THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. liquidambaf 



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charming plant, with flowers which vary 

 from rose-purple to dark orange. L. 

 bipartita is also very variable, the colours 

 ranging from deep purple to white. 

 Perezi has small yellow flowers ; whilst 

 the flowers of maroccana vary from violet 

 to pink ; and those of multipunctata, the 

 dwarfest of the group, are black spotted 

 with vellow. 



LINNiEA ( Tzuin Flower). — A little 

 evergreen creeper, L. borealis having 

 slender upright stalks bearing two flowers 

 each, delicatelyfragrant white, often tinged 

 with pink, and drooping. It is usually 

 found in moist woods, where it forms a 

 dense carpet, and is wrongly supposed 

 to be difficult to cultivate. Little need 

 be done beyond planting healthy young 

 plants in a moist sandy border or rock- 

 garden. I have often seen it thriving 

 where the air was pure and the soil suit- 

 able ; and it is excellent for a moist rock- 

 garden, growing rapidly, and forming a 

 charming fringe to groups of small alpine 

 shrubs, in cool borders or on cool parts of 

 the rock-garden. N. Europe, Asia, and 

 America ; also Scotch mountains. 



LINUM (/^/.?.r).— Plants of marked 

 elegance and lightness of growth, and 

 including some pretty garden plants. 



L. campanulatum ( Yelloxu Herbaceous 

 Flax). — A perennial with yellow flowers 

 on stems 12 to 18 in. high, distinct 

 and worthy of a place. A native of the 

 south of Europe, it flowers in summer, 

 and flourishes freely in dry soil on the 

 warm sides of banks or rock-gardens. 

 Similar to it is L. flavum, or tauricum, 

 also a handsome and hardy plant with 

 yellow flowers ; but L. arboreum, a 

 shrubby kind, also with yellow flowers, 

 is not hardy in all districts, though where 

 it thrives it is a pretty little evergreen 

 bush for the rock-garden. 



L. grandiflorum {Red Flax) is a showy 

 hardy annual from Algeria, with deep red 

 blossoms. By successive sowings it may 

 be had in bloom from May till October. 

 Seed sown in autumn will give plants for 

 spring-blooming, and sowings made from 

 March to June will yield a display through 

 the summer and autumn. By sowing 

 seeds in pots in good rich soil in summer, 

 and plunging in a sunny border with 

 plenty of water, plants may be obtained 

 for the greenhouse or window during 

 October and November. If protected 

 from frost the plant is perennial. 



L. monogynum {New Zealand Flax). 

 — A beautiful kind with large pure white 

 blossoms blooming in summer. It grows 

 about \\ ft. high in good light soil, and 

 its neat and slender habit renders it particu- 



larly pleasing for the borders of the rock- 

 garden or for pot-culture. It may readily 

 be increased by seed or division ; it is 

 hardy in the more temperate parts of 

 England, but in the colder districts is 

 said to require some protection. L. can- 

 didissimum is a finer and hardier variety. 

 Both are natives of New Zealand. 



L. narbonnense {Narbo/uie Flax).— A 

 beautiful kind, bearing during summer 

 many large light sky-blue flowers, with 

 \-iolet veins, growing best on rich light 

 soils, and is a fine plant for borders, or 

 for the lower flanks of the rock-garden, 

 forming lovely blue masses 15 to 20 in. 

 high. Southern Europe. 



Other similar but inferior blue-flowered 

 kinds are the common L. perenne, usita- 

 tissimum, alpinum, sibiricum, alpicola, 

 collinum, and austriacum ; all are hardy 

 European species, and make pretty border 

 or rock-garden plants. The white and 

 rose varieties of L. perenne are pretty 

 plants. 



L. salsoloides ( lV/u7e Rock Flax) is a 

 dwarf half-shrubby species, essentially a 

 rock-garden plant ; its flowers, white 

 with a purplish eye, reminding one of some 

 of our creeping white Phloxes. In the 

 rock-garden, in a well-exposed sunny 

 nook, the plant is hardy, and trails over 

 stones, flowering abundantly. It pro- 

 duces seeds rarely, so that it must be 

 increased by cuttings of the short shoots 

 taken off about midsummer ; these will 

 strike freely, and make vigorous plants 

 when potted off in the following spring. 

 Mountains of Europe. L. viscosum with 

 pink flowers, is a closely allied plant not 

 so pretty. 



The Common Flax, which gives us the 

 linen fibre, is a pretty annual plant worth 

 a place for its beauty among annual 

 flowers. 



LIPPIA. — L. nodijlora is a dwarf 

 perennial creeper bearing, in summer, 

 heads of pretty pink blooms. It grows in 

 any situation or soil, and is a capital plant 

 for quickly covering bare spaces in the 

 rock-garden where choicer subjects will 

 not thrive. 



LIQUIDAMBAR {Sweet Gum).-h 

 very beautiful summer-leafing maple-like 

 tree from Florida westward to the prairie 

 States, often reaching 100 feet in height, 

 the leaves turning an intense deep 

 purplish red in autumn, fine in effect. 

 This tree, thriving in wet and marshy 

 places, is more at home in Great Britain 

 than some of the American trees in our 

 clouded country. It would probably 

 attain a greater stature in river-side soil 

 in a warmer country than ours, the best 



