VERATRUM. 



Veratrum. — These vast-foliaged portents are the curse of the cows 

 m all the high meadows of the Alps, where you may see their tower- 

 ing masses of corrugated stiff oval leaves, like those of some giant 

 ina lutea (and often deluding the unwary with the resemblance), 

 until with summer, here and there upon the clumps, develop the 

 stalwart branching spikes of 3 or 4 feet high, of which every bough 

 is densely packed with stars of blossom which, in every form and 

 species, are in varying degrees of unmitigated dinginess. greenish, 

 yellowish, or of a grubby brownish-black, that do not atone for the 

 venomousness of all the plant, nor lead us to be tempted (even by its 

 generous and statuesque port), to pine for Veratrum in the garden ; 

 where, however, the race will thrive, of course, indestructibly in any 

 deep soil, and in any not too torrid aspect. Nearly all Veratrums 

 offered are forms of V. viride ; the true V. Loebeli lives in America, 

 and is neither known nor wanted over here. 



Verbascum. — The Mulleins, again, are rather weeds of the brick- 

 field than treasures of the rock-garden. Some of the statelier species 

 are noble objects for the border, however, and may be found abun- 

 dantly proclaimed in the catalogues of their growers and raisers. 

 Almost the only common species at all adapted for the smaller rock 

 garden is V. phoeniceum, with a modest habit of 18 inches or 2 feet, 

 and loose spikes through later summer of large flowers in varying 

 shades of violet, rose-lavender, or pale white. V. pumilum is but a 

 biennial, and lives far away in the dry places of Anatolia. None the 

 less it is pretty ; being some 10 inches or half a foot high, with hoary 

 foliage and flowers of bright yellow, spotted with purple. V. Pesta- 

 lozzae is a yet more genuino candidate for the rock-garden, being a 

 plant of the Lycian Alps, 4 inches or hah a foot higii, and soundly 

 perennial, wrapped in tawny wool, with notably wrinklj* leaves and 

 woolly yellow blossoms. Seed of every Verbascum is profuse and 

 easy to raise, and none requires more cultivation than open soil and 

 sunshine for its prosperity. 



Verbena. — No Verbena worth the growing is really safe and hardy 

 and capable of permanent establishment in the average English rock- 

 garden. Various species, however, are advertised from time to time, 

 and may be grown in the hottest slopes as half-hardy annuals, and 

 propagated yearly by cuttings, kept indoors, if such a course be 

 considered allowable ; for, though these often have a bloody and a 

 fiery gorg of colouring, they do not surpass the ordinary 



bedding Verbenas of commerce (which they exactly, on a slighter 

 scale, resemble) ; and, if we are to adorn the rock-garden with the one, 

 then why not with the other ? And, once we open the door to bedding 



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