470 



FABIANA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



FENDLERA. 



more beautiful among climbing plants 

 than E. purga, and of its hardiness 

 there can be little doubt. It has lived 

 for years at Bitton, Gloucestershire, 

 without any protection, and each year 

 it has flowered well. It has grown 

 well at Kew, Fulham, and in the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. If not 

 checked by late spring frosts at 

 Bitton, it comes into blossom early 

 in September, and continues to flower 

 till cut down by frost. It has roundish 

 tubers of variable size, those of mature 

 growth being about as large as an 

 orange and of a dark colour. These 

 are the true Jalap tubers. The plant 

 gets its name from Xalapa, in Mexico, 

 its native region, and is increased by 

 division of tubers. 



FABIANA (False Heath). F. imbri- 

 cata is a pretty shrub of the Potato 

 family, but so much resembling a 

 Heath that it might well be mistaken 

 for one. It is slender, with evergreen 

 leaves, and in early summer every 

 shoot is wreathed with small white 

 trumpet-shaped flowers. A native of 

 Chili, it is not perfectly hardy as a 

 bush except in the southern and 

 western counties, in which it is often 

 a beautiful shrub. 



FAGUS (Beech). Not a very large 

 family of trees, but including one of the 

 noblest of all our native Beech. It is 

 a great tree in all the countries of 

 Europe, from N. Greece to Den- 

 mark, thriving admirably in soils use- 

 less for the Oak and other trees, 

 and beautiful in many of our poor 

 chalky soils. It is so often seen in 

 our woodlands that there is no need 

 to advocate its use elsewhere ; a wild 

 tree common in the woodlands and 

 forests in Europe everywhere can have 

 little place in gardens. The varieties 

 of the Beech, however, are of the high- 

 est garden value as lawn trees, and 

 some of the most beautiful weeping 

 trees in England are those of the 

 weeping form of the Beech. The fine 

 character of the pendent Beech is that 

 it is not only graceful in a young state, 

 but improves every year of its life, 

 very old trees being picturesque in a 

 high degree. The fern-leaved variety 

 is one of the best, and the purple Beech 

 is the most striking of our coloured 

 trees, and will come true from seed, 

 which is a gain. Even if all the seeds 

 do not come true it does not matter in 

 the least, as long as we get some plants 

 of the colour we seek, and in raising 

 trees from seed we always obtain some 

 slight variation. The Copper Beech 



is a little paler and more coppery than 

 the old purple Beech, and there is a 

 weeping form as well as a dark purple. 

 These dark coloured forms should not 

 be used too freely one to three purple 

 Beeches in each parish are ample. 



F. AMERICANA (American Beech) .^Is in 

 its own country a forest tree well above 

 100 feet high, inhabiting the northern 

 regions, as well as westwards and south- 

 wards, but the European Beech is a so 

 much greater tree, for our climate at least, 

 that less importance is attached to the 

 American sort. See also NOTHOFAGUS 

 (Southern Beeches). 



FALLUGIA PARADOXA. A rare 

 and interesting shrub, belonging to the 

 Rose family. Native of New Mexico 

 and regions near. About 4 feet high, 

 composed of a thicket of slender 

 branches clothed with tiny, dark-green 

 leaves, which form a good setting for 

 the white Potentilla-like flowers which 

 open during summer. It might well 

 be tried on walls or warm, sheltered 

 banks by those who are in search of 

 raie and out-of-the-way shrubs for 

 warm walls. 



FARFUGIUM. A vigorous peren- 

 nial, F. grande having fleshy stems 

 i to 2 feet high, and with broad leaves 

 of light green variously streaked, 

 spotted with yellow in one variety, 

 and having white and rose in another. 

 It does best in a half-shady position 

 in free moist soil, During the heats 

 of summer it requires frequent water- 

 ing, and at the approach of winter it 

 should be moved to the greenhouse, 

 except in mild districts. In colder 

 parts it is scarcely worth planting 

 out, as it grows slowly ; but where it 

 thrives it is handsome in borders or 

 on the margins of beds. Multiplied 

 by division in spring ; the offsets being 

 potted and kept in a frame until they 

 are well rooted. 



FENDLERA RUPICOLA. A beau- 

 tiful shrub allied to Philadelphus, 

 reaching a height of 12 feet in its own 

 land, but rarely much over 4 feet 

 high with us. Coming from dry, rocky 

 places of Texas and Colorado, it is 

 hardy only in the warmer parts of 

 Britain, and does best against a wall 

 in light fertile soil and in a sunny 

 aspect. The neat grey leaves are 

 nearly like those of a Rock Rose, while 

 the charming pure white flowers, com- 

 posed of petals set like a Maltese cross, 

 are fragrant and appear in June. 

 Plants are sometimes found in which 

 the flowers have a faint rosy flush. 

 Increase by seeds, which ripen in 



