IRISH GAHDENING. 



41 



liuiestuuc in the Alps .iiid (he .luia lictwiTii 

 1.200 to 2,000 metres. 



G. Kochiana with lai'ge leaves, smooth, spread- 

 ing many-veined and yellowish-green : flowers 

 blue, tinged violet, with five l)lackish-gieen 

 splashes on the throat : calyx teeth spreading, 

 oblong more or less, cont rat-ted at the bast! and 

 sejiarated bv truncated angles. (iranitic Alps 

 belween 1.100 (a 2.000 metres. 



(i. alpina differs from the last by its running 

 root-stock, its smaller leaves glaucescent and 

 somewhat arranged in ball-shaped rosettes : its 

 flowers are smaller, of intense blue, very shortly 

 stemmed, if not sessile : grows here and there on 

 meagre pastures in the high Alps at 2.200 to :?.000 

 metres, and in the Pyrenees. 



Lastly, there is the most brilliant of all. (i. 

 angustit'olia, of the Alps of Dauphine, which, 

 undci' the name of Gentianella, has been grown 

 in English gardens for 800 years. Stem stolo- 

 niferous. leaves linear of the brightest green, and 

 sliining : flowers large, of a glorious blue with 

 fine green spots on the throat ; stems rather 

 long, i to 10 centimetres. It grows in the 

 ])astures of Savoy and Dauphin^'' near la (Jrande 

 Chartreuse, and is the most exquisite of all alpine 

 flowers. It fonns very broad tufts, sometimes 

 '3 feet in diameter. It seems to me that the 

 plant at Blessingbourne is this one. It is easily 

 grown even here, and is increased by division. 

 It still remains to be said that G. Kochiana is 

 sometimes called G. excisa, G. angustifolia, 



G. sabauda and G. Clusii are sometimes called 

 G. rocheliana. 



There is, too, a G. dinarica growing in the 

 Balkans which Kuznetzow makes a hybrid of 

 G. Clusii X G. Kochiana. 



In the Himalay there grows an acaulis called 

 G. ornata, with very small and narrow leaves, 

 which my friend V. Sella found at 16,500 feet in 

 the Zernu Valley (Sikkim). and of which he gave 

 me a splendid photograph. It was illustrated in 

 the Bof. Mag. T. 6.514. The engraving given in 

 the (iardeners' Chronicle (29th September, 1883, 

 page 396) is very different from the photo I have, 

 the flowers being smaller and rather near to G. 

 septemfida. As the drawing was made from a 

 photo taken in Wilson's garden at Wisley (from 

 a plant I saw flowering there at that date) and 

 the other photographed in situ, I rather 

 submit there are two different forms of ornata, or 

 perhaps Wilson's plant was a different species. 

 In Sella's photo, the flower is broadly open 

 and exactly that of our G. acaulis ; this is not the 

 case at all with Wilson's plant. As far as I 

 remember his plant was very far from being a 

 Gentianella. 



As the seeds brought from the Himalaya did 

 not germinate here, I must keep the photo, as 

 the one proof of the beauty of the plant. 

 Kuznetzow in his beautiful monograph of the 

 Eugentiana says (page 29) that G. ornata is 

 very variable, and is near to ternifolia, Pizewalskii 

 and Kurroo. The G. ornata I grow at Iloraire 

 is Wilson's form depicted in the Gardeners'' 

 Chronicle. I do not think the acaulis form of 

 Sikkim is in gardens. * 



Near to the Gentianellas are the species of the 

 frigida group to which Kuznetzow joins G. 

 ornata. H. Correvon, Fioraire, Geneva. 



[* What about G. ornata. G. sino-ornata and 

 G. "Veitchiorum, recently introduced from 

 China ? — Ed.] 



AxxUAii Larkspur. 



War ' time Flowers. 



By li. ]\1. I'oij.ocK. 



Vegetables are the " star turn " of tlie day, and 

 many of the little luxuries previously grown in 

 the flower garden are now " back numbers." This 

 no one should com]>lain about. Food is wanted, 

 therefore every suitable spot should be used for 

 such. But vegetables will not groAv everywhere, 

 and even in a Cabbage there is some individuality, 

 and there are places wdiere it will refuse to grow. 

 In these places a few bright, easily grown, free- 

 flowering, reliable annuals may be sown. A 

 selection should be carefully made, so (hat dis- 

 appointments are avoided, and the seeds should 

 be sown thinly, and so make a real saving. 



Antirrhinvnns, the Snapdragons, of which there 

 aixi tall, being up to .3 feet high, intermediate up 

 to 18 inches, and dwarf or Tom Thumb can be 

 raised in an ordinary unhealed greenhouse or 

 frame, or in fact in any structure where there 

 is shelter from frost at night, and plenty of air 

 and light by day. Sown thinly in pans or boxes, 

 they can be pricked out when tit to handle, and 

 then transplanted (o their permanent quarters 

 as soon as the ground is ready for them. Some 

 of the most beautiful colours are now to be had 

 in these Antirrhinums, and they come quite true 

 from seed if purchased from a reliable source. 



