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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Ootober 14, 1876. 



garden a good dish of Strawberries, the colour perfect and the 

 f rait of excellent flavour. The Strawberries were from plants of 

 the Vioomtesse Herioart de Thury. — E. G. H., South Norwood. 



A FEW CHOICE BRITISH PLANTS.— No. 2. 



Resumino my remarks on this subject, I select the follow- 

 ing as worthy the attention of collectors and cultivators of 

 hardy plants : — 



Saxlfraga oppositifoUa — This pretty low-growing plant I con- 

 fess never to have met with in a wild state, although I have 

 sought for it where it was said to exist. Its merits, however, 

 as a rock, or what is called an alpine plant, are too well known 

 to require farther notice here. It is a gem in its way when it 

 can be induced to thrive, which it will not always do ; and 

 there are many, who preserve their Geraniums and other pets 

 by the thousand, fail to save this hardy denizen of our highest 

 mountain tops. 



Lycopodium Selaqo (Fir Club Moss). — This conspicuous plant 

 I remember gathering when ascending one of the Cumberland 

 hills in winter. It was standing up erect on some bare patches 

 of grass with all the sturdiuess of a liliputiau tree, and pro- 

 tected by its peculiar medical qualities from depredation from 

 sheep and other mountain animals, whose sagacity in under- 

 standing what is bad for them far exceeds that of our lowland- 

 bred cattle or sheep. I believe Dr. Hooker ascribes violent 

 poisonous powers to it, as well as some of a useful kind in 

 dyeing or fixing colours. It is needless here to say that the 

 sharp eyes of the botanist are required to discover its flower ; 

 but its Spruce-Fir-tree-like growth of about a foot or more 

 high gives it a conspicuous appearance, and as a plant it is well 

 deserving of notice. I do not know how it comports itself under 

 cultivation. Most likely, like many other denizens of great 

 elevations, it may refuse to thrive. 



Cyclamen liedcrtefolium. — -I have frequently been assured by 

 those who have met with this plant in a wild state that it 

 seemed plentiful enough where it was found, but I have never 

 had the good fortune to discover it. It has, however, been 

 found in Kent, and notably in larger quantities in Cornwall. 

 I am told it is but seldom met with there now, the denuding 

 of woodland that was once its favourite haunts having tended 

 to render this plant more scarce than it ought to be. Neither 

 is it so generally met with in cultivation as its merits deserve ; 

 and it would be well if those who are fortunate enough to find 

 it in a wild condition would note such particularities about its 

 site, character of the soil, and other matters as would be of 

 service to those who try to grow it. In an ordinary way it 

 grows and flowers well enough, but either the seeds lack vitality 

 or they require Bome other mode of treatment than that usually 

 given them. 



Orchids. — I fear I must leave to others the task of dealing 

 with these, as I have had comparatively little acquaintance 

 with them, and I believe the attempts to cultivate these have 

 not on all occasions been successful. I need hardly say they 

 are all most beautiful, the early purple Orchis putting to shame 

 the best coloured Hyacinth that can be produced at the time ; 

 while the Bee, the Fly, and Spider Orchis have all their ad- 

 mirers for their structural beauty, and the others are not less 

 so, while the one called Ladies' Tresses is a great addition to 

 a Nosegay. I fear, however, I can give no practical hints as 

 to their cultivation beyond the meagre one that chalk would 

 seem to be wanted for many, but perhaps not for all. 



Armeria vulgaris (Common Thrift). — This is plentifnl in 

 certain places by the seashore, especially on a rocky one. Used 

 as edgings it is a highly ornamental plant, and either in flower 

 or not it has a neat compact appearance. Bat accommodating 

 as Thrift edgings are, tbey are not so much so in shady dark 

 situations as London Pride (Saxifraga umbrosa), which is about 

 the best live edging I am acquainted with. 



Water Lily. — I am not sure whether anyone would contra- 

 dict me if I were to aflirm that this is the prettiest flower 

 that grows. The Rose may possibly take offence at the 

 assertion, because that generally acknowledged queen of flowers 

 appears before ns in so many garbs, whereas this queen of 

 another realm still holds by and retains her original loveliness, 

 which it would be diCficalt for the artist to improve. 



