QK
81
H88
1907
IST SER

[LIAR
DEN50
VERS

From the Library

of
JOCELYN BROOKE

G/0

WALL FLOWER.

FAMILIAR
GARDEN FLOWERS

FIGURED BY

F. EDWARD H.ULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.

AXD DESCRIBED BY

SHIRLEY HIBBERD

' Where does the •wisdom and the power divine
In a more bright and sweet reflection shine ?
Where do we finer strokes and colours see
Of the Creator's real poetry,
Than when we with attention look
Upon the third day's volume of the Book ?
If we could open and intend our eye,
We all like Moses should espy,
Even in a hush, the radiant Deity."

COWLEY, TTie Garden, Essay V.

jftrst
WITH COLOURED PLATES

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE

MCMVH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PREFACE.

LIGHT words are at times more serviceable than learned
lines, and persuasions are often more effective ' than
arguments. This is especially the case in respect of
subjects that are adapted for universal enjoyment, and
that appeal to feeling first and afterwards arouse
curiosity and set the mind to work. Garden flowers
give more delight, perhaps, to those who study their
history and cultivation and uses, than to such as
admire them but in a casual way, and who may be
said to smile and pass on. But in either case the
gratification, which is one of sentiment in the first
instance, becomes an intellectual exercise, and may be
aided by one given to gossiping, and with a little
knowledge to flavour his words. It is with some such
purpose the following papers have been penned to ac-^
company a series of pictures adapted to awaken and

sustain an interest in " familiar garden flowers."

S. H.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

WALLFLOWEB .' ...'...».... 1

MONKSHOOD .,.,.., 5

PETUNIA ............. 9

WHITE LILY 13

CANARY FLOWEB 17

PHLOX o.o 21

MICHAELMAS DAISY 25

SINGLE FUCHSIA „ 29

CHRISTMAS EOSE 33

LAVENDER ....,, 37

CANTERBURY BELL 41

RUDBECKIA ....,.„ 45

MARIGOLD .49

BALSAM ,.,.,., 53

YORK AND LANCASTEB EOSB . . . ...... 57

COMMON MARIGOLD 61

JESSAMINE 65

BLUE SAGE . 69

INDIAN PINK 73

GLADIOLUS 77

VIRGINIAN STOCK 81

BLUE LOBELIA . . 85

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

COMMELINA » • » 89

COLUMBINE , . 93

WINTEB JASMINE • , 97

BBOWALLIA 101

EVEBLASTING PEA , . . 105

WHITE BEGONIA. 109

SWEET PEA , . .... 113

HONEYSUCKLE . ... 117

CKIMSON FLAX . ......... c , 121

IBIS - .125

CBIMSON PETUNIA 129

ASTEB. . . . . . . . '. . . . . .133

SNOWDEOP . 13"

PUEPLE CLEHATTB ' 141

TUBE'S CAP, OB YELLOW MAETAGON LILY ...... 145

CEOCUS 149

POPPY 153

WINTEE ACONITE ....... .157

SYNOPSIS.

THE subjoined notes will be useful to readers who desire more information
of a scientific and technical nature than is embodied in the sketches that
accompany the plates. To arrange them otherwise than in accordance with
the arrangement of subjects in the body of the work would appear an incon-
gruity ; and as each note is complete in itself, the lack of scientific sequence
is probably of no consequence. It is impossible, indeed, in such a work as
the present, to follow any system, unless it be that of the butterfly, which
probably knows but little of botany, but appears to be perfectly happy in
going from flower to flower.

WALLFLOWER, or CHEIRANTHUS. The English name
refers to the habit of the plant as an inhabitant of walls and rocks; the
Latin name implies that it is in an especial manner a nosegay or " hand"
flower. N.O., Crucifera. LINN^AN: 15, Tetradynamia. — The cruciferous
order is one of the most natural as well as most important of the great
families of the vegetable kingdom, as it includes the cabbages, cauliflowers,
cresses, mustards, turnips, colzas, horse-radish, sea-kale, and an immense
number of ornamental plants, of which the candytuft, stock, wallflower, and
arabis are familiar examples. Many of the plants of this order are characterised
by a volatile acridity and a pungent flavour ; they are stimulant and anti-
scorbutic ; none of them are poisonous. Most of them are annual or biennial
herbs ; some are perennial and sub-shrubby ; all have alternate leaves
without stipules ; the flowers are hermaphrodite, regular, and consist of a
calyx of four pieces and a corolla of four petals clawed at the base and
arranged opposite each other in the form of a cross ; hence the term " cruci-
ferous." The stamens are six in number, four of which are longer than the
other two. The stigma is two-lobed. The ovary is superior, with two cells
separated by a partition to which the ovules are attached. The fruit is a
silique, or a silicic, dry, one or many seeded, and usually opening in two
valves. The seeds are without albumen, but in many instances contain oil,
which is removed by expression for commercial purposes. p. 1.

ACONITTTM, most probably from Acma, the place where it was
first found. N.O., Ranunculacea:. LnraasAN: 13, Polyandria ; 2, Trigynia.
— The ranunculus or crowfoot family consists of herbaceous and half -shrubby
plants, witft leaves alternate, divided, aad widened at the base, where they

viii FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

form a sheath round the stem. The flowers vary much in their disposition,
having sometimes a whorl of three leaves close to them or at some distance
below. The calyx consists of three to six pieces ; the corolla contains petals
that have a distinct numerical relation to the leaves of the calyx, being equal,
double or triple. Thus the buttercups have usually a calyx of five leaves
and a corolla of five petals ; but the pilewort, or lesser celandine, has usually
three sepals and nine petals ; while the peony has five sepals and five to ten
petals. The stamens are generally numerous, distinct, and situated under
the ovary. The carpels, or seed-vessels, are sometimes one-seeded and
collected in a head or capitule ; or many-seeded and combined in a whorl ;
or are compressed so as to form a many-celled pistil. All the ranunculaceous
plants have watery juices, and are more or less acrid and poisonous, and the
roots are often more decidedly poisonous than the stems and leaves. But the
poisonous principle is destroyed by boiling or drying ; hence some of these
plants are used for food when cooked, and the poisonous crowfoots of our
meadows, which are never touched by cattle, become wholesome fodder when
dried in the form of hay. The aconite may be distinguished from all other
members of the ranunculus family by the fact that the large uppermost
segment of its calyx overhangs the petals and other parts in the form of a
helmet. p. 5.

PETUNIA, from pettin, the Brazilian name for tobacco. N.O.,
Solanaceee. LINN^EAN: 5, Pentandria ; 1, Monogynia. — This order is com-
posed of herbs or shrubs, rarely of arborescent plants, with colourless juices,
round or irregularly angled stems or branches, sometimes armed with thorns
or prickles ; their leaves alternate, simple, entire, or lobed ; the inflorescence
is variable, mostly axillary, sometimes terminal; the flowers regular and
united; the calyx is five-parted, persistent; corolla monopetalous, five- cleft
or four-cleft, regular, deciduous ; stamens inserted upon the corolla, as many
as the segments of the limb, and alternate with them ; ovary two or four-
celled, stigma simple ; fruit either a capsule or a berry ; seeds numerous. A
large and somewhat anomalous order, comprehending many useful and many
noxious plants, as, for example, the potato, tomato, nightshade, egg-plant,
capsicum, henbane, and tobacco. Between the flower of the potato and that
of the petunia what a difference, and yet we are to regard them as somewhat
nearly related ! p. 9.

LILIUM, from leirion, or from the Celtic li, white. N.O., Liliacea.
LINN.EAN: 6, Hexandria ; 1, Monogynia. — The lily worts are endogenous
plants widely scattered over the globe, and comprehending the dracasuas,
yuccas, aloes, and asparagus, as well as the true lilies, which for the most
part produce fleshy bulbs of annual duration. The leaves are always simple
and undivided, and usually have the veins running straight from the base to
the apex, but in some dracaenas they diverge from the midrib to the margin.
The flower consists of six perianth pieces, six stamens with anthers opening
inwards, and a superior three- celled ovary changing to a three-celled fruit-

SYNOPSIS. ix

The true lilies have a longitudinal nectariferous furrow at the base of each
petal or perianth piece, an undivided style, a capitate stigma, and flat seeds.
The colour of the flowers is white, yellow, or red. p. 13.

TROP2EOLUM, from tropaion, a trophy. N.O., Tropceolacea.
LINN.EAN: 8, Octandria; 1, Monogynia. p. 17.

PHLOX, from phlox, a flame, in allusion to the splendour of the
flowers. N.O., Polemoniacece. LINN^AN: 5, Pentandria ; 1, Monogynia. —
The order represented by Polernoniuin consists, for the most part, of herbaceous
plants with alternate leaves, regular flowers which have a five-cleft calyx,
and a five-lobed corolla consisting of one piece as in the primulas. The
stamens are five in number, inserted alternately with the lobes of the corolla;
ovary three -celled, fruit a capsule. There is not much to be said of this
order, as it has no important place in the arts, and it is restricted in its forms
and geographical distribution. It is more largely represented in the new
than in the old world, and the majority of its members are found in tem-
perate climates, a few of the smaller kinds giving a glow of colour to alpine
and sub-arctic scenery. As garden plants, many of them are of great im-
portance, as not only the phlox, but the gilia, ipomopsis, cobaea, leptosiphou,
and the lovely cantua are members of the order. p. 21.

MICHAELMAS DAISY.-See "Aster," p. xiv., Vol. I.

p. 25.
SINGLE FUCHSIA.— See "Fuchsia," p. xiii., Vol. III.

p. 29.

CHRISTMAS ROSE, or HELLEBORUS.— The familiar
name needs no explanation. Helle/borus is from the Greek hclein, to kill,
and bora, food, implying a poisonous plant, which this certainly is. N.O.,
Ranunculacece. LINNJEA.N : 13, Polyandria ; 6, Polygynia. — See under
" Acouitum," p. vii., Vol. I. p. 33.

LAVENDER, from Latin lavo, to wash. N.O. Lamiacece, or Labi-
at((. LISTIOEAN: 14, Didynamia; 1, Gymnospermia. — The labiate order is
marked with strong characters, and constitutes a distinct though extremely
large group. The members of it are mostly herbs and low shrubs with square
stems, opposite leaves, and aromatic juices ; the flowers are singularly formed ;
the calyx is bell-shaped with five teeth ; the corolla tubular, irregular, two-
lipped, the upper o'ne very short and sometimes wanting ; stamens four ;
ovary four-lobed ; stigma two-cleft ; fruit composed of four one-seeded nuts
enclosed in the interior of the permanent calyx. A large proportion of the
most useful aromatic herbs belong to this order, such as sage, thyme, mar-
joram, mint, betony, ground ivy, &c. About 1,714 species are known, of
which over 1,000 belong to the eastern hemisphere. The temperate and
warm temperate parts of the earth are largely occupied with labiates ; there
are but few in the Equinoctial regions, and still fewer are Arctic. p. 37.

x FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

CAMPANULA, from Lat. campana, a little bell. X.O., Campanu-
lacece. LINN.ZEAN : 5, Pentandria ; 1, Monogynia. — This order consists for
the most part of leafy herbs with alternate leaves, which sometimes contain a
milky juice. The flowers are hermaphrodite and regular, consisting of a
persistent calyx, usually of five divisions, but sometimes of three or eight.
Corolla inserted in the summit of the tube of the calyx, usually five-lobed,
and bell or saucer-shaped ; stamens five, inserted in the summit of the tube
of the calyx ; ovary inferior, with two, three, or five many-ovuled seeds ;
fruit a capsule containing many seeds attached to a central placenta. A
comparative^ unimportant order, the members of which are esteemed for
their beauty. p. 41.

RUDBECKIA, named after O. Kudbeck, a Swedish botanist.
N.O., Asteracece. LINNJEAN : 19, Syngenesia; 3, Frustranea. — See under
"Aster," p. xiv., Vol. I. p. 45.

MARIGOLD.— See under "Aster," p. xiv., Vol. I. p. 49.

BALSAM, or IMPATIENS. The word balsam explains itself,
although the plant does not furnish any oil or balm or resin that might
be so called. The term impatiens refers to the hasty escape of the seeds
when the pod is touched. N.O., Balsaminacea. LINN^AN : 5, Pentan-
dria; 1, Monogynia. — The order consists chiefly of succulent herbs, with
sometimes radical leaves, but more frequently caulescent leaves which are
alternate or opposite ; flowers irregular, issuing from the axils of the leaves ;
calyx with five segments, which are petal-like and unequal ; corolla with five
petals alternate with the segments of the calyx, the anterior petal large and
concave, the two posterior united with the two small lateral ones ; stamens
five; fruit a capsule with five many-seeded cells beneath, but one-celled
above and opening in five elastic valves. A small order containing no
plants of special interest or importance. p. 53.

YORK AND LANCASTER ROSE.— See under "Eosa,"
p. xi., Vol. II. P. 57.

MARIGOLD, or CALENDULA. N.O., Asteracece. LIN-
N.EAN : 12, Syngenesia; 4, Necessaria. p. 61.

JESSAMINE, or JASMINE. N.O., Jasminacece. LINN^AN:
2, Diandria ; 1, Monogynia. — Climbing shrubs or miniature trees, with
leaves opposite or alternate ; trifoliate or unequally pinnate, without stipules ;
flowers hermaphrodite, regular ; calyx of five to eight lobes ; corolla with
fire to eight lobes; stamens two; ovary two-celled; fruit a double berry or
duplex capsule. A small order, the members of which are met with in
tropical and warm temperate climates. In many instances the flowers
abound in a fragrant essential oil. p. 65.

SYNOPSIS. jri

SAL VI A, from salvo, to save, in allusion to the medicinal properties
of the sage and other aromatic plants of the same genus. N.O., Lamiacece,
or Lipworts. LINN^AN : 2, Diandria ; 1, Monogynia, — This order has
several distinctive characters. The stems are four-cornered, the leaves
are opposite, replete with receptacles of aromatic oil ; the flowers in whorls
or opposite cymes, the corolla bilabiate, the upper lip overlapping the
lower, which is larger and three-lobed ; the fruits are small nuts enclosed
within the persistent calyx. As they come near to borageworts, note
should be taken of their square stems and irregular flowers, for borage -
worts have round stems and regular flowers. The labiates are natives of
temperate regions chiefly, and are very abundant. In the cooler parts of
India there are over two hundred species ; they love dry sunny places, as is
the case generally with aromatic plants. In the arts they are much used, as
in the preparation of perfumes and sauces ; a few are eatable, and many
have valuable medicinal properties. The famous patchouli is a labiate ;
lavender, mint, horehound, and rosemary are familiar labiates renowned for
their several uses. As regards the rosemary there can be no question of its
power of encouraging the growth of hair, and thereby curing baldness ; it is
used also in the manufacture of Hungary water, and contributes in an
especial degree to the pungent aroma of eau de Cologne. The famous
Narbonne honey is derived from the flowers of rosemary, which abounds in
that district of France. p. 69.

INDIAN PINK, or DIANTHUS, from dios, divine, and
anthos, flower, the divine flower. N.O., Cari/ophyllacece. LiNN-asAx: 10,
Decandria ; 2, Digynia. — See under " Lychnis," p. viii., Vol. V. p. 73.

GLADIOLUS, from gladius, a sword, in allusion to the form of the
leaves. ~S.Q.,Iridacece. LINN^AN : 3, Triandria; 1, Monogynia. — Although
the Cape species of gladiolus are best known in gardens, there are a few
European species, and two of them are found wild in Britain. Gladiolus
segetum, the cornflag, and G. commimis, which may be called English if not
British, very fairly represent the family, and are worthy of the special
attention of the rambling botanist. Hitherto, however, G. communis has
only been found amongst the bracken near Lyndhurst, in the New Forest.
See under " Iris," p. xiv., Vol. I. p. 77.

MALCOMIA. Named after W. Malcom, mentioned by Ray.
N" O., Cmciferce. LINN^EAN: 15, Tetradynamia.— See under "Wallflower,"
p. vii., Vol. I. p. 81.

LOBELIA, named after M. Lobel, botanist. N.O., LobeUacea.
LINNJEAN : 5, Pentandria ; 1, Monogynia. — This order consists almost exclu-
sively of herbs and under-shrubs of suspicious qualities. The leaves are
alternate and simple ; the flowers irregular ; the corolla five-lobed ; the fruit
a capsule opening at the top. The species are, for the most part, moisture-
loving plants, possessing acrid juices of the most poisonous nature. p. 85.

xiv FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

the fact that it first acquired proper renown there, arid being used by a cul-
tivated people, obtained through them, an honourable place in literature
This plant, everywhere grown for its tenacious fibres, is comparatively
unknown in gardens, and the observer of vegetable forms who is unac-
quainted with it may be advised to sow a few common flax seeds in the
spring, and in due time look for an elegant tuft of vegetation crowned with
pretty blue flowers. p. 121.

IRIS, from iris, the rainbow. N.O., Iridacece. LINNJEAN : 3, Tri-
andria ; 1, Monoyynia, — This order consists entirely of herbs that have
fibrous, tuberous, or bulbous roots; but the "bulbs" of this order are
not formed of scales like those of lilies, but are woody, and multiply by a
new growth at the summit, which true bulbs never do ; hence the bulb-like
roots of these plants are called conns. The order comprehends the iris and
crocus of the northern hemisphere. All are furnished with sword-shaped
or sickle-shaped leaves ; the flowers are hermaphrodite, regular and irregular,
enclosed before opening in a sheath ; the perianth has six divisions arranged
in. two series ; there are three stamens ; the fruit is a three-celled capsule.
There are several edible plants in the order, and a few that furnish aromatic
drugs, and all the species are highly ornamental. Though a comparatively
unimportant order it comprises fifty-three genera and 550 species. p. 125.

CRIMSON PETUNIA.— See "Petunia," ^.viii., Vol. I. p. 129.

ASTER, from Greek aster, a star. N.O., Composite, or Asteracece.
LINNJEAN : 19, Syngenesia ; 2, Superjlua.— The composite plants have a strong
family likeness, and yet, owing to the breadth and fewness of the ray florets
in the flowers of some kinds, the beginner may occasionally fail to recognise
them. They are herbaceous plants, or small trees, with leaves opposite or in
whorls, entire or divided. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, sometimes
in single heads or capitules, sometimes in compound umbels or corymbs.
The "composite" character is revealed when we examine one of the
capitules or stars. This is found to consist of a number of separate flowers,
varying in structure, packed together on a common receptacle. The
following may be accepted as a general statement of a very difficult case :—
Every head of flowers, or florets, as they are technically named, has a
central part, or disc, and a circumference, or ray ; of these florets some
are regularly tubular, with their limb cut into four or five segments ; others
are slit up on one side, opened flat, and turned towards the circumference
of the head ; the latter are named ligulate florets. When in a head of flowers
all the florets are alike and ligulate, it belonged to the division Cichoracece, as
in the dandelion ; if the florets of the disc were tubular, and those of the
circumference only ligulate, it was referrible to Corymbiferte, as in the mari-
gold ; and when all the florets are alike tubular, both in the disc and ray, it
belonged to Cynarocephala, provided the involucre was at the same time stiff
and ovate, as in the thistle. The latter character was necessary in order to
distinguish Cynaroeephalce from those of Corymbifera, in which the ray is not
developed, as common groundsel. To these three divisions a fourth has in

SYNOPSIS. xv

later times been added under the name of Labiatlflorce, in consequence of the
florets having distinctly two lips of unequal size. These divisions have,
however, been thought objectionable on several accounts, and De Candolle,
following Cassini and Lessing, has trusted more to modifications of the style,
the result of which is the following arrangement of the order in eight tribes,
named respectively Vernoniacece, Eupatoriacece, Asteroidete, Senecionideai,
0>/>iarcfc, Mtitisiacea, Nassauviacete, Cichoraceae. A very large order, the
members of which are met with in every part of the world. They are
mostly astringent, tonic, and aromatic, affording foods', fibres, dyes, and
drugs. There is scarcely a poisonous plant in the family. p. 133.

SNOWDROP. The name is explained in the text. N.O., Amaryl-
lidacece, the Amaryllis family. LINN^EAN : 6, Hexandria ; 1, Honogynia. —
A casual inspection of the flower by one unskilled in botany will result in a
conviction of an alliance of the snowdrop with the lilies, but the snowdrop is
simply not a lily but an amaryllid. Between the two families the differences
are not many, but there are differences, and one of the principal is the
inferior position of the ovary. This is a large order, comprising the snow-
flake, snowdrop, vallotta, pancratium, narcissus, the agave, and the " giant
lily" of Australia, doryanthes. They are widely distributed and are plentiful
in the southern hemisphere. A large proportion of them possess acrid juices,
one of the number, the beautiful Hcemanthns toxiearia, being employed by
the Hottentots to poison their arrows. An important amaryllid is the
American agave, often, but mistakenly, called " aloe. " From this noble
thick-leaved plant a valuable fibre is obtained, and from the juice of its
leaves the Mexicans prepare the celebrated drink called "pulque." The
snowdrop was valued in ancient times for medical purposes, as also for a
distillation of its juices employed as a cosmetic. But it is no longer used for
such purposes, and lives unmolested, establishing its rights by its beauty
alone. p. 137.

CLEMATIS, from klema, a vine, or climber. From the same root we
have in Dutch, climbop, the ivy, a very picturesque though strictly classic
name. N.O., Eanunculacece. LINN^IAN : 13, Polyandria; 6, Polygynia. —
The clematis section of crowfoots stands far apart in all its prominent
characters from the buttercups and anemones that are classed in the same
order. It agrees with them in the possession of an acrid juice which produces
inflammation when applied to the skin, and if taken internally is irritant and
may prove fatally poisonous. In the buttercup we see the leaves placed
alternately, and their bases sheathe the stem ; in the clematis the leaves are
opposite, and do not sheathe the stem. In the insertion of the stamens on
the receptacle all the members of this order agree. A large proportion of the
species of clematis are climbing shrubs of temperate climes, a few are herba-
ceous, and all are ornamental, even our wilding of the hedgerows, the
traveller's-joy, or Clematis vitalba, being extremely elegant, if not so showy
as the exotic species that are now so much cultivated. p. 141.

xvi FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

YELLOW MABTAGON LILY. — See under "Lilium,"
p. viii., Vol. I. p. 145.

CROCUS, from Greek crocus, saffron. Holinshed (" England," c. 8),
says that " a certain young gentleman named Crocus went to plaie at coits in
the field with Mercuric, and being heedlesse of himself e, Mercuric' s coit
happened by mishap to hit him on the head," &c. &c. The coit killed him,
and saffron sprung from the ground whereon he had bled, and was called
crocus in commemoration of the event. N.O., Iridacece. LIXX.EAX: 3,
Triandria ; 1, Monogynia. p. 149.

POPPY, or PAPAVEB. N.O., Papaveracea:. LINIUEAN : 13,

Polyandria; 1, Monogynia. — See under " Eschscholtzia," p. ix., Vol. II.

p. 153.
WINTEB ACONITE.— See under " Aconitum," p. vii., Vol. I.

p. 157.

I will not praise the often-flattered rose,
Or, virgin-like, -with blushing charms half seen,
Or when, in dazzling splendour, like a queen,

All her magnificence of state she shows ;

No, nor like that nun-like lily which but blows
Beneath the valley's cool and shady screen,
Nor yet the sunflower, that, with warrior mien,

Still eyes the orb of glory where it glows ;

But thou, neglected wallflower ! to my breast
And muse art dearest wildest, sweetest flower !
To whom alone the privilege is given

Proudly to root thyself above the rest,
As Genius does, and, from thy rocky tower,
Lend fragrance to the purest breath of heaven.

FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

THE WALLFLOWER.

Cheiranthus Cheiri.

HE wallflower is a prominent
member of the cheerful family
of " old-fashioned " flowers, and
obviously takes its name from
the circumstance that it thrives
on walls, which, indeed, it often
adorns in a most extravagant and
delightful manner, making them
mountains of perfume and beacons
of fire. I was much struck with
the glow of an old bastion at
Amiens one April, as the sun-
shine streamed through its ruddy
bloom of wallflowers, and I very
gladly remembered, in connection
with the charming spectacle, the
lines of Bernard Barton, in refer-
ence to the wallflowers of Leiston
Abbey—

And where my favourite abbey rears on high

Its crumbling ruins, on their loftiest crest,
Ye wallflowers, shed your tints of golden dye,

On which the morning sunbeams love to rest, —
On which, when glory fills the glowing west.

2 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The parting splendours of the day's decline,
With fascination to the heart address'd,

So tenderly and beautifully shine,
As if reluctant still to leave that hoary shrine."

A snapdragon might, with perfect propriety, be called
a " wall " flower, and a full list of plants that commonly
grow on walls would include a considerable number of dear
old garden friends. The finest wallflower I have seen was
a great tuft of wheat that kept company with snapdragons
and stone-crops and pellitories on one of the old fruit
walls within view of my bedroom windows. I watched it
through the summer with ever-increasing joy, anticipating
the harvesting of the crop, and the feeding of my parrots
with the " golden " grains. But when they, were about
half -ripe I saw, as I gazed from my window, a great hand
rise above the wall and grasp them, and they disappeared
as in the twinkling of an eye, while a thrill of horror went
through me from head to foot. It was the gardener, who
had suddenly resolved to make the wall tidy.

