PHLOX. 



woolly -white in all the upper part, in which nestle the goodly blossoms 

 of a lovely lilac-blue. 



Ph. Rugelii is another hybrid, from stony wood-borders in Ten- 

 nessee. It has the leafage of the one parent, Ph. amoena, and the 

 ample blue flowers of the other, Ph. divaricata. 



Ph." setacea " of gardens is usually Ph. subulata. 



Ph. ■■ setacea " of gardens is sometimes Ph. sibirica. 



Ph. sibirica. which sometimes does duty for Ph. setacea, is the one 

 member of the family to escape- across, by way of the Arctic islands, 

 into the Old World, thus ranging from Alaska to all Northern Asia. It 

 is a villous-downy mat of 6-inch shoots, set with narrow little leaves, 

 more or less withered at the edges, and clad in rather long down all over. 

 For the rest, its blooms and beauties are those of the much more 

 glabrous Ph. subulata. 



Ph. speciosa is sub-shrubby and rather erect, with pairs of leaves, 

 quite hairless, and half an inch to two and a half inches in length, and 

 with one conspicuous nerve. The flowers are white or pink, but most 

 variable, borne in loose showers, one to three or four in a cluster. 

 In aL its development Ph. speciosa stands not far from Ph. pilosa, 

 from which it differs in the obvious characteristics given, among others. 

 It also has varieties beyond number : Ph. s. elatior, taller, with thinner 

 foliage ; Ph. s. latifolia, Ph. s. lanceolata, Ph. s. nitida, Ph. s. Woud- 

 housei (with the blossoms on short footstalks, and the whole plant so 

 dwarf as to bring it near Ph. amabilis, but that the style is short and 

 the lobes of the corolla not cloven to a quarter of their depth as in that 

 species) ; Ph. s. lignosa, Ph. s. Suksdorffii (with dense blossom-sprays 

 and long footstalks to the flowers) ; and Ph. s. Whitedii, with loose 

 showers of lilac -blue. 



Ph. Slansburyi makes a stout little tuffet of 4 inches high, downy 

 below and developing to roughness above. The shoots are set with 

 thick, recurving, spreading, small folJU ge, very narrow and prickly- 

 pointed. The flowers are pink, and the plant is Ph. dasyphylla of 

 Brand. There is a variety of this, similar in habit, with larger flowers 

 of light blue, an inch across. This is Ph. St. puberula, which, as its 

 name justly observes, is vested in a certain amount of glandular down. 

 It flowers earlier in the year than Ph. longifolia. 



Ph. Stdlaria is familiar to all our gardens — a rather lax mossy 

 Phlox of long, straggly arms and starry flowers of pale French-blue, 

 with deep-cleft lobes in loose clusters here and there over the curtain, 

 on stems of an inch or two in June — a pretty thing enough, but un- 

 fortunate in coming into competition with Ph. subulata, a rivalry for 

 which nature has not equipped it. 



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