NASSAWIA -ERPE. 



aa it does in the marshy places of the moors. Other 

 species widely differ botanically. but not in the gardener's eye. 



Nassawia serpens is most curious oddity, wandering far 



| 38 of the Falklands. with long 

 trunks clad densely in overlapping toothed little leaves, and emerging 

 at last to thicken into a dose ciub-shaped head of blossoms at the 

 end 



Nepeta. — Though N. Muasini is to some rock-gardeners the first 



and last word in decoration (being the admiration of all beholders 



re in summer., with its countless long loose spraying spikes 



of smoke-blue blossom above the fine silver-grey herbage of the tufts) ; 



..either this nor any other of the race is really of nature sufficiently 



refined for the small garden, though in the large one a noble effect 



may be got by filling a bread stretch of worthless sunny soil with 



ta, among drifts of Welsh Poppy and Iceland Poppy. There are 



many other large species., all easily to be done without, though none, 



again, are devoid of some value in high and remote corners which it 



is desired handsomely to fill ; of smaller sorts, however, more fit for 



our purp re N. suplna. like a little repent ]\Iint, from the 



upmost hills of Caucasus, and N. chionophUa, which is grey, and loves 



the snows beside the high screes of the Persian Alps. If complete 



collections of the lai_ I . - be wanted, here is a selection of names : 



NN. eaesarea, cataria (worthless except for the benefit of cats, who 



catnip as man pursues alcohol, and with very much the 



same effects), jiepeklla, ratda. Wlhoni, cyanea. grandiflora, and mac- 



rantha (two ways of making the same large-flowered promise. N. 



raw = Dracocephcdum stbiricum). 



Nertera depressa is a minute half-hardy New Zealand mat of 



o foliage in spreading cushions, all over which, 



after the unnoticeable flowers, develop quantities of glowing terra-cotta 



and scarlet balls of fruit like round comfits. It will be happy out of 



doors in a sheltered shady corner of the rock-work, in damp sandy 



loam ; and will even bear our winters, though pieces should always be 



" ed up in autumn feu -ike. 



Nierembergia rivularis comes from the River Plate, where 



it ah lamp mudd}- banks with its packed masses of small 



| -d dark-green leaves, which emit an unimaginable profusion 



I lovely pearl-pale cups or wide bells, like those of some 



exq.. Ivulus dropped from heaven. In cultivation the plant 



ty hardy, but rather uncertain, some people succeeding 



.;ort in having carpets of it, covered with its delicate noble 



chalices all through the late summer and autumn ; while others with 



2 