The wallflower has no special renown in literature, and
is but rarely mentioned by the poets. It is not a native
of this country, and although so thoroughly at home as a
wilding on ruins, it is not known as a plant of the rocks,
and is not often met with remote from places that have
been modified by the hand of man. Its old name was
" stock-gillofer " and " wall-gilloflower/' Under the last
name Parkinson, in the " Paradisus/' describes seven sorts :
the Common Single, the Great Single, the White, the
Common Double, the Pale Double, the Double Red, and
the Double Yellow. The " streaked gillivors " that Perdita
speaks of as "nature's bastards" were, in all probability,
pinks or cloves, but the wallflower and the stock were

Tfr£ WALLFLOWER. 3

known by the same name, and therefore we cannot always
determine with precision the flowers referred to when
gillivor or gilloflower occurs in our older literature. The
Latin name, Cheiranthns, means " hand-flower/' and it is
most appropriate.

The cultivation of this flower is an extremely simple
affair. The seeds should be sown on a plot of newly-dug
ground in the month of May; and during rainy weather in
July, the plants should be transplanted into rows a foot
apart, and the plants six inches apart in the rows. In
September or October they should be lifted with care and
be at once planted where they are to flower, and in the
months of April and May following they will be gay
enough. The best of the double kinds is the sulphur
yellow, which may be grown into a tree of considerable
size, and if planted in a dry sunny situation will last any
number of years, and may, indeed, become the pride of the
garden. To multiply this variety, cuttings are taken,
when they are full-grown but have not become woody,
and being planted firmly in sandy soil and kept shaded or
covered with a hand-glass, soon make roots, and in the
following spring they may be planted out. Well-grown
double walls make fine pot plants for the conservatory, and
with a little careful forcing may be had in bloom at the
turn of the year, and will continue flowering until mid-
summer. The conditions of success are to be found in the
employment of a gritty and somewhat calcareous soil, and
affording the plants at all times plenty of light and air.
Darkness and damp are death to wallflowers.

" Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies ; —
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand.

4 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

Little flower — but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all
I should know what God and man is."— TENNYSON.

The Parisian gardeners delight the public by adorning
the borders of the parks and promenades with beds of
wallflowers of the most lovely description. They are
grown as recommended above, and are planted so as to
form dense convex masses, which, during April and May, are
literally solid with fiery flowers. They mix the blood-red
and purple variety, and employ the yellow very sparingly,
In this country the yellow kinds are the most esteemed for
bedding purposes, and the favourite sorts are the Belvoir
Castle Yellow and the orange-coloured Tom Thumb.

. If it is desired to establish wallflowers on ruins, rocks,
and walls, the seed should be sown in April or May in
suitable chinks, and be covered with a little fine soil, and
it may be well, if there is danger of the seeds being blown
or washed away, to cover them with a brick or tile until
they germinate. The single blood-red and single yellow
are the best for the purpose.

MONKSHOOD.

MONKSHOOD.

-Aconitum napcllus.

T may be well at times to figure
and describe familiar flowers
that should be rendered un-
familiar. The truly handsome
and very individual monlcshood
of the cottage garden is of
so poisonous a nature, and has
actually killed so many good
people, that we should be
wanting in duty to our readers
did we not advise the rooting
out of this grand herbaceous
plant, and its consignment to
the rubbish-heap as a plant
that will surely offend if it
obtains the opportunity. We
distinctly remember several
instances of poisoning by the
substitution of its fleshy roots
for horse-radish. We confess we "don't know how'''' any one
who has ever tasted horse-radish could eat the root of this
dangerous plant in place of it, however nicely it might be
scraped and dished ; but the fact remains and the warning

6 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

follows. As the most excellent apricot jam may be made
from carrots, and the Jerusalem artichoke, which is like a
potato, is by many regarded as in no way differing from
the globe artichoke, which is a fleshy flower of a kind
of thistle, we must not be in haste to blame people who
scrape the roots of monkshood and supply the scrapings to
be eaten with beef as horse-radish ; but we must indulge
th*e hope that knowledge will prevail, and speedily render
such a dangerous substitution impossible.

It is somewhat singular that the older botanists are
apparently in a fog with this common and characteristic
plant. Mr. John Gerarde lumps it in with a lot of lark-
spurs, that are certainly related, but more or less far re-
moved. His " munkeshood " is a delphinium possessed of
several virtues, such as being good against the stings
of scorpions, and "so forcible that the herb only thrown
before the scorpion, or any other venomous beast, causeth
them to be without force or strength to hurt, insomuch
that they cannot mooue or stirre vntill the herbe be taken
away." (Edition 1597, page 924.) To Master Gerarde's
honour we are bound to quote further that in his opinion
we should hold in contempt this " with many other such
trifling toies not woorth the reading/'

John Parkinson figures this plant fairly well, and
describes it with the most delightful minuteness at page
215 of his " Paradisus." He adds that the "fair blew
colour " of the flowers " causeth it to be nourished upon
gardens, that their flowers, as was usual in former times,
may be laid up among green herbes in windowes and
roomes for the summer time ; but although their beauty
may be entertained for the uses aforesaid, yet beware
they come not near your tongue or lips, lest they tell

MONKSHOOD. 7

you to your cost, they are not so good as they seem
to be/'

It is amusing to note how these grand old masters, who
produced such books as we, degenerate triflers, dare not
even think of because of the years of work and the
thousands of pounds we should have to expend upon them
— it is amusing to note how they struggled against super-
stition with the right hand, and occasionally opened the
door for it to enter with the left. There is a charming
winter-flowering aconite that should be grown in every
garden ; its flowers are pale yellow, and it is known as
Eranthis hy emails, Parkinson's name being Aconltum
hyemale. This is the " counter-poison monkeshood/' the
roots of which " are effectual not only against the poison
of the poisonf ul helmet flower, and all others of that kind,
but also against the poison of all venomous beasts, tlie
plague or pestilence, and other infectious diseases, which
raise spots, pockes, or markes in the outward skin, by ex-
pelling the poison from within, and defending the heart as
a most sovereign cordial."

Apart from the consideration of its possible and actual
mischievousnes's, the monkshood is a noble border flower.
It grows to a height of three to four feet, the upper half
of the strong stems being closely beset with hooded flowers
of a fine dark blue coldur, elegantly accompanied with
leaves that are deeply and distinctly cut into narrow-
pointed segments. Its name, Aconitum napellm, is derived
from Aconte* the supposed place of its origin, and napus,
a turnip, from the likeness of its roots to the long white

* Thcophrastus so derives it, from 'A/coWi, but Ovid derives it from
aKovrj, as growing on sharp steep rocks. But as all the species require
some depth of good soil, the reference of Ovid must be to some other plant.

8 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

turnips that were formerly grown, but are DOW but rarely
seen in this country. Amongst the allied plants that are
worth a place in the herbaceous border, and more particu-
larly in the front of the shrubbery border, the following
deserve special mention, as they are handsome and by no
means likely to prove hurtful to life, as the common monks-
hood always is : — Aconitum autumnale, height three feet,
flowers pale blue; A. japonicum, like the last, but of a fuller
blue ; A. chinense, height five feet or more, flowers brilliant
blue — a splendid plant, requires a dry, warm border, and
shelter; A. lycoctonum, height four feet, flowers creamy
yellow; A. variegatum, height four feet, flowers blue and
white, a fine plant. All these thrive in common garden
soil. Those who have peat soil may add to the list A.
paniculatitm and A. septentrionale ; the first has flowers
blue and white, the second reddish lavender.

THE PETUNIA.

Petunia plmuit'tcfu.

ETUNIA PHCENICEA is un-
known in the land of the Phoani-
cians, being a native of Buenos
Ayres, v.'hence it was introduced
in 1831. As a matter of course,
the spirited maritime nation who
built Tyre and Sidon, and who
in their day were proud of their
King Hiram, friend of Solomon,
knew nothing of any kind of
petunia, because, to use the lan-
guage of a familiar song, the
New World " had not then been
invented/' And yet in a certain
way, by the involutions of lan-
guage, this plant takes us round
by way of South America to the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean, for it is a
Phoenician flower, and rightly named, and we are bound
to connect it with the intelligent sailor race who brought
the ideas and the gold of the east to the southern and
western coasts of this country, and took away in exchange
the tin of Cornwall, and the report of our wealth of timber
and the suitableness of these isles for colonisation.
B

10 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The Phoenicians found on their coast an abundance of
the mollusk (Nassa purpura of naturalists) , from which
they extracted a purple pigment. This became to them
an important article of trade,, and the world resounded
with the praises of " Tyrian dye." The ancients had not
many colours, and it was but natural the Greeks should
name the purple they so much esteemed after the people
who produced it. Thus it became known to them as the
" Phoenician colour," and the Romans subsequently modi-
fied the term, so that with them it became the " Punic
colour." Thus the botanist has been provided with a
choice of two (in addition to many more) terms available
for the indication of the colours of flowers. This purple
or crimson flower of South America he has named Petunia
phoenicea, and the brilliant glory pea of New Zealand he
has named Clianthus pnniceus, which, of course, was no
more known to the Tyrians and Sidonians than the flower
before us.

The petunia, is almost a tobacco, and it will interest
the observant loiterer in the garden to compare it with
the noble Virginia tobacco, which is well worth growing
for its stately carriage and beautiful flowers. Indeed, the
petunia is a tobacco, for its Brazilian name peinn, from
which is derived petunia, means tobacco, and it is fair
to suppose that, if the plant were dried and prepared, it
would be found to possess distinctly fragrant and narcotic
properties. A sheet of petunias in full flower is a glorious
sight, and the odour the flowers emit when the sun shines
full upon them is agreeable, but the plant is not a nice
one to handle or examine ; its leafage is unhandsome, its
habit ungainly, its substance is clammy, and certainly
does at times give the nose a reminder of tobacco.

THE PETUNIA. 11

The systematic crossing of a few distinct species of
petunia has resulted in. the production of a number of
splendid varieties, which are invaluable as garden plants.
The showy single white, purple, and striped kinds may
be raised from seed sown on a hot-bed in March, and
if plmted out in May will flower superbly as the season
advances. Treated in this way, the petunia is one of the
cheapest and grandest of annuals, and as it makes a
sumptuous bed, the owner of a country garden may turn
it to good account, especially where the soil is hot and
sandy, for this suits the plant perfectly. The double
varieties make magnificent pot plants, and require precisely
or nearly the same treatment as geraniums, the two grand
points in their management being to train them with care
and keep them short and leafy to the bottom. They
ivquire a light rich soil, and to be safe from all extreme
conditions, more especially from extreme heat, for when
unduly forced they become infested with vermin, and if
they cannot be quickly cleansed by means of tobacco smoke,
they may as well be destroyed, for when they have once
gone wrong to any serious extent they never recover.
Reasonable care, however, will prevent any such mishap,
and, as remarked above, the matter of main importance
is to guard against extreme conditions. It is especially
worthy of remark that the petunia is more hardy than the
geranium, perhaps even a trifle more hardy than the
calceolaria ; hence it may be planted out somewhat early
in May if the weather is cloudy and genial, and if the
plants escape harm from frost — as with a little care in
sheltering they will — they will soon make a free growth
and shake off any trace of aphis or other insect pest they
may have been troubled with, and make an early and

12 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

splendid bloom. It is usual to peg them down when in
beds, but they thrive better and look better when allowed
to stand up, and therefore petunias are well adapted to
form low flowery hedges in the flower garden. In Paris
they are much employed in this way in combination with
white " marguerites," the result being a dense hedge of
about a foot to a foot and a half in height, composed of
two close lines of purple and white flowers. When enclosing
a small plot of grass this is very effective.

The named varieties are propagated from cuttings in
July and August without the aid of artificial heat. The
best place wherein to winter them is a cold dry pit, for
damp is death to them ; they cannot endure a touch of
frost, and, generally speaking, the greenhouse is too warm.
When kept sufficiently cool they are entirely free from
vermin ; indeed, the amateur gardener may with advantage
regard as a doctrine that the liability of a plant to the
attacks of vermin is in direct proportion to mismanage-
ment in respect of temperature and moisture ; generally
speaking, when a plant becomes covered with " fly " or
" spider," it is the consequence of insufficient ventilation.

WHITE LILY.

THE WHITE LILY.

Lllium candidum.

HE common white lily is one of
the noblest as well as commonest
flowers of the English garden,
and a lean ideal of the tenantry
of the terrestrial paradise of the
delectable Lady Corisande. Its
manner is that of a wilding,
for if a few scales broken from
a bulb are scattered about a
irden, some of them will be-
come true lilies in time; and
wherever it is planted and left
alone for a few years, it justifies
the confidence reposed in it by
flowering freely, and increasing by the
formation of new bulbs, so that small
clumps become large clumps, and may
be periodically divided. But it is not
a wilding here, and is but rarely met
with as an escape from the garden. It is a native of the
interesting country called the Levant, and as the Levant
includes Palestine, it is by no means improper to consider
this as the " lily of the field " referred to by our Lord in
the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew vi. 28). If, however,
we seek for a dislinct flower as the lily of the Holy Land,
we must take note of Canticles vi. 2, where the lily is

14 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

associated with spices, and this lily has a powerful and
spicy odour that exactly answers to the suggestion of the
text. Thus the white lily may be the lily of Solomon,
because of its powerful fragrance, but the Gocpel lily need
not be scented, but must be glorious in apparel, comparable
with this splendid monarch. It happens then that the
Martagon Lily (L. ckalcedonicum] , which is almost devoid
of odour, but produces flowers of the most brilliant scarlet,
like the robes of Solomon, grows in profusion -in the Levant,
and is especially abundant about the Lake of Gennesaret,
on the plains of Galilee, and the pastures on the borders of
the desert. But it must also be borne in mind that the
s/i a than, or lily of Scripture, may be rendered "rose" or
" violet " with propriety, and probably had a very broad
meaning, so that we might read, " Behold the flowers of the
field, how they grow/' without in the slightest degree mis-
representing the purpose of our Lord. The word "lily" is
of unknown origin, and in all its older forms is of general
application, and therefore we cannot hope to identify with
certainty ?,ny flower so called in ancient and especially
Eastern documents. It is none the less interesting, how-
ever, to note how admirably these two lilies answer to the
two references cited, so that we may, without resorting to
invention, regard the scarlet martagon and the common
white as par excellence the lilies of Scripture.

It is a question of some interest why the white lily
was dedicated by the Romish Church to Mary the mother of
Jesus, and hence employed on the 2nd of July in connection
with the celebration of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.
The delicate whiteness of the flower renders it in this
respect appropriate ; but it is worth considering, too, that it
is the only flower distinctly mentioned by the Founder of

THE WHITE LILY. 15

the Christian faith, for. notwithstanding- the comprehensive
meaning- of the word as it comes to us in the text, it has been,
as a matter of fact, generally restricted to a particular flower.
This dedication of the lily to the Virgin has certainly con-
tributed in a very material degree to the diffusion and
popularity of the plant ; and the traveller in Ireland will, in
the season of lilies, soon learn to distinguish the houses of
Romanists and Protestants by the lilies in the gardens, for
while the first plant the white lily as an emblem of their
faith, the second plant the orange lily for a similar purpose,
although the last is in reality much more of a political than
a religious emblem.

The white lily will thrive in any fairly good soil, but to
ensure a free growth and an abundance of flowers the soil
should be rich and deep and moist. It is a good practice,
therefore, to prepare for the plants suitable stations, and,
having planted them, the next best thing to do with them
is to leave them undisturbed for several years. It is often
thought that lilies love the shade, but that is a mistake ;
they love the sun and a free circulation of air about them.
In cold and exposed places the white lily often fails to
flower, owing to the destruction of the incipient flower-buds
by frost, in the month of May. Hence shelter from the
keen east winds is an aid in lily culture, as is also a plentiful
supply of water during the month of June, when the stems
are rising. In respect of taste, the white lily should be so
planted that its shabby stems may be concealed, for when
wild it grows amongst tall grasses, and hence it is that as
the flowers expand the leaves below them usually wither.
The dashing Tritoma and the quiet Agapanthus are good
plants to associate with lilies, for they agree in character,
and supply ample and elegant green leafage.

16 FAMILIAR G AMD EN FLOWERS.

It is not generally known that the common white lily
may be grown to perfection in pots, and is well adapted for
forcing1. Its great decorative value, and its emblematic
character, enhance its importance as a plant adapted for
culture under glass, to supply its charming flowers at an
earlier season than they customarily appear in the open
garden. When grown for this purpose, the bulbs should
be potted in August, in a compost consisting of about
three parts mellow turfy loam, and one part each of rotten
hot-bed manure and sharp sand. Frame culture should
suffice until the end of February, when the plants may be
removed into a light airy greenhouse, and should never
have a temperature higher than the average of greenhouse
plants. This, with full exposure to light, and abundant
ventilation, will ensure an early and a vigorous bloom.

CANARY FLOWER.

THE CANAKY
FLOWEK.

Tropceolum canariense.
HIS remarkably pretty creeper is
> known in gardens as Tropaolttm
canariense, but its recognised
botanical name is T. aduncum,
or, in the older books, T.
peregrinum. The first and
commonest name suggests that
it is a native of the Canary
Islands, and it may indeed have
come to us from thence, but
its home as a wilding is New
Granada. The yellow colour
may justify the name, for not

*f •''•)••. I /] only is the canary-bird yellow.

^ ^wNwHSsSxsT^ , , r u

but canary wine is or a golden

hue ; and as the Canary Islands
were the " Fortunate Isles " of
the ancients, we may suppose
them to be — as Dick Whittington expected to find
London streets — paved with gold. Strange to say, if
the case is considered philologically, a Canary Isle is an
Isle of Dogs, for Juba so named one of the group
because of the large canine animals he found there, as
he named another of them Nivaria, the Snow Island,
c

18 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

because it is crowned with the peak that is now called
Teneriffe, which at times is capped with snow. It is
proper to remark, however, that not only is the flower
before us of a canary colour, but it bears some resemblance
to a bird, and in this respect is as curious in its mimicry as
any of the orchids. Its second name refers to the hooked
termination of the nectary; and its third name indicates
that it is a wanderer, a happy vagabond, a plant that
loves to climb the wall and tumble over in the next
garden, or, if it gets hold of the trellis next the summer-
house, will stretch and pull and clamber until it can peep
in at the little window and say "How d'ye do?" at
the very moment when you don't want to be disturbed.
But this Peregrinum must be allowed to indulge in its
peregrinations, for the joy of the thing is its rampant,
rambling, and ill-regulated ambition to overstep every-
thing and everybody.

We miss here one of the prominent characteristics of
the tropaeolums, the leaves of which are mostly circular
and peltate and like a buckler, while the flower is like
a helmet, and thus together they constitute a trophy, or
tropaum. The canary creeper has five-lobed leaves and
bird-like flowers, and a style of growth that separates it
from the typical tropaeolurns. Its rapidity of growth is
remarkable, as also is its tendency to be eaten up by the
little mite known as the "red spider/' when hot, dry
weather has prevailed a few weeks. Like the general run
of vagabonds, it is not particular about its life-conditions,
and having no stamina, it soon breaks down when things
go wrong.

The uses of such plants are many. The peculiar light
green leafage, dotted with yellow flowers, renders this very

THE CANARY FLOWER. 19

distinct amongst the fast-growing- trellis and bower plants
that love to climb high and toss gay garlands in the air.
The canary creeper may be used with effect to clothe low-
growing trees of spare habit, as it will soon run up into
the midst of them and make them gay with golden
streamers. Care should be taken never to carry this
sort of gardening too far, because a valueless creeper, that
lives but a few months at the most, should not be allowed
to injure a tree that has perhaps a lease of a century to
honour by profitable occupation of the ground.

The plant before us is a half-hardy annual, and is
therefore grown from seeds that are, in the first instance,
protected from the weather, and afterwards planted out.
The best way to raise all such plants is to sow the seed
in the spring on a gentle hotbed in light, rich, and rather
fine soil, and when the plants are large enough to handle,
to prick them out two or three inches apart in boxes filled
with similar mellow soil, or to pot them separately in
small pots. In any case, when thus transferred from the
seed-pan they should be nursed under glass for a time in a
greenhouse or frame, and be gradually hardened by ex-
posure to the air, to prepare them for planting out. The
time of sowing and the details of management must, in
some degree, be determined by .the nature of the plant. It
is not too early to sow seed in February in some cases, but
in others March and April are early enough. In the case of
the canary creeper, it is folly to sow before April, because
the plant grows rapidly when put out, and it is troublesome
if it grows to some size previously. For filling the seed-
pans and the boxes in this preliminary culture, a mixture
of mellow loam, old hotbecl dung rotted to powder, equal
parts, with a half part of silver sand, will answer perfectly.

20 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

It should be free from worms, and moist enough without
being wet — in fact, a good test of a potting compost is
that it may be handled without soiling the fingers.
Where there is no accommodation for raising half-hardy
annuals under glass, the seed may be sown where the
plants are required in the open ground, but this should
not be done until the end of April.

In the " Loves of the Plants," by the elder Darwin,
the tropseolum is the subject of a fanciful description, in
which the poet contrives to inform us that the flower has
eight stamens and one pistil, and that it occasionally emits
flashes' of phosphoric light :—

" Ere the bright star which tends the morning sky
Hangs o'er the flushing east his diamond eye,
The chaste Tropaeo leaves her secret bed ;
A saint-like glory trembles round her head ;
Eight watchful swains along the lawns of night
With amorous steps pursue the virgin light ;
O'er her fair form the electric lustre plays,
And cold she moves amid the lambent blaze.
So shines the glow-fly when the sun retiree,
And gems the night air with phosphoric fires ;
Thus o'er the marsh aerial lights betray
And charm the unwary wanderer fiom his way."

PHLOX,

THE PHLOX.

Phlox paniculata.

All DEN phloxes are compounds
of several species, and but little
of their origin is distinctly
traceable in their styles of
growth and flowering. It will
suffice to say that the so-called
Phlox decussata and P. pyramir
da Us, to which most of the
-garden phloxes are referred,
have no proper existence as
species, and for the cultivation
and classification of phloxes it
is best to consider the habit
(whether tall, dwarf, or inter-
mediate), the time of flowering
(whether early or late) , and the
colour and general style of the
flowers, those that are large
and circular and produced in
dense masses being the best. The florist is chiefly concerned
with their decorative qualities, and will have abundant
reason to be gratified, provided he has first secured a
good collection, for the varieties that have been produced
by cross-breeding within the past ten or twelve years are

22 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

remarkable for perfection of form and exquisite colouring.
In self-coloured purple, crimson, and salmon-tinted, and
in oculate flowers that have white grounds and centres
delicately stained with rose, carmine, and ruby, this class
of plants is extremely rich. Of pure whites there are not
many of good quality, and we have as yet no scarlet, no
yellow, and no blue phloxes. We may, however, hope
for scarlet and blue, because in some of the later varieties
these colours are nearly realised, but we can hardly hope
for yellow, since nowhere in the genus is there any strong
leaning that way. As the case stands we have command
of a sumptuous series of summer and autumn flowers, and
it is but the simple truth to say that the florists' phloxes
have pre-eminent claims on the attention of amateurs,
because of their splendour, their hardiness, cheapness, and
extreme usefulness, whether to exhibit, to cut from for
decorations, or to enrich the garden with their noble
panicles of many-coloured flowers.

As to the employment of phloxes in the garden, there
is no method so effective as to dot them about amongst
trees and shrubs, keeping them, of course, in the fore-
ground, and ensuring them a sufficiency of air and light.
As border flowers, they are 'invaluable ; but the least in-
teresting way of growing them is in large compartments
of phloxes only, as we see them in nurseries, and in the
gardens of amateurs who give them particular attention
for the purpose of exhibiting them. When well grouped
on the exhibition table they are altogether delightful, but
a great lot of phloxes in a lump, as it were, in the garden
is like a mouthful of honej" — too rich to be enjoyable, and
likely to choke one.

The cultivation of the phlox is a very simple affair.

THE PHLOX. 23

The plants being- left in the ground all the winter take
no harm, and beg-in early in the spring to grow. When
the new shoots are about two inches high, the roots may
be lifted and divided, and planted again in freshly-dug
and liberally- manured ground. In their new stations they
may be allowed to stand two or three years, and should then
be taken up, divided, and again planted. This we may
call the rough-and-ready way, and it has for many years
past been our way with a collection comprising over a
hundred varieties. When grown for exhibition, a fresh
stock should be planted every year in well-manured turfy
loam, and if the summer should be hot and dry, the plants
should have liberal help from the water-pot. In making
plants for ordinary purposes it is quite sufficient- to pull
off rooted pieces, but when stock of some particular sorts
is required in quantity, the old stools should be potted and
gently forced, and the tops should be made into cuttings
and struck in a gentle heat. By this mode of procedure
one plant may be made the pai-ent of hundreds, because
propagating may be continued until far into the month of
May, and the plants will flower the same season, though
late perhaps. ' To grow fine phloxes the two important
points are to renew the plants frequently and feed them
well. To raise phloxes from seed is an equally simple
affair. First secure your seed, as Mrs. Glasse might say ;
and if you begin with first-rate sorts you will not get
much. Our plan has been to sow in pans as soon as the
seed was fully ripe, and keep the young plants in a pit
through the winter. But it will suit amateurs better to
sow in spring, and we mjist advise keeping the seed-pans
under glass until the plants are forward, when they may
be planted in an open mirsery-bed to flower. They should

24 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

not be planted in the borders until they have flowered and
proved to be worth keeping.

