4 io 



COREMA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CORIARIA. 



like most of the Dracaena family, but 

 remains as a bold spreading tuft, which 

 sends up graceful arching spikes of ivory- 

 white flowers every year from near the 

 ground to a height of 4 to 6 feet. The 

 leaves are very stout, about 4 feet long 

 and 3 inches wide, with dark edges and 

 tapering rapidly ; towards the base they 

 become deeply channelled, with the edges 

 rolled inwards until they almost meet as 

 a tube. The plant seeds freely, the seed- 

 vessels being white at first and then blue. 

 It grows freely from seed, but the young 

 plants should be wintered under glass 

 until three or four years old. Botanically 

 it is classed as a form of C. Banksii, but for 

 garden purposes it is quite distinct. N. 

 Australia. 



COREMA (Plymouth Crowberry). 

 An evergreen Heath-like shrub, native 

 of America and S.W. Europe ; one a 

 Portuguese. The American Crowberry 

 is said to be pretty in its own country, 

 but is not known in ours. 



COREOPSIS ( Tickseed) . Showy 

 N. American herbs, perennial or 

 annual ; the annuals being pretty 

 summer flowers, and the perennials 

 valuable late-blooming plants. One of 

 the best of the perennials is C. auricu- 

 lata, about 2 feet high, with a spreading 

 growth, and bearing in autumn abun- 

 dance of rich yellow blossoms on slender 

 stalks. Nearly allied and similar to 

 it is C. lanceolata, an equally showy 

 plant, also delighting in a rich, damp 

 soil. C. rosea is a neat and pretty 

 plant. C. verticillata (tenuifolia) is a 

 pretty plant, with elegant feathery 

 foliage and rich golden-yellow blossoms 

 from summer till autumn. It is less 

 robust than the taller kinds, and there- 

 fore requires a more select spot, such 

 as the front rows of a mixed border or 

 parts of the rock garden. The annuals 

 are among the showiest summer 

 flowers ; being hardy, they make a 

 fine display in spring from seeds sown 

 in September ; while an almost con- 

 tinuous bloom may be had from July 

 to October by sowing successively 

 from early March till the middle of 

 June in ordinary garden soil that of 

 a moist description being preferable 

 for the spring sowings. The following 

 are the principal annuals : C. aristosa, 

 2 to 3 feet high, with large golden- 

 yellow blossoms ; C. Atkinsoniana, 

 i to 3 feet high, flowers orange-yellow 

 spotted with brown in centre ; C. 

 coronata, orange-yellow, with a circle 

 of brownish-crimson in centre ; C. 

 Drummondi, I to \\ feet high, golden- 

 yellow ; C, tinctoria, i to 3 feet high, 



flowers crimson-brown tipped with 

 orange-yellow. 



C. GRANDIFLORA. A very fine showy 

 plant. It fully deserves its name, as its 

 flowers are very much larger than those of 

 any other Coreopsis grown in gardens. 

 Even if we come to treat it entirely as an 

 annual, this will not detract from its value, 

 for it is a graceful flower and worthy of 

 special care. Raising a batch of seedlings 

 once a year is easily done. The seed may 

 be sown at any time in spring, and strong 

 plants be rea'dy to put out into their 

 flowering quarters in autumn. Its hand- 

 some flowers are borne on strong stems 

 12 to 1 8 inches in length. In the garden 

 the flowers are brilliant and long-lasting, 

 and they are also valuable for cutting. 



CORIARIA. This group now con- 

 tains two or three new and hand- 

 some kinds of value. The peculiarity of 

 these shrubs is in the formation of 

 their berry-like fruits. The flowers 

 are small and inconspicuous, with 

 scale-like petals of green, yellow, 

 brown, or pink, and the sexes mostly 

 apart, though found upon the same 

 plant. After flowering, however, the 

 tiny petals thicken and swell into a 

 juicy fruit-like envelope surrounding 

 the seeds, and handsome when bril- 

 liantly coloured, as in the finer kinds. 

 While these fruits are of tempting 

 appearance, they are all more or less 

 poisonous -a- fact to be borne in mind 

 by planters. All the kinds are of the 

 easiest culture in moist, loamy soils, 

 the best kinds being hardy (at least, 

 at the root), and growing again if cut 

 down by frost. The following are in 

 cultivation : 



C. JAPONICA. A handsome shrub with 

 red-brown woody stems 8 or 10 feet high. 

 The leaves come in opposite pairs arranged 

 regularly along either side of the stem, 

 while the tiny flowers, of a pretty pink 

 or coral-red, appear early in June as 

 racemes of i to 3 inches upon the stem 

 of the previous year. The fruits are 

 round and bright red. 



C. NEPALENSIS. A stout rambling shrub 

 of nearly 20 leet, with woody stems 

 bearing three-nerved leaves and axillary 

 clusters of flowers and fruit, which dis- 

 tinguish it at once from C. terminalis, 

 with which, however, it was long con- 

 fused. The flowers are brown, appear- 

 ing in May, and followed by black fruits. 

 In the south-west of England and along 

 the south coast, this plant succeeds 

 in the open, but inland it makes little 

 progress. In the variety maxima, the 

 fruits are larger and of a bluish colour. 

 Himalayas, China, and Japan. 



C. RUSTIFOLIA is a tall shrubby climber 

 of 10 to 20 feet, with square stems 



