Hardy and Half-hardy Plants 39 



flowered variety. E. hirsutum, known as " Codlins and Cream ", has pale 

 pink flowers; also a white form. E. Dodoncei grows about 1 ft. high, and 

 has rose-purple flowers; and E. rosmarinifolium, like a Rosemary bush, 

 about 1 ft. high, has carmine blossoms. 



Epimedium. Graceful dwarf perennials with ornamental bristly leaves 

 often highly coloured with rose, brown, or purple. They grow in moist 

 peat and loam, and are useful for the rock garden or border. Propagation 

 is effected by division and seeds, and plants sell at anything from 3d. to 6d. 

 each. The best kinds are alpinum, diphyllum, macranthum or grandi- 

 florum, Musschianum, pinnatum, purpureum, rubrum Perralderianum 

 all of which grow about 1 ft. high in dense masses. 



Eranthis hyemalis (WINTER ACONITE). The irregular tuberous roots 

 of this sell freely in autumn with the usual bulbous plants. It is valuable 

 for planting thickly in borders, shrubberies, rockeries, and beneath deciduous 

 early-flowering trees and shrubs with Crocuses, Scillas, Chionodoxas, Snow- 

 drops, &c., to produce its bright-yellow blossoms from January to March. 

 E. cilicica is similar but larger in flower, and E. sibirica is the last to 

 bloom. They all flourish in ordinary garden soil. 



Eremurus. Magnificent herbaceous perennials with thick fleshy 

 roots, long sword-like leaves, and immense spikes of starry flowers often 

 towering 8 or 10 ft. above the soil. They like a well-drained loamy soil in 

 warm sheltered spots or in thin shrubberies. The rootstocks sell fairly 

 well, but it is necessary to make the plants better known. One of the best- 

 selling kinds is E. robustus, with pale-pink or rosy flowers, and its fine 

 variety Mwesianus, with flesh-coloured flowers. Other excellent kinds are 

 Bungei, 1-3 ft., bright yellow; aurantiacus, 3 ft., pale yellow; himalaicus, 

 3-10 ft., white; Olgce, 2-8 ft., lilac white; wurei, coppery yellow; and 

 turkestanicus, 4-8 ft., red with white edges. They are all natives of 

 Afghanistan, Persia, Turkestan, &c. They may be propagated by careful 

 division in early spring, and also by seeds. The seedlings reach the flower- 

 ing stage about the third year. There are several fine hybrid forms. 



Erigreron (Stenactis) speciosus. This is the most-showy and best 

 selling member of a large genus. It grows in any good garden soil, and 

 loves the sun. It produces masses of soft-violet or magenta-purple Mar- 

 guerite-like flowers with a bright yellow centre, and is valuable for cutting 

 for market. The variety superbus is the best form. The simplest way 

 to increase the stock is by division in autumn. Other species, with a 

 restricted sale, are: aurantiacus, 1 ft., bright orange; compositus, 3 in., 

 blue; glabellus, 1J ft., lilac; glaucus, 1 ft., lavender blue; Howelli, 1 ft., 

 lilac; mucronatus, 6 in., white tinged pink; neo-mexicanus, 1J ft., white; 

 philadelphicus, 1J ft., flesh pink; pulchellus, 1 ft., rosy lilac; Roylei, 6 in., 

 deep lilac purple; salsuginosus, 6 in., lilac. They are nearly all natives 

 of North America except E. aurantiacus, which comes from Turkestan. 



Erodium Manescavi. This is a fine rock-garden plant, 1-2 ft high, 

 with deeply penetrating roots, divided leaves, and masses of showy Ger- 

 anium-like flowers rich purple crimson in colour. E. macradenium (or 