The pretty Phlox Drummondi is so surprisingly beauti-
ful that we cannot but regret it is seldom seen in English
gai-dens. It is the more valuable now that the distinctive
colours are easily secured by sowing well-saved seeds, so
that as a bedding-plant it is not only one of the loveliest,
but certainly one of the cheapest. If the seed is sown at
any time between the middle of March and the middle of
April, and started in a gentle heat, the usual nursing of a
half-hardy annual will suffice to ensure strong plants to
put out at the end of May, and this being accomplished,
there is nothing more to be done, for the showers and
sunshine will do the rest. In burning summers (of
which, unfortunately, we have but few) this lovely plant
holds its own as well as any border plant in cultivation.
When verbenas and calceolarias have been roasted too
brown, and even scarlet geraniums are beginning to cry
for something to drink, Drummond's phlox appears to be
unconcerned, and goes on blooming as if the hot weather
had been ordered for it.

MICHAELMAS DAISY.

THE MICHAELMAS
DAISY.

Aster amelltts.

ICHAELMAS DAISIES are not in
high repute, for they are not well
represented in gardens. A cer-
tain number of coarse, weedy sorts
have obtained entrance, and have
spread far and wide ; and when,
by the artistic eye, they are
weighed in the balances and
found wanting, the whole race is
condemned for their defects. But
there are in cultivation some
truly noble kinds, and many that
are beautiful and useful if not
noble ; and their value is in some
degree enhanced by the fact of
their flowering late in the summer
when the gaiety of the garden is
overpast. From August to the
close of the year is the season of
the Michaelmas daisies; one of their number (Aiter ffrandi-
jJi>nm} is called the " Christmas daisy/' because of its
late flowering, and it is not at all uncommon for them
to fight the frost night after night as the season wears
on, and come out triumphant at last in unfolding to

26 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

the declining year all their starry flowers. Dante alludes
to the struggle of flowers with frost in the second canto
of the first book of the " Divine Comedy," as represent-
ing his own case when overcome by the inspiration of
Beatrice : — -

" As florets, by the frosty air of night

Bent down and clos'd, when day has hlanch'd their leaves,

Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems ;

So was my fainting vigour new restor'd,

And to my heart such kindly courage ran,

That I as one undaunted soon replied.''

Chaucer had made note of the fact as a theme for
poetry, and it touched the vein of tenderness which was
so peculiarly his : —

" But right as floures through the cold of night

Iclosed, stoupen in her stalkes lowe,
Hedressen hem agen the sunne bright,

And spreden in her kinde course by rowe."

Trail, and Cress. II.

A large proportion of the plants classed as Michaelmas
daisies are natives of North America, and therefore are
hardy enough for any part of the British Isles. They
may be more properly regarded as perennial asters, for
such they are when their season of flowering, as remarked
above, is of some four or five months' duration. They
are among the most accommodating plants of their class
known, being truly indifferent as to soil and situation,
provided they have something to live on and are blessed
with H glimpse of sunshine at some part of the day.
But they are like many other accommodating plants in
the fact that they make a far finer show of their flowers
in a good soil, a pure air, and a sunny situation, than
when overshaded by trees and with exhausted earth for
their sole sustenance. The larger and bolder kinds are

THE MICHAELMAS DAISY. 27

fine shrubbery plants, aiid some of the smaller unattractive
kinds are worth growing- to -cut from, for their clusters of
little stars are often useful for decorative purposes, though
as seen in the garden they may be inconspicuous and of
small account.

The safest rule of classification appears to be found in
the relative heights of the plants. Beginning with the
smallest, we have a charming thing in Aster alpinas, the
blue daisy of the Alps, a plant which in gardens grows
to a height of six inches, producing large blue flowers,
but in the mountain pastures is too short to rise above
the tine grass, amidst which its flowers appear like large
blue daisies.

" Star of the mead ! sweet daughter of the day,
Whose opening flower invites the morning ray,
From thy moist cheek, and bosom's chilly fold,
To kiss the tear of eve, the dewdrops cold.'1

Other useful dwarf kinds are A. attaicus, with rosy
purple flowers; A. patens, purplish-blue; A. sericeus,
deep blue; A. versicolor, white changing to pale purple;
A. diunosm, pale lilac-blue.

Another series adapted for second and third rows are
the following : — A. amellus, flowers blue with yellow disc,
one of the best; A. dracunculoides, purplish-blue, fine;
A. fragilis, flowers white, changing to rose or purple;
A. Itevis, purple with yellow centre, useful and good ;
A. laxus, pale blue, fine; A. pendulus, white, changing to
rose ; A. pyrentens, lilac-blue with yellow disc ; A. tur-
binellus, delicate mauve, a handsome plant. In this
section occur the most generally useful kinds.

Amongst the taller sorts suitable for planting amongst
shrubs and in the reserve garden the best are A. cordifolins,

•28 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

flowers early, white or pale violet; A. eletjams, purple and
white, useful to cut from ; A. grandifloru*, violet, late, very
handsome; A. lonyif alias, purple-blue, showy; A. mulli-
fionus, small white flowers in elegant bouquets, most valu-
able to cut from; A. nova-anglue, late flowering1, very tall,
flowers violet and purple; A. obliquws, late flowering, white
with purple disc, coarse, but in its way superb.

A score or even fifty more may be found by those who
need them, but the foregoing will suffice to stock a large
garden with the most distinct and handsome kinds that
need no special care when once they have been properly

planted.

" Last smile of the departing year,

Thy sister sweets are flown !
Thy pensive wreath is far more dear
From blooming thus alone.

" Thy tender blush, thy simple frame,

Unnoticed might have passed ;
But now thou com'st with softer claim,
The loveliest and the last.

' ' Sweet are the charms in thee we find —

Emblem of hope's gay wing ;
'Tis thine to call past bloom to mind,
To promise future spring."

SINGLE FUCHSIA.

SINGLE FUCHSIA.

Fuchsia ffraeifix.

HE fuchsia is too modern a
flower to have a great history,
but what is known of it his-
torically is full of interest.
Strictly speaking, it is not so
modern as is generally sup-
posed, for it begins with the
adventures of Father Pluinier,
who was born at Marseilles
in 1646. At the age of six-
teen Charles Plumier was
admitted to the religious order
of Minims, and under the
training of Father Maignan
he soon became an expert
mathematician and a practical
turner. He wrote a remark-
able book on the art of turn-
ing, and might have continual turning and calculating,
save that he had injured his health by too close application,
and turned to the study of botany for occupation and rest.
He soon became a master of this science, and the friend of
the tyreat botanist Tournefort. Three several voyages he

30 FAMILIAJt GARDEN FLOWERS.

made to the West Indies and the American continent in
search of plants, and in the capacity of King's Botanist
he published ID 1695 his first botanical work, " Descrip-
tion des Plantes de 1'Amerique." After his third voyage
he published in 1703 his "Nova Plantarum Genera/' in
which occurs the first description of the fuchsia, which he
had discovered. In this work a feature of great importance
is developed. Plumier dedicated about fifty of the plants
he discovered to eminent botanists, by adopting their
names as generic designations. Thus he dedicated the
plant before us to the memory of Leonard Fuchs, and on
him, therefore, we must bestow a paragraph.

Leonardo Fuchs (or Fox) was born at Wembding, in
Bavaria, in the year 1501. Early in life he devoted
himself to learning and letters, became a convert to the
opinions of Luther, and in 1521 graduated as a physician
at Ingoldstadt. He was the first German physician whose
name became famous in foreign countries ; and, strange to
say, his fame rested chiefly on his vindication of the system
of medicine that prevailed among the early Greeks. He
was rather a herbalist than a botanist, and made great but
often vain profession of his knowledge of the plants of
Dioscorides. His works are now regarded as mere curio-
sities, of considerable historical importance, but valueless
in respect of the science they uphold and teach. The most
important of them is the " Historia Plantarum/' pub-
lished at Basle in 1542.

But these relations do not bring the flower " home to
us." That was done by a sailor, about a hundred years
after the discovery of the plant by the learned monk
Plumier. The adventurous tar had brought home from
Chili a plant bearing flowers of a kind unknown till then

SIN&LE FUCHSIA. 31

in Europe, and he gave it to liis wife, and in the course of
time she sold it to Mr. Lee, the eminent nurseryman of
Hammersmith. It soon became famous, and as a garden
flower the fashion was thus, as we may say, created. And
it is worthy of observation that the kinds that were earliest
introduced were of such high quality that later discoveries
have not eclipsed them. Perhaps the greatest sensation
experienced by the floral world in connection with the
fuchsia occurred in the year 1847, when Messrs. Veitch
obtained their first flowering plants of Fuchsia spectabilis
from seeds sent home by Mr. William Lobb, who met with
it in the Andes of Cuen9a, Peru, growing at an elevation
of four to five thousand feet. But we dare not touch on
the floral history of the plant, for we should need years
for the study of it, and endless volumes for the text.
Nor have we space left for a disquisition on the beauty
of the fuchsia, and therefore have determined to follow a
good example. A lean cure dined with a fat bishop, who
first gave the cure a very poor vin ordinaire. But the
cure praised the miserable wine, and astonished the bishop,
who now determined to astonish the cure. So he brought
forth his wines' of rare vintage, and watched for the effect,
but the cure spoke not a word. " What/' said the bishop,
" you praise my meagre vin ordinaire, and you say nothing
of the wine now before you \" "Pardon, monsignor,"
replied the cure ; " the wretched wine you first gave me
needed praising ; but this — this speaks for itself."

Ladies and gentlemen, as regards the elegance and
freshness of the fuchsia it is not needful to speak — it speaks
for itself!

In sheltered gardens in all the southern counties, and
in some places even north of the Trent, the beautiful

32 FAMILIAR GAEDEN FLOWERS.

named fuchsias that are grown in the greenhouse may
be planted out, and will pass through the winter safely
if slightly protected, except in those seasons when the
frost is unusually severe. Large old fuchsias may be
turned to grand account in this way. The soil must be
rich and mellow, and the plants must have abundant
supplies of water ; and if valued for their strong1 stems
they should be lifted in November and be stored away in
a greenhouse or a cellar, to be planted out again in May.
If allowed to remain in the ground they should be uut
down and a little cone of coal ashes piled over them.
For permanent features the hardiest fuchsias are F. coccinea,
F. gracilis, F. virgata, F. globosa, and F. Riccartoni. Of
F. spectabilis we shall shortly give a description.

CHRISTMAS ROSE.

\

THE

CHEISTMAS

ROSE.

Helleborus niger.

MOXGST the " old-fashioned
flowers" that one might look
for in the little out-door para-
dise of Lady Corisande, there
would be none more worthy
of care and honour than the
Christmas rose. It is quite
a proper thing for a Londoner
fond of flowers to visit Co vent
Garden Market at an early
hour on a morning of De-
cember to see the Christmas
roses that are offered for sale.
They appear in surprising
quantities, and the visitor un-
used to the Avays and doings
of the market will ask, " Where
do they come from?" But their size, their perfection,
their perfect purity of colour are more surprising than
their number, and he will perhaps ask a second question,
" How is it done ? " And thereby hangs a tale.

The Christmas rose is one of the easiest plants to grow,
but when left entirely to itself it flowers late, and the
flowers are much torn and discoloured by the unkind

34 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

weather that usually prevails in its flowering season. The
plant is a native of Southern Europe, and needs for its
perfect development better conditions than are usually
secured for it in English gardens, more especially as it
flowers at a time of year when the elements are in a mood
to make war upon every green herb, and tear away the one
last leaf that still hangs upon the tree. To put this plant
in a common border is not quite fair to it. A sheltered
nook should be chosen, and a plot of ground prepared by
draining it thoroughly, unless it is naturally well drained
already, and by deep digging and liberal manuring. It
does not need any particular kind of soil, for any fairly
good garden loam will suit it perfectly, but the station
should be well prepared, and the plants should be put out
upon it when their leaves are dying down, and they are
going naturally to rest. Sheltered, half-shaded, grassy
banks answer admirably for plantations that are to be left
to flower naturally, but the plantation in the sheltered
nook we are now considering is not to be left to flower
naturally. As soon as they begin to push in the late
autumn they should all be covered with frames or hand-
lights, which must be freely ventilated in mild weather,
but during frost must be kept close, both to prevent a
check and protect the flowers. By such management early
flowers will be secured, and they will be large, thick, and
pure. Like those of the white Japan anemone, they may
be likened to water-lilies, but they need not be likened to
anything — it is enough to know that they are Christmas
roses. An anonymous poet, weaving the " winter rose "
into the garland of his hopes and cares, has indulged in the
fancy that the flower is fragrant, but it requires quite a
poet's imagination to extract an odour from the flower.

THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. 35

" Alas ! on thy forsaken stem

My heart shall long recline,
And mourn the transitory gem,
- And make the story mine !
So on my joyless winter hour
Has oped some fair and fragrant flower,
With smile as soft as thine.

" Like thee the vision came and went,

Like thee it bloomed and fell,
In momentary pity sent

Of fairer climes to tell ;
So frail its form, so short 'its stay,
That nought the lingering heart could say,

But hail, and fare thee well ! :'

In the growth of the new taste for hardy plants, which
we may regard as a revival of old-fashioned gardening-,
the hellebores have obtained a fair share of attention, and
they now constitute a very important feature of the hardy
garden. As the trumpet daffodils are called " Lent lilies/'
so the spring flowering hellebores are called " Lent roses."
One of the most interesting of the late flowering kinds
is the sweet hellebore (Hellebores odor us), which produces
pale green leaves, and greenish drooping flowers which are
agreeably scented. The Olympian hellebore (H. Olympic**)
is a handsome plant, producing purplish flowers. The
Oriental hellebore (//. Orientalis] is strikingly handsome,
the flowers being large, of a soft rose-colour, and accom-
panied by an ample and elegant leafage. The purple
hellebore (H. atrorubeus) produces beautiful flowers, which
at first are violet-purple, and afterwards dull purple, with
an admixture of green. There remain two fine species that
are particularly well adapted to plant in woodland walks.
They are H. abcha.ricua, with greenish flowers, and //.
fteiidus, with greenish-purple flowers. These have hand-

36 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

some winter foliage, and there should be a few clumps of
each in spots where they are likely to be seen during1 a
walk round on a sunny winter day.

A few beautiful garden varieties have lately been intro-
duced from the Continent, and have found much favour
with English amateurs. They are mostly of German
origin, and are produced by crossing the purple and green
flowered species, the result being in some cases flowers
richly spotted, and of various shades of greenish-white,
maroon, purple, and purplish-rose. The conspicuous yellow
stamens, which contribute so much to the beauty of the
white-flowered Christmas rose, are distinct and welcome
features of these new varieties of Lent roses, adding an
element of cheerfulness that compensates for their other-
wise dull colouring, for the colours of the petals are in
all cases toned down by infusions of green and purple that
render them impure. A collection of hellebores may now
be looked for in every garden of hardy plants, to combine
with the daffodils to "take the winds of March with
beauty."

LAVENDER.

LAVENDER.

Lavandula vera.

MERE word will often transport
us into flowery fields and restore
happy days that have long since
fled. To many of the older sort
the word lavender is as good as a
charm, if it only recalls the old
plaintive strain of once familial-
street music. This tame-looking-,
grey-green, stiff, sticky, and im-
movable shrub holds as much poetry
in its wiry arms as would fill a big
book ; but that is no matter if it
has helped to fill a heart with glad-
ness, for the filling of a book is but
a piece of mechanical trickery. A
most famous plant is the lavender,
as may be seen by reference to any
of the older herbalists, more especially Parkinson, Gerarde,
and Johnson.

In a notice of the plant in a popular work occurs —
what is very common in " popular works " — a showy but
most egregious blunder in respect of one of the fi asso-
ciations" of lavender. It is affirmed by the writer that
the plant grows in Syria, and furnished the "ointment

38 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

of spikenard" with which "Mary anointed our Lord in
Bethany. Let us suppose the two statements to be cor-
rect, and then what becomes of the protest against a
supposed act of extravagance — " it might have been sold
for three hundred pence " ? The produce of a common
weed of the country could never have acquired such a
value, and the protest necessarily suggests that the oint-
ment of spikenard was the produce of some far-distant
land, and obtainable only with cost and difficulty. Such,
indeed, is the case. The spikenard of the New Testament
and of Canticles i. 12 and iv. 13 was imported into
Palestine from the far East, the plant producing it being
the Nardostachys Jatamansi of De Candolle, a plant spoken
of by Dioscorides as the Nard of the Ganges — the Sumbul
or Sunbul hindac of the Arabs to this day. Lavender, in-
deed, grows in Syria, for the genus Lavandnla is essentially
Mediterranean, but it was not the spikenard of antiquity.

The commonest uses of Lavandnla connect it with the
lavatory, both words deriving their origin from Invo, to
wash ; the plant being as much prized in ancient times as
now for its refreshing perfume and cleansing properties.
Herein is the secret of the commercial importance of
lavender, of which immense quantities are grown near
London for the purposes of the perfumer.

The common lavender (Lavandnla vera] is the species
grown in the Mitcham and other districts, as the oil yielded
by its flowers, although not so large in bulk as that pro-
duced by the flowers of Lavandnla spica, is of much
finer quality, and is alone employed in the manufacture
of the finest perfumes. The oil obtained from the last
mentioned of the two species is rather green in colour, and
is commonly known as spike oil, or foreign oil of lavender.

LA VENDER. 39

It is chiefly used for painting, but a considerable quantity
linds its way every year to the second-class manufactories,
where lavender-water and other perfumes, of which the base
is the essential oil of lavender, are prepared, and this in its
turn is sometimes adulterated with spirits of turpentine.
The harvesting of the flowers takes place at the end of
July or the beginning of August, according to the season,
the proper moment for cutting the spikes being just as
the flowers are opening, as they are then more powerfully
aromatic, and consequently yield an oil of greater value
than when fully expanded. The cutting is done with the
sickle, and every care taken to immediately pack and tie
up in mats, for when exposed to the rays of the sun for
any length of time after cutting, the yield of oil is
materially reduced in consequence. The flowers cannot,
indeed, be sent to the distillery too quickly after their
removal from the plants. Large quantities of lavender
Howers are sent to Covent Garden annually, and from
thence find their way to the shops and costers' barrows,
for there is still a demand for them for filling muslin bags
to stow away in drawers and cupboards, notwithstanding
the facilities which exist for obtaining the essential oil,
and lavender-water, and other perfumes into which it enters.
The flowers, it should be remevnbered, are put into drawers
and wardrobes to exclude moths, as well as for imparting
an agreeable odour to the articles placed in these recep-
tacles. A few drops of the oil will, however, serve the
same purpose; and it has been ascertained by experiment
that if a single drop is placed in a small box along with a
living insect, the insect will be killed almost immediately.
The distillation of the flowers is a business quite dis-
tinct from that of their production, and both large and

40 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

small growers take their crops to the distillery, and pay a
certain rate per ton. The quantity of oil extracted from
a ton of lavender varies according to the season, a rather
dry and hot summer being the most favourable to an
abundant production. From 15 Ibs. to 16 Ibs. is considered
a fair average, and in some years it reaches 20 Ibs., but not
often. The distilling commences about the 1st of August,
and is continued until the end of September or the middle
of October, according to the extent of the crop.

In the propagation of a stock of lavender, and in the
management of the plantations after their formation, a
very simple course of procedure has been found to be the
most satisfactory. Propagation is effected by means of
cuttings taken in the autumn, October being considered
the most suitable month in which to take them. After
the shoots selected for cuttings are separated from the old
plants, they are left in small heaps on the ground for six
weeks, and are then planted. Rooted slips are, as far as
possible, taken advantage of for the increase of stock, and
when these can be had they are at once planted in the
tield, at a distance of eighteen inches apart each way.

CANTERBURY BFLU

THE
CANTEKBUBY BELL.

Campanula medium.

AXTERBURY BELLS are not

so loud in their tone as might
be imagined by people who are
not bookish. How easy it would
be to say that this common
flower is figured and described
in all the books, and to one
who had so committed himself,
how terrible would be the shock
of a rejoinder to this effect —
that it is neither figured nor
described in any of the books.
Such a rejoinder would, of
course, be a trifle too daring ;
but it is a fact, and one of .
immense interest to the writer
of this, that this very familiar
flower has been so rarely figured
or described that it will require

some searching to discover any literary recognition of it.
But the fact is a key to what we may for convenience
term one of the grievances of an important section of the
flowery world. The Canterbury bell is a biennial, and

42 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

•

therefore has no right to a place in any of the books.
The biennials should make a declaration against this state
of things. For the sake of an hour's amusement we have
ransacked our library, and found but few allusions to the
plant. The botanists say it is not British, and therefore is
not one of our wild flowers. En passant, we will remark
upon this, that we once found a grand plant of the blue
variety growing in Bonsai Dale, Derbyshire, and that is our
only acquaintance with it as a wilding. The books that
treat of annuals ignore biennials, and the books that treat
of perennials do the same, and so the biennials are denied
benefit of clergy, and there is left to them the final but
sufficient consolation that they can do very well without it.
That we may not a-ppear heathenish, it is proper to say that
the clergy, philologically considered, are not necessarily
employed in a sacred office — they are learned men ; men
who can read and write ; men possessed of skill, science,
and clerkship. As Blackwood remarks, " the judges were
usually created out of the sacred order ; and all the inferior
offices were supplied by the lower clergy, which has occa-
sioned their successors to be denominated clerks to this
day."

But here is a digression. "Well, we find figures of
Canterbury bells in Gerard and Parkinson, but it is hard
work to make them out, because they are badly drawn and
confusedly described. But it is something to say for these
old masters that if we want to trace the history of such
a common plant we must ask them to help us, because
modern authors aim so high that their shafts fly over many
common but useful and beautiful things.

It is time to say something about the cultivation of
this noble campanula, and it will be consistent with the

THE CANTERBURY BELL. 43

foregoing1 observations that, instead -of following in the
wake of the blind man who made a fiddle out of his own
head, we turn to the pages of a great old master for a code
of instructions. In the " Abridgement " of Philip Miller's
"Gardener's Dictionary/' quarto, 1761, will be found the
following : —

" The third sort [Campanula medium] is a biennial
plant, which perisheth soon after it hath ripened seeds. It
grows naturally in the woods of Italy and Austria, but is
cultivated in the English gardens for the beauty of its
flowers. Of this sort there are the following varieties, the
blue, the purple, the white, the striped, and double flower-
ing. This hath oblong, rough, hairy leaves, which are
serrated on their edges; from the centre of these, a stiff,
hairy, furrowed stalk arises, about two feet high, sending
out several lateral branches, which are garnished with long,
narrow, hairy leaves, sawed on their edges; from the
setting on of these leaves come out the footstalks of the
flowers, those which are on the lower part of the stalk and
the branches being four or five inches long, diminishing
gradually in their length upward, and thereby form a sort
of pyramid. The flowers of this kind are very large, so
make a fine appearance. The seeds ripen in September,
and the plants decay soon after.

" It is propagated by seeds, which must be sown in
spring on an open bed of common earth, and when the
plants are fit to remove, they should be transplanted into
the flower-nursery, in beds six inches asunder, and the
following autumn they should be transplanted into the
borders of the flower-garden. As these plants decay the
second year, there should be annually young ones raised to
succeed them/'

44 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

A note on campanulas in general may be useful. The
best of them are hardy border flowers, that need no parti-
cular care, and thrive well in any ordinary good soil, but
cannot endure to be starved or over-much shaded. In
planting a border, preference in the first instance should
be given to such sorts as C. latifolia, C. trac helium,
C. gloinerata, C. nobilis, C. persicifolia. For the rockery,
the most important, to begin with, are C. carpathica, C.
garganica', C. pumila, and C. rotundifolia. The last-named
is the " harebell " of the hedgerow and the roadside and
the woodland waste, which we have met with near Hayfield,
in Derbyshire, in many shades of blue, white, and pink,
but the plants and seeds we saved of the curious varieties
lost their distinguishing characters when removed, so that
when planted out on raised banks of sandy soil in the
garden they all produced blue flowers.

RUDBECKIA.

THE KUDBECKIA.

Rudbeckia hirta.

ARDY herbaceous plants have
been rising in public favour dur-
ing the past ten years or so, but
they will never so entirely engross
the admiration of the English
amateur as certain over-zealous
advocates believe and desire. The
world is tolerably wise as to what
it wants, and it is useless for
specialists to go crazy because the
world will not implicitly follow
their lead.

The truth is, the English gar-
den is a rafter of the English
household made up of good things
from all parts of the world, and the
pelargoniums of the Cape and the

calceolarias of Peru are as worthy of a place in it as
the lilies of the Levant or the fuchsias of the Falklands.
People who enter upon gardening as a recreation are
usually eclectic in their tastes, and are very quick in dis-
tinguishing good things from bad ones, and those who
seek applause by crying up herbaceous weeds and crying
down bedding plants that make the garden grandly gay

46 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

in the sunny months when gaiety is needed, will only
obtain in the end the pitying smile that is bestowed
on the well-meaning fanatic. The Rudbeckias illustrate
this case. They are hardy herbaceous, handsome weedy
things, that would be of priceless value were we possessed
of only a few dozen sorts of garden flowers. But as we
can command thousands we can afford to be dainty, and
so it happens that two or three species of Rudbeckia are
enough for any ordinary garden : the rest may be left over
for those omnivorous ones who swallow everything that
can be described as " herbaceous " and " hardy."

