded, their crimson-brown unopened buds have a cheerful effect as they emerge from the compact silvery tufts of foliage, while interspersed among full-blown flowers they enhance the pearly whiteness of the petals. S. Bur- seriana soon forms good-sized tufts in the open border or in the rock-garden, but prefers a dry sunny situation and calcare- ous soil. All lovers of hardy spring flowers should possess it. There are two or three distinct forms which differ from each other chiefly in habit, one being much more tufted than the others. There is also a form with larger flowers than those of the type, but not more desirable ; it is called grandiflora. Large panfuls of this early Rockfoil are pretty in the greenhouse. Austrian Alps. S. csesia resembles an Androsace in the neatness of. its tufts. On the Alps it covers the rocks and stones like a silvery Moss ; and on level ground, where it has some depth of soil, develops into beautiful little cushions 2 to 6 in. across. It has pretty white flowers in summer on smooth thread-like stems, i to 3 in. high. Though a native of the high Alps and Pyrenees, it thrives in our gardens in very firm sandy soil, if fully exposed and well watered in summer. It may also be grown in pots or pans in cold frames near the glass; but, being very minute, should always be kept distinct from coarse neighbours, as even the smallest weeds will injure or obscure it. Seeds or careful division. Of similar character are S. calyciflora, S. luteo-viridis, S. Kotschyi, S. valdensis, S. squarrosa, and S. diapensoides, all dwarf, and, for the most part, difficult to grow, though their beauty amply repays the trouble bestowed on them. They should be grown in the same way as S. cassia. S. ceespitosa. — A dwarf kind form- ing dense carpet-like masses of foliage, arranged in neat tufts, studded in summer with white blossoms. It succeeds in almost any situation in any garden soil ; is useful for margins to herbaceous borders, and makes a beautiful covering for moist banks. It is one of the most variable of all Saxifrages, and of its numerous varie- ties the most distinct are palmata and groenlandica. S. ceratopliylla {Stag's-hom Rockfoil). — An ornamental species of the mossy section, with dark, finely-divided leaves and numerous pure white flowers in loose panicles in early summer. It quickly forms strong tufts in any good garden soil ; and is adapted for any kind of rock- garden, whether grown in level tufts on the flat portions, or in sheets overhanging the brows of rocks. Spain. Seed or divi- sion. Similar to this species are S. pani- culata, ladanifera, Wilkommiana, geranio- ides, irrigua, ajugasfolia, and aquatica.; S. ciliata. — One of the broad-leaved or Megasea section with large broad leaves, covered with soft hair, and carried on creep- ing stems. The flower-stems are 6 to 9 in. high, and bear numerous large flesh- coloured flowers in spring. A native of North India, S. ciliata is suitable for open- air culture in the south of England only, but is so handsome and distinct that it should be tried wherever it can be grown. 748 SAXIFRAGA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SAXIFRAGA. A sheltered nook in the rock-garden, par- tially shaded, suits it best. S. cordifolia.— This Siberian plant differs in aspect from the ordinary dwarf Rockfoils, having ample heart-shaped leaves on long and thick stalks. Its clear rose-coloured flowers are arranged in dense masses, and in early spring half concealed among the great leaves, as if pleasure-ground, or by wood walks. They may also be used with effect near cas- cades, or on rough rock- or root-work, or on the rocky margins of streams or artifi- cial water ; in fact, they are the fine- foliaged plants of the rocks. There are several handsome varieties of S. cordi- folia, the finest of all the group being one called purpurea. ■ HRHp^pE^BPI Hjjl BHJI^^fe^lHiMP^IlwlBlK' y^^JCiPWE^MKMiKQi^^^^S&^^"'*'- ■ H|^^^^P^^ K ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^9 M hbB^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^p ^S^BB^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m hB ^HHSK^^^^^^^^^O^^f^ 1 ^^^^^^^^ ^H |^^^MH3y>^^!J|riyj^^^ 1 Sp^yCT^^g^M|^ H ^^^i^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^A H Hb^^jI^^^^^^ ^^m1 ^■n ^BHjB^^ffiU^ip l^m!'^^^^^i^^^^^'^^r^9E^SI^^^k ^S j^^^^ra^^^HyS-^^^j^ ^^tSS^SManL H I^^Bp^fyyl^lK^B B^^ ^KN?^»^^^^^^^t^^r^''7u''-wH^^^^^^*^u^^BfiB^S^BjHMN^ H ^^w-^^^^^^m^m H ^^^^^^B^^^m| 1^1 bh^^^^^^i^^sSwIb^^I^^^whE^^^^^m! ^^^H ^BBIJI^MlS^^^ffiSSMllMBiMKMlPSMEJ^i^^Wi ^^H ^B^BBiP^^^R^f^^SMMMBaflEEilB^MSS^ffiK^^^B^JH ^^H ^HBr|''u 'i^^^^^^'^, -^mmS^SSj^^^^^^^S^^^^ 1 ■B^^^^^^^P^^^^P ^B BR^^^JffiKnfaHV^k^i^S^H'^^'I'i^^T^'^^^ HR wl^^^^^^ml^^M^S^B^^^^^^^'^^^ SnS S!^Kif^'