DENDROMECON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DEUTZIA. 



441 



DENDROMECON RIGIDUM 



(Shrubby Poppy). A handsome half- 

 shrubby Poppy bearing yellow flowers 

 and glaucous grey leaves ; a little ten- 

 der, and one that requires a warm wall 

 and some protection in winter. In 

 the extreme south it may thrive in the 

 open. Best in free, warm loam. Cali- 

 fornia. Seeds are not abundantly 

 produced, but the plants may be 

 increased from cuttings of half-matured 

 shoots in summer, but it often perishes, 

 and seeds should give the most enduring 

 plants. 



Dentaria. See CARDAMINE. 



DESFONTAINEA. In favoured gat- 

 dens along the southern coast, and in 

 other mild parts, -D. spinosa, a very 

 beautiful evergreen shrub from Chili, 

 can be grown and flowered out of doors. 

 It is of moderate growth, having foliage 

 very much like the Holly, and hand- 

 some flowers in the form of a tube of 

 bright scarlet tipped with yellow. It 

 usually flowers about the end of sum- 

 mer, and in some parts, as at Abbots- 

 bury and in Devonshire, it blooms 

 profusely, thriving in a light loamy 

 soil, and even round the coasts as far 

 as the north of Ireland, but once a 

 few miles from the protection of the 

 sea air it ceases to thrive and perishes, 

 and is therefore only of most value 

 on seashore or hill districts. 



DESMODIUM (Tick Trefoil). A 

 few of the N. American species are 

 cultivated, but their weedy appearance 

 prevents their general culture. These 

 are D. canadense, marilandicum, and 

 Dilleni, all from 2 to 4 feet high, with 

 slender stems, terminated by dense 

 racemes of small purplish flowers. D. 

 penduliflorum is a really pretty shrub, 

 and hardy if the stems are annually 

 cut down, with graceful shoots, bearing 

 along their upper portions numerous 

 rich violet-purple blossoms in Sep- 

 tember. It is the name by which the 

 beautiful Lespedeza bicolor is generally 

 known. It is a slender shrub, graceful 

 when in flower, 6 feet or more in 

 height, bearing drooping racemes of 

 small Pea-shaped flowers of a carmine- 

 purple colour. China and Japan. 



DEUTZIA. Hardy, summer-leafing 

 shrubs of high value for the garden, 

 requiring no special attention, and of 

 varied character, owing to hybrids 

 having been raised by M. Lemoine and 

 others, and species newly introduced 

 from China. These shrubs deserve a 

 better fate than that of the common 



shrubbery, mixed up with all sorts of 

 things of different natures and sizes, 

 and should be grouped by themselves. 

 They thrive in ordinary soils, and 

 when pruned should not be reduced to 

 mopheadedness by cutting back, but 

 only old and exhausted wood should 

 be cut out, the natural forms of the 

 plants being kept. It is better not to 

 prune at all than to hack them into 

 ugly shapes. They ought to have a 

 good position among choice shrubs on 

 banks or on masses. 



D. CORYMBIFLORA. Forms a shrub 

 from 4 to 5 feet high, the young shoots 

 erect and clothed with bronzy-green bark. 

 The mature growths of the previous year 

 carry massive clusters of white flowers, 

 with often from 50 to 100 buds, and 

 expanded blooms opening in summer. 

 Though a promising shrub in some parts 

 of France, it in this country appears to be 

 too tender to prove valuable. This is the 

 D. corymbosa of gardens, and D. setchuensis 

 of Franchet. China. 



D. CRENATA. Reaches a height of 

 6 to 10 feet, the flowers in erect thyrses, 

 each flower composed of five pointed 

 petals. Chief among its varieties are 

 D. crenata, flore punlces, whose double 

 white flowers are shaded with rosy-purple 

 on the exterior ; alba plena, candidissima 

 plena, and Pride of Rochester, for the 

 three are almost, if not quite, identical ; 

 Watereri, white, flushed with rosy-lilac on 

 the outside ; and Wellsii, a double white 

 flower, but in habit quite different from 

 the other white forms. 



D. DISCOLOR. The true plant is a 

 charming little shrub with arching, wand- 

 like shoots of 2 to 3 feet, crowded from 

 base to tip with clusters of rose-flushed 

 white flowers, each three-quarters of an 

 inch across. At present a rare plant, 

 D. discolor is represented in our gardens 

 by the variety purpuvascens, which is a 

 more vigorous plant than the wild form, 

 reaching a height of 3 to 4 feet, with slender 

 rounded stems of a bronzy-green or red 

 colour, covered with little starry scales. 

 The flowers, six to eight in a cluster, are 

 rosy-purple on the outside, showing within 

 as a pretty flush ; the buds are of a car- 

 mine tint. 



D. DISCOLOR FLORIBUNDA. The other 

 parent of this was D. gracilis, but it shows 

 more of the influence of D. discolor. It 

 forms a somewhat erect-growing little 

 shrub that flowers freely ; the blossoms 

 in erect panicles, white, with a rosy flush 

 on the outer petals and buds. 



D. DISCOLOR GRANDIFLORA. In this the 



influence of D. gracilis is shown in the 

 long leaves borne upon stiffly erect shoots. 

 The flower panicles are longer than in 

 D. purpurasctns, and the rosy-tinted 