The genus to which our plant belongs takes its
name from O. Rudbeck, a Swedish botanist. It is wholly
American. It is noted in the "Hortus Kewensis" of Aiton
that R. laciriiata was grown by John Tradescant before
1640, and R. trilola by Jacob Bobart before 1699. These
appear to have been the earliest introduced. R. hirta, the
subject of the coloured plate, was grown in this country
in 1714, and is pretty widely distributed, although the
members of this genus have never ranked high as border
flowers. They are, however, useful, being at home in any
soil or situation, though preferring, if they can get it,
a dry sandy loam and a sunny situation. They are all
perennial plants, and may be propagated by division and
seed. Being rough and gay and conspicuous at a distance,
they are admirably adapted for the front line of the shrub-
bery, and if they do not delight the florists, they will
gratify the artists, who always lean considerately towards
single composite flowers, if there be some degree of dash
in them, as there certainly is in the yellow and orange
flowers of the Rudbeckias.

Rudbeckia Calif ornica grows to the height of five feet,

THE RUDBECKIA. 47

and flowers in July ; the flowers are of a golden-yellow
colour. R. Drummondi is of dwarf habit, rising only two
feet, flowering from June to September, the flowers rich
deep yellow with a band of purplish- brown and a curious
brown centre ; this is a fine plant. R. fulgida rises two
feet ; the flowers appear in July, they are orange-yellow,
the disk purple ; a fine plant. R. hirta grows two to
three feet in height, the flowers appear from July to
September; they are of a rich orange-yellow, the disk
purplish-brown. R. laciniata is of compact habit, height
three feet, flowers pale yellow, the leaves elegantly cut;
a fine plant. R. speciosa is of medium growth, rarely ex-
ceeding two and a half feet in height ; the flowers appear
late, they are orange-yellow with blackish-purple disk.
About a dozen more may be found by those who want
them — at all events, their names may — but it might be
difficult to obtain the plants.

The American continent is somewhat profusely sprinkled
with composite plants that flower in the later summer and
autumn, and prove perfectly hardy with us. We want
the best of them for our gardens, and perhaps there are
not many remaining to be introduced, for the botanists
have not been idle on the " boundless prairies." It is the
peculiar characteristic of a large majority of -these plants
that they flower at a season when our native plants are for
the most part in a seedy state; and thus they help us
through the autumn, when out-door pleasures obtain more
of our attention than at any other time.

The botanist in whose honour the Rudbeckia was
named by Linnaeus was the son of John Rudbeck, a
learned Swedish bishop, who aided very materially in the
publication of the Swedish Bible, commonly called the

48 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

Bible of Gustavus Adolphus, in the year 1618, and was the
author of the celebrated " Privilegia qusedam Doctorum,"
the production of which, in the year 1636, very nearly*
proved his ruin. His son Olaf Rudbeck, born 1630,
studied at Upsala, and in 1652 held a disputation there
on the circulation of the blood, and afterwards made dis-
coveries in anatomy which he rendered public in 1653.
In this year he travelled into Holland, but soon after
returned to Upsala, where he was, in the year 1658, ap-
pointed professor of medicine. As an aid in this study
he had previously established a botanical garden, into
which he introduced many rare plants from distant places,
and thereby afforded an astonishing example of the capa-
bilities of a northern climate.

MARIGOLD.

MAEiaOLD.

Tagetes erect a.

LATER illustration of a very
humble marigold has suggested
homely thoughts, and the re-
sult is a merely gossiping
paper ; but the showy flower
now before us demands a
learned treatise, and we must
show that we are equal to the
inspiriting theme. We shall
therefore dive into the depths
of our erudition, and thence
rebound to the highest heights
of philosophy, in the endeavour
to display to the reader the
immensity of our knowledge of
marigolds.

A marigold may be re-
garded as a golden Mary, but the name has no necessary
reference whatever to the Virgin Mary, or to any Mary ;
it is a corruption of the old Anglo-Saxon mersc-mear-
qealla, the golden marsh flower (caltha), which is still
called the " marsh marigold," although it is really a
ranunculus. The marigold proper is a composite plant,
and far removed from the ranunculus and all its cup
G

50 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

flowered relations. In the " Grete Herball " it is called
" Mary Gowles/' Dr. Prior, in his " Popular Names of
British Plants," remarks that " it is often mentioned by
the older poets under the name of gold simply/' Not-
withstanding- all this, the marigold became the flower of the
Virgin Mary, if it was not so originally. The name being
once corrupted, the association with a personage followed,
and in the latest days of history, say the seventeenth
century, it became the symbol of Queen Mary. The cele-
brated Child's Bank, that was so long associated with old
Temple Bar, had for its sign the marigold, and the motto
AINSI MON AME, which necessarily applies to a sunflower.
This appears to discomfit us ; but no, the marigold is
a sunflower, quite as much a sunflower as the gigantic
American plant that is now known by the name. In the
poem by George Wither, quoted at page 63, we read

that

" Every morning she displayes
Her open brest, when Titan spreads his rayes."

In Perdita's garland for men of middle age we find

" The marigold that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping."

Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

In the fifty-fourth sonnet of Drummond we have —

" Absence hath robb'd thee of thy wealth and pleasure,
And I remain, like marigold of sun
Depriv'd, that dies by shadow of some mountain."

That the marigold was often regarded as especially
emblematic of the Virgin Mary is certain. We see
marigold windows in Lady chapels, and we may call them
sunflowers if it suits us to do so, but the plant we now
know as the sunflower was certainly unknown in Europe

MARIGOLD. 61

previous to A.D. 1500. The dedication of the flower to
Queen Mary would naturally occur to the adherents of her
cause, and hence it is not surprising to find in a ballad of
her time, as quoted in " Notes and Queries" (S. 5, xii. 418),
such lines as the following : —

' ' To Mary our queen., that flower so sweet,

This marigold I do apply ;
For that name doth seme so meet

And property in each party.
For her enduring patiently

The storms of such as list to scold
At her doings, without cause why,

Loath to see spring this marigold."

The flowers known as marigolds represent two distinct
genera of composites. The common weedy marigold
figured at page 61 is Calendula officinalis ; the generic
name implying that it keeps pace with the calendar — that
is to say, it flowers every day throughout the year, which
is very nearly true. The great African marigold is
Tayetes erecta ; it is not African, but Mexican, as are also
the more refined French marigold, Tagetcs patula, and the
fine-leaved and the shining-cleaved kinds, T. tenuifolia and
T. lucida. The genus Tagetes is named in honour of an
obscure Etruscan hero of doubtful pedigree. It seems that
Jupiter had a son named Genius, and this Genius had a
son named Tages, who taught the Etruscans the art of
divination. In the fifteenth book of Ovid's " Metamor-
phoses" he is thus referred to in connection with the
transformation of Egeria : —

" The nymphs and Virbius like amazement fill'd,
As seized the swains who Tyrrhene furrows till'd,
When heaving up, a clod was seen to roll,
Untouch'd, self-mov'd, and big with human soul.

52 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The spreading mass, in former shape deposed,
Began to shoot, and arms and legs disclosed,
Till, form'd a perfect man, the living mould
Oped its new mouth, and future truths foretold ;
And, Tages named by natives of the place,
Taught arts prophetic to the Tuscan race."

It is a grave defect of the Mexican marigolds that they
emit an unpleasant odour, and therefore are scarcely fit for
bouquets. The pretty little T. tenuifolia (also known as
signata) is less objectionable than the others in this respect,
and, generally speaking, is the most useful of all, because
of its suitability for bedding, to take the place in dry soils
of that capricious flower the yellow calceolaria. All these
Mexican marigolds are half hardy, and therefore the seed
should be sown in a frame or greenhouse in March and
April, and the plants carefully nursed until strong enough
to take their place for flowering in the beds and borders.

THE BALSAM

Impatiens bahamina.

.N some of the books the plant is
catalogued as 'Balsamina Tior-
tensis, but as a rose by any
other name would smell as
sweet, the amateur gardener
need not be troubled about the
relative claims of the respec-
tive designations. The garden
balsam is a tender annual of
rapid growth, with an ex-
tremely succulent stem, ample
full green leafage, and showy
flowers of various shades of
white, red, rose, and crimson.
The generic name Impatiens is
explained by the behaviour of
the plant when the seeds are
ripe, for, on the slightest touch,
the seed-pods burst, and the
seeds are scattered ; and this impatience of the plant may
occasion to the cultivator considerable loss. But there is a
way out of every difficulty, and the only real difficulty is to
know the way. In this case it consists in removing the pods
when they are nearly ripe, and placing them on a cloth

54 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

or newspaper, or in a bell-glass placed mouth upwards, to
ripen ; then, as they arrive at perfection, the seeds will be
shed, and none will be lost, and if the plants were good, the
seed will pay for the trouble of saving-.

It is a very strange thing, and hardly to be believed,
that there is not to be found in any systematic treatise on
gardening a really good code of balsam culture. In plain
truth, the books are all wrong upon the subject, and as the
opportunity is now offered to put them right, we propose
to do so. Let it be understood, then, to begin with, that
the right way occasions less trouble than the wrong way,
and the result is a free development of healthy leafage and
splendid flowers. The essence of the proceeding consists in
growing the plant generously and somewhat rapidly from
the first, and guarding it against any possible check. Sup-
pose we desire to have a fine bed of balsams. We secure
the very best seed, and sow it in light rich soil, in pans or
boxes, in the month of April. These pans or boxes should
be placed on the sunny shelf of a greenhouse, or in a warm
corner of a pit, and be kept moderately watered. The
plants will soon appear, and as soon as they have about
three rough leaves, they should be pricked out, three or
four inches apart, in other boxes, in light rich soil ; or be
potted separately in thumb-pots, and be again nursed in
the warm pit or greenhouse, where they should have plenty
of air, and never suffer in the least through lack of water.
If they grow fast, and the weather is too cold to permit of
planting them out, give them a shift into 60 size (three-
inch) pots before they become pot-bound, for, as remarked
above, there must be no. check whatever. When the
weather is warm -and dull, say about the first or second
week in June, plant them out in a sunny position, in rich

THE BALSAM. 56

deep soil. We have put them at two feet apart, and they
have met long- before the season was over ; but, for a
general rule, perhaps one foot distance may suffice. Give
them plenty of water in dry weather, and that is all you
need do to them.

In the event of requiring nice specimens in pots, it
will be advisable to sow in March, and start the seeds on a
hot-bed; then proceed as advised in raising plants for a
bed, but instead of planting them out, keep shifting into
larger and larger pots, until it is time to stop, and allow
the plants to flower. As a rule, an eight-inch pot is large
enough for a very fine plant, and a dozen or two in pots of
six- to eight-inch size may be turned to good account in
the conservatory. When grown in this way, they must have
good living and plenty of water, be protected from cold and
drying winds, and excessive heat, but always have the fullest
daylight and plenty of air. If they appear rather too long in
the stem, put them down a little in potting, and the buried
portion of the stem will soon throw out roots to the ad-
vantage of the flowers that are coming. They require no'
stakes and no shading, and if the foregoing brief directions
are fairly well carried out, that is all you need do to them.

The reader may be ready to exclaim, " I see nothing
peculiar in this/' and the reader who so exclaims is quite
in the right. But turn to the books, and you will find a
complicated process prescribed, and so in balsam growing
the lover of complications may be gratified. Here is an
extract from a respectable book of reference, and there is
really something in it : — " When you cannot accommodate
any but the best flowers in* the greenhouse, adopt the
following method. After pricking out into three- or four-
inch pots, and plunging them in the bed, allow the pots to

56 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

get full of roots, keep them drier and cooler, and give
plenty of air, which will soon cause flowers to appear ; then
select plants with best flowers, rub every flower-bud off
them, fresh pot, disentangling the roots a little as you
proceed, and grow them on as advised above; and what
you lose in time you will make up in selectness." These
directions provide for a check by allowing the plants to
become pot-bound, and for another check by the process
of rubbing the flower-buds off, so as to compel the plants
to produce another crop. And what is the result ? Tall,
attenuated plants, with poor flowers on the side stems, and
no fine flowers anywhere. We see numerous wretched bal-
sams at flower shows that have been grown in this way.
Now, let us ask Nature about it, and her reply will be that
the finest flowers are the first produced, and appear in the
centre of the plant ; therefore the removal of the buds is
a mistake, and the imposition of any check is a mistake,
and there is no balsam so beautiful as the one that has
been generously grown and allowed to flower at its own
time and in its own way.

YORK AND LANCASTER ROSE

YOEK AND LANCASTER
EOSE.

Rosa Damascena .

HY, it may be asked, is this old
favourite of the English garden
presented as a rose of Damas-
cus? The reason is that the
: true York and Lancaster rose is
a variety of Rosa Damascena;
and if in this little work we
recognise Latin names at all,
we must he as nearly correct
as possible. There are several
distinct roses known as repra
senting the two great families
and the healing of their feuds,
one of the best known being a
variety of Rosa Gallica. But
the " proper " symbolic flower is a striped damask rose,
with green branches and pubescent leaves, and the habit
of the old monthly roses.

As Shakespeare tells the tale it makes a profound im-
pression. We see the foundations of the feud laid in
the success of Bolingbroke and the cruel murder of the
king as the curtain falls on the fine historical tragedy
of " Richard II." We see it ripen in the first part of
" King Henry VI." in the famous scene in the Temple

58 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

Gardens, where the white and red roses are defiantly
plucked as party badges : —

" Plantagenet. Since you are tongue-tied, and so loath to speak,
In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts :
Let him that is a true-born gentleman,
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

" Somerset. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

" Warwick. I love no colours ; and, without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery,
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.

" Suffolk. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset ;
And say withal, I think he held the right."

Most fittingly the scene closes with the prophecy of

Warwick —

" This brawl to-day,

Grown to this faction, in the Temple garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night."

One of the most penetrating and pathetic passages in
the historical plays of our great poet occurs in the third
part of "Henry VI." (act iiv so. 4), where the king on the
wasted field beholds first a son that has killed his father,
and next a father that has killed his son, and exclaims
in painful soliloquy over the dead boy —

" Woe above woe ! grief more than common grief !
O, that my death would stay these ruthf ul deeds !
0, pity, pity, gentle Heaven, pity !
The red rose and the white are on his face,
The fatal colours of our striving houses :
The one, his purple blood right well resembles ;
The other, his pale cheeks, methinks, presenteth :
Wither one rose, and let the other flourish ;
If you contend, a thousand lives must wither."

YORK AND LANCASTER ROS£. 59

It is with a sense of immense relief that we see in the
death of Richard III. the end of the sanguinary struggle,
and most happily does that tremendous work close with
the healing words of Henry VII., when upon Bosworth
Field he declares —

" The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead ! "

and crowns the victory with an act of clemency and an
expression of pious hope —

'' Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled,
That in submission will return to us ;
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red.
Smile, Heaven, upon this fair conjunction,
That long hath frown'd upon their enmity !
What traitor hears me, and says not Amen ? "

Returning to our flower, it will be observed that we
have wandered far away from it, for the Wars of the Roses
were represented by a white rose for Lancaster and a red
rose for York. And what may they have been ? In
Shakespeare's time there were probably many kinds of
roses in the Temple Gardens, but it was not so in the
days of the Plantagenets. Then, in all probability, the
only roses known in gardens were the wild roses of the
woods. Supposing the scene which Shakespeare has so
filled with the reality of life to be, not a creation of his
own, but a scrap of genuine history, then we can find
no other roses for the partisans than those described by
Chaucer as —

" The bramble flour that bereth the red hepe ; "

that is, the dog rose, the " canker of the hedge," which
gives in one thicket flowers of the most delicate rosy-pink
hue, and in another flowers of the purest white. They

60 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

had also the sweet-brier rose, with its elegant carmine-
coloured flowers, and the downy rose, with its neat white
flowers ; the emblems of the pending strife were not want-
ing, but no one can now say what they were.

As remarked above, there are two roses that represent
the desire of Richmond to " unite the white rose and
the red." The true York and Lancaster we believe to be
a striped damask rose; but there is another that often
bears the name, the proper name of which is Rosa
mundi, and its alliance is with the French rose (Rosa
Gallica}. These are not the only striped roses known to
cultivators, for in truth there are many ; but not one of
the throng has ever been much prized by critical enthu-
siasts— that is to say, by rosarians, for that is the fashion-
able designation of the modern rosomaniacs — to which
excitable and exacting fraternity the writer humbly con-
fesses his attachment.

i

COMMON MARIGOLD.

THE COMMON MAEIGOLD.

Calendula officinalis.

ROM the common marigold here
faithfully figured, and suggestive
of soup, to the delicate French
marigold, Tagetes palida, that the
florists grow for exhibition, and
bring to a perfection of geometric
marking that makes a place in
floriculture for mathematics, what
a stride ! Fifty years and more ago
a flower show of a very individual
nature engrossed my attention
and made a deep impression on my
mind. It consisted entirely of
marigolds, and the scene was the
churchyard of St. Botolph, Aid-
gate, where these flowers had run wild,
and, as wild things are wont to do,
had taken care to keep the race going,
so that there should be no lack of
wild marigolds from year to year, for in truth the
ground was literally covered with them as with a pave-
ment of stars stamped out of the rinds of oranges. At
that early date I had heard, but had never tasted, of
soup flavoured or adorned — I knew not which — with

62 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

marigolds, and I stole and munched a flower, and was
lost in the admiration of contempt for the people who
could put such trash into soup, whether for flavouring,
beautifying, or any other purpose. My father, being
a florist to the backbone, would not tolerate a common
marigold, and so I had to play the thief to gain the
knowledge of the comparative worthlessness of marigolds
in clear ox-tail. Within a few weeks of writing this I
have had to judge at a flower show where the study of
French marigolds occupied me nearly an hour to award
the prizes to my satisfaction. What a stride ! But Provi-
dence gave me years to accomplish it, with enjoyment at
the beginning and the end and at all the intermediate
stages. To stride over marigolds, beginning with soup
and ending with the fine arts, is not a particularly noble
business, but one might do worse; one might be M.P.
for Battle Bridge, for example, or confessor to the pirates
of the Flowery Land. When the churchyard marigolds
enraptured me I had not read Shakespeare, but I call to
mind now his association of them with the grave in the
fourth act of " Pericles "—

Enter MARINA, with a basket of flowers.
" No, I will rob Tellus of her weed,
To strew thy green with flowers : the yellows, blues,
The purple violets, and marigolds,
Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,
While summer-days do last. Ay me ! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
This world to me is like a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends."

The marigold is a very important flower to the senti-
mental. " As the marigold to the sun's eye," so is any-
thing you like to speak of for its constancy. The marigold

THE COMMON MARIGOLD.

is a "sunflower," and, in common with the helianthus,
is said never to turn its face from that part of the heavens
where the sun is, whether seen or invisible. In the
"Winter's Tale/' Shakespeare speaks of "the marigold
that goes to bed with the sun and with him rises weep-
ing/' a state of things that necessitates the facing of the
flower to the northern regions of the heavens all through
the night. One of the most beautiful of the poetical
fancies, founded on the idea of a flower following the sun,
is the little poem by George Wither : —

" When, with a serious musing, I behold
The gratef ull and obsequious marigold,
How duely, ev'ry morning, she display es
Her open brest, when Titan spreads his rayes ;
How she observes him in his daily walke,
Still bending towards him her tender stalke ;
How when he downe declines, she droopes and moumes.
Bedew'd (as 't were) with teares, till he returnes ;
And how she vailes her flow'rs, when he is gone,
As if she scorned to be looked on
By an inferiour eye ; or, did contemne
To wayt upon a meaner light, then him.
When this I meditate, me-thinkes, the flowers
Have spirits, farre more generous, then ours;
And give us fair examples, to despise
The servile fawnings, and idolatries,
Wherewith we court these earthly things below,
Which merit not the service we bestow."

Florists' marigolds are very delicate things. The Afri-
cans we will not speak of, because anybody can grow them,
and they are horribly coarse ; but the French are delicate
things, and worthy of all reasonable care to ensure fine
quality. And yet with these the chief matter is to get
good seed, for the qualities the severe judges of flowers

64 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

require are more the result of hybridism and selection than
what we understand by the term "cultivation/' But
having1 secured the seed, sow it in a gentle hot-bed in
April, or in pots some time in May, in which case a hot-
bed will not be wanted, as the seed will soon germinate
in a common frame. Prick out the young -plants into
boxes, filled with light rich earth, as soon as they are
large enough to handle ; and very soon after, the plants
being stout and healthy, put them out in a bed open to
the full sun, and carefully water and shade until they
begin to grow freely, and then give no more shade and
no more water unless the summer happens to be very
hot and dry, in which case you must water regularly
and copiously — say, to soak the bed well twice or thrice a
week.

JESSAMINE

THE JESSAMINE.

Jasminum officinale.

ASMIN THE TROUBADOUR,

who happily hails from Agen,
" content and poor/' makes
boast of his name as allied to
the " stem of Jesse." For this
plant is variously called Jas-
mine, Jessamine, and Jesse :
its Arabic name being Ysmyn,
and its Persian name Jdsemin.
And it is a question of some
interest whether, in the pro-
phetic utterances, " the stem/'
" the root/' " the rod/' and
" the branch " of Jesse were
associated with any plant that
had the value of a symbol.
It is not an idle question, as may be
seen on reference to the tree of Jesse
in the east window at Dorchester, Oxon ;
for however the artist may draw on his
imagination in such a work, he is likely to be governed
by an idea derived from a consideration of facts, and
the jessamine, if admissible in such a case, is peculiarly
I

66 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

adapted for truthful delineation in conventional tracery.
The tree of Jesse is indeed often met with in the reredos
and east windows of English churches, and usually we
have no hint of any special symbol or any properly objec-
tive thought in the work, although, doubtless, there is fair
excuse for it.

The white jessamine has been in cultivation in this
country so long that we have no record of its introduction,
and know not whence it was obtained. In the books it is
reported to have been introduced from the East Indies in
the year 1548, but Gerarde, in 1597, speaks of it as com-
monly used for covering arbours; and as to its native
country, we can scarcely localise it, except in a general
way, as an Eastern plant. It is perfectly hardy in this
country, rarely suffering even in the severest winters, and
it is particularly well adapted for planting in town gardens,
as defect of light and the deposition of dust on its leaves
do not prevent its healthy growth and free flowering. As
a wall tree, however, it lacks character, and often looks
dingy and dejected ; but if fairly well taken care of, the
natural elegance of the plant is pleasingly displayed, and
the delicious fragrance of its delicate white flowers abund-
antly justifies its place in the garden.

To obtain the evanescent odour of the flowers of this
plant, a complicated process is required. To merely press
them or to distil them with water would be useless, the
essential essence being too subtle for retention by any
such simple methods of procedure. The flowers are first
embedded in fat, to which they communicate their odorous
treasure, which is then separated from the fat, and obtained
in a more elegant form by means of alcohol. The last part
of the process is comparatively modern, but the first pro-

THE JESSAMINE. 67

cess is as old as the use of perfumes,, and explains the
frequent employment of ointments by the ancients; for
many of the odorous essences they coveted were obtainable
only by the aid of greasy substances, which served as
vehicles for separating- and preserving them.

The most important species of Jasminum in respect of
the production of commercial perfumes are /. officinale,
which is here figured ; /. sambac, a native of the East Indies,
producing white flowers, which are followed by black berries.
— the perfume known as oil of jasmine is obtained from this
species ; and /. grandiflorum, also a native of the East
Indies, and closely resembling /. officmale, but the flowers
are larger, and reddish "underneath ; from this is obtained a
very considerable proportion of the essential oil of jasmine
of the shops. A favourite garden jasmine in the East is
J. angiistifolium, a bright twining plant, with star-shaped
flowers tinged with red, and very agreeably fragrant. It
is somewhat singular that when these plants are grown in
our conservatories they do not appear to attract many
insects, nor does the fragrant jessamine of the garden often
enjoy the honour of a visit from a busy bee or an idle
butterfly ; but Moore, with his exquisite taste in matters
of detail, makes the jasmine of Asia Minor the resort of
many gay insects, attracted by the rare fragrance of its
flowers. In his delightful story of " Paradise and the
Peri/' he makes the " child of air/' when searching for
" the gift that is most dear to heaven/' betake her amongst
the bovvers of the "chambers of the sun" —

" When, o'er the Vale of Balbec winging

Slowly, she sees a child at play,
Among the rosy wild flow'rs singing,
As rosy and as wild as they ;

68 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

Chasing, with eager hands and eyes,
The beautiful blue damsel-flies,
That flutter'd round the jasmine stems
Like winged flow'rs or flying gems."

Cowper, who better understood the garden than any English
poet, Shakespeare alone excepted, gives us a photograph of
the plant in four short lines —

"The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,
The deep dark green of whose un varnish' d leaf
Makes more conspicuous and illumines more
The bright profusion of her scatter'd stars."

BLUE SAGE.

THE BLUE SAGE.

Salvia patens.

HE light of other days is faded,
and the blue salvia is no longer
in high renown as a wonder
amongst bedding plants. It
has filled as many pages of
print as the crimson flax, but
now the horticultural writers
have nothing to say about it,
and appear, indeed, to have for-
gotten its gay existence. It
might have been famous to this
day if it could but have
stooped to conquer, but it was
always too tall for its place,
and carried its colours care-
lessly, as if seeking the bubble
reputation were a pastime for
such meaner ones as without
seeking would never outwin reputation at all. But we
must be wise about it, and endeavour to earn our wages.