Heath. — -Like the last, poets, historians, and writers of 

 romance have made this plant theirs through many genera- 

 tions, and the beauty of the ordinary one is perhaps not ex- 

 eelled by those more rare. It is a plant, however, that I would 

 not advise removing to the formal parterre, neither to dressed 

 ground anywhere ; but it may with advantage be introduced 



into roagh shrubbery or other suitable sites. Possibly, how- 

 ever, the early- flowering Cornish species might have a place in 

 the fashionable garden ; but as the whole family prefer not to 

 be shifted too often, it would be as well to give it a permanent 

 position if possible. 



Primroses. — I here only allude to the wild kinds, which at 

 some future time may possibly be more numerous and varied 

 than at present. A good deal has been done in the way of 

 hybridisation, some of them with garden kinds, and we all know 

 their accommodating character. The outcasts from gardens 

 have already spread many pink and other dark-coloured flowers 

 amongst them. The more general distribution of the Oxlip 

 and its liability to merge into the Cowslip and Polyanthus are 

 matters known to all, and may possibly end in great diversity 

 of this plant. 



Lily of the Valley and Solomon's Seal. — Both these are 

 doubtless British plants, but more generally met with in culti- 

 vation. The first-named species in a wild state is seldom met 

 with in such good form as it is in cultivation, leading to the 

 inference that the latter is an improved variety. Comment 18 

 unnecessary on either. 



Crocus. — This is a most useful family of spring as well as 

 autumn flowers. They are all, however, more regarded as of 

 foreign extraction than of British origin. In planting them on 

 wild places we have so often had them destroyed by mice that 

 bat very little care really has been made of them. The autumn 

 Crocus usually escapes the mice. 



Foxglove. — Nowhere is this plant so pretty as when found 

 wild, and no plant can possibly look better than it does in the 

 position it is often met with. 



Toad Flax. — Both the hanging and upright-growing species 

 of Linaria are pretty and deserve attention ; while in connec- 

 tion with them the Snapdragon is often met with apparently 

 naturalised, and flourishing on some wall or rockwork naturaJ 

 or artificial. 



Lythrum salicaria. — This stately plant, growing as it does 

 by the sides of ditches, is one of the prettiest we know of late 

 in the summer, rising to the height of 4 feet or more with 

 its closely-set spike of rose-coloured flowers. It is a striking 

 object, and well deserving attention. 



Myosotis. — As the garden species or variety — for it is no easy 

 matter to distinguish the one from the other — is more easily 

 managed than the wild, it is not necessary to encourage the 

 latter, unless it be M. palustris by the side of some ditch or 

 pond, where it yields to none for beauty ; but its flowers are 

 less plentiful than the garden variety called M. dissitiflora. 



Saiyitfoin is a very pretty plant, as likewise is the field cr»p, 

 Trifolium incarnatum. The latter, however, is not a British 

 plant. Dry chalky soils suit both. 



Pyrola media is a pretty-habited plant usually met with in 

 Fir plantations on rather a stiff soil. Both flower and foliage 

 are good. 



Rhinanthus Crista-galli (Yellow Rattle) is not by any means 

 an unsightly plant, while the flowers are really showy. Pasture 

 or rather meadow land, on rather a stiff soil, seems to be its 

 home, and in England it is thought to indicate the time for 

 cutting the hay when its seeds rattle in their pod. In Sweden 

 the hay is mown when it is in flower. 



Sedum acre, and some other species, are more or less in 

 demand now that dwarf plants are sometimes wanted. There 

 are several varieties of the first-named all produced by culti- 

 vation, but the original is likewise pretty and interesting. 



Spirica ulmaria. — This would have been considered a hand- 

 some flowering plant if it had been imported from some tropical 

 clime and was difficult of cultivation, but as it is no one can 

 deny it the claim of beauty. There is a golden variegated 

 form of it very pretty, but it is of slow growth. 



Thyme (Wild) looks very pretty when it covers the ground 

 and throws up its lavender-coloured flowers in profusion. A 

 dwarf form, not British, T. micans, is very handsome and 

 pretty as a dwarf plant. 



Trollius europaus (Globe Windflower) — I am not certain of 

 having found this plant wild, but I know it has been found so 

 in moist rather exposed places. 



Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold). — Foliage and flowers are 

 alike pretty. As its name implies, the margin of ponds or rivers 

 is its home. 



Valerian. — Nothing can possibly exceed the beauty of some 

 of the chalk cuttings and embankments by the sides of rail- 

 ways in some districts where this plant abounds. The most 

 carefully cultivated flower bed does not exceed it, and it is 

 found in such abundance, too, attracting the attention of the 



