THERMOPSIS. 



foliage of glaucous blue-green. But tho crowded and multitudinous 

 blooms are packed in tight stiff spikes and heads of yellow, rather 

 coarse and rank in offoct — though obviously useful for the wild garden, 

 where I hey will grow 5 foot high and more, blossoming in the summor. 

 (Th. jlavum is a native.) 



Th. majus and Th. minus are simply larger and smaller forms of 

 tho Wild Maidenhair of our Northern limestones. The specific name 

 is Th. minus, but the typo varies distractingly, and yet another of its 

 forms is tho especially fine-leaved Th. m. adiantifolium. All develop- 

 ments of tho species will grow almost anywhere, and though thoir dis- 

 hevelled and wild showers of little brownish tassels in summer have 

 only their wind-blown grace to commend them, the foliage is always 

 a pleasure to see, and never more so than when it sprays from the 

 Cliff at Ingleborough in a finer and more wiry graco than it retains in 

 the fatness of tho garden. 



Th. orientate is a specially lovely plant from tho Caucasus, 

 hardly more than 4 or 5 mches high, with flowers of rich clear pink 

 in May. 



Th. petaloideum (Th. baikalense) has groat distinctness as well as 

 great distinction of habit ; tho loaves are exactly like thoso of a 

 stunted Columbine in effect, of darkish green ; and the rather stiff stems 

 rise firmly up in summer to a height of a foot or 18 inches, bearing 

 wide clusters of large upstanding solid flowers of ample ivory-white 

 sepals, most solid and striking in effect. It thrives with kindly hearti- 

 ness in any open soil, and blooms usually from the middle of summer 

 onwards. And among the many other species that might be named 

 are S. purpurascens, from North America, which has blossoms of reddish- 

 purple tone on stems of 2 feet, far on into the autumn ; Th. saxatile, 

 suggestive of a little 4-inch Th. minus, from the European Alps ; 

 greenish Th. sibiricum, with a stature of 2 feet ; and foot-high, ivory- 

 pure Th. tuberosum, from South Europo, producing its lovely flowers 

 in May. 



Thermopsis. — Tho Sham-Lupines are border plants by right, and 

 until they are well-established in rich light loam, well-drained and in tho 

 sun, for several years, they will not show their best face to tho world. 

 They are large and orect bushy plants of 2 or 3 feet high, with long 

 Lupine-spires of yellow from the middle of summer onwards ; and 

 should be raised from seed, as thoy dislike being worried at the root, 

 and transplanted and divided. Th. caroliniana can attain a height 

 of feet ; Th.fabacea only that of a yard ; Th. montana is of the same 

 height , as also is 77;. divaricarpa and Th. rhomb ifolia ; while Th. lanceo- 

 lata is the b; L l>v of the family, with only some 12 inches to its credit. 



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