The blue salvia is a tall-growing, loosely -branched, un-
tidy plant that may be grown equally well in the green-
house or the stove. For summer bloom the greenhouse
suffices, and during the warmer portions of the summer

70 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS,

the plant will, if properly managed, flower freely in the
open air. If winter flowers are required, the plant must
be in the stove, where, if fairly dealt with, it will rise to a
height of ten or twelve feet, and make a very delightful
display of its intensely blue flowers, in which the blue of
the delphinium — the rarest colour in nature, save in the
vast firmament above — is developed in power and purity.

Salvia patens may be raised from seed with ease and
certainty. If it is sown in sandy soil in shallow pans and
boxes early in February, and placed in the stove or on a
common hotbed, the plants may be grown to a sufficient
size to make a good display in the flower garden the same
season. It will be necessary to pot them into small pots,
and keep them in a warm pit or greenhouse until the
middle of May, when they should be transferred to a cold
frame, and have more and more air by degrees, but with
very great care in the first instance, the object of this
treatment being to render them hardy enough to bear full
exposure before they are finally planted out The bed
should be in a sunny situation, well drained, and the soil
somewhat sandy. To plant them out before the first week
of June would be unwise, but as soon after that time
as possible they should be consigned to their blooming
quarters, and should be at a distance apart of not less
than nine to twelve inches.

The plants can be kept from year to year by lifting
the roots after the tops have been cut down by frost, and
storing them in sand during the winter. Early in the
spring these roots should be planted in boxes or pans filled
with light soil, and be placed in a moderate heat to start
them into growth. They will soon produce young shoots,
which, when two or three inches in length, may be taken

THE BLUE SAGE, • 71

off as cuttings, and will soon strike in a temperature of 70°.
This practice may be varied by lifting- and potting the
plants before the frost has defaced them, in which case
they must be wintered in a warm greenhouse or the cool
end of the stove, and have but moderate supplies of water
until they begin to grow freely in the spring. At the
time of potting, superfluous shoots may be removed and
struck, but the autumn is an inconvenient season for pro-
pagating this sal via.

The crimson salvia (S. splendens) and the small
8. coccinea, are about equally well adapted for bedding
as S. patens, but they are all so diffuse in habit that to
employ them to advantage requires more than ordinary
taste and judgment. S. coccinea answers admirably to
grow from seed as an annual, as when so managed it does
not grow much more than a foot high, and it blooms
freely from July to October.

For the greenhouse and conservatory the following
species of salvia may be especially recommended : — The
narrow-leaved (S. angustifolia) , flowers blue, appearing in
May -, the light blue (S. azurea], flowering from August to
October; the scarlet (S. fulgens], a fine plant, producing
a grand show of scarlet flowers in August ; the white
patens (S. patens alba) , a variety of the plant represented
in the plate. It is useful as a greenhouse plant, but is
scarcely effective as a bedder.

A remarkably fine group of salvias were some time
ago brought into notice by Mr. H. Cannell, of Swanley.
We happily received grand spikes of bloom of three of
these, and therefore can speak- of them as flowering well
in the autumn. Salvia Pitcheri produces a profusion of
flowers of the most pure and brilliant blue, and will flower

72 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

all the winter in the conservatory. S. Betkeli has bril-
liant scarlet flowers ; S. splendens Bruanti also has scarlet
flowers; S. Hovei/i has flowers of an exquisite tone of violet
or satiny purple. These four may be considered the most
useful of all the salvias in cultivation.

A few other kinds deserve mention. S. tricolor is a sweet
little gem, with white tube and mouth, and the upper lip
purple, the lower lip scarlet — a bit of Nature's fancy work
in painting- that appears intended to mock the human
painters of flowers. Thirty years ago we used to see in
the gardens two curious salvias, named respectively S.
bracteata and S. horminum, which are remarkable because
their conspicuous features are their coloured bracts, the
flowers of both being blue.

INDIAN PINK.

THE INDIAN PINK.

Dianthns Chinensis.

ARIABILITY is a common cha-
racteristic of garden flowers, and
is the quality on which depends
very much of the interest they
excite in the mind of the florist.
A flower that continues constant
to its typical character, or but
rarely manifests a capability of
varying-, will never attain to high
popularity, no matter how splen-
did may be its appearance when
in full dress. The Indian pink
possesses the charming property
of changeableness in an especial
degree, and the consequence is
that our gardens abound with distinct and rich varie-
ties that in some instances are so far removed from the
type that the relationship can only be determined by
the trained eye of the critical botanist. The splendid
forms known as Dianthus Heddewegi, D. giganteus, and
D. laciniatus are all sub-sections, or " strains/' of D.
Chinensis, and it is not unlikely that if they were at this
moment destroyed, they could be reproduced from the
species within the lifetime of an earnest florist who should

74 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

have the good fortune to begin early and be spared to
labour late in developing the variability of this gay and
useful plant. In its simple, and for present purposes we
may say original state, as the common Indian pink, it is
surely the cheapest and most beautiful of all our hardy
annuals ; but in its improved condition it ranks as a
florist's flower, and we name the finest examples and regard
them as perennials because they are propagated from cut-
tings. In the books the Indian pink is a biennial, being
so classed because it is usually sown in summer to flower
the next summer, and having flowered, dies. But it has
been our rule to sow the seed early in a frame, and put
the plants out in a bed of light rich soil in the month of
May, and have them gloriously in flower from July to the
end of the season : thus it becomes an annual. But it
does not of necessity die after the first season's flowering,
for on a dry soil it will live many years, if the dead flowers
are removed, so as to prevent the swelling of seed-pods :
thus it becomes a perennial. A majority of so-called
"biennials" may be treated as annuals or perennials at the
discretion of the cultivator. Of all the common plants, the
life-term of which may be thus contracted or prolonged at
pleasure, the most interesting, perhaps, is the mignonette.
As usually treated it is an annual ; but we have had
immense mignonette trees that have lived fifteen years,
and become quite woody and venerable, the one secret of
keeping them so long being the systematic prevention of
seeding. Allow them to swell a fair crop of seeds, and
away they go. Do not allow a single seed-pod to swell,
and in all probability a ' mignonette plant would live as
long as its owner, and then become an " heirloom/' or more
likely a " white elephant/' to another possessor.

THE INDIAN PINK. 75

'The Indian pink was introduced about 1713 by a
French, missionary named Bignon, and soon became a
popular garden flower. The plant has a singularly frail
appearance, and yet it is by no means tender in constitu-
tion. The narrow glaucous leaves, too, seem out of pro-
portion to its large and richly-coloured flowers, a quality
which may be termed " alpine/' for the plants of the
mountains commonly produce flowers of immense size in
proportion to the herbage that sustains them. Any ordi-
nary good soil will suit this plant, but excessive damp in
winter is to be carefully avoided by the cultivator, and
therefore, when grown on a heavy soil, the stock should
either be wintered in pots and boxes in a frame, or in a
bed in a pit, or, if in the open, a raised bed should be pre-
pared for them consisting of good loam with a considerable
proportion of sand. From this they may be transplanted
in April to the beds or borders in which they are to flower.
But this is beginning at the wrong end, because it pre-
supposes the possession of plants. The very best way to
obtain a stock is to sow seed in an open border or cold
frame in May or June. If the plants are required to flower
as early as possible the same season, sow in February
or March in pots or pans, and place on a hotbed or in
a warm house, and as soon as the seedlings have made
a little progress, prick them out into boxes and nurse
them with care, and plant out early in May.

It is singular that the word " pink " is so various in its
meaning, that it may be cited as one of the wonders of
philology. We talk of the "pink of perfection;" and a
flower does not cease to be a pink though its colour may
be white, purple, or even yellow. Whitsunday is a ' ' pink
day/' but the term Pentecost does not mean either a

76 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

White Sunday or a Pink Sunday, but simply the " fiftieth/'
From "Pentecost/' however, we have not only the name of a
festival of the Church, but the name of a flower and of a
colour, and of a process that has melancholy suggestions
— that of " pinking/' By a roundabout but not uncertain
process, a pink becomes an eye, and also anything that
glitters. The French term for the flower is ceillet, an eye,
or eyelet, and it is in accordance with the most common
mutations of words to find thatj0tȣ is a merely sharpened
form of the older word link, and this again a departure
from wink, and, following this up, we attain to the Anglo-
Saxon wincian, or, as we have it in common parlance,
winking, a movement of the lids of the eyes. A pilot's
boat is sometimes called a " pink," and the scar resulting
from a wound is also called by the same name. Thus, in
Cowper's expostulation, " pink'd " means marked with

stabs —

" He found thee savage, and he left thee tame ;
Taught thee to clothe thy pink'd and painted hide,
And grace thy figure with a soldier's pride."

GLADIOLUS.

THE GLADIOLUS.

Gladiolus gandavensis.

T is a mere compliance with
custom to label this flower
Gladiolus gandavensis, for that
is the name of an early hybrid
between G. cardinalis and G. psit-
tacinus, raised many years ago
in a Belgian garden. Eut it is
scarcely worth while to discuss
technicalities or draw fine lines,
and we prefer to talk about the
gladiolus as a beauty to be wooed
in the pleasant days of the after-
summer.

The florist's varieties consti-
tute a large and separate class,
and are usually designated "hy-
bi'ids of gandavensis/' although
they owe their ^origin to several
species and to many and repeated
crossings. To grow these well
requires some care; but they are
worthy of all attention, so various and splendid are
their flowers. In the first place, then, it must be said
that they are not hardy, and therefore it will not do to
leave them in the ground all the winter. We have

78 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

tried this many times, and although many roots sur-
vived the ordeal, they were rendered worthless by it.
Nor is it well to plant them in February or March,
as advised in some of the books; for if the spring is
wet and cold they rot in the ground, and if it is dry
and warm they grow too soon, and their tender green
tops are liable to be cut off by frost in April and May.
Keep the corms or roots in sand, in a dry, cool place, until
about the middle of March, and then pot them singly in
thumb-pots, or in three-inch pots at the utmost. First
cover the hole in the pot with a convex potsherd, hollow
side downwards, or with two or three small pieces of coke
or cinder. Then put in compost to the depth of about two
inches ; on this place the corm, and fill in, and press a little
firm all round, and finally cover to within a quarter of an
inch of the rim of the pot. The compost may, with
advantage, consist of equal parts of mellow loam, leaf-
mould, very old rotten hotbed soil, and silver-sand. But
this precise formula need not be followed, because any light
compost will answer the purpose, if sweet and nourishing.
Pack the pots in a frame, or under the stage of a green-
house, give them one watering, and leave them untouched
for a fortnight at least. By that time, probably, the
growth will be spearing through. In such case they must
have light and aiir, and a very suitable place for them will
be the stage of a cool greenhouse, or to continue in the
frame, and to have regular attention in respect of watering
and air-giving. Be careful to avoid extremes. Keen east
winds, sharp frost, very much moisture, continued cold
and damp, are all more or less to be feared as dangerous.
It is but little they will require; the matter of main im-
portance is to keep a watch on them.

THE GLADIOLUS. 79

You must now prepare for planting out. The bed
should be in an open, sunny, though sheltered situation,
and the soil should be deep and mellow, and rich in humus.
A heavy, pasty, or lumpy soil will not do. Gladioli will
grow finely in peat, and still more finely in a hazelly
loam, continuing abundance of rotted turf, and a moderate
amount of old hotbed soil. Many natural soils which
may be described as sandy loam will grow them well
without any aid whatever ; but we have noticed that the
most successful growers prepare the ground with care,
and put in a pretty liberal dressing of well-rotted farm-
yard manure.

The best time to plant out is just when the pots are
full of roots, and will turn out without breaking. Then
make your plantation, and if the weather be dry give
water every evening for a week, after which discontinue
watering for a week or so, unless the weather sets in
unusually dry and hot, in which case the water-pot must
be kept going. In a run of ten years, during which we
flowered all the varieties, we managed to do well without
often resorting to the water-pot. We had our plants
nicely rooted in small pots, and put them out in showery
weather, and did little more for them than to keep the
ground clear of weeds and afford aid as required in staking
and tying; and the bloom was always of good average
quality, and sometimes more than that.

In respect of taking up the corms, it is very important
to remark that you may incur serious loss by waiting
until the leaves die down, for in a mild, moist autumn they
will keep green until near Christmas ; meanwhile, perhaps,
the roots, being moist when they ought to be dry, become
diseased, and this is manifested in the next season in

80 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

various unpleasant ways. Therefore, when there comes
over the plantation a certain amount of yellowness, and
the leaves look as if they would die if they could, and
are only prevented by reason of the " growing weather,"
hesitate no longer, but lift them, and lay them in lots of
a sort in a dry shed, with as much earth about them as
adheres naturally, and in the course of a week afterwards
clean them by removing leaves and roots, and store in sand.
It is a delightful task to raise gladioli from seeds. To
obtain the seeds is an easy matter, but artificial fertilisation
should be practised to render the work complete. Sow the
seed in spring in shallow pans, which should be placed in a
moderate heat. When the grass appears, give air cautiously ;
and when the season is sufficiently advanced, place them
out of doors, and let them finish the first season's growth
in the seed-pans. Put these away untouched in a dry
place for the winter. In the month of March following
sift the soil and separate the corms, and plant these in pans,
and treat them as described above for the flowering corms.
A.t the end of May plant them out.

VIRGINIAN STOCK.

THE VIRGINIA STOCK.

Malcomia maritima.

O humble a flower is this that we
should despair of making a suffi-
cient vindication to justify the
picture, but, happily, it is a repre-
sentative of a very important class
of garden flowers — the hardy
annuals — with which most ama-
teurs make an agreeable beginning
in garden experiences. It is a
cruciferous or cross-flowered plant,
and in that respect might claim a
lot of attention ; for the wallflower,
the stock, the aubrietia, the rocket,
and the cabbage are cruciferous,
and have some striking properties
in common.

Hardy annuals are the cheapest
flowers in the world; many of them are gay,
and last long, and are delightfully fragrant,
and all of them are interesting and pleasing more or
less. It is usual to sow the seeds of these flowers in the
month of March in patches along the borders, and the
ciistomary practice answers very well. The weak point in
the practice, for the most part,, consists in sowing too many

82 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

seeds and leaving too many plants in a clump, for, being
crowded, they never acquire a proper degree of strength ;
and hence, if they flower freely, the flowers are small and
are soon over. When walking round the kitchen garden,
you will sometimes see a stray plant of parsley in the
cabbage or onion plot, and it is sure to be robust and
handsome, so that a punnet may be filled with its beau-
tiful leaves, and still leave the plant looking pretty well.
The reason this stray plant is so strong, while the parsley
sown in the row next the walk is quite lean as compared
with it, is that it has enjoyed plenty of air and light, as is
the way of vagabonds ; and hence their rude health and easy
endurance of circumstances that would kill the pampered
ones right away. Now and then a stray plant of Virginia
stock may be seen in like manner, and then what a plant it
is ! We have met with single plants measuring six to nine
inches across — a dense mass of healthy herbage, completely
smothered with flowers half as large again as those produced
on the thin, wiry plants where they are crowded in clumps
on the regulation pattern. And yet this lesson, so obvious
and so forcibly taught by nature, amateur gardeners are
very slow to learn, and they will go on sowing Virginia
stock and mignonette as if they would pave the ground
with the seed ; and, when the plants are up, will throw
away the second chance of success by refusing to thin
the plants, as they should, to from three to six inches
apart.

Annuals are occasionally grown in first-rate style, and
if well selected are, in the early part of the summer, re-
markably effective. There is almost only one point of
importance in the practice, and it consists in sowing the
seeds in the autumn.

THE VIRGINIA STOCK. 83

Let us now address ourselves to this subject. When
annuals are sown in autumn, it should be on poor, dry
ground. The object is to build up the plant slowly, as a
mountaineer that is thinly fed becomes sturdy through
constant exposure to all the airs of heaven more than by
the aid of such nourishments as are strewn in the lap of
luxury. The time of sowing must be regulated by the
latitude and local circumstances : in the far north, the end
of July is none too soon; in the midlands, the middle of
August is soon enough ; in the south, the sowing may be
prudently delayed until September ; and in the far south,
where geraniums often live through the winter, October is
soon enough. The object of sowing in autumn is to give
the plant the longest possible time to accumulate the sub-
stance requisite to the production of flowers. But if we
sow too early for the district, the plants may become stout
and succulent before the winter frost occurs, and when the
frost comes it may kill them. Hence the necessity of in
some degree adapting the season of sowing to the averages
of the local climate.

The safest mode of procedure is to sow in an open spot,
on poor soil, and thin the plants to about two inches apart
before they touch one another. In spring, when the weather
is favourable, transplant them to the spots whereon they are
required to flower, and do this as early as possible, that they
may become well established before they begin to throw up
their flowers. In a mild, open season the middle of February
is none too soon for this work ; but it should anywhere be
completed before March is out.

In places much exposed, where there might be a risk of
losing the stock in the winter, the seed may be sown on
beds made up for the purpose in turf pits. In this case

84 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

they must have plenty of air to keep them short in
statm-e and hardy in constitution.

The following are the most useful sorts of annuals for
sowing in autumn : — Calandrinia grandiftora, rich purple,
twelve inches in height; C. speciosa, purple, twelve inches;
Calliopsis bicolor, golden yellow, three feet ; Clarkia elegans,
lilac, two feet ; C. pulchella, rose-purple, eighteen inches ;
Collinsia bicolor, purple and white, twelve inches ; C. mul-
ticolor, crimson and white, twelve inches; C. verna, blue
shaded, twelve inches; Ert/simum Peroffskianum, orange-
yellow, exceedingly showy, eighteen inches; Eschscholtzia
crocea, orange, twelve inches ; Gilia tricolor, white and
purple, twelve inches ; Godstia Lady Albemarle, brilliant
crimson; G. rnbicunda splendens, purple, eighteen inches;
Iberis nmbellata, in variety, ten inches ; Ne mop hi la in-
signis, blue, six inches; Platystemon calif or nicum, sulphur-
yellow, six inches; Saponaria calabrica, deep rose-pink,
twelve inches; Silene pendula, pink, fifteen inches;
Viscaria ocnlata, rose-purple, eighteen inches.

BLUE LOBELIA.

Lobelia erinus.

PLANT so well known as the little
blue lobelia may appear capable of
telling its own story, but it is not
so; and there is so much in the
story that we must be business-
like, and avoid sentiment and
gossiping. It represents a pretty
group of dwarf-growing, wiry-
habited, free-flowering plants, the
flowers of which are mostly of
some shade of blue, but occasionally
white, rosy purple, and pucy pink.
They are all annuals or perennials,
according to the treatment they
receive and the kind of season
they have passed through. In a
hot dry summer they produce an
abundance of seed, and become ex-
hausted. In this case the old
plants are likely to die during the winter, however much
care may be taken of them. After a wet cool summer
the old plants are likely to survive the winter, if potted
and housed sufficiently early in the autumn.

In the cultivation of these dwarf lobelias, the saving

86 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

of old plants is resorted to only for the purpose of
supplying cuttings in spring1, annual renewals of the
plants being absolutely needful if a free growth and
an abundant bloom be desired. A quick way of making
stock is to tear the plants to pieces in the autumn, and
pot the little rooted tufts in sandy soil and store them
away in a greenhouse or pit. The section known as
"pumila," consisting of very dwarf cushion-like plants,
may be very well propagated by this method, but the more
wiry ones, such as ramosa and elegans, are best grown
from cuttings. They may all be most easily grown from
seeds sown in pans in February or March, and afterwards
pricked out to become strong in time for bedding, or the
seed may be sown in April where the plants are to
remain to flower, and if thinned in good time the plants
will do very well, although/ of course, they will flower
somewhat late.

All the Ipbelias, including the grand " cardinalis "
section, require a deep, rich, moist soil, and therefore, if
the soil of the garden is dry and poor, plenty of leaf-
mould, rotten turf, and old. hotbed manure should be
dug in where the lobelias are to be planted. None of
them are quite hardy, but none of them are particularly
tender, therefore moderate protection in a cool house or
pit will in general suffice for their preservation during
winter, but long-continued frosts will certainly prove
fatal to them. As they are a thirsty lot, an overdose
of water at any time will scarcely trouble them ; and if,
amongst the arrangements for bedding plants, any house
or pit proves too damp for geraniums, it will probably
happen that lobelias may be wintered there with perfect
safety.

BLUE LOBELIA. 87

The genus was named by Linnaeus in honour of a
remarkable man, who was one of the true founders of
botanical science. Matthias de Lobel was born at Lisle
in 1538, and was trained to the medical profession, under
the physician Rondelet, in whose honour the fragrant
rondeletia was named. Lobel, according to the good
custom of his time, prepared himself for the business of
life by travel, and in his wanderings he picked up a lot
of knowledge about plants. He settled as a physician
at Antwerp, but soon after went to Delft, where he was
appointed physician to William Prince of Orange. Some
time after this, but at what date no one can tell, he
came to England, and published in London, in 1570,
his " Novum Stirpium Adversaria," the object of which
was to investigate the botany and materia medica of the.
ancients. Now it is of the utmost importance, in con-
nection with the history of plants, to bear in mind that
this work contains the germ, and a large and good germ,
of the natural system. Lobel grouped the plants into
tribes and families by their affinities, which is the essence
of the natural system ; and it is somewhat surprising that
Linnaeus did not work on this basis instead of framing
his own artificial system, which, with all its ingenuity,
is comparatively valueless even as an aid to the memory,
although it becomes useful in spite of its inherent weak-
ness of principle when it happens to agree with the
natural system in the case of such groups as the grasses
and the composites.

Lobel was an industrious author and a consistent
worker in the garden. Under the patronage of Lord
Zouch he established a physic garden at Hackney, and in
due time was appointed king's botanist by James I., but

88 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

probably without a salary, and with but few official duties.
In 1576 he published his " Observationes," wherein may
be found the sources of much of the information embodied
in Parkinson's " Theatrum Botanicum " and other works
of the time that now surprise us by their erudition, their
comprehensiveness, and the delightful accuracy of their
engravings.

The lobelias are widely scattered, but there are not
many of them. There are two British species, namely,
L. urens, a very rare plant, found on heaths near Axmin-
ster, and L. Dortmanna, a rather showy water-plant with
blue flowers. The " erinus " section are natives of the
Cape of Good Hope, and comprise L. licolor and L. cam-
panulata, from which many of the garden varieties have
been bred. The splendid plants of the " herbaceous "
section, comprising L. cardinalis, L. splendens, and L.
f-iilgens, are natives of Mexico.

COM ME LIN A.

THE COMMELINA.

Commelina ceelestis.

IKES and dislikes, as regards flowers
and plants, are not very easy to
explain, and we shall not now at-
tempt to say why it is that many
people dislike the Commelina and
the Tradescantia and the rest of
the " spiderworts." However, it
may not be improper to remark
that in proportion as taste is in-
fluenced by knowledge it becomes
universal. Large-minded and gene-
rous-hearted people discover beau-
ties and points of peculiar interest
in all the works of nature, and we
may reasonably expect to find the
wise ones of this generation unen-
cumbered with prejudices in their
observation of the wonders that
spring up around them.
The Commelina takes its name from the Dutch bota-
nists, J. and G. Commelin, whom it thus keeps in remem-
brance, just as its near ally, the Tradescantia, is named
after John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I., a man who
contributed in an eminent degree to advance the botany

90 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

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

THE COMMELINA. 91

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

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

92 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The best figure of the plant that we have met with
in any botanical work is in Sweet's " British Flower
Garden " (t. 3). It is also figured in the Botanical Maga-
zine (t. 1659) as C. tuberosa, which Sweet regards as a
mistake ; for, he says, this has " smooth leaves and
hairy peduncles, whereas C. tuberosa has hairy leaves and
smooth peduncles/' The very broad views that now prevail
in respect of the characters of species would sanction the
opinion that these two " species " are but two forms of
the same plant ; but we must not encumber these pages
with the heavy arguments that might be needful to estab-
lish exact identity. Certain it is that " species " are now
more boldly separated than in the days of Sweet and
Herbert and HawToiih. After all, more depends perhaps
on words than ideas — that is, in respect of these verbal
distinctions. What one regards as a species, another may
regard as a mere variety, and the difference of terminology
will not matter much in the end, provided all behold the
truth as nature presents it to our notice.

COLUMBINE.

THE COLUMBINE.

Aquilegia vulgaris

NCE more we have to discourse
upon an "old-fashioned" garden
flower that everybody knows
and loves, and yet very few
make it the subject of any special
care in cultivation. It is as-
tonishing how well it can take
care of itself, as indeed do all
the aquilegias, for they scatter
their seeds freely and appear in
all sorts of places, and it requires
a rough hand and hard heart
to root them out and call them
" weeds. " According to the de-
rivation of the word from the
Latin columbina, a columbine
should bear a likeness in some
way or other to a dove or pigeon.
If there be any resemblance, however, it is of a round-
about sort. The nectaries are rather peculiar, and may
be likened to the heads of pigeons. The Latin name
aqnilcffia means " like an eagle," and so in both languages
the flower suggests the existence of a bird.

The common columbine is a British plant, by no

94 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

means common, though in a few places plentiful, its
favourite haunts being woods and coppices. When
grown in the garden border it scatters its seeds plen-
tifully, and thus renews itself without any care. But
fine flowers are not often obtained from the plants
thus naturalised in the garden. There must be careful
selection and good cultivation to insure the establishment
of a good strain, and none but the best should ever be
allowed to remain after the first flowers have been seen.
The double kinds are certainly handsomer than the
single, and as they do not produce seed, or at all
events but little, they must be multiplied by division.
Any good soil will suit them, and.they bear partial
shade without injury.

