154 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



But the most precious, perhaps, of all flowers of autumn for all 



parts of the country, grouped in an artistic way, are the hardy Asters 



of the American woods, which lived for ages in 



Starworts. our gardens in mean bundles tied up in mixed 



borders like besoms. The best of these massed 



and grouped among shrubs or young plantations of trees, 



covering the ground, give an effect new and delightful, the colour 



refined and charming, and the mass of bloom impressive in autumn. 



Some kinds come in flower in summer, but nearly all the loveliest 



Asters in colour flower in September and October, and no such good 



colours of the same shades have ever been seen in the flower garden. 



It is not only the Asters of America we have to consider, but the 

 still more precious Asters of Europe, which by their extraordinary 

 beauty make up for their rarity. Professor Green, of California, who 

 knows the American Aster well, on seeing here a plant of Aster 

 acris, said, " We have none so beautiful as that." This is the Aster 

 with the beautiful blue purple flower which is so effective when 

 massed. Under different names this plant is grown in nearly allied 

 forms, some having specific names, enabling us to enjoy plants of 

 different stature but the same high beauty, flowering at slightly 

 different times, but always at their best in autumn. With these 

 should be grouped the handsome large Italian Aster, which also has 

 its half-a-dozen forms, not differing much, but precious for their 

 variety, and among the prettiest plants ever seen in our gardens. It 

 is none the less valuable because as easily cultivated as the common 

 Balm of the kitchen garden. For the last two years I have had 

 several thousand plants of these European Asters beneath a group of 

 half-grown Fir, just as they might be in their wild state, but rather 

 thicker, as the spot is a cultivated one, and have never had the 

 same return of beauty from anything else. Be the weather what it 

 may, the lovely blue and purple was a picture, and landscape 

 painters came to paint the scene. 



We give the first place to these because they are almost inde- 

 pendent of soil or cool climates. Hardy as the Chrysanthemum is, 

 the same cannot be said for it, because, as an 

 Sunflowers outdoor flower, it must have a sandy soil and 

 and Starworts. warm positions, and cool soils, even in southern 

 England, are against it. In warm and free 

 soils, like that at Hazlemere, one may see delightful results from 

 the cottage Chrysanthemums, which are very pretty where they 

 can be grown against low walls or pailings. Other plants which are of 

 the highest value in endurance and freedom of bloom are the Heaths 

 of our own islands. Their effect is good, summer and winter ; but in 

 autumn some of them flower in a pretty way, particularly the Cornish 



