. THE INGUSH FLOWER GARDEN. HUCHERA. 



at least every second year and trans- 

 planted, for they seem to tire of the 

 soil and to require more change than 

 most perennials. If the young shoots 

 are formed into cuttings when they 

 are about 3 inches long, they strike 

 very freely in the open ground, and 

 the spikes of bloom on the remaining 

 stems are all the finer when some of 

 the others have been removed. When 

 shaded from the sun for about three 

 weeks with a few Laurel branches, 

 the cuttings do better than when 

 covered with a pot or box, as has been 

 advised. They like a rich, rather moist 

 and strong soil, and are all the better 

 for repeated applications of liquid 

 manure if the soil is not as deep and 

 good as it should be. Double Rockets 

 really belong to the garden plants 

 requiring annual attention, and can- 

 not well be used as true perennials. 

 It is always worth while having a bed 

 of them in the reserve garden in case 

 the plants should be lost or neglected 

 in the borders. We have seen them 

 best grown where there was a yearly 

 transfer of plants from the reserve 

 garden to the mixed border, and the 

 groups look very well. The single 

 Rocket is easily naturalised, and is a 

 showy plant in woods or shrubberies. 



H. TRISTIS (Night-scented Stock). A 

 quaint plant with dull-coloured flowers, 

 sweet-scented at night. It is rather ten- 

 der, and requires a light warm soil and a 

 sheltered position. 



HESPEROCfflRON. H. pumilus, a 

 pretty Californian rock plant, is stem- 

 less, dwarf in growth, with leaves borne 

 on slender stalks, forming a rosulate 

 tuft. The flowers are bell -shaped, 

 inch across, and white, varying to a 

 purplish tinge. It grows in marshy 

 ground, and in damp places in the 

 Rocky Mountains and N. Utah, and 

 is apparently quite hardy, as it 

 thrives in ordinary soil in well-drained 

 parts of the rock garden. H. calif or- 

 nicus is a species of somewhat the 

 same form. 



HETEBOMELES ARBUTIFOLIA. 



A Californian evergreen tree, thriving 

 in high ground in our southern 

 counties, also near the coast in the 

 north of Ireland, as at Castlewellan. 



HEUCHERA (Alum Root). A few 

 years ago this little group of hardy 

 perennials was hardly known, and had 

 there not been improvement under 

 cultivation they might well have re- 



mained so, many of the wild kinds 

 have little to recommend them 

 save a graceful leaf. Even H. 

 sanguined, however attractive at its 

 best, is not a good plant, dwindling 

 away persistently in many gardens in 

 spite of rich soil and every care. By 

 crossing, however, seedlings have been 

 raised that are more tractable in the 

 garden and not without effect in the 

 border and for cutting. All are of 

 somewhat slow growth, requiring 

 shelter, a rich soil, and frequently 

 division, or they deteriorate. They 

 cannot endure drought or a poor 

 soil, and therefore need special care 

 in a dry season. All are easily raised 

 from seed, but the seedlings need 

 careful selection, their colour being 

 often poor. Selected plants may be 

 increased by division of the tufts in 

 October, or cuttings of the creeping 

 stems rooted in heat during spring. 

 Dwarf, tufted, perennial herbs, with 

 distinct and sometimes finely-coloured 

 leaves, and modest but inconspicuous 

 flowers. Of little value for their 

 flowers, one or two kinds give pretty 

 effects of foliage either as edgings to 

 or beneath groups of shrubs ; the best 

 are also worth growing for their leaves 

 for cutting for the house in winter, 

 lasting as they do fresh for weeks in 

 winter, the foliage being good in form 

 as well as colour. Among the best are 

 H. hispida (Richardsoni) americana, 

 pubescens, and sanguinea, the last the 

 only one with any showy bloom. 

 They are N. American plants of the 

 easiest cultivation in ordinary soil. 



The following species and their 

 hybrids are now in cultivation : 



H. FLAMBEAU (sanguinea x zabelana}. 

 A pretty garden seedling of good colour, 

 with numerous stems of red flowers 2 feet 

 high, and closely clustered as in H. zabe- 

 lana. 



H. GRACILLIMA (micrantha x sanguinea) . 

 Bears cloudy pink heads like a wreath 

 of mist, seen in the dim perspective of a 

 shady border. Leaf like that of micrantha. 



H. HISPIDA. Of no value unless for its 

 leaves ; marked with rich brown zones, 

 and turning wholly bronze and crimson 

 towards autumn. Being evergreen, they 

 are of some value for cutting, or as edgings 

 and tufts in the rock garden, the flowers 

 being removed as soon as they show. The 

 variety macrophylla has large leaves. 

 Syn. H. Richardsoni. 



H. LUCIFER (brizoides x sanguinea}. 

 A good and vigorous plant of 3 feet, and 

 a real gain, being easy to grow, with the 

 bronze leaf-tints of brizoides and coral-red 



