588 



NOCC^EA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. NOTOSPARTIUM. 



sown in March, in light warm soil in 

 the open border. They should be 

 sown in the place which they are to 

 occupy, as they do not succeed so 

 well if transplanted. If sown in 

 autumn, the seedlings often survive 

 the winter and flower early and well. 



NOCCZEA. Pretty rock plants, with 

 evergreen foliage and flowers like a 

 little Candytuft. The most familiar is 

 N. stylosa, perhaps better known as an 

 Iberis, which makes tiny dark green 

 cushions barely 2 inches high, covered 

 early in the year with clusters of 

 rosy-purple flowers smelling like helio- 

 trope. It will root into the narrowest 

 of chinks upon walls or stonework, 

 braving the full sun, and spreading 

 into neat tufts in the rock garden in 

 dry, gritty soil. In seaside gardens it 

 often comes into flower with the new 

 year, and is seldom later than the 

 first week of March anywhere, bloom- 

 ing thenceforward into early summer. 



Notospartium Carmichaelhe. 



Though short-lived, self-sown seedlings 

 maintain themselves as pretty patches, 



coming year after year on old walls or 

 any rocky surface. A variety known 

 as speciosa has larger and deeper 

 coloured flowers. Syn. Iberis stylosa. 

 N. alpina, better known as Hutchinsia, 

 is also attractive, with its glossy green 

 leaves and white flowers. 



NOLANA (Chilian Bellflower}. 

 Pretty hardy annuals from S. 

 America N. paradoxa, N. prostrata, 

 and N. atriplicifolia among the best. 

 They have slender trailing stems, and 

 flowers generally blue. N. atriplici- 

 folia has beautiful and very showy 

 blue flowers with a white centre, and 

 there is a white variety (N. a. alba). 

 The Nolanas are suitable for borders 

 or for the rock garden, as they thrive 

 in any warm open situation in good 

 light soil. As seedlings do not trans- 

 plant well, seed should be sown in the 

 open in March, and the plants well 

 thinned out. Seeds. 



NOTHOFAGUS (Southern Beeches). 

 A very interesting group of trees, quite 

 distinct from our Northern Beeches, 

 and, though as yet little tried in our 

 country, likely to give us in time some 

 of the most beautiful trees for the 

 lawn and pleasure ground, but only in 

 the southern parts of our isles. Some 

 are evergreen and some are summer- 

 leafing, and all love cool and moist 

 places. First among them is the 

 Antarctic Beech, thought to be about 

 the best for our land ; next, Betuloides, 

 a native of S. America (Terra del 

 Fuego), has been several times intro- 

 duced, but not very successfully, 

 although there are several trees of it 

 on high southern ground ; the Moun- 

 tain Beech of New Zealand is another : 

 it thrives in Surrey ; Cunningham's 

 Beech, a native of Tasmania, succeeds 

 in the Isle of Wight and also in S. 

 Ireland. N. Fusca, a native of New 

 Zealand, also thrives in Surrey ; and 

 Moore's Australian Beech, found in 

 New South Wales, does well at Kilma- 

 curragh, Co. Wicklow, but cannot be 

 said to IDC hardy, except in the mildest 

 parts of our land. Among the most 

 charming experiments for the tree-lover 

 to make would be these Southern 

 Beeches, but the trouble is that for 

 some time it may be difficult to get 

 healthy young stock. 



NOTOSPARTIUM (Pink Broom of 

 New Zealand) . N. Carmichaelice is 

 much like some of the Brooms, hence 

 its name, the leafless, graceful shoots 

 studded late in June with small bright 



