

ABUTILON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. ACANTHOLIMON. 325 



A. umbellata should be planted in 

 rather poor, light and dry soil, on open 

 well-drained borders. The seeds often 

 remain dormant for some time before 

 vegetating ; those of A . umbellata ger- 

 minate readily. Abronias flower in 

 summer and autumn, but are not quite 

 happy in our climate. 



ABUTILON. Plants mostly requir- 

 ing greenhouse temperature in winter, 

 but growing freely out of doors in 

 summer, and a graceful aid in the 

 flower garden in the southern counties. 

 A . Darwini and its forms, as well as 

 the varieties related to A. striatum, 

 grow from 4 to 8 feet in height. They 

 can be made bushy by stopping, and 

 they flower better than if in pots. 

 They are useful among the taller and 

 more graceful plants for the flower 

 garden, and are easily raised from seed 

 and cuttings. A. vitifolium is a hand- 

 some plant in mild districts, and several 

 sorts may be grown in the open air in 

 gardens in warm sea-shore districts. 

 New hybrid varieties are often raised. 



ACACIA (Tassel Tree}. Beautiful 

 shrubs and trees, thriving in warmer 

 countries, but a few grown out of doors 

 do well in parts of our country. A . 

 Julibrissin. By reducing this to a 

 single stem and using young plants, or 

 those cut down every year, one gets an 

 erect stem covered with leaves as 

 graceful as a Fern, and pretty amidst 

 low-growing flowers. A. lophantha, 

 though not hardy, grows freely in the 

 open air in summer, and gives graceful 

 verdure among flowers. It may easily 

 be raised from seed sown early in the 

 year to give plants fit for putting out 

 in early summer. In Cornish and 

 South Devon gardens various kinds 

 thrive in the open air. A . affinis is the 

 most common. Ln many cases A. 

 affinis is grown as A . dealbata. A . ver- 

 ticillata flowers later in the spring. It 

 reaches a height of 15 feet in a few 

 years, growing in the form of a broad 

 based cone, with its lower branches but 

 a foot or so from the ground. 



ACZENA. Alpine and rock plants 

 of the Rose family. Though not pretty 

 in flower, if we except the crimson 

 spines that give a charm to the little 

 New Zealand A. microphylla, these 

 plants are useful as very dwarf carpets 

 in the rock garden, and now and then, 

 to cover dry parts of borders, among the 

 most so being argentea, millefolia, pul- 

 chella, ovalifolia, and sarmentosa, all 

 of free growth. 



ACANTHOLIMON (Prickly Thrift}. 

 Dwarf mountain plants of the Sea 

 Lavender order, extending from the 

 east of Greece to Thibet, and having 

 their headquarters in Persia. The 

 flowers are like those of Statice, the 

 plants forming cushion-like tufts ; the 

 leaves rigid and spiny. They are 

 dwarf evergreen rock garden and choice 

 border plants. Cuttings taken off in 

 late summer and kept in a cold frame 

 during winter make good plants in two 

 years, but by layering one gets earlier 

 and larger plants. All are hardy, and 

 prefer warm, sunny situations in sandy 

 loam. There are only a few kinds in 

 cultivation, such as A. glumaceum, 

 venustum, and androsaceum. A. Kot- 

 schyi is handsome, with long spikes 

 rising well above the leaves, and white 

 flowers ; A . melananthum has short, 

 dense spikes, the limb of the calyx 

 being bordered with dark violet- or 

 black ; and there are other pretty 

 species, not all in cultivation perhaps, 

 which, so far as we know them, thrive 

 best on the sunny rock garden, in light 



AcfintJiolhnon, gluinaceum. 



soil. Where large plants of the rare 

 kinds exist, it is a good plan to work 

 some cocoa-nut fibre and sand, in equal 

 parts, into the tufts in early autumn, 

 but before doing this some of the shoots 

 should be gently torn so as to half sever 

 them at a heel ; water to settle the 

 soil. Many of the growths thus treated 

 will root by spring. 



