IRISH GARDENING. 



163 



Funkia tardiflora. 



This hartly Plantain Lilv is one of the treasures 

 of the outdoor garden in late autumn. Given 

 favourable weather conditions the flowers con- 

 tinue in beauty from September until November. 

 They are a delicate mauve or pale lilac shade, 

 borne freely towards the top of racemes up to 

 about 1 foot high. The clumps have a some- 

 what tufted character. The leaves are a rich 

 dark green, comparatively small for a Funkia, 

 being only some 6 

 to 9 inches long, in- 

 cluding the petiole. 

 Though introduced 

 in 1895 presumably 

 from Japan by the 

 late H e r r ]\Iax 

 Leichthn, it does not 

 appear to be widely 

 known. At first con- 

 sidered to be a late 

 flowering variety of 

 Funkia lancifolia. it 

 is now generally con- 

 sidered to be suffi- 

 cienth" distinct to be 

 regarded as a sjiecies. 

 Plants thrive in most 

 soils and in sun or 

 ])artial shade. Divi- 

 sion of the clumps in 

 spring j)rovides a 

 ready and rapid 

 means of increase. 

 A. O. 



Nerine 



Bowdeni, 



Planted on a sunny 

 south border in well- 

 drained soil, this 

 Nerine is proving a 

 valuable autumn 



flower. Under conditions favourable to the 

 Belladonna Lily, N. Bowdeni thrives at 

 the foot of a south wall, and during October is 

 very showy. When first introduced from .South 

 Africa about 1900, and distributed by Mrs. 

 Cornish Bowden, of Oaklawn, Newton Abbott, 

 it was thought to be a hybrid or variety. The 

 l)ulbs first flowered in Ireland in the late ^Ir. 

 \V. E. Gumbleton's garden. One of, if not, the 

 largest-fiowered of all the Nerines, the rose- 

 pink blooms are l)orn.e on robust scapes uj) to 

 IS inches high, and is a very distinct species. 

 It seeds freely, and by this means and offsets 

 can be readily propagated, A. O. 



CUION'.VXTHUS VU! 

 At :\I<)U 



Elsholtzia Stauntoni. 



Flowering in October, this is an hiteresting 

 and rather pretty shrub, doing best in a rather 

 sheltered position. It is fairly hardy, but the 

 shoots die back considerabh' each winter, strong 

 young ones being produced freely from the 

 woody base in spring. The lance-shaped leaves 

 are coarsely toothed, 2 to 4 inches long, and 

 about an inch wide. The flowers are produced 

 in panicles and are pink in colour, borne chiefl.\- 

 towards the ends of 

 the branches. Any 

 pruning rec[uired 

 should be done in 

 spring, this consisting 

 chiefl\' of cutting off 

 the dead wood of 

 the previous jea,T. 



Cuttings of the 

 young growths root 

 readily, and in spite 

 of flowering so late, 

 good seeds are some- 

 times produced. 



It would make a 

 most interesting 



shrub to grow on a 

 wall with other late- 

 flowering shrubs, such 

 as Caryopteris ]\Iasta- 

 cantha, which also is 

 very lovely now. B. 



"^1 Aconitum 



Wilsoni. 



Many new plants are 

 introduced from time 

 to time, but not every 

 one is found satisfac- 

 tory. The subject of 

 GiNicA (st'o p. 162) this note, however, 



lit L'shcr. introduced some years 



ago from China, 

 can claim quite everything good which was 

 said about it when first offered to the ]niblic. 



The flowers, which are violet blue in cokun-, 

 are produced in Seiiteniber, when the>- are very 

 valuable among the host of yellow flowers which 

 somehow or other always tend to predominate at 

 that time. The rich' soil of the herbaceous 

 l)order is just what it wants, ami shoots six feet 

 high are ])roducetl when the plant is well treated. 

 The effect, therefore, of a clumj) a yard through 

 is all that could be desired, and when one reflects 

 that this can be secured year after year with but 

 little trouble it becomes' clear that the gardener 

 who cannot afford to grow tender plants need 



