POPULAR HERBACEOUS PLANTS 173 



white kinds are chiefly used for this purpose, being very elegant 

 with their web-like foliage and small, white star-like flowers. The 

 plants are easily grown from seed and are very drouth resistant. 



Hollyhocks. These favorites of the old gardens in wintry cli- 

 mates almost double their stature and their blooming season under 

 California conditions and in places of little frost make manifest 

 effort to be evergreen and ever-blooming. The late side shoots of 

 a giant which has thrown bloom ten feet into the air in midsummer, 

 will often give miniature bloom stems two feet high at Christmas. 

 Hollyhocks often bloom within a year from the seed-sowing, thus 

 illustrating the disposition of plants to concentrate their historic 

 two years record into one, as has been previously noted. One will 

 see all kinds of hollyhocks in California gardens, the old tall-singles 

 being still preferred by many for their grace over the denser-bloom- 

 ing doubles. But perhaps the best on all accounts are the Allegany, 

 a semi-double fringed variety which blooms the same summer from 

 early sowing and the Chaters, an English strain which is semi-dwarf 

 and blooms in dense clusters. Hollyhocks are easily grown from 

 open ground sowings; in fact, they volunteer freely all over the 

 garden after their first introduction. 



Larkspur. Larkspurs are almost incomparable for their beautiful 

 blues in large spikes and their elegant foliage of such tropical aspect. 

 Though there are annuals of good service the perennial are generally 

 signified when one says "larkspur" or "delphinium." They have a 

 long blooming season and where frost is light or absent they are 

 to give a rich summer bloom and to repeat it on the new growth in 

 autumn after a short rest in the late summer, or it will continue to 

 bloom if spent shoots are removed after blooming. They are chiefly 

 grown by division of the roots, which should be done during the 

 rainy season, as the ground becomes warm after the coldest weather 

 and the soil freed from standing water; otherwise the roots may 

 decay after disturbance. Although larkspurs are quite worth while, 

 even under rather trying conditions of soil and moisture, the colossal 

 stalks and flowers are the reward for extra deep soil working, abund- 

 ant manuring and ample irrigation. A scarlet larkspur is becoming 

 more common but the blues prevail. Another very striking species 

 is also scarlet borne on stems bare of leaves and producing a very 

 graceful effect. 



Lobelia. This little, rather tender plant, is unrivaled for its sub- 

 mergence of its small foliage in its flood of deep blue bloom. It is 

 beautiful as an edging plant or for a mass effect. It is an annual 

 even where frost is light, but one can take up a large clump before 

 frost and hold it over in the green house to use for side-shoot cut- 

 tings after the frosts are over. It grows readily from seed on proper 



