AMONG THE FLOWERS. 



353 



growing herbaceous plants, such as the 

 centaureas, the echinops with its funny 

 globular heads, the tritomas and the 

 peonies may be planted against the taller 

 shrubs and will adapt themselves very soon 

 to their situation. 



There are so many of the irises, the Ger- 

 man, Japanese and Spanish, with their rich- 

 ness of bloom and color, and which need 

 little if any attention at all except perhaps 

 sometimes in the German to check their un- 

 ruly growth. These, too, may take a place 

 planted amongst the taller shrubs. Of the 

 smaller plants which are adapted to border 

 planting, there are legion, but there may be 

 mentioned the anemones, aquilegias 

 (columbines), with their variety of blossom, 

 the coreopsis, the doronicum, which is in 

 one perpetual state of bloom, the gaillar- 



dias, the Iceland poppies, veronicas, toten- 

 tilla, the statice and quite a host of other 

 plants, some just as stately, and forming a 

 striking feature, others charmingly compact 

 and proper, filling each place alloted to them 

 with an. individuality quite their own. Of 

 the smaller plants which may be used for 

 the edges of the border there is a wide field 

 to choose ircm. But ''^ne need not go fur- 

 ther than the varied saxifrages, the primu- 

 las, campanulas, or the old-fashioned dian- 

 thus, the silenes, alyssum, aubretia and 

 many others equally charming but too nu- 

 merous to mention. iVmongst this exten- 

 sive variety of border plants there is much 

 that is highly decorative, and many an un- 

 sightly spot or ugly wall may be made effec- 

 tive by the judicious planting of herbaceous 

 and alpine plants. 



FLOWER AND PLANT LORE* 



EDWARD TYRRELL, TORONTO. 



IT is impossible to arrive at any idea of 

 the varieties of roses grown in eastern 

 countries, but Pinkerton, in his book. Tra- 

 vels in Persia, says " I saw beautiful roses, 

 both white, yellow and red, and some white 

 on one side and yellow on the other." The 

 rose fields in the neighborhood of Ghaze- 

 poor, India, occupy many nundreds of acres, 

 and at the proper season are very beautiful, 

 the flowers are all used for distillation and 

 making attar. To produce one rupee's 

 weight of attar 20,000 well grown roses are 

 required. 



Herodotus records the existence of large 

 double roses in Asia, and also tells us that 

 in a part of Macedonia were the so-called 

 gardens of Midas, in which grew native 

 roses each one' having 60 petals, and of a 

 scent surpassing all others. Greek authors 

 say the rose was the Queen of Flowers ; 



they also refer to it as the aelight of the 

 gods, the favorite plant of the Muses, and 

 useful in diseases. One of these old poets, 

 writing its praises, says " the gods, in jeal- 

 ousy, to nasten the period of its flowering, 

 watered it with nectar, and soon this immor- 

 tal flower raised itself majestically upon its 

 thorny stem." Theophrastus tells us it 

 was customary in Greece to set fire to the 

 rose trees, without which precaution they 

 would bear no flowers. Pliny says that the 

 art of forcing consisted in watering the 

 plants with warm water on the appearance 

 of the buds. 



Another writer says Egypt cultivated 

 roses largely and sent quantities to Rome 

 annually, before those of the latter country 

 were in bloom. This must have been be- 

 fore Rome became famous for her garden- 

 ing, as Martial in his epigram, " To Caesar 



* The History of the Rose, continued from the July Horticulturist. 