The economy of the reproduction of this flower is de-
serving of study. The nectaries, that may be likened to the
heads of birds, secrete a syrup that appears to be needed
to promote the growth of the stamens. These are pro-
duced in a series of circles which have been perfected suc-
cessively from within outwards, each series changing from
a recurved to an erect attitude to discharge its pollen,
the result being a very abundant production of seed.

The hardy species of columbines that may be met
with in gardens where choice plants are cherished have
no place in the catalogue of " familiar " flowers. They
are, however, extremely beautiful and intensely inte-
resting. The most useful of all is the noble blue and
white Aquilegia glandwlosa, which rises to a foot in
height, and produces a profusion of flowers. Aquilegia
carulea is the most beautiful of all, though it is cer-
tainly not showy ; its large and singular flowers — blue
and white, and tipped with green, and as it were twisted

THE COLUMBINE. 95

tog-ether — are rare and delicate, but make no appeal to
the casual eye. The showiest of the series are Aquilegia
Skinneri, a bold plant,, rising a yard high, with red and
yellow flowers ; and Aquilegia truncata, about the same
height, the flowers bright orange-scarlet. The Alpine
columbine (A. Alpina) is a charming plant, the height
about a foot, the flowers wholly blue, or with white
centre. Although some of these are comparatively new,
they belong properly to the " old-fashioned " class, and
are of the kind Clare had in his mind when he wove
a garland such as the heart will not willingly let die.

' ' The shining pans y, trimmed with golden lace ;
The tall topped lark-heeln, feathered thick with flowers ;
The woodbine, "climbing o'er the door in bowers ;
The London tufts of many a mottled hue ;
The pale pink pea, and monkshood darkly blue ;
The white and purple gillyflowers, that stay
Lingering in blossom summer half away ;
The single blood walls, of a luscious smell,
Old-fashioned flowers which housewives love so well ;
The columbines, stone blue, or deep night brown,
Their honey-comb like blossoms hanging down ;
Each cottage garden's fond adopted child,
Though heaths still claim them, where they yet grow wild ;
With marjoram knots, sweet brier, and ribbon grass,
And lavender, the choice of every lass."

During the past two or three years a new and very
welcome delight has been given to the flower-loving public
in the exhibition of new varieties of columbines, by those
eminent collectors and cultivators of rare plants, Messrs.
Veitch and Son of Chelsea. At festival meetings of the Royal
Horticultural and Royal Botanic Societies these new types
have been presented in large groups, tastefully arranged,
and have taken captive the eyes of many visitors, who

96 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

have found it hard to believe that such exquisitely beau-
tiful subjects might be grown to perfection in any open
garden with the aid of sunshine and fresh air. It is
customary for the first agreeable impression of a new
plant or flower to be accompanied by the thought that
it must be of exotic production, requiring hothouse cul-
tivation, and so of course these new aquilegias were
regarded as rare and tender, whereas they may be grown
by the thousand and the ten thousand from seed costing
but a small sum, and what is called a " common garden
border" will suffice for all their needs. The raiser of
these charming varieties was Mr. James Douglas.

WINTER JASMINE.

THE WINTER JASMINE.

Jasminum nudiflorum.

VERY known jasmine is worth
growing if space can be found
for it and taste inclines to it.
We cannot expect everybody to
grow everything, and therefore
we deprecate the earnestness of
those writers in horticultural
papers who devote their fine
energies to the abuse of people
who grow what suits themselves
in defiance of the dictates of their
egotistical critics. The jasmine
now under consideration is not
adapted for any great variety of
uses, but it is a pretty thing to
grow on a wall near doors and
windows, because in the dark days
of winter it will be all alive and
full of golden light with its generous display of yellow
flowers. As these appear when the plant is as yet with-
out a leaf, it is called the naked flowering jasmine
(Jasminum nndiflorutn) .

This jasmine was introduced from China by the late
Mr. Robert Fortune, as one of the results of his memorable

98 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

and successful expedition on behalf of the Royal Horti-
cultural Society, in the years 1843 to 1846. It is a hardy
deciduous shrub — so hardy, that although we have had
some half-dozen terrible winters since it became established
in the country, we have never heard of an instance of its
being destroyed or even seriously injured by severe frost.
Accustomed as we are to " floral surprises " — which do not
cease to " surprise " even when one gets used to them — we
think we were never more surprised than in the month
of March, 1880, when on the first look round after about
three months of the most destructive and horrible frost
and fog, we found on the wall beside the garden door a
delicate stippling of the yellow flowers, with an under-
colour of the grass-green branches of this storm-defving
and most cheerful jasmine. It was like life starting from
the grave, and at all events it was an assurance that the
grave had not closed over all things, as it seemed likely to
do, when the twelve days' fog of the preceding February
had carried both heart-break and sorrow into innumerable
homes where the winter had begun with mirth and gladness.
Such a plant is a pearl of great price, although it may be
bought with a shilling, and will grow anywhere, even in
the stuff the builders call " dirt/' As any soil will suit
this plant, so will any aspect. 'But a sheltered corner, and
if possible a dry, warm, sandy soil, should be chosen for it,
in order to secure its flowers- in plenty in the very depth of
winter. Then you have but to nail it carefully to the wall
or fence, and prune it just enough to keep it tidy. To
employ the knife in any way, with a view to promote the
production of flowers, will prove a grave mistake. Let
your tree grow in its own way, and it will flower in its own
way, and that will be the best way. But you may cut a

THE WINTER JASMINE. 99

little here and a little there to insure regularity of growth,
and if any portion of the tree appears exhausted through
age, cut the branch away to the base, and at the same
time remove a few inches of the -top soil, supplying its
place with fresh turfy soil or half-rotten stable-manure.
There must be no " cut-and-come-again " practice with
this jasmine, or you may have to whistle for flowers,
and that is a profitless pastime on a winter day when
the wind already whistles too loud for any one to hear
your piping.

There are several fine species of jasmine adapted for
general use that are but little known. Jasminumfruticans
is of upright habit, with dark green glossy leaves and
yellow flowers. /. humile is like the last in general
character, but more humble in growth ; the flowers are
yellow. /. revolutum makes a handsome bush, the leaves
dark green, the flowers yellow and fragrant. All these
are hardy, and flower during the summer. In places well
favoured as to climate a few fine species that are a trifle
tender may be planted, such as /. puligernm, J. Wal-
lichianum, and J. heteropkyllum, which have yellow flowers ;
and J. Azoricuin and J. odoratissinmm, which have white
flowers. Any good soil will suit this group, but they
need dryness and warmth, and are quite too tender for
the climate of London. The fruits of the jasmines are
not often seen, but in hot dry seasons the common white
jasmine (/. cfficinale] will in favourable localities produce
quite a crop of its round berries, of the size of smallish
peas, and of a dark colour.

If you happen to have any extent of walls that might
with advantage be devoted to the production of winter
flowers, the following may be planted with a prospect of

100

FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

happy results : — Chimonanthus fragrans, a very fine subject
when in a snug1, sheltered nook ; Chimonanilms grandiflorus
and C. luteus ; Forsytkia viridissima, Garrya elliptica, and
Cydonia Japonica. The first and the last of the list are
the best, and any good soil will suit them.

"• When thy heart, in its pride, would stray

From the first pure loves of its youth away —

When the sullying breath of the world would come

O'er the flowers it brought from its childhood's home,

Think thou again of the woody glade,

And the sound by the rustling ivy made —

Think of the tree at thy father's door,

And the kindly spell shall have power once more."

HEMANS.

BROWALLIA

THE BEOWALLIA.

Browallia elata.

not little things possess a special
value of their own, as great or
even exceeding the value of larger
things ? Pearls, rubies, emeralds,
diamonds, and forget-me-nots, for
instance, which are certainly small
as compared with cabbages, cauli-
flowers, and pumpkins. And hav-
ing mentioned forget-me-nots,
we are tempted to speak of this
Browallia as the American, or
more properly, perhaps, the Occi-
dental forget-me-not, for it comes
from the tropical parts of the
western continent, which nobody
ever thinks of when America is
mentioned, the northern parts

thereof having a monopoly of our attention. There is
another and nearly allied species called B. demissa, but
it is not much grown, for the simple reason that it is
not so good a plant as elata, of which there are two
varieties — the blue, which is here figured, and the white,
which diffei-s only in the colour of the flowers.

To grow this pretty annual it is necessary to sow the

102 FAMILIAR GAEDEN FLOWERS.

seed in light, rich soil in the month of March, and put the
pan containing the seeds on a mild hotbed or in a warm
greenhouse. When the plants are somewhat forward they
should be pricked out into pans or pots, and have another
term of culture in a warm house, and having been hardened
by careful exposure to the air, be planted out where they
are to flower. The rough treatment that suits some half-
hardy annuals will simply fail to produce a fair bloom of
this pretty plant, for it requires a long season of growth
before flowering, and is decidedly tender in constitution.
When well grown, however, it is replete with refined
beauty, owing to the profusion and delicacy of its tiny
slaty-blue flowers, and so we recommend the diligent
amateur who can care for little things to grow a few nice
specimens in pots. Having raised the plants on a moderate
hotbed, prick them out to strengthen as already advised, and
instead of planting them out to flower, put them in eight-
inch pots, about four plants to a pot, using rich, light soil,
and grow them on in the greenhouse, training them up with
care, and keeping them near the glass and well ventilated.

The elegant Schizant/ius pinnatus, S. porrigens, S.
Grahami, and S. retusus are closely allied to the Browallia,
and may be grown in the same way, but are less in need of
heat, as they are hardier. At all events, the two first-
named are hardy enough to be sown on the open border,
but are good enough to repay the trouble of growing them
well in pots, for they make most charming specimens ; and
the better if so»wn in autumn, so as to have a long season
of growth before flowering.

These flowers belong to the important order ScropJm-
larineaR, in which we find not only the Browallia and
schizanthus, but the calceolaria, verbascum, antirrhinum,

TEE BROWALLIA. 103

the pentstemon, and the mimulus, with many more
garden favourites that to the casual eye have but few
traces of a family likeness.

The Browallia was so named by Linna?us in remem-
brance of J. Browallius, Bishop of Abo, which was for-
merly the seat of government in Swedish Finland, and still
is the seat of a Lutheran archbishopric, although now it is
a Russian and not a Swedish city, having passed over with
the whole of Finland at the peace of Frederickshamm in
1809. Finland was a botanical playground to Linnaeus,
and its capital Abo was to him the most important,
because it was the nearest centre of learning and liberal
thought. Commemorative names of plants are in many
respects objectionable, but there is something to be said
in their favour, and in any case the names that Linnaeus
bestowed on plants " tb^ world will not willingly let die."
Of one flower in particular may this be said, for the delicate
two-flowered Linnaea, the Linncea borealis of the botanist,
he named after himself. It is a humble creeping shrub
of the cold morasses of the north, producing exquisitely
beautiful though unattractive miniature bell-flowers in
pairs. The great botanist, remembering his own humble
origin, and conscious of a merit that then had not been
generally recognised, chose this flower for the emblem of
his own career, and described it as " a little northern
plant, flowering early, depressed, abject, and long over-
looked." It may not be too wide a departure from the
course set before us to remark that in those few words
we have a great poem, wanting neither verse, nor rhyme,
nor music to indicate the pathos that cannot be concealed.
Linnaeus was indeed a poet, though he was and is properly
ranked among the soldiers of science.

104 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The Browallias may be advantageously employed to
embellish the greenhouse and conservatory during the
summer. For this purpose we have not so great a variety
of flowers as may appear from a casual consideration of the
subject, because a large proportion of decorative plants
thrive so much better when planted out than when kept in
pots and flowered under glass. These little tropical forget-
me-nots enjoy the shelter and comparatively uniform tem-
perature of the greenhouse during the summer, and in
places where the climate is usually unfavourable to tender
plants in the open ground it is advisable not to plant
them out, but to grow fine pot specimens for flowering
in-doors. Then it will be found that the two varieties of
B. elata, giving flowers white and blue ; with B. pulchella,
with flowers rosy purple; B. grandiflora, with flowers
yellow ; and B. Jamesoni, with flowers orange — will make
an interesting collection. Associate with them a few fine
pot specimens of the delicate schizanthus, and the conserva-
tory will not lack interest and beauty.

EVERLASTING PEA.

THE
EVERLASTING PEA.

Lathy rus latifolius.

;OXE of the old-fashioned flowers,
as it is the new fashion to call
them, can fairly stand before the
half-dozen sorts of everlasting
peas that may be met with in
gardens where fashion is unknown
and beauty is pre-eminent. When
they have held their ground a
few years, and have made great
bosses of rampant growth, crowned
and crowded with flowers, they are
altogether glorious. They are a
little too riotous in temper, too
exuberant in spreading themselves
about, for the very trim garden
where straight lines prevail and
the knife and shears are kept con-
stantly at work ; and yet it must need a curious frame of
mind in any one who, having seen a clump of everlasting
peas in flower, should after that desire to limit their
growth or put them out of the garden altogether.

The rambling botanist who cares not for garden flowers
will scarcely turn aside from these, for they will remind
him of some of the glorious wildings of the pea tribe he

106 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

has met with in his wanderings, such as Vicia cracca and
l/atkyrm sylvestris, which are apt to throw their arms
about as if the hedgerows belonged to them, and boundaries
and rights had never been heard of in the land. And it
is worthy of remark that these splendid wildings may be
easily introduced into the garden by simply gathering the
ripe seeds (of which the plants produce plenty), and sowing
them where they are to remain, taking care, however, to
give them a reasonable chance of struggling up into the
light in positions similar to those they find for themselves
in their vast domain of no-man's-land. As a rule, a sandy
soil suits them best, as may be known by their frequency in
sandy districts ; but they like good living, and starving land
will not produce many vetches, whether wild or cultivated.
In like manner all our cultivated species of lathyrus, orolus,
and astragalus do best on a deep sandy loam. But they
are not very particular, provided they have a good soil of
some sort, and are left alone for a few years to become
well established in it. Indeed, nine-tenths of the best of
our hardy flowers only ask to be left ^alone to find delight
in doing their duty. If they are transplanted about from
place to place — as it is the way of beginners to treat all
their plants — they take the sulks and refuse to flower, or
they take themselves off, and so teach a lasting though
disagreeable lesson.

The round-leaved pea (Lathyrus rotundifolius] grows
to a height of about two feet, and flowers in August. The
flowers are produced in long loose clusters of a bright rosy
purple colour. It is a native of the Caucasus, and tho-
roughly hardy. Its low growth precludes its employment
to cover arbours and trellises ; but it is a good rockery
plant, and may with advantage be planted where it can

THE EVERLASTING PEA. 107

run amongst low shrubs, and find a little support for its
delicate stems.

The broad-leaved pea (L. latifolins) is no doubt a
variety of our woodland pea (L. sylvestris). It will run
to a height of six to eight feet, and flowers somewhat early
in the summer, the flowers being of a rich rose colour.
It has been found growing wild in several districts far
removed from each other ; but has always been regarded as
an escape from gardens rather than as an indigenous plant.

The white everlasting pea is a variety of the last-
named. Its distinguishing characteristic is seen in its pure
white flowers, which blossom in prodigal profusion ; for the
plant produces but few seeds, and thus reserves its energy
for display. While other kinds of everlasting peas are
easily multiplied by sowing seeds, this must be "increased
by division of the roots or by striking cuttings. Happilv,
there is no difficulty in either practice. The proper time to
strike cuttings is when the new growth is rising in the
spring, when the young shoots, being planted on a moderate
hotbed, will make roots in the course of a few days, and
soon after begin to grow vigorously.

This fine plant maybe employed in a variety of ways in
the garden. It is one of the finest of its class to train to
the walls of an artificial ruin or about any quaint, rustic
edifice that needs the embellishment of delicate but riotous
vegetation. And it makes a fine bedding plant, being
regularly dotted all over a large bed, and assisted to diffuse
its growth by means of light brushwood laid amongst it.
The folks who have succeeded in making grand beds of the
new varieties of clematis will find the white everlasting pea
a fine companion subject for them.

The marsh vetchling (L. palustris) grows two to three

108 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

feet high, and produces rather small clusters of bluish-
purple flowers early in the summer. It is a bog- plant, and
when planted in the garden, therefore, a damp situation
will suit it best.

The large-flowered pea (L. grandtflorus) is a fine plant,
with hairy herbage and large rosy flowers, produced in
clusters of two or three. It runs about four feet, and
requires a warm sandy or light loamy soil. It is a capital
plant for the front of a rockery.

The Californian pea (L. Californicu.s) runs about four
feet; the flowers are light purple and white, extremely
pleasing. This also is a good rockery plant, being allowed
to fall over and make festoons in its own way.

The tuberous pea (L. tuberosa) is of low growth, rarely
running more than three feet, and generally less. The
flowers appear early, and are of a pleasing rose colour. It
is a good rock and border plant. The tuberous root is
edible, and has been sometimes spoken of as a likely substi-
tute for the potato. But there is no substitute for the
potato, unless it be bread — which is like saying the best
substitute for silver is gold.

WHITE BEGONIA.

WHITE BEGONIA.

Begonia Mont Blanc.

ONE of the newer kinds of
garden flowers have higher
claims on the attention of ama-
teurs than the tuberous bego-
nias. The hybrid clematis may
rank equal in importance, and
certainly should not be ranked
far below them. The begonias
are so nearly hardy, so easily
grown, whether as specimens
for the conservatory or as useful
flowering plants for the sum-
mer garden, and are withal so
various and beautiful, that the
lovers of gardens may be well
advised to take them in hand
with earnestness, and to add
to their number by the systematic raising of seedlings.

It is not necessary to grow these plants from seed,
because the named varieties are low-priced and easily
obtainable. But there is great interest attaching to the
raising of seedlings, and we shall advise as to the pro-
cedure. If a collection of the finest kinds are flowered
in a light airy conservatory, there will be abundance of

110 FAMILIAR GARDEX FLOWERS.

seed produced. It will be advisable to fertilise the female
flowers — which are easily distinguished by the incipient
seed-pod at the base — with pollen taken from male flowers
differing from them in colour. The seed-pods should be
pinched off before the seeds begin to scatter, and being
laid loosely in a clean box or glass dish, will soon ripen,
and none of the seed will be lost. The seed is as fine as
snuff, and in sowing it care should be taken not to cover
it with soil at all. Prepare some shallow boxes or pans,
with about three inches of light rich soil — say turfy loam,
clean leaf-mould, and very old rotten hotbed manure in
equal parts. Having sprinkled some sand over the surface
and pressed it flat with a board, sprinkle the seed very
thinly, and then cover with a sheet of common glass.
The soil ought to be moist enough to need no watering
until the plants are up, but should water be needed, the
boxes or pans must be immersed nearly to the top edge
for an hour or two, and should then be removed. In a
warm greenhouse or pit the seed will soon germinate,
and the seed-~boxes will present the pleasing appearance of
hundreds of young begonias.

The best time for sowing the seed is during February
and March, as the young plants have the whole summer
before them to complete their growth. Being carefully
pricked out into other pans or boxes, and as soon as large
enough sepai'ately potted, they will grow rapidly, and the
whole of them will floAver before the season is past. As
they flower those of no merit should be destroyed; the
best, of them should be named or numbered ; and a few
plants may be struck from cuttings of any decidedly good
ones that flower early.

The result of a season's growth will be the formation of

WHITE BEGONIA. Ill

tuberous roots, and the best way to keep these is in the
pots without disturbing them. If nearly, but not quite,
dust-dry, and guarded from frost, they will be perfectly safe
through the winter. In the month of February they should
be shaken out and planted in shallow boxes filled with a
similar soil to that recommended for the seeds. It is a
matter of importance never to put them in pots or boxes
containing more than two or three inches of soil in the
first instance, for in a deep soil they are apt to rot ; but in
a shallow soil they are sure to grow, the temperature of
a warm greenhouse being sufficient for the purpose. A
moderate amount of care will insure a fine lot of plants
by the end of May, when they should be very carefully
" hardened " in frames to prepare them for planting out.
About the second week in June is, generally speaking, the
best time to put them out in beds; but in the southern
and western counties they may be put out at the end of
May, and provided they are not punished by frost, it
may be said the sooner they are planted the better. They
will flower superbly, and in all adverse seasons it will
be found that these frail, succulent, and comparatively
tender plants endure wind and rain with less harm than
any other bedders. In a dry hot season they must have
plenty of water, but in an average season they will need
but little or none.

The following varieties for summer flowering constitute
a fine collection : — Mont Blanc, Coral Rose, Countess of
Kingston, J. H. Laing, Lady Hume Campbell, Lemoinei,
Trocadero, Mrs. Laing, Louis Thibaut, General Roberts,
White Queen, Laing's Superba.

To produce fine specimens some strong plants should
be dried off and rested as soon as convenient, without

112 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

imposing any check. At the turn of the year these should
be shaken out and re- potted in fresh soil in smallish pots,
and put into a temperature of 50° to encourage growth.
When inclined to move, the heat should be increased to
60°, and after a time to 70°, but beyond that it will not
be safe to increase the temperature. When the plants so
treated have filled their pots with roots they should be
shifted to the next size, and be again and again shifted as
needful, but never until the pots are filled with roots, and
never beyond a reasonable size of pot. If the shifting
into larger and larger pots is carried too far, there will be
immense growth but no flowers, therefore you may reason-
ably stop when the plants are in 8-inch or 10-inch pots.
Then let them flower, and you will be well rewarded. As
a matter of course they must be kept neatly staked, and
flowers that appear before the plants have attained to a
suitable size must be pinched out. A compost consisting
of loam, leaf -mould, and very old manure from a hotbed
is the best for them ; rank or fresh manure is objection-
able, and liquid manure should be given occasionally.

SWEET PEA.

THE SWEET PEA,

Lathyrus odoratus.

T is a singular circumstance thai
the sweet pea has been com-
monly regarded as a half-hardy
annual, whereas it is as hardy
as any pea in cultivation, and
the seed may not only be "sown
in February in the open ground,
but in November, and if the
mice do not eat it the winter will
not kill it, and in due time the
plants will appear with the sunshine
of the early spring. But this fine
plant deserves extra care, and should
never be grown in a careless manner.
It is the custom with many gardeners
to sow the seed in pots and nurse the young
plants in frames, but we f refer to sow them
where they are to remain, and to defer
doing this until the middle of March, for if the plants
come up with a flush of warm weather before the frosts
are over, they are apt to be nipped, and transplanting
puts them back, so that to raise them in pots for the
purpose is decidedly objectionable. Thus we simplify the

114 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

ordinary cultivation, but we must urge that what is done
should be done well. A piece of mellow soil in an open
situation should be prepared, by being well dug and rather
liberally manured, in autumn or winter, and when the seed
is sown this should be dug over again and the lumps
broken to make a nice seed-bed ; then sow in a neat drill
an inch and a half deep, and very soon after the plants
appear put to them stakes of brushwood about four feet
high, selecting for this purpose the neatest and most
feathery pea-sticks you can find. Peas that are grown to
eat may be supported roughly, but peas that are grown
to be admired for their beauty should be supported in
the neatest manner possible; therefore wire trellises and
" rissels " made for the purpose may with advantage be
employed, especially when the peas occupy a prominent
situation in the garden.

In the event of dry hot weather occurring early in
the summer, sweet peas should be liberally watered two
or three times a week, and if the natural soil is sandy or
chalky it may be advisable to mulch the rows with half-
rotten stable dung, which, if needful, can be concealed
with a sprinkling of earth. To keep them flowering freely
to the end of the season, all the pods should be removed
upon becoming visible, and the plants, being thus relieved
of the tax upon their energies the swelling- of the seed
would entail, will maintain their vigour more completely,
and flower the more freely in consequence.

The commonest sample of sweet peas, that may be
bought for a penny at the nearest stall, is worth sowing
and growing, -and will give delight to all who see and smell
the flowers. There are no bad sorts in cultivation, and so
if the seed is alive, that is enough. But those who take a

THE SWEET PEA. 115

pride in growing fine flowers will do well to secure seeds of
some of the named varieties of sweet peas that are offered
by the great seed-houses, for they are distinct and glorious,
and will contribute in a most especial manner to the
delights of the garden, and at a cost so small that it would
be a breach of politeness in this connection to talk about
money. Secure a supply of each of the sorts that are on
offer, and sow them separately ; you will then have only
half a dozen rows at the utmost, for there are not more
than as many sorts in the lists. Or — happy thought ! — •
mix them and sow them thinly in well-made ground, and
then you will be able to gather several sorts on the
same spot, which will often prove a convenience. They
are extremely useful for decorative purposes and large
" nosegays," but must be used with caution in bouquets
and button-holes.

Peas are "papilionaceous" plants — that is to say,
their flowers are like butterflies.

" Here are sweet peas, on top-toe for a flight,
With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white."

They are also '"leguminous" plants — from legumen, pulse
— the seeds- being substantial nutritive things produced in
cases or pods which are sometimes like parchment, some-
times like paper, and sometimes tender and sweet, so that,
as in the sugar pea, the whole thing is eaten, or, as people
say, the "whole hog, skin and bristles." Poor "Bully
Bottom " called upon Master Peas-blossom to scratch his
head, and being thus scratched by Master Peas-blossom,
he must needs have a donkey's appetite, and desire "a
bottle of hay" or "a handful or two of dried peas."
Nor need the donkey be ashamed of his relative, for the

116 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWEES.

choice of peas was not a bad choice, and it might be well
for mankind at large, as well as for the asinine brotherhood,
were peas more extensively relied upon as a kind of food
likely to " stick to the ribs.-" As regards usefulness, the
pea family is one of the wonders of creation ; but as we
cannot afford space to be scientific, we shall quietly quit
the subject while our shoes are good.

