] 64 COMPOSITE. 



plants, of which we have very few in cultivation. Two or three 

 of the species that are to be found in botanical gardens are 

 scarcely hardy enough to endure out of doors our winter 

 climate, and they are not so highly ornamental as to repay the 

 trouble of protection. The two selected are quite hardy, and 

 will succeed in any ordinary garden-soil. Propagate by divi- 

 sion in autumn or spring. 



H. autumnale {Autum7i-flowe7'mg H.) — This species grows 

 about 3 feet high. The flower-heads are very large, bright 

 yellow, with broad-spreading ray-florets, appearing from August 

 till October. The variety H. a. piimila, growing about i8 

 inches or 2 feet high, is a neater plant for small borders, and 

 the normal form is handsome for larger ones and for shrubbery 

 decoration. Native of North America. 



H. Hoopesii (Hoopes's H.) — This is a species of recent intro- 

 duction, for which we are indebted to Mr Thompson of Ips- 

 wich. It grows about 2 feet high, and produces large flower- 

 heads, deep-yellow or orange colour. Flowers in June, and 

 onwards throughout the summer. It is a very handsome 

 border-plant, the best perhaps of the genus. Native of North 

 America. 



Hieracium aurantiacum {Orange Hawkweed). — The family 

 of Hawkweeds is very extensive, and very generally rather 

 weedy. The species above named is, so far as I am aware, the 

 most ornamental. It is well worth a place in mixed borders 

 where the collection is extensive, being rather a showy plant, 

 though never very profuse ; but for four or five months it is 

 always throwing up its corymbs of deep orange-coloured flower- 

 heads. It produces dwarf tufts of entire hairy leaves, whence 

 spring the rather hairy slender flower-scapes, bearing compact 

 corymbs of flower-heads. It is a common plant in cultivation, 

 being often met with in cottage gardens. It flourishes in any 

 ordinary garden-soil, and may be freely propagated by division 

 in autumn, winter, or spring. Native of the mountains of 

 southern Europe, and occasionally found as an escape from 

 gardens in many parts of Britain, and so included in some of 

 our British floras. Height about 18 inches. 



Liatris. — This is a very handsome family of hardy border- 

 plants from North America, one or more of which should be 

 in every collection. Only one species is at all common, Z. 

 spicata, and it is not so generally grown as it should be on 

 account of its fine habit and beautiful spikes of flower-heads. 

 There are about ten species in cultivation ; but very few of 

 these are in nurseries, and fewer still in private gardens. All 

 are purple-flowered, and late summer and autumn flowering 



