HYPERICUM. 
chain of the Alps it is exceedingly rare, preferring only two valleys 
which are specially open to the Fohnwind, a taste in which the Hyperi- 
cum stands alone. It may be seen about Stans, and here and there 
round the shores of Lucerne, by Weggis, and by the Mythen. If its 
aesthetic value is not sufficient, it will also serve you as a diuretic. 
H. crenulatum haunts the alpine rocks of the Cilician Taurus—a 
frail exquisite species with shoots of some 3 or 4 inches, thready and 
‘fine, studded with short-stemmed tiny blunt leaves, green and smooth 
and wavy at their edge, making an effect not unlike that of the more 
erect and more pointed-leaved H. nummularium, with the same large 
lovely flowers of clear gold. There is also a form with larger flowers 
still. 
H. cuneatum is yet another seductive rock-plant, but this belongs 
to warm crevices of the alpine region in Syria and Cilicia, and should 
not yet be looked on as beyond reach of a specially evil winter. It is, 
however, so beautiful that not the choicest corner in the garden need 
be grudged it. H. cuneatum forms a tiny branching bushlet of very 
dainty weak stems, some half a foot in length, and adorned with 
small leaves, wedge-shaped to their base (where they draw to a little 
foot-stalk), glaucous-blue beneath, and either smooth at the edge or a 
trifle crinkled. The golden orbs of blossom are carried in a loose spire 
on leafy reddish-stemmed sprays. This has also been H. myrtilloeides. 
H. decussatum, likewise out of the East, is a 6-inch form, or species, 
of the usual refulgence. 
H. delphicum is all green and laxly softly hairy. Its height varies 
between 5 inches and a foot, and it belongs to the leafy section, with 
markedly blunt foliage about an inch long or more, heart-shaped at the 
base. 
H. elongatum only just escapes being swept into the crowd of 
varieties that cower beneath the name of H. hyssopifolium. It has the 
same qualities as those, but its stem is always undivided, and its pyra- 
mid of blossom is narrower and longer. (Anatolia, &c.) 
H. empetrifolium makes a pair with H. Coris, but the stems are 
branching (which those of Coris never are), and the petals fall when they 
are finished (which those of Coris never do). It may be seen on the 
warm hills of Athens, and over Asia Minor, &c. 
H. erectum is the Japanese plant now being sent out under the 
name of H. japonicum which, in reality, belongs to a worthless little 
annual weed (q.v.). H. erectum is a stalwart species of some foot or 
more in height, with ample pairs of leaves, and large flowers in a cluster 
at the top; by no means an unpleasing thing, though lacking the 
refinement of its smaller cousins. 
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