" An early worshipper at Nature's shrine,
T loved her rudest scenes — warrens and heaths,
And yellow commons, and birch- shaded hollows,
And hedgerows bordering unfrequented lanes ;
Bower'd with wild roses, and the clasping woodbine,
Where purple tassels of the tangling vetch
With bittersweet, and bryony inweave,
And the dew fills the silver bindweed's cups.
I love to trace the brooks whose humid banks
Nourish the harebell, and the freckled pagil ;
And stroll among o'ershadowing woods of beech,
Lending in summer, from the heats of noon,
A whispering shade, while haply there reclines
Some pensive lover of uncultured flowers."

CHARLOTTE SMITH.

HONEYSUCKLE.

THE HONEYSUCKLE.

Lonicera cnprifolitim.

VERY plant has its place, as
every dog has its day, and the
very place for this honeysuckle
is the wall of a comfortable Eng-
lish cottage, whereon it appears
more at home than anywhere else
in all the world, not forgetting
the woods in the south of Europe,
wherein it plays the reveller, and
perfumes the breeze. We call it
British, and may find it occa-
sionally in a wild state ; but it
is a doubtful native, although
well adapted for naturalisation
in woods and thickets and the
wilder parts of garden scenes.
The smaller and ever-welcome woodbine (Lonicera peri-
clymenum] is beyond doubt indigenous, and is one of the
most widely-diffused of our woodland vines, and worthy
of its renown in song and story. Titania, addressing the
ridiculous weaver of Athens, says : — '

" I will wind thee in my arms.
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist."

118 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

But this passage, perhaps, we should not have quoted, be-
cause of the grave question arising out of the distinction
implied between the " woodbine " and the " sweet honey-
suckle." However, we will meet the difficulty, because it
is one of great interest. The explanation is that there is
in English poetry more than one woodbine, but there is
only one honeysuckle. The woodbine of Shakespeare was,
in all probability, the convolvulus. Gifford pointed out
the true meaning of the passage in his note upon a parallel
passage in Ben Jonson : —

"Behold

How the blue bindweed doth itself enfold
With honeysuckle, and both these entwine
Themselves with briony and jessamine.''

Readers of the "divine bard'' may remember that a
certain hostess (2 "King Henry IV.," ii. 1) denounces the
mighty Falstaff as a "honeysuckle villain " and a " honey-
seed rogue/' by which, perhaps, we may understand that
she thought his fair words and winning ways made him
doubly dangerous as a creditor and a cheat. It is agreeable
to turn from the theatrical weaver and the stout knight
to the invitation of Hero in " Much Ado about Nothing"

(iii. 1) to

" Steal into the pleached bower,
Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter ; like favourites
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it."

Now to turn from poetry to the garden itself. There
are from eighty to a hundred species of Lonicera adapted
for the English garden, out only half a dozen or so have
hitherto obtained much attention. The peculiar "per-
foliate " character of L. caprifolium is displayed in the illus-

THE HONEYSUCKLE. 119

tration, this style of leafage being called by the botanists
"connate." Of the common L.periclymenum there are several
varieties known — Dutch, Belgian, oak-leaved, late-red, &c.,
all of which have some degree of special merit ; but the
variegated-leaved variety is worthless. One of the very
best for a good place in the garden is L. sempervirens, the
trumpet honeysuckle, an American species, with bold heads
of scarlet flowers, which are inodorous. Under the name
Lonicera brachypoda we may group half a dozen garden
varieties, such as L. Chinensis and L. Japonica; and here
we find one of the most beautiful of the family in that
called Aureo-reticulata, which is exquisitely rich in its
leafage, and well worth attentive observation. It will be
noticed that at one time the leaves are lobed like those of
the oak-tree, and at another time they are simply ovate or
elliptical, without lobes, for they alter in form as they grow,
and they are always richly painted with bright-green lines
on a ground of gold-yellow or full deep orange, which
acquires rich tinges of red when the chills of autumn check
the growth. Wherever this plant can be accommodated
with a trellis, or can be carried by an arch over a walk,
or have careful training up a wall to a height of ten to
twenty feet, it should be allowed "a chance." It will
grow grandly and flower sweetly, and if it happens to be
the only plant of Japan you possess, it will compel you
to cherish agreeable thoughts of that interesting country,
from which we have derived a very large proportion of
our most valued garden flowers.

The winter-flowering honeysuckle (L.fragrantissima) is
an extremely useful but altogether unattractive shrub. It
grows in a style similar to a lilac, and does not climb or
riot at all. Its light green leafage is agreeable in summer ;

120 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

in fact, it is quite a respectable border shrub. But its best
quality is its production very early in the year — even in
January if the winter be a mild one — of an abundance of
small white flowers that are very sweet-scented. '

The genus Lonicera is named in' honour of Adam
Lonicer, a physician and naturalist, born at Marburg in
1528. He studied at Mainz, took the degree of doctor
in 1554, and soon after settled at Frankfort, where he
practised as a physician. He wrote many books, but one
only appears to have acquired a lasting renown ; this is
the " Naturalis Histories Opus novum," in two parts, first
published in 1551 and 1555. • In the second part there is
much curious information about plants, and particularly
those that grow near Frankfort; and it contains a list
of plants in various languages to which the student of
botanical terminology may refer with advantage.

CRIMSON FLAX.

THE CEIMSON FLAX.

Linuin yrandifloruiH.

,HEN Pharaoh trembled to behold
the plague of hail, " and fire
mingled with the hail, very
grievous/' he repented, and be-
sought Moses to "intreat the
Lord ;" and Moses spread abroad
his hands, " and the thunders and
hail ceased/' Then it was found
" that the flax and the barley was
smitten : for the barley was in
the ear, and the flax was boiled/'
This passage establishes the cul-
tivation of flax in Egypt 1,500
years before the Christian era,
and over 500 years before the
time of Homer, who speaks of
it as representing an important
domestic industry. Herodotus
describes the Egyptian priests
as wearing linen garments, as in after-times was the
custom of the priests of Israel, as ordained in Exodus
xxviii. The common annual flax bearing blue flowers
was, in all probability, the plant grown for fibre from
the earliest times in all parts of the Old World.
P

122 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

Whatever maybe the economic relations of the crimson
flax, there can be no mistake as to its rank as a garden
plant. It is certainly one of the most splendid hardy
annuals known, and is capable of becoming1 a perennial
under suitable management. Its average growth is twelve
to fifteen inches ; the leaves are elliptic to linear, the upper
ones the largest. The flowers are in a loose terminal
panicle, each measuring about one and a half to two inches
across, salver-shaped, the colour deep carmine or crimson,
the claw of each petal streaked with white lines, and
divided from the limb by a transverse mark of red-brown ;
the sepals have white margins. Thus it will be seen that
when the flowers have been admired for their fine form
and rich colour, some entertainment may be derived from
a minute examination of their structure.

To grow this plant to perfection is an easy task. The
first step to be taken is to insure a true sample of seed,
for worthless kinds of flax are sometimes sold for it. The
soil in which the plant makes the finest growth is a free,
fertile, sandy loam, but any soil in which summer flowers
usually thrive will suit it. The seeds should be sown in
a pan in a frame in the month of March, and be carefully
nursed until the plants are large enough to handle, when
they should be planted out six inches apart. From the
time the seedlings appear they should have plenty of air
and light, for if at all drawn or weakened in the early
stages the bloom will be less satisfactory. A sunny open
position should be chosen for the bed, and a few waterings
must be given if the weather is dry when they are newly
planted out. If sowing in a frame be not convenient, the
seeds may be sown where they are to remain some time
in April, or if the soil be naturally dry and warm, in

THE CRIMSON FLAX. 123

March, and in due time the plants must be thinned to six
inches apart. They require no support and no special
attention,, and dryness with heat will do them no harm
if they have been assisted in the early stages to become
well established.

In common with most other plants, the crimson flax
is greatly benefited by systematic removal of the flowers
as their beauty declines, to prevent the growth of seed.
But if seed be wanted, they must be allowed to run their
course, and the round seed-pods must be gathered when
nearly ripe, and be spread in the sun under cover to finish,
when the seed may be shelled out, and stored away in a
paper or linen bag.

The common flax (Linnm nsitatissimuni) ; although but
little prized as a garden plant, is not wanting in beauty.
Its extremely light and airy style of growth, and its
comparatively large salver-shaped blue or white flowers,
render it an interesting if not an attractive plant. Of
its uses it would be almost idle to speak here, because
we could not hope in a. few words to convey to the reader
anything that is not already well known. However, at
the risk of retailing stale news, we will briefly record
that we have seen flax fibre prepared for the workers
in .Brussels lace, and have experienced surprise at the
excessive care bestowed upon the business, while all
wonder as to the high prices of the best kinds of lace
was by the same experience taken away. The flax is
grown with great care at Hal and Rebecque, and the
retting is conducted with scrupulous nicety, to secure
clean fibre of great strength. The thread for the lace is
spun in rooms kept nearly dark, to discipline the eye and
the fingers to the delicate task of rejecting all that is

124 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

faulty and securing a thread of exceeding fineness and
great strength. As regards the strength, indeed, some
samples that are as fine as the threads of a spider's web
are nevertheless as strong as a metal wire. The result of
all this care is that the thread is worth its weight in gold
before the making of the lace begins. There is now
much inferior thread used in the production of cheap laces,
but certain manufacturers of Bi'ussels maintain the high
quality for which their city has long been famous, and those
who care to pay the price may obtain lace of modern
make, equal in every way to the best of laces that have
acquired historical renown.

IRIS

THE IRIS,

Iris Gfrmaniea.

RIS was the daughter of Thaumas
and Electra, and her office was that
of messenger to Juno. Therefore
it is that in the " Iliad " and the
<^Eneid" this "lady of colour" has
important business to transact, and,
as a matter of course, her traffic
between heaven and earth is facili-
tated by that prehistoric railroad
and aerial bridge, the "bow bent
in the sky," resplendent with in-
numerable tints. The hues of the
rainbow are seen in the human eye,
for in truth the bow is there —

"Bespeaking our fears, dissolving in

tears,

And looking to heaven through
colours of love."

Hence the eye, which is the sole
source of our knowledge of colour,
is the symbol of Iris, and the flower before us derives its
name from the variety and splendour of its painting, and
is, as our cousins of the West might say, a genuine " eye-
opener " when summer has renewed the beauty of its bloom.

126 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

The common iris, or " flag-," is Iris Germanica. This
is well known by its distinct sabre-shaped leaves and
noble blue flowers. It may be seen everywhere in London
gardens, and yet where a London garden is managed in
first-rate style, it cannot be counted among the most
desirable plants for it. But we have now to do with
its intrinsic merit, which is known to all. Given an
ample range of border enclosing- a croquet or bowling-
green, or a free range of woodland walks, and we have
a suitable domain for a collection of varieties of German
iris, of which there are about fifty in cultivation. These
present us with all possible colours save pure yellow and
pure scarlet. They are wonderful in shades of blue,
purple, lilac, lavender, brown, orange, buff, and pearly
grey, put on in blotches, patches, circles, spots, marginal
lines, and delicate pencilling^. Any garden would be rich
with a collection of these, and to examine and criticise
them when in flower would afford many a summer clay's
delight. Any good deep ga'rden soil will suit the German
iris.

Another remarkable section of the family is that known
to botanists as Iris lavigarta, but in ga'rdens denominated
Iris Kampferi. This species has been for centuries cul-
tivated by the Japanese, and the best of their varieties
have been subjected to comparison and improvement in
Holland and Germany, and one result is that the named
sorts now available for the English garden are as worthy
of a place in it as any hardy plants known. They differ
from all other irises in the size of the flowers as compared
with the leaves, the large lobes of the flowers, and the
predominance of rich deep hues of crimson and purple
with other colours amongst them. A rich deep soil and

THE IRIS. 127

an ojvn sit tuition are requisite to ensure a good growth
of Iris Kampferi, and it thrives best in open beds.

A third section comprises those known in gardens as
Crimean irises, Iris puinila. These are of dwarf growth ;
they flower freely, and are very gay, while their neatness
of habit tits them for edging flower-beds, and of course
they would be appropriate to give a finish to beds con-
taining the larger and grander varieties. The colours that
prevail amongst these dwarf irises are purple, dark blue,
pale blue, straw-yellow, and white. They will thrive ia
any soil, but attain to their fullest perfection in a rather
dry, deep sandy loam or sandy peat. They have increased
and flowered freely on our heavy, damp clay, and therefore
we are not afraid to say that any soil will suit them.

It is proper now to remark upon a few species that are
calculated to afford much entertainment to the amateur of
hardy plants, and it is the more desirable to mention them
in this notice, because they are at once cheap, beautiful,
interesting, and but little known beyond the narrow circle
of advanced florists and horticultural botanists. Iris cris-
tata comes near to the Crimean iris in general characters ;
the flowers are blue, with deeper blue spots, and wavy ribs,
or "crests," tinted yellow and orange. Iris Florentine
may be added to the Germanic group as nearly related to
them ; the flowers are white, with a blue tinge and a yellow
beard, agreeably fragrant. Iris fcetidissima has a bad
name, but it is a tine plant, bearing lead-coloured or dull
yellow flowers, which are succeeded by clusters of scarlet
berries, that are very useful in Christmas decorations. A
damp situation suits this plant. The variegated-leaved
variety is one of the handsomest plants of its class in
cultivation. Iris ibericot, is a remarkable plant, with

128 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

immense dark flowers, superbly streaked, veined, and
spotted. This is scarce at present, and may be ad-
vantageously grown in pots as a frame plant. It is,
however, hardy enough for a dry, warm nook in the rock
garden. Iris Monnieri is a grand plant, with fragrant
yellow flowers. It requires a rich, deep, moist soil, and
a warm situation. Iris pallida is distinct and fine; the
flowers are pale blue, with pale yellow beard ; it will thrive
in almost any soil and situation, and may be classed with
the German irises. Iris pseudacons is the common
English water-flag, a truly noble species, which adorns
with its golden banners many a broad river and sluggish
meadow stream. It is worth a place in the woodland border,
and the variegated-leaved variety is a good garden plant,
Iris reticulata is an exquisite gem, with narrow, rush-like
leaves, and flowers plentifully produced, the colours rich
violet-purple, strongly stamped in the centre with deep
rich gold. The extreme elegance and fragrance of the
flowers, and the tendency of the plant to suffer from
damp, render it desirable to treat this as a pot-plant.

CRIMSON PETUNIA.

THE
CRIMSON PETUNIA.

Petunia ph&nicea.

LANTS of the new world often
lack interest through sheer
meagreness of " associations/'
and the petunia is a trite ex-
example of this. Its useful-
ness as a garden flower rests
on its beauty first, and next
on the ease with which it
may be adapted to a variety
of circumstances for deco-
rative effect. At page 10
of the present Series will be
found some remarks upon the
name and character of the
plant, and we shall therefore
now speak of its cultivation
only.

The flower before us, which for convenience sake we
name Petunia phcenicea, is a garden variety, therefore
not to be regarded as typical for botanical purposes.
Indeed, we can scarcely speak of it as a proper hybrid,
but rather a cross, no one knows how many times re-
moved, from P. violacea, P. nyclaginijlorat P. phosnieea.

130 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

and others that have been bred from in gardens, and
so often crossed that it is in vain to look for distinct
specific characters in the named varieties that now find
favour. The seed-growers select certain showy types,
taking care to insure plants of good habit, and they allow
them to seed in a wild sort of way, the bees being free to
cross them as they will, and the customers who buy and
grow the seed being equally free to select from their seed-
ling plants such as they consider worth a better fate than
to be disposed of as annuals, which are here to-day and
gone to-morrow.

Garden petunias may be classed under three heads :
unnamed seedlings of various colours, named single
varieties, and named double varieties. The cheapest of
all modes of obtaining a tine lot is to sow the seed thinly
on a well-made sunny border about the middle of April.
As soon as the plants are furnished with three or four
leaves, those that are crowded should be drawn out and
transplanted to a similarly favourable spot, but as many as
possible should be allowed to remain to flower where sown.
When they are in flower the best should be marked ; and if
it is desired to perpetuate them, cuttings should be struck
in August, five or six together in. five-inch pots in sandy
loam, and in these pots they should remain, having the
shelter of a frame or greenhouse during the winter
months. Thus you will have secured for flowering a
second time, and indeed for as many years thereafter as
may suit your pleasure or convenience, the best of the
kinds that were in the first instance produced from pur-
chased seed.

Npw, if you have in you the spirit of a florist you will
regard this little lot of selected sorts as the traditional half-

THE CRIMSON PETUNIA. 131

crown that the enterprising lad starts from home with when
destined to marry his master's daughter and become Lord
Mayor of London. The way to make your floral fortune
is to plant them, let them run to seed, and thereby begin
the world anew by means of seed of your own saving.
You will sow, and grow, and select as befoi'e ; and there
is in truth no knowing to what glorious pitch of perfec-
tion you may eventually, by patience and skill, bring the
petunia or any other flower that you may deal with in
the same way.

We began on a cheap plan ; but there is a better. It
consists in buying plants of the best named varieties, and
raising seeds from these, thus securing all that has been
done by a thousand florists at the first start. But you are
not bound to raise seedlings at all. If you want to have
the best possible petunias for the least possible trouble, you
have but to purchase the named sorts and grow them well,
and there is an end of the matter.

To grow nice pot specimens of petunias is evidently not
an easy matter, because we meet with very many at exhi-
bitions that are not nice. The general fault consists in
the growth being prolonged and rusty, suggesting to the
critical observer that the plants have been crowded and far
from the glass, and in soma degree neglected as regards
watering. The petunia is a veiy accommodating plant ; it
is very nearly hardy, and therefore should have plenty of
air when growing freely. A light, rich, sandy soil should
be employed in the growth of pot specimens, and the shoots
should be pinched back in a slight degree in the early
stages to promote a dwarf, bushy habit ; and of course the
training to neat stakes should proceed with every advance
in the growth of the plants.

132 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

When kept under glass during the summer, the petunia
soon becomes infested with green-fly, the only mode of
removing which is to fumigate with tobacco smoke at
night, when the plants are quite dry, and early the next
day to give them a slight cleansing shower of clean water
with the syringe. All plants that are nearly hardy will
thrive better in frames than in greenhouses from Mav to
October, as they can be fully exposed to light, air, and
dew, and may be protected at any time from storm and
frost.

THE ASTEK.

CaUistemma hortemis.

HIS charming flower, which ranks
with the balsam in importance
as an annual, has no history, and
is nothing1 unless well grown ;
therefore the best employment
of the space at our command
will be to frame a compact essay
on the cultivation of the aster in
first-rate style, with a view to
the production of flowers good
enough for exhibition.

It is impossible to grow good
asters in a poor soil, and the
water supply should be constant
and plentiful. If grown in the
same bed every year, it should be
regularly well dug and tolerably
manured, as if intended for a crop of
peas or cauliflowers. But finer flowers
may be secured by growing them every year in fresh soil
that has not carried «sters before, or at least only once in
seven years or so.

The seed is usually sown too early, and the plants get
starved before the season is sufficiently advanced to allow

134 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

them to be put out. The last week in March is early
enough for the first sowing, and a cold frame will be the
best place for the pan or box in which the seeds are sown.
For all ordinary purposes it is not desirable to sow until
about the 15th of April, as there is then no probability that
the plants will suffer a check. The young plants should
have as much air and light as they can bear, the cul-
tivator, of course, keeping in mind that they are tender
in constitution. If they have insufficient light they will
become weak and wiry, and if insufficient air they will
soon be smothered with green fly, and thereby seriously
impoverished.

As soon as large enough to handle, prick out the young
plants in a bed of light rich soil in a frame ; put them
three inches apart, water them well, and keep the frame
rather close for two or three days ; then give air with
caution, and increase the ventilation daily, and they will
become strong and well prepared for planting out.

A bed for asters should be made ready a few weeks
before it is wanted. The third week in May is soon
enough for planting out, and dull warm weather should be
chosen for the business; in any case, if the nights are
frosty, the plants had best remain in their snug bed under
glass until a change occurs. If put out in sunny weather,
turn empty pots over them for a day or two to save them
from exhaustion. As a rule, they should lie planted a foot
apart every way, but this rule may be varied as circum-
stances may suggest. They should be lifted with care, so
that every tuft of roots is kept intact, and should be firmly
though gently pressed into their places, and then have a
good watering to finish the work. The remainder of the
management will consist chiefly in watering and weeding,

THE ASTER, 135

and both tasks must be pursued assiduously, or the flowers
will be below exhibition mark.

Well-grown plants will usually produce more flower-
heads than they can fully develop ; therefore it is a nice
point to thin them in good time. The beginner may
with advantage remove all the heads save the centre and
three side shoots, thus leaving only four heads of bloom
to each plant. As experience is acquired, the rule may be
varied, and it will be found that French asters require
to be thinned more severely than German, which may
in a good soil be allowed to carry half a dozen ; but they
should never be thinned down to one or two, because while
this spoils the appearance of the plants, it does not result
in the production of better blooms, for when asters are
grown beyond a certain degree of strength they are likely
to become coarse.

In a hot dry season, asters are peculiarly liable to the
attacks of " red spider " or acarus, and " green fly " or
aphis. A precaution often adopted to prevent this con-
sists in covering the bed with a mulch of two or three
inches of half-rotten dung. This should be put on as
soon as the crown bud is visible, and should be followed by
regular and copious watering. The healthy and vigorous
growth that this treatment promotes is calculated to keep
insect foes at a distance, for the sickly plant is soonest
attacked by them. When the young plants are infested
by green fly it is safer to dust them with tobacco powder
than to use any kind of wash. As a rule, indeed, tobacco
powder is always to be preferred, because dry and clean
and easily washed off.

The immense popularity of the aster accounts for the
number of varieties that are offered in the seed lists, for

136 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLO WEES.

one of the first objects of the cultivator of a flower is to
promote variation and establish the most distinct and
beautiful varieties. For exhibition purposes the best
varieties are those known as the Victoria, French Paeony,
Giant French, and Betteridge's.

For large beds, mixtures of colours are desirable, but
the flowers should be uniform in style, and therefore only
one sort or section of asters should be grown in a bed.
Those who know the sorts well may indeed use several in
the same bed, but the safe way for the beginner is to be
content with one or two — say a moderately tall kind for the
mass, and a dwarf er sort for the margin. One of the best
sorts for beds is the Tall Chrysanthemum-flowered, and
the Globe German may be used next the margin. The
Washington makes a fine bed, with immense flowers of all
colours. If a choice dwarf sort is wanted for a bed, there
is, perhaps, none better than the Dwarf Pseony Perfection.

For pot culture the Dwarf Victoria, Dwarf Schiller,
and Dwarf Chrysanthemum-flowered are invaluable, and
in common with other kinds may be had in a variety of
colours. To grow them well in pots great care is requisite.

SNOWDROP.

THE SNOWDROP.

Galon thus nivalis.

,5vT will appear to the casual reader
that the snowdrop is regarded,
in the light of its name, as " a
drop of snow." The philologists
often remind us that " obvious "
derivations are always wrong.
We may doubt if the sweeping
declaration is a good one ; but
the present case justifies it so
far, because the snowdrop is
not a drop of snow. The reader
may have seen in the jewellers'
shops and in the ears of some
fair lady imitations of fuchsia
flowers in precious stones, and
called "fuchsia-drops." The
word before us is an exact
parallel thereto. These flowers
are likened to eardrops, and they are called " white flower-
drops," and that is the proper interpretation of snowdrops.
The name is from the German schneetropfen ; it implies
that the flower affords a type of a class of personal adorn-
ments, and to copy it in jewellery would be in perfect taste,
other matters having concurrent consideration. The Germans

138 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

have schneehlnme, whits winter flower, and schneeflocke,
snowflake. To liken a flower to a drop of snow is not
reasonable, because there is no such thing as a drop of
snow, and there never will be. The decorative notion of
the name has not escaped the poets, as, for example —

' While still the cold north-east ungenial lowers,

And scarce the hazel in the leafless copse,
Or sallows show their downy pendent flowers,
The grass is sprinkled with its silver drops."

The snowdrop was known to the old or British botanists
as a bulbous violet, and also as the Fair Maid of February,
and by them it was properly recognised as an introduction
from the Continent. Gerarde speaks of it as growing- wild
in Italy, and as having been thence introduced to " our
London gardens ." It is a native of Switzerland, Austria,
and of Southern Europe generally. When met with as a
British wilding it appears to be as happy as its near rela-
tion, the daffodil, for it spreads into considerable masses,
and though a local flower, is plentiful enough in the places
where it occurs. There are many stations in Worcestershire,
Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire where wild snowdrops
may be found ; and the county of Sussex can boast of a few,
as it can of daffodils also. When met with in places of
its own choosing, it is usually in some degree shaded, as
though full exposure to the glare of the sun and the fury
of the wind were not to its liking. As regards soil, how-
ever, it is not at all particular ; but we may say that in
cultivation a deep sandy loam is best for it, as it is for
about nine-tenths of all the border and rockery flowers that
are most valued in gardens. Snowdrops increase quickly,
and flower freely if allowed fair play ; but unfair play
obliterates the plant, for it resents insult by terminating an

THE SNOWDROP. 139

objectionable existence. To do justice to it, the planting
of the bulbs should take place early in the autumn, for
they require time to prepare themselves for their early
flowering-. And the next thing- is to leave them alone, for
annual disturbance is fatal to their prosperity.

