368 BOUSSINGAULTIA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



BRODI^A. 



coming into profuse bloom, and already 

 scented the air with the first of their 

 brown-yellow drooping cups. Aus- 

 tralia. 



Botryanthus. See MUSCARI. 



BOUSSINGAULTIA (Madeira Vine}. 

 B. baselloides is a luxuriant trailing 

 plant of the Spinach order with shoots 

 1 6 to 20 feet long, flowering late in 

 autumn, the flowers small, white, 

 fragrant, and becoming black as they 

 fade. The fine green leaves are shin- 

 ing, fleshy, and slightly wavy ; stems 

 twining, tinged with red, growing with 

 extraordinary rapidity, and bearing 

 many tubercles. Suited only for dry 

 banks and chalk-pits, associated with 

 climbing and trailing plants. In- 

 creased by tubercles of the stem, 

 which break with the least shock, but 

 the smallest fragment will vegetate. 

 S. America. 



BOWKERIA. B. triphylla is a 

 scarce shrub from S. Africa, hardy in 

 a few sheltered places along the 

 south coast. It grows to a height of 

 7 feet or more, with wrinkled leaves 

 and white flowers appearing singly or 

 in loose clusters from the leaf-axils 

 during July and August. They are 

 hooded and pouched like a Calceolaria 

 flower, and about an inch across every 

 way. 



BRACHYCOME (Swan River Daisy}. 

 B. iberidifolia is a pretty Australian 

 annual of simple culture, about 8 to 

 12 inches high, the flowers about i 

 inch across, and bright blue, with a 

 paler centre. Sow in cool house in 

 September as soon as ready, prick off 

 four or five in a 4-inch pot, keep in 

 cold pits during winter, and guard 

 against damp. Pot on again in March 

 singly into 4-inch pots, and at end of 

 April plant out into open borders ; or 

 sow on slight hot-bed in March, prick 

 out into pits for transplanting into 

 open in May ; or sow in open in April 

 and May. 



BRACHYGLOTTIS REPANDA. A 

 New Zealand shrub, with fine foliage, 

 deeply toothed ; of a deep green, 

 mottled with dark purple on the upper 

 side and silvery-white beneath. As 

 many of the leaves on a shrub invari- 

 ably display their undersides, the 

 sharp contrast between the white and 

 the deep green is striking. The leaves 

 are nearly a foot in length and 8 inches 

 in breadth. In the small state they 

 are ivory-white on both sides. The 

 flowers are said to be minute and 



inconspicuous, but the shrub is not 

 apparently a free bloomer, as a speci- 

 men that has grown at Kingswear, 

 S. Devon, for six years, and is now 

 5 feet 6 inches in height, has shown no 

 sign of blossom up to the present. It 

 appears to be quite hardy in the south- 

 west. Syn. Senecio Foster i. 



BRASSICA. Some forms of the 

 Cabbage, particularly the variegated 

 Kales, are used in the flower garden for 

 winter effect, where people are ignorant 

 of what a flower garden means in* 

 winter even a beautiful thing to those 

 who know how to make it so. The 

 odour of such things about a house 

 after a hard frost should be enough 

 of itself to condemn them. And as 

 for beauty, a corner of a labourer's 

 garden with a few Snowdrops and 

 Hepaticas is worth all the displays of 

 the floral kaleyard ever seen. 



BRA VGA (Scarlet Twinflower}.B. 

 geminiflora is a pretty Mexican bulbous 

 plant of the Amaryllis order. From 

 i to 2 feet high, the flower stems stout 

 and erect, bearing on the upper part 

 numerous pairs of nodding tubular 

 flowers of a rich scarlet outside, but 

 inclined to yellow within. It succeeds 

 well in warm sheltered situations in 

 borders of light and well-drained soil, 

 but requires some protection over the 

 bulbs in winter. It flowers in autumn, 

 and remains a long time in bloom. 



BREVOORTIA( Crimson Satin- 

 flower}. B. coccinea is a beautiful 

 bulbous flower of the Lily order, also 

 known as B. I da- Mai. It is one of 

 the prettiest Californian plants. The 

 flowers grow on stems, i|- to 2 feet 

 high, and are tubular and of a deep 

 crimson-red, the lips a vivid green. 

 It succeeds best in friable loam. 

 Plant in October, and the roots may 

 remain undisturbed for several years. 

 Offsets and seed. 



BRIZA (Quaking Grass}. A grace- 

 ful family of grasses, American and 

 European. B. maxima is one of the 

 handsomest, growing 12 to 18 inches 

 high ; may be sown in the open in 

 March in any garden soil, is quite 

 hardy and graceful while growing, and 

 useful for decoration either green or 

 dried. B. media (Common Quaking 

 Grass) is smaller, 9 to 15 inches high. 

 Borders. Seed. 



BRODLEA (Brodie's Lily or Cali- 

 fornian Hyacinth}. A charming family 

 of N. American liliaceous plants. 



