BUTOMUS UMBELLATUS. 
up through the bare earth in long ragged cups round the patches of 
melting snow. It is not till afterwards that the leaves appear; and, 
indeed, the whole growth is quite close in habit to Colchicum, and 
answers moderately well to the same cultivation. 
Buphthalmum, with Telekia, form a group of golden-sunned 
Composites near Erigeron. Of these B. grandiflorum and B. speciosum 
(Telekia) are handsome rank upstanding things of merit for show 
in rough border or wild places. B. speciosissimum (Telekia), so allur- 
ingly named, is a rare plant from limestone crevices high up in the 
sheer cliffs of the Lombard mountains far above the Lakes. But, 
though a fine stout species, it is not worthy either of its name or of its 
habitat—a rather coarse thing, very leafy with long soft oval leaves, 
that dwarf and dim the glory of the enormous golden-rayed flowers 
that crown its foot-high stems. None the less it is a notable beauty, 
only to call it “‘the extremely beautiful’ is to overload the market, 
and provoke a reaction of disappointment against its charm, which 
thus undergoes an unmerited slump. It is of the easiest culture in 
any sunny rock-garden. 
Bupleurum, a curious and large family of Umbelliferae, not 
remote (in their unlikeness to the rest) from Astrantia ; but here the 
clumps are of much neater habit and oval-oblong leafage, with the 
star-forming bracts of the flowers in shades of greeny gold. There are 
several pretty alpine species, none of them appearing really robust in 
cultivation. They should all be tried in light sunny soil or stony 
peat-mixture, in crevices and in the moraine. Among the best are 
B. graminifolium, a branching grower, with very narrow smooth grassy 
foliage and golden showers of stars all through the summer; B. 
stellatum has fewer flowers with broader bracts; A. ranunculoeides 
is a variable type, which ought more properly to be called B. baldense, 
with a variety olympicum. This, at its best, is the prettiest of all, 
and the only one worth cosseting; a neat small thing, with many 
stems and loose heads of greeny-gold stars, not more than 2 or 3 
inches high, in hearty clustered tufts, with short narrow foliage. 
There are many other species, none of conspicuous merit. 
Butomus umbellatus, the common Flowering-rush of our 
canal-banks, is a valuable Aquatic for the wet places or shallows of the 
water garden, with its jungles of lax keeled leaves about 2 feet high, 
and its yet taller stems carrying a loose erect head of pale mauve- 
pink starry cups. Like most aquatics, it will grow almost too well. 
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