A very serious mistake is made in many gardens in the
tying of the leaves of snowdrops and crocuses, to make
them look " tidy." ' What an absurd proceeding- ! Tidy,
indeed! The leaves fall over in the most graceful lines
when left alone, and may supply an artist with a subject
worthy of loving- attention; but when tied they are
hideously ug-ly and altogether ridiculous.

The varieties of snowdrops are about half a dozen in
number. The first to flower is a dwarf sort, called pneco.r.
In about seven days after this has flowered, the common
nivalis shows its familiar flowers. These are succeeded by
the princely imperati, which rises above all the rest, and pro^
duces larger flowers. Plicatus is the folded-leaved Crimean
snowdrop, known by the folding of the edges of its leaves,
which are larger than the leaves of the common variety.
The flowers of this, however, are often smaller than those
of the common snowdrop, and they are always somewhat
greener. As regards colouring, green is often objectionable
in a flower, but its combination with white in the sub-
ject before us is exquisitely beautiful. A variety with the
divisions of the perianth bent back is called reflexm.

In parlour gardening, the snowdrop is occasionally
grown in water-glasses, in association with crocuses, hya-
cinths, tulips, and polyanthus-daffodils. These bulbous-
rooted flowers are all amenable to the water culture, and
afford agreeable amusement to fireside gardeners. There
are two points of importance in the management that it

140

FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

may be well to mention. It is not well for the bulbs
to touch the water ; there should be a space of at least
an inch between the water and the bulbs. The other
point is that the first growth should be made in the
dark, to promote the free action of the roots before the
leaves appear. When the flower-stem and leaves push in
advance of the roots, a poor bloom may be expected ;
but when the roots move first and spread freely, a good
bloom may be expected, and there will . be a saving of
time in the end. It should be remembered further that
full exposure to light is absolutely essential to the produc-
tion of healthy leaves and flowers.

'

PURPLE CLEMATIS-

THE
PURPLE CLEMATIS.

Clematis rttbro-violacea.

YBRIDS of the more showy
species of clematis are now so
numerous as to constitute a dis-
tinct and large class of garden
flowers. The parents of these
many splendid varieties, of
which Clematis patens, C. lartu-
f/inosa, C. vilicella, and C. For-
tnnei may be named as having
afforded the strongest characters,
are for the most part traceable
in them by the eye of an expert;
but it happens that in a majority
of instances the pedigrees have
been preserved, and therefore a
collection of clematis may be
studied with advantage by the scientific botanist, as they
may be by the lover of flowers, for the sake of their beauty
only. The variety figured is one of the most interesting in
the scientific and historical view of the subject. In the
year 1835 Mr. Henderson, a London nurseryman and hor-
ticulturist, raised a new hybrid, which was named in his
honour Clematis Hendersoni. It was believed to be the
result of a cross between C. viticella and C. int-egrifolia.

142 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

This "Henderson's clematis" is a fine climber, running ten
to fifteen feet, and producing- an abundant display of large
handsome flowers of a purplish-blue colour. One of the
grandest natural species .(as distinguished from garden
varieties) is Clematis latiuginosa. This produces flowers of
immense size, the colour a soft lavender-blue or lilac-
tinted grey, which is enriched with a tuft of reddish
anthers. This plant does not flower so freely or so con-
tinuously as to satisfy the exigent florists, and the question
has arisen, What can we do to improve it ?

In the year 1858 Mr. George Jackman, of the Woking
Nurseries, made an endeavour to meet that question, and
extraordinary results have followed therefrom. He crossed
C. lanuginoaa with C. Hendersoni, and obtained two new
and splendid varieties, producing flowers remarkable for
their richness of colouring, their excessive profusion, and
their long continuance. Rarely in the history of practical
floriculture have we seen so great a triumph accomplished
at one bound. The two new sorts were named respec-
tively C. Jackmanni and C. rubro-violacea. The first-
named is certainly one of the most popular garden flowers
known. The other, of which we present a faithful
portrait, is less popular, but not less worthy of esteem ;
for its flowers are exquisitely coloured and lustrous, and
are produced in the most prodigal profusion — in fact,
a verandah well clothed with this clematis will present
during the later summer months a display of colour of
the most surprising and delightful character.

These two varieties have in their turn produced in-
numerable seedlings ; and from other crosses, effected by
various cultivators, there have been secured valuable
additions to the list of garden forms of this hardy and

THE PURPLE CLEMATIS. 143

useful flower. The free-growing sorts are amenable to the
simplest treatment; but it should be said that they flower
so freely that they must be well fed, or they will actually
die out and give no account of themselves at all. They
should be planted in well-prepared soil, consisting of good
loam, liberally enriched with half-rotten manure — in fact,
such a bed as would be prepared for climbing roses or
wistarias ; for plants that grow fast and far need to be well
sustained at the root. These clematis, being planted in
the spring, will probably run ten or twelve feet the same
season, and will flower fairly weil. The second year they
will make a most vigorous growth and flower profusely.
The third year they may be expected to do still greater
things, and then they must have fresh food, or they will
begin to travel down hill. If left alone they will still
flower freely ; but the flowers will become smaller year by
year, and the plants will be bare of leaves except at the top.
If still left without help they will dwindle away, and die at
last through sheer exhaustion, unless indeed they happen
to be peculiarly circumstanced as regards the food their
roots can reach.

Thus we reach the second chapter in the management.
When the plants are becoming " leggy " and the flowers
small, they should be cut down to within eighteen inches
of the ground. This may be best done at the end of the
year, or early in January. Some time in February, or early
in March, remove the top soil from over the roots, but
taking care to injure them as little as possible, and put in
its place a mixture of half-rotten manure and fresh turfy
loam; at the same time take out a trench two feet deep
and one foot wide at a distance of two feet from the stem
of each, and fill this with a similar mixture. Then spread

144 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

over all a coat of fat stable manure, and leave the rest to
nature, and you will be well rewarded in due time.

It is a matter of interest that hybrid clematis may
be grown in beds, and in this case require to be trained
over hoops to form a low convex shield-shaped mass of
green leaves and gorgeous flowers. For this purpose -the
best are Jaekmaiini, with violet-purple flowers ; linltro-
violacea, with maroon-purple flowers ; Alexandra, reddish-
violet; Magnified, purple and red; &*6eHa,foep claret;
Star of India, reddish-plum with red stripe ; Ttinbridgense,
reddish-lilac with mauve stripe. Another use for them is
as pillar plants, both in the garden and the conservatory;
but when so grown out of doors, measures must be taken
to prevent birds lodging on the tops of the pillars : sharp
spikes will generally accomplish the purpose. Finally,
when grown as round-headed bushes in tubs and pots they
are superb adornments for the conservatory, the entrance
hall, and the public exhibition.

YELLOW MARTAGON LILY.

YELLOW MAETAGON
LILY.

Liliitm pomponiitm.

IJRING the last ten years or so
t'.ie cultivation of lilies has ex-
panded and intensified into a
distinct floral passion, and as
the prominent leaders have
a considerable following", the
passion is embellished with a
fringe of fashion, and conse-
quently many people dabble
in lilies who have not much
real enthusiasm and still less
knowledge of the subject. The
introduction of the noble Lilium
auratum may be credited with
the initiation of this new taste,
and, beyond doubt, that lily of
lilies is the true luminous centre
around which the passion near,
and the fashion far off, continually revolve. It is but
a necessary circumstance that mistakes have been made
in the selection and cultivation of lilies, and it is now
beginning to be dimly discovered that certain members of
this glorious family are not worth the serious attention of
8

146 FAMILIAR GARD.EX FLOWERS.

any except enlightened enthusiasts, and amongst those the
best chance of success will be by fate allotted to such as
have the longest purses. It was the way of Auratum, the
golden-rayed lily of Japan, when the bulbs were worth from
one to five guineas each, to die ignominiously instead of
gladdening with its magnificent flowers the devotee who
had bled for it. Now that it is cheap it lives, and the reason
is that we have learned to manage it both as to the buying
and the planting ; for lilies have soft bulbs, and if exposed
to the exhaustive action of the air for any length of time
are apt to resent the ill-treatment by shuffling off their
mortal coil.

Certain of the lilies are not only deserving of a place,
but are very much to be desired in every garden. The best
for the borders and shrubberies are the Common White
(L. can.didnm), the Orange (L. bulbiferum), the Canadian
(L. Canadense), the Scarlet Martagon (L. chalcedonicum) ,
the Turk's-cap (L. martagon), the Tiger (L. tigrimim), the
Turban, or Yellow Martagon (L. pomponiutn), here figured,
and Thunberg's (L. Thnnbergiamini). All these thrive in good
loamy soil ; they are rather injured than benefited by the
addition to the soil of strong manures, but rotted turf and
leaf mould are of great service when added to a loamy
staple, when the beds are prepared for them.

The sorts that thrive best in peat, and, therefore,
are admirably adapted for planting in the front of rhodo-
dendron beds, are the Golden-rayed (L. avratnm), the
Carolina (L. Carolinianum] , the Japan (L. Japonicuw] , the
American L. superbnm), the Spotted (L. speeioswm), and
the Long-flowered (L. longifloriim). These constitute a
fine collection, and all are hardy enough for open ground
cultivation in the warmer parts of the British Isles,

YELLOW MART AGON LILY. 147

where the soil is well drained, and positions somewhat
sheltered are selected for them. The best time to plant
lilies of all kinds is when the flowering is over and the
leaves are turning yellow, as the growth of a lily is like the
movement of a pendulum — when the energies are expended
above, new growth begins below, and when the season of
fresh root-action returns, the bulbs may be transplanted
with safety.

The second selection which it is proposed to plant in
peat constitutes a suitable selection for pot culture. First-
class lilies are valuable pot plants, and if only a few sorts
can be grown in pots for the conservatory, the best, beyond
doubt, amongst the cheaper kinds are Auratum, Speciosum,
and Longiflorum, for their flowers are exquisitely beautiful,
richly scented, and last as long as any lilies known to us.
To succeed with these as pot plants it is necessary to keep
in mind that they should never be distressed at the root,
and should never suffer through drought, or be excessively
stimulated by liquid manure. Liberal treatment they
should have, and a certain amount of fresh soil every year.
To supply this the ball of roots should be turned out care-
fully, and a lot of the old soil removed, without denuding
the bulbs completely ; then they should be replaced in the
same (or larger) pots, and filled in with fresh soil, into
which they will soon strike roots and grow with renewed
vigour.

All lilies may be forced, but it should be done gently.
The last-named three are the best for forcing, and perhaps
Longiflorum, because of the pure ivory-white of its elegant
flowers, is most to be desired as a forced plant. A fine
companion plant to force with it is the Trumpet Lily, Calla
(or liichardia) ^ffithiv^ica, which is not a lily but an arum.

148 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS

These two charming- plants are of about equal value for
decorative purposes. Of the two the Calla is the easiei
to force.

The Japanese cook and eat the bulbs of lilies, those of
the Common White being much esteemed when served with
white sauce. Tastes differ, as do sentiments ; to us the
eating- of lily bulbs seems as foolish a proceeding- as the
eating- of nightingale's tongues or the dissolving of pearls
in vinegar to make sauce for a leg of mutton.

The place of the lily in literature would make a
charming study for a lover of books, and the botanist might
help sometimes to determine the meaning of delicate similes
and comparisons. We cannot even touch the fringe of the
subject here, but the thought has brought to our remem-
brance the heart-moving story of the " Lily Maid of
Astolat/' whom Lancelot rudely slighted —

" The dead,

Steer'd by the dumb, went upward with the flood-
In her right hand the lily, in her left
The letter — all her bright hair streaming down."

Elaine, 1149.

CROCUS.

THE CROCUS.

Crocus vernm.

HE season when the crocuses are in
their full splendour is pretty sure
' to give us a glorious burst of sun-
shine for a day, or even a week,
and then the flowers expand to
their utmost, and- surprise us with
their splendour. They seem to
surprise the honey-bees no less,
for the music they make as they
brush up the pollen is just that of
a crowd of working people rendered
half delirious by the discovery of
a gold-mine. And, indeed, it is a
gold-mine to them, or, better still,
a bread-mine, for the pollen be-
comes " bee-bread " when carried
into the hive, and constitutes the
first food of the callow-worm hidden
in its cellular cot, and feeding itself
up to the point when it will emerge
as a perfect bee and join the general congregation. Bee-
keepers cannot have too many crocuses, because at the time
they flower the bees are more or less distressed and cannot
travel far, and it is of immense value to them to find

150 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

refreshment near home, and thus be enabled without risk
to " improve the shining hour."

The spring-flowering crocuses are as well known in a
general way as any flowers of the garden. But those whose
knowledge of horticulture is more than skin-deep can tell
us of crocuses that flower in almost every month of the
year. For the present purpose, however, we may divide
them into two classes — those that flower in autumn and
those that flower in spring. The naturalist may prove
to us that the season in which a plant produces its flowers
is determined by circumstances acting through many long
years ; but the poet has a perfect right to take another
view of it as having no relation to heredity, elimatical in-
fluence, or the origin of species. Good Gilbert White found
in the crocus a sermon so plainly written that he who runs
may read it for himself, and it might be interwoven with
the pregnant text, " My times are in thy hand/'

Three species of crocus claim priority of attention in
this brief essay. The common yellow crocus of gardens
is the Crocus luteus of the botanist. The native country
of this is at present unknown, but it probably is "at
home" somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean.
The finest of the yellow crocuses is known to traders in
bulbs as the " Cloth of Gold •" this is the Crocus susiana
of the botanist, native of the " Levant," which may mean
anywhere in Asia Minor. The blue, white, and striped
crocuses are the product of the spring crocus, Crocus
vernus of the botanist, native of the Alps and Apennines.

The following less known species are worthy of especial
attention by such as find amusement in collecting choice
hardy flowers. Crocus Imperati, flowering in spring,
creamy white with purple stripes, a very fine sweet-scented

THE CROCUS. 151

species, the leaves distinctly marked with a central white
line. Crocus boryanns, flowering in autumn, white with
yellow throat with a stain of purple outside. Crocus pul-
<•//<'/ /its, flowering in autumn, pearly blue with dark pencil
lines, the throat orange-yellow. Crocus sativus, the saffron
crocus, an autumn -flowering plant, the flowers violet
with long tubes, sweet-scented ; requires a dry warm
soil, or it will but rarely flower. The dried stigmas of
this crocus constitute the genuine saffron of commerce.
We say " genuine," because common shop saffron, like
restaurant soup, is made of anything that comes nearest
to hand, several other species of crocus being pressed into
the service, with florets of the marigold and slices oi
the flowers of the pomegranate. It is not unlikely that
a very nice-looking sample might be made from scraped
carrots. The matter is not of great consequence now,
because saffron has parted from the fame it enjoyed as
a drug that " maketh the sences more quicke and liuely,
shaketh off heauie and drowsie sleepe, and maketh a
man merrie." Gerarde, from whom the foregoing is a
quotation, figures several " saffrons," including crocuses
and colchicums, and he reminds us that Saffron Walden
obtains its name from the abundance of saffron-producing
flowers in its vicinity. Finally, Crocus speciosns is a par-
ticularly fine autumn-flowering species, with flowers of a
rich violet colour, striped with purple lines.

Crocuses of all kinds require a somewhat sandy and
warm soil, but the common garden kinds will really thrive
in almost any soil or situation. The rarer kinds, at all
events, should have well-drained positions and a some-
what light soil, and, generally speaking, warmth, for they
are natives of the south of Europe and Asia Minor, and,

152

FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

even if mountaineers, are accustomed to brighter suns than
shine in these foggy isle?. All kinds of crocuses produce
seed freely, and may be multiplied rapidly and with but
little trouble, by sowing the seed in light, sandy soil as
soon as it is ripe. When the corms are planted, the depth
at which they are placed should be determined in con-
nection with the intention to take them up annually or
leave them untouched several years. If to be taken up
and replanted every year, three inches is the utmost depth
allowable ; but if to remain a few years, they should be put
fully four inches deep, because every year of growth will
bring them nearer to the surface. When planted in a
good soil they may be allowed to remain undisturbed for
several years, but it is good practice to lift them every
third year in the summer, and replant in October. They
appear to degenerate in English gardens, because the corms
we take up are always smaller than such as we plant when
purchasing a fresh stock of the merchants ; but these small
home-grown corms flower remarkably well, and it is quite
a question if the large fresh corms from Holland flower
any better.

POPPY,

THE POPPY.

Papaver somniferum.

O more interesting flower is to be
found in the garden than the
poppy, and a certain few kinds
are extravagantly beautiful,
though lamentably short-lived.
It is essentially a classic flower,
having from the most early times
had a place of honour on the
brow of the divine Ceres : for it
was not left for the people of
this century to discover that
poppies love to grow amongst
the corn. Our blazing red
poppy, that oftentimes, as we
hurry along through the sun-
shine in a railway train, spreads
abroad in sheets, and suggests
that we are riding through lakes of blood
or seas of fire, according as the light or the
fancy may glorify the common-place fact — this scarlet poppy
(Papaver rhceas] is, in some respects, distinct from the classic
poppy, for it has an urn-shaped capsule, whereas the classic
poppy (P. somniferum}, which is the common field flower of
Greece, has a roundish capsule, and the flowers are as com-
T

154 FAMlLIAli GARDEN FLOWERS.

monly white as those of the British poppy are commonly
red. It is, however, a sportive plant, and is met with in a
variety of colours, of which the sample here figured is
perhaps the most pleasing-. The distinction we appear to
make between the field poppies of England and Greece
must be understood to apply to them only as common
flowers of the field, for our red poppy is to be found in
Greece, and the Greek white poppy is to be found in Eng-
land ; but in each case we may say of them they are as
strangers and pilgrims.

Our business is to regard the poppy as a familiar
garden flower, and we are therefore bound, in the first place,
to say that the " pseony-flowered " and the ' ' double-
fringed " poppies that are described in the seed catalogues,
and that are to be regarded as " garden poppies " in the
fullest sense of the word, are really splendid flowers of
their class, and perhaps the cheapest splendours available
for the English garden. That they last " no time " is
rather an advantage than otherwise, because, having
startled us by their noble forms and gorgeous colours, they
wisely get out of the way to make room for something
else, as if well aware that the evanescence of fireworks is
one of their charms : for what would become of us if they
were to sparkle and crackle all night ? But there are other
and nobler garden poppies, different in style, but not
necessarily more pleasing, but, all things considered, very
much to be desired by those eclectic souls who look upon
the garden as a sort of open-air museum for things curious
and beautiful. We must therefore attempt a little essay
on garden poppies.

All poppies, without exception, thrive best when fully
exposed to sunshine and air,, and on a dry, gritty soil.

THE POPPY. 155

They prefer silica to chalk, and hence our red poppy often
betrays the poor gravel it is rioting- on ; and its love of a
dry foothold is proved by its happy state when located on
the topmost ridge of some old castle wall, where it seems
to outdo the snapdragon and the wallflower in its capability
of living on nothing. But note what a starved thing it
becomes when in this way beating the Frenchman's horse,
and learn therefrom the lesson that even a poppy requires a
certain amount of wholesome food. With this philosophical
observation we conclude the first part of the practical
essay.

It is a characteristic of poppy plants to make tap-roots :
hence, in transplanting them, there is usually a season lost,
because the inevitable breaking of the tap-roots prevents
flowering the next season. But if the transplanting is
done with care during moist, cool weather, it will not be
attended with loss, because the plants have but to be left
alone and they will make new tap-roots to replace those
that have been broken by removal. When the plants are
raised from seed, only a few should be sown in a pot, and
of these the weakest should be removed as soon as possible.
By carefully planting out from pots so prepared, serious
injury to the tap-roots may be avoided ; and that part of
the business should be kept in view as of primary import-
ance in the cultivation of poppies.

In the selection of garden poppies, the showy annual
kinds should, as remarked above, have special attention;
and the shortest way to deal with them is to sow them
where they are to stand, and thin them out in good time,
so that they do not crowd each other injuriously. The
most generally useful of the perennial poppies is the great
scarlet, or Siberian poppy (Palaver bracteatuni). This is

156 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

well known for its neat, compact growth of greyish saw-
toothed leaves, and its profusion of vivid orange-scarlet
flowers in the early days of summer. This forms a deep
tap-root, and should be handled with care in removal. As
it produces new crowns in plenty, the readiest way to
increase it is by division ; but it seeds freely, and therefore
can never be a scarce plant.

In the production of the potent drug, opium, several
species of poppy are employed. The " proper " plant is
Papaver somniferum, from which opium of the best
quality may be obtained, not only in semi-tropical climates,
but in England. The drug is obtained by making slight
incisions in the green capsules, the result being that
a milky exudation appears in the line of the wound, and
this being scraped off is crude opium. Of its further
preparation, and of its uses and abuses, it will not be
expected there should be any disquisition here.

WINTER ACONITE.

THE
WINTER ACONITE.

Eranthis hyemalis.

'N common with many of the
humbler kinds of garden flowers,
the winter aconite is but little
known to humble,, gardeners, but
the managers of " great places"
know it, and prize it, and turn
it to good account in the com-
paratively new order of decoration
known as " spring gardening."
It is but a little herb, with a
dark tuberous root, producing in
February or March yellow flowers,
surrounded by a whorl of glossy-
green deeply-cut leaves. It lasts
but a short time, and is not very
showy even at the best.
But as one star compels attention when the sky is
black and no other star is to be seen, so this little flower,
which is many degrees inferior in brightness of colouring
to a common buttercup, has a most delightful appearance
if we have the good fortune to see it on a soft sunny day
in February. Then, indeed, it seems to say the spring is
surely coming, and even the frost-defying daffodils, that

158 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

come before the swallow dares, are outdone in their haste
to scatter gold upon the ground to pay for the reckless
banqueting that is about to begin. In its own grassy
nooks of sunny Italy it flowers at Christmas, but in this
dull clime it does not often dare to lift up its head until
the month of March, and even later, if the winter has
been- of the cruel kind that people, as if in contempt of
the taste of their ancestors, cruelly describe as Cf old-
fashioned." The humble gardener, as remarked above,
scarcely knows this plant, although it is one of the cheapest,
and will grow anywhere. But the gardener who has to
keep a great parterre at all times gay has long since dis-
covered its value, and therefore he plants hundreds or
thousands, as the case may be, to produce masses of golden
flowers, according to the requirements of his complicated
designs in colour. It will not be expected that in this
place there should appear a disquisition on the bedding
system, but it is proper to note that in "spring bedding"
the principal elements are such homely flowers as daisies,
polyanthuses, forget-me-nots, primroses, and pansies ; and
where lines or blocks of soft yellow are required, the artist
dips his pencil into Eranthis hyemalis, or, in other words,
he plants the little herb, and leaves Dame Nature to bring
out the colour.

But this is not the only way in which the winter
aconite is employed in great gardens. One of the most
pleasing of many good features in the spring gardening at
Belvoir Castle consists in the management of grassy slopes
that occur, as it were casually, in connection with the
walks. These slopes are planted with snowdrops, crocuses,
winter aconites, and other flowers that mingle unobtru-
sively and naturally with the grass, and their flowers are

THE WINTER AC02UTE. 159

indescribably charming1, springing as they do from the rich
green herbage, as if, like the wild buttercups and daisies,
they were members of the guy family of vagrants to whom
the prairie is a happy land.

But there is nothing new or strange in the employment
of the winter aconite, either in the formal parterre or the
half-wild grassy bank that perhaps mingles softly with a
knoll of ivy. These matters are mentioned for the purpose
of showing that a very humble and by no means showy
plant has its uses, and is, in its way, invaluable to the
master of decorative gardening. The little daughter of
a great painter said to him one day, " Oh, how you are
loading that picture with mud-colour ! " The father took
the pretty rebuke laughingly, and replied, " Yes, my little
cherub, it will prove the best picture I have painted, and
enable you to ride through the mud in a painted coach/'
And so it proved ; but it was a long time ere the child
could see beauty in mud-colour.

The winter aconite is a member of the great Ranunculus
family, in which we meet with the true aconite. The old
herbalists, in their fulsome writings, tired not of speaking
in praise of the virtues of the true aconite. In Gerarde
it is admirably figured under the name of " winter
woolfesbane, Aconitum hyemale." He says : " It groweth
upon the mountaines of Germanic; we haue great
quantitie of it in our London gardens. It bloweth in
lanuarie : the seed is ripe in the end of March." He
speaks of it as " very dangerous and deadly/' as it is, and
adds that it is mighty against the bites of scorpions : " If
the scorpion passe by where it groweth and touch the same,
presently he becommeth dull, heauie, and sencelesse."

The winter aconite is scarcely to be regarded as a good

160 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS.

border flower. At all events, when planted in the border
it is exposed to the risk of being dug up and destroyed —
a risk it shares in common with many good things that
never last long where the practice of promiscuous digging
of borders is permitted. The jobbing gardener appears to
have been commissioned by Mephistopheles to crush out of
existence all the good hardy plants, and to supply in their
place geraniums at three shillings a dozen. He does his
best, at all events, to annihilate daffodils, and paeonies, and
delphiniums, and day-lilies, and aconites, and dielytras,
because they do not show themselves at the time when he
plies his spade industriously. Perhaps he ought to know
that their roots are alive below ground, and ought not to
be made into mincemeat ; but we must make allowances,
for it often happens that between what is and what
" ought " to be there is a great gulf fixed, and a man
may be a gardener and yet not know everything.

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