PHACELIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



PHAI.ARIS. 



759 



PHACELIA.— A group of sun-loving 

 annuals with showy flowers, mainly from 

 the western states of North America. 

 Some are only a few inches high and 

 spread along the ground ; others are 

 several feet in height, bearing bell-shaped 

 or tubular flowers, blue, mauve, purple, 

 or white, and carried in curved racemes 

 which straighten as they expand. Only 

 two or three kinds have been grown in our 

 gardens, but others are well worth a place 

 and are becoming better known. They 

 are of easy culture as annuals, some 

 kinds preferring sandy soils and others 

 something stififer. The tall kinds should 

 be planted fairly close, and the trailers 

 further apart, and most kinds will begin 

 to flower in about ten weeks from sowing. 

 Nearly all are more or less hairy, and like 

 most hairy plants they like a dry place, 

 and then bloom freely and through a long 

 season. Seeds may be raised in heat 

 and the seedlings planted out in clumps, 

 but this needs care, for all Phacelias dis- 

 like moving. They may be sown in the 

 open during April, like Nemophila — to 

 which several kinds bear resemblance — 

 and this is the safer way. August sow- 

 ings may also be made, to be wintered 

 under glass, and flower in early spring. 

 Few plants are more valuable to bee- 

 keepers. The best kinds are : — 



P. bicolor, a low spreading plant with 

 much-cut clammy leaves and loose spikes of 

 lo to 20 rather large funnel-shaped flowers, 

 bright purple with a yellow centre. 



P. 'bipiiinatifida, a bushy plant of one to two 

 feet, with dissected leaves irregularly lobed 

 and toothed, and covered with downy hairs. 

 The flowers, opening in succession from July 

 and September, are small but very numerous 

 and arranged as in the heliotrope. The buds are 

 white and the open flowers bright blue with 

 prominent stamens. Pretty for cutting. Found 

 in Ohio and Alabama, much further east than 

 other kinds. 



P. campanularia. — The best kind, free in its 

 fine dark-blue flowers spotted with white in 

 the throat ; they last a long while, and the 

 plant makes a pretty carpet in sunny places. 



P. congesta is a variable kind from Texas, 

 8 to 15 inches high, with grey-green lobed or 

 cut downy leaves, and mauve-coloured flowers 

 gathered into large loose heads. 



P. divaricata, a showy kind, abounding on 

 the shores of the Bay of San Francisco. Its 

 fragile stems spread freely, bearing oval leaves 

 curving upwards at the edges, and loose spikes 

 of pale violet flowers three-quarters of an inch 

 across. 



P. Douglasii, a neat spreading plant with 

 the habit and appearance of Nemophila insig- 

 ttis, its hairy and much-cut leaves gathered 

 near the base of the stems, and the bell-shaped 

 flowers half-an-inch across. 



P. glandulosa. — A perennial kind, of dwarf 

 habit, with pretty foliage and mauve-coloured 

 flowers in May, the prominent stamens giving 

 a sort of "bottle-brush" appearance to the 

 spikes. 



P. grandiflora, a tall handsome plant with 

 hairy, wrinkled, broad rounded leaves one and 

 a half inches long, and sky-blue flowers veined 

 with purple, during early summer. 



P. humilis. — An alpine species, coming 

 from a height of 5,000 to 6,coo feet in the 

 mountains of California. Though of erect 

 habit it is only a few inches high, branching 

 freely from the base. The leaves are spoon- 

 shaped, and the rich indigo-blue flowers carried 

 freely as loose spikes. 



P. Menziesii, of erect habit and 9 to 12 

 inches high, covered with rough grey hairs ; 

 leaves long, narrow, and stemless. The flowers 

 come freely in clusters of bell-shaped deep 

 violet or white blossoms, half to three-quarters 

 of an inch across, rich and lasting. A good 

 and easily grown kind. 



P. Parryi from S. California, is a compact 

 plant of 6 to 12 inches, with oval leaves, hairy 

 on both sides and somewhat sticky. The 

 flowers are shaped like a shallow.bell, with a 

 spreading mouth an inch across, their pre- 

 vailing rich purple colour relieved by five 

 pure white spots. There is a pretty white 

 form. 



P. sericea. — A perennial species from 

 Colorado, with leafy stems of 6 or 8 inches, 

 leaves cut into narrow leaflets, and dense heads 

 of violet-purple flowers. A pretty plant, best 

 suited to the warm soils of our southern shore 

 gardens, proving tender in colder soils and 

 inland. 



P. tanacetifolia is a stout hairy plant of i 

 to 3 feet, found upon the sand or gravel banks 

 of streams in California. It bears finely cut 

 leaves like those of a tansy, and large com- 

 pact heads of pale blue or bluish-pink flowers 

 in June. There is a variety with white flowers, 

 and a form teniiifolia in which the leaf-segments 

 are almost hair-like. 



P. viscida. — PVom open spaces near the 

 Pacific coast ; is a hairy, gum-covered plant of 

 I to 2 feet, with rounded and toothed leaves 

 i^ to 3 inches long ; the flowers are deep blue 

 or purple with a white centre. Syn. , Eiitoca 

 viscida. 



P. WMtlavia, a loosely-branched plant of 

 I to 2 feet, with angular toothed leaves, and 

 large rich blue flowers nearly an inch across^ 

 the corolla divided into five spreading lobes. 

 There is a white form and a variety ^/t^xzw/^- 

 ides in which the flowers are spotted. 



PHALARIS {Rzbbojt Grass).— Gar- 

 den grasses, useful in the wild garden 

 or beside water, where the spreading roots 

 can do no harm. The forms commonly 

 grown are those striped with yellow or 

 creamy-white, and known as arundi7iacea 

 varicgata and elega7itissima. These grow 

 about four feet high, and are best in 

 3 B 2 



