Eryngium Erythrina. 133 



from 2 ft. to nearly 3 ft. high, forming a rather stiff bush, 

 with leathery and very spiny leaves of a sea-green colour, 

 and bearing numerous roundish heads of bluish flowers, 

 the stems beneath them being also of a very handsome 

 blue for some inches down. Suitable for planting in the 

 wilder parts of pleasure-grounds, for isolation, for borders, 

 or grouping with the finest and most distinct subjects. 



*Eryngium amethystiimm. is not so tall as the pre- 

 ceding, seldom growing more than 2% ft. high. It is re- 

 markable for the beautiful amethystine bloom which the 

 leaves assume in July, and which they preserve until the 

 approach of frost. It is suitable for the positions recom- 

 mended for the preceding kind. Various other members 

 of this family are useful in like manner ; indeed there is 

 not one of them that is not so, including our own com- 

 mon Sea Holly, E. marifimum. 



*Erythrina. These are very beautiful trees or shrubs, 

 pretty generally distributed through the tropics of both 

 hemispheres. Some attain great dimensions, while others 

 are dwarf bushes with woody rootstocks, and a few have 

 the stems and leaf-stalks beset with prickles. The leaves 

 are trifoliate, with long stalks, and the leaflets oval, lance- 

 shaped, or triangular. Many of the species produce 

 beautiful large pea-flowers, usually of a blood-red or 

 scarlet colour, in terminal racemes. The varieties of 

 these have proved very hardy and useful in the summer 

 garden, flowering freely, and showing considerable beauty 

 of foliage. Two round beds, each of 9 ft., and one 

 oblong bed, 42 ft. by 5 ft., including E. ornata, Marie 

 Belanger, laurifolia, crista-galli, profusa, Madame Be- 

 langer, ruberrima, Hendersoni, stood out last winter un- 



