POLEMONIACE.^. 1 99 



abundant moisture during the growing season, but the drainage 

 ought to be very perfect. 



Phlox. — This is one of the most numerous of the groups of 

 this order, and in so far as the varieties of the late-flowering 

 taller species are concerned it is a very familiar one, for the 

 florists have been very successful in popularising it through 

 them. The species from which these popular varieties have 

 sprung — panicidata, pyramidalis, siiffrKticosa, and others — no 

 longer exist in gardens; a fact that need not be mourned over, 

 since they have left such a host of beauty in their offspring. 

 These autumn-flowering Phloxes are indispensable to the mixed 

 border, and amongst masses of shrubs their showy panicles 

 have often a fine effect in distant pictures or scenes in places 

 of large extent. They flourish in any ordinarv^ garden-soil, but 

 develop themselves best in moist but well - drained loam, 

 rather strong than othenvise. They may be propagated by 

 cuttings or division; the former is the best for obtaining fine 

 panicles and flowers for show purposes, but the latter is the 

 best way to obtain massive plants quickly for border or shrub- 

 bery decoration. They are the better of being occasionally 

 lifted and replanted ; this may be done with the best results 

 every year, if done in time — that is, not later than the be- 

 ginning of March : it keeps the plants always vigorous, both in 

 foliage and panicles ; and at each successive planting care 

 should be taken to sink the crowns a trifle lower than they 

 were before. The florists will no doubt smile at my simplicity 

 in these directions. I am quite content that they should do 

 so, if they bear in mind at the same time that my instructions 

 are directed towards the production of many stems and panicles 

 rather than a few of excellent quality. There is another sec- 

 tion of Phloxes more rare than these. I allude to the dwarf 

 creeping or trailing species, flowering in spring or early summer. 

 These are not much grown, but they are not less worthy of 

 being cultivated than the tall kinds ; indeed some of them rival 

 these, both in the size, brilliancy, and profusion of their flowers, 

 and their lowly habit renders them available for purposes that 

 the others are unfit for. They are most useful for small or 

 narrow borders and beds, and for the adornment of rockwork 

 and sunny banks and dwarf stumps, in appropriate positions ; 

 and altogether they are select plants that may be associated 

 with the more choice herbaceous and alpine perennials in many 

 ways that will suggest themselves in difterent circumstances. 

 Their culture is quite as simple as that of the taller Phloxes ; 

 for although they partake of the character of alpine plants as to 

 stature, they have none of the fastidiousness of some of the 



