DOWNINGIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. DRYAS. 



453 



sum (syn., Harper Crewe) is by far the 

 best. 



DOWNINGIA. Charming little Cali- 

 fornian half-hardy annuals, generally 

 known as Clintonia. There are two 

 species, D. pulchella and elegans. 

 D. pulchella is of dwarf habit, rarely 

 exceeding 6 inches in height, and is 

 suitable for edging small beds or bor- 

 ders, as when covered with its bright 

 blue flowers it is very pretty. In 

 March and April the seed should be 

 sown in the open ground in a free 

 soil and an open situation ; but if the 

 plants are intended for pot culture, 

 the sowing should be two months 

 earlier. Each plant should be allowed 

 quite 8 inches for development, and in 

 hot weather those from the latest 

 sowing should be well watered. The 

 flowers of the several varieties of D. 

 pulchella differ in colour, the best 

 variety being alba (white), rubra (red) 

 and atro-purpurea (dark purple). All 

 may be raised from seed. 



DRAB A (Whitlow Grass}. Minute 

 alpine plants, most of them having 

 bright yellow or white flowers, and 

 leaves often in neat rosettes. They 

 are too dwarf to take care of them- 

 selves among plants much bigger than 

 Mosses, and therefore there are few 

 positions suitable for them ; but it 

 would be very interesting to try them 

 on mossy walls, ruins, or bits of 

 mountain ground with sparse vegeta- 

 tion. The best-known and showiest is 

 D. aizoides, found on old walls and 

 rocks in the west of England. It 

 forms a dwarf, spreading, cushion-like 

 tuft, which in spring is covered with 

 bright yellow blossoms. D. Aizoon, 

 alpina, ciliaris, cuspidata, lapponica, 

 rupestris, frigida, and helvetica are 

 very dwarf, compact-growing plants. 

 In each the small flowers, white 

 or yellow, are produced abundantly. 

 Rarer kinds are D. Mawi, glacialis, and 

 brunitf folia, all worth growing in a 

 full collection of alpine flowers for a 

 choice rock garden. 



Dracaena. See CORDYLINE. 



DRACOCEPHALUM (Dragon's - 

 head). Plants of the Sage family, 

 among thein a few choice perennials 

 suitable for the rock garden or the 

 mixed border, succeeding in light 

 garden soil and increased by division 

 or seed. D. altaiense has bright green 

 leaves, and axillary clusters of large 

 tubular flowers of a dense Gentian-like 

 blue, spotted with red in the throat. 

 D. austriacum has flower-stems nearly 



i foot in height, densely covered with 

 rich purple blossoms ; D. Ruyschia- 

 num, a handsome species, has narrow 

 Hyssop-like leaves and purplish-blue 

 flowers, but its variety japonicum, a 

 new introduction from Japan, is even 

 more showy. D. peregrinum, with 

 pretty blue flowers always produced 

 in pairs, is desirable, and so is D. 

 argunense, which is a variety of 

 D. Ruyschianum. The most beautiful 

 of all is D. grandiflorum, a rock garden 



Flant, which is the earliest in flower, 

 t is very dwarf, and has large clusters 

 of intensely blue flowers, which scarcely 

 overtop the foliage. In D. speciosum, 

 a Himalayan species, the small deep 

 purple flowers are nearly smothered 

 by the large green bracts. 



DRIMYS. Evergreen shrubs of the 

 Magnolia family, natives of Tasmania, 

 Australia, and S. America, thriving also 

 as evergreens in much of the southern 

 parts of England and Ireland. D. 

 aromatica is sometimes known as 

 Tasmannia aromatica, R.Br. ; D. Win- 

 teri (Winter's Bark) is a native of 

 S. America ; these graceful shrubs 

 are worth a place in the range of 

 southern country, while they thrive 

 in free soil and sheltered lawns, but 

 are often cut down in severe winters. 



DROSERA (Sundew). Most inter- 

 esting little bog plants, of which all 

 the hardy species but one are natives 

 of Britain. All have leaves covered 

 with dense glandular hairs. In a bog 

 on a very small scale it is not easy to 

 secure the humid atmosphere they 

 have at home, but they will grow 

 wherever Sphagnum grows. The 

 native kinds are intermedia, longifolia, 

 obovata, and rotundifolia. The North 

 American Thread-leaved Sundew (D. 

 filiformis] is a beautiful bog plant, 

 with very long slender leaves covered 

 with glandular hairs, the flowers purple- 

 rose colour, half an inch wide, and 

 opening only in the sunshine. 



DRYAS (Mountain Avens). Moun- 

 tain plants of the Rose family, con- 

 taining two or three dwarf alpine 

 plants of spreading growth and neat 

 evergreen foliage. They thrive in 

 borders in light soil, though they are 

 seen to best advantage in the rock 

 garden, where they can spread over 

 the brows and surfaces of limestone 

 rocks, best on an exposed spot, not 

 too dry, though when well established 

 they will flourish under almost any 

 conditions. Division in spring. The 

 kinds are D. Drummondi, a dwarf, 



