OLD-FASHIONED GARDEN FLOWERS. 285 



appearance. It needs no words of mine to explain that such a 

 plant as is represented by the illustration will prove highly 

 decorative in any part of the flower garden. There is nothing 

 special about the culture of the genus. All the Sea-lavenders do 

 well in sandy loam, enriched with stable manure. Some sorts, 

 the present one included, are not very readily propagated, 

 as the crowns are not on separate pieces of root, but often 

 crowded on a woody caudex. I have, however, sometimes split 

 the long root with a sharp knife, and made good plants ; 

 this should only be done in spring, when growth can start at 

 once. 



Flowering period, August to frosts. 



Stenactis Speciosus. 



Syn. ERIGERON SPECIOSUS; SHOWY FLEABANE ; Nat. Ord. 

 COMPOSITE. 



THIS has not long been cultivated in this country ; but though a 

 native of the warm climate of California, it proves to be one of 

 the most hardy of herbaceous perennials ; it begins to flower in 

 early summer, but August is the heyday of its showiness, and it 

 continues at least a month longer. Its more recent name, 

 Stenactis, is, according to Paxton, a happy and appropriate 

 derivation, and tends much to explain the form of flower, " 8tene f 

 narrow, and dktin, a sunbeam, from the narrow and sunlike 

 rays of the expanded flower." It belongs to a genus of "old- 

 fashioned " flowers, which, moreover, is that of the most modern 

 fashion in flowers. As a garden plant it is not only effective, 

 but one of that class which will put up with the most off- 

 hand treatment ; tenacious of life, neither particular as to 

 soil nor position, constant in fair and foul weather, and doing 

 duty alike in town or suburban garden, these qualities go to 

 make it a worthy subject. Whilst it is nearly related to, and 

 much resembles, the starworts or Michaelmas daises, it far 

 exceeds in beauty the best of them, with only a third of their 

 ungainly length of stem. 



The flowers are fully two inches across, of a light purple 

 colour ; the disk is somewhat large and of a greenish yellow ; the 

 florets of the ray are numerous, full, narrow, and slightly uneven 

 at their points, giving the otherwise dense ray a feathery appear- 

 ance. These large flowers are produced in bunches of six or 

 ten on each branch, at the height of about eighteen inches ; there 

 are many stems, and each one is well branched, the species being 

 very floriferous ; the leaves are herb-like, lance-shaped, pointed, 

 amplexicaul, and smooth ; root-leaves spathulate. 



This plant needs no cultural care ; its only requirements are a 

 place in the garden and some one to appropriate its beaming 



