284 HARDY PERENNIALS AND 



crop of flowers, which cannot fail to be serviceable. As a border 

 plant, among suitable companions, bold clumps are fine, espe- 

 cially when seen by twilight ; in lines, too, it may be profitably 

 used. Propagated by division of the roots at any time. 

 Flowering period, June to September. 



Stokesia Cyanea. 



JASPER-BLUE STOKESIA, or STOKES' ASTER; Nat. Ord. 

 COMPOSITE. 



THIS handsome, hardy, herbaceous perennial was brought from 

 Carolina in the year 1766. It is the only species known of the 

 genus, and was named after Jonathan Stokes, M.D., who assisted 

 Withering, the botanist, in his arrangement of British plants. 

 The order which includes it is a very extensive one, and it may 

 be useful to add that it belongs to the sub-order Carduacece, or 

 the Thistle family. The mention of this relationship may not 

 help our subject much in the estimation of the reader, but it 

 must be borne in mind that in plant families as well as others, 

 there are individual members that often contrast rather than 

 compare with their relatives, and so it is in the Thistle family, 

 for it embraces the gay Doronicums, silky Gnaphaliums, shining 

 Arnica, and noble Stobaea and Echinops. But the relationship 

 will, perhaps, be better understood when it is stated that as a sub- 

 order the Carduacece stand side by side with that of the Ast eracece, 

 which includes so many well-known and favourite flowers. Let 

 me now ask the reader to glance at the illustration (Fig. 101), and 

 he will, I think, see marks of affinity with both the thistle and the 

 aster; the few thorny teeth at the base of the larger leaves, and 

 the spines on the smaller divisions of the imbricate calyx, are 

 clearly features of the former, whilst the general form of the 

 plant and flowers are not unlike the aster. 



Of all herbaceous plants, this is one of the latest to bloom ; in 

 favourable situations it will begin in October, but often not 

 until November and December in northern parts of the country ; 

 and, I hardly need add, unless severe frosts hold off, it will 

 be cut down before its buds expand. There is much uncertainty 

 about its flowering, when planted in the ordinary way, so that, 

 fine as its flowers are, the plant would scarcely be worth a place 

 in our gardens, if there were no means by which such uncertainty 

 could be at least minimised ; and were it not a fact that this 

 plant may be bloomed by a little special treatment, which it 

 justly merits, it would not have been introduced in this book, 

 much less illustrated. The plant itself is very hardy, enduring 

 keen frosts without apparent damage, and the bloom is also 

 durable, either cut or on the plant. 



I scarcely need further describe the flowers, as the form is a 

 very common one. It has, however, a very ample bract, which 



