1840 



LEONTODON 



LEPACHYS 



L. autumnale, Linn., FALL DANDELION, is sometimes 

 cult, in Amer. It becomes weedy, but its late-flowering 

 yellow heads are attractive to some. Eu., but natu- 

 ralized in E. N. Amer. N TAYLOR. 



LEONTOPODIUM (Greek, lion's foot). Composite. 

 Perennial herbs, all tufted and woolly, of which the 

 edelweiss is perhaps the one flower most sought by 

 tourists in the Alps. It is an emblem of purity. 



Stems ascending or erect, unbranched except at the 

 very top: st.-lvs. alternate, entire: heads small, crowded 

 into dense cymes surrounded by a sort of leafy involu- 

 cre. About 6 widely scattered species. Edelweiss is 

 still catalogued as a Gnaphalium, but in that genus the 

 style is 2-cut, while in Leontopodium it is uncut. 

 Leontopodium is more nearly allied to our common 

 weed, the "pearly everlasting" (Anaphalis margarita- 

 cea), which lacks the dense cluster of star-like floral 

 Ivs., but in the opinion of some has as much beauty as 

 the edelweiss. 



The edelweiss is a low plant, 4 to 12 inches high, 

 densely covered with a whitish wool, the attractive 

 portion being the flat star-like cluster of woolly floral 

 leaves surrounding the true flowers, which are small, 

 inconspicuous and yellow. The general impression 

 seems to be that edelweiss cannot be cultivated in 

 America. In 1900, however, it was extensively adver- 

 tised as a pot-plant, and it has long been cultivated in 

 rock-gardens. J. B. Keller says, "It can be grown to per- 

 fection in an elevated position of the rockery, in rather 

 light soil and with full exposure to sun. It also suc- 

 ceeds in an ordinary hardy border where the plants can 

 be kept moderately dry in winter." 



Seeds of edelweiss should be sown about February 1, 

 which gives plants large enough to plant out in perma- 

 nent quarters about May 1. If planted in good well- 

 drained ground, the plants are sure to make a good 

 growth so that by the middle of September there will be 

 an occasional flower. However, it is not until the follow- 

 ing year that one gets a full crop of flowers, so many in 

 fact that it seems to exhaust the plants, which should 

 now receive a good deal of care. Old plants divided 

 early in the fall and wintered in coldframes give very 

 good results, or late-sown seedlings carried over winter 

 in the same way do well. (Albert E. Robinson.) 



To establish a colony of edelweiss an English writer 

 (Gn. 52, p. 146) advises that a few stray seedlings be 



2132. Edelweiss. Leontopodium alpinum. 



firmly planted in a narrow chink of rock so placed that 

 a deep fissure of gritty or sandy loam may be assured 

 for the roots to ramble in. Plants in pots may be grown 

 and flowered when the collar is tightly wedged between 

 some pieces of stone or old mortar. The plant is best 

 propagated by seeds, as division is not always suc- 

 cessful. 



alpinum, Cass. (Gnaphalium Leontopodium, Linn. 

 L. himalaydnum, DC.). Fig. 2132. Creeping by 

 stolons: Ivs. lanceolate, white-tomentose beneath, floral 

 ones oblong: fl. -heads 7-9 in a cluster; involucral 



scales woolly at base, blackish at apex. B.M. 1958. 

 Gn. 29, p. 529; 52, p. 146; 60, p. 344; 62, p. 145. G.L. 

 18:47; 24:181. 



sibiricum, Cass. St. simple, bearing numerous 

 oblong-linear, often webby Ivs.: fls. borne in a densely 

 corymbose cluster, white, and nearly twice the size of 

 the preceding. Russia. Can be grown readily at much 

 lower elevations than L. alpinum. 



L. japonicum, Miq. (Gnaphalium Sieboldianum, Franch. & 

 Sav.). Fls.-heads looser: Ivs. shining dark green above, under- 

 neath silvery. N TAYLOR.f 



LEONURUS (Greek compound, meaning lion's tail). 

 Labiatse. About 10 species of herbs, some of them 

 weedy and widespread, but scarcely horticultural 

 subjects. L. Cardiaca, Linn. (Cardlaca vulgaris, Moench. 

 L. villdsus, Desf.), is the common motherwort: weed or 

 escape about buildings and in waste places, from Eu.: 

 perennial, tall, with long-petioled Ivs., the lower 3- 

 cleft: fls. purple (sometimes white) bearded, in axil- 

 lary whorls; calyx with prickly teeth. Said to be a good 

 bee-plant. 



L^PACHYS (Greek, a thick scale; probably referring 

 to the thickened upper part of the bracts of the recep- 

 tacle). Including Ratibida. Composite. Annual or per- 

 ennial herbs, the most popular of which is a fine prairie 

 wild-flower, L. columnaris, for which, unfortunately, 

 there is no common name. 



Lepachys contains 4 species of herbs, all American, 3 

 perennial: Ivs. alternate, pinnately divided or parted: 

 disks at first grayish, their corollas yellowish, becoming 

 tawny; chaffy bracts commonly marked with an inter- 

 marginal purple line or spot, containing volatile oil or 

 resin; achenes flattened, sharp- margined or winged. 

 For generic distinctions, see Rudbeckia. 



Lepachys columnaris grows 2 to 3 feet high, has ele- 

 gantly cut foliage, and bears flowers something like a 

 brown-eyed Susan, but the disk is finally cylindrical 

 and more than an inch high, with 6 or 7 oval, reflexed 

 rays hanging from the base. In a fine specimen these 

 rays are \Yi inches long and nearly 1 inch broad. There 

 are 5 inches or more of naked wiry stem between foliage 

 and flower. Typically, the rays are yellow, but per- 

 haps the most attractive form is var. pulcherrima, 

 which has a large brown or brown-purple area toward 

 the base of each ray. Like the greater number of our 

 native western flowers that are cultivated in the 

 eastern states, the plants have reached our gardens 

 from European cultivators. Meehan says it is perfectly 

 hardy in our northern borders, but the English do not 

 regard it as entirely safe without some winter protec- 

 tion. Moreover, it is one of the easiest herbaceous 

 perennials to raise from seed, flowering the first year, 

 and it is chiefly treated in the Old World as an annual 

 bedding plant, the seeds being known to the trade as 

 Obeliscaria pulcherrima. For bedding, the seeds are 

 sown in early spring in a hotbed, the seedlings pricked 

 off into boxes, hardened off, and finally transplanted to 

 the open, only slight care being necessary to obtain 

 compact bushes about 2 feet high. Under such cir- 

 cumstances the plants flower from June to September, 

 and the season may be prolonged by a sowing in the 

 open. This has proved useful in pur northern borders, 

 where seed should be thinly sown in the open, where the 

 plants are to stand, with a fair chance of autumnal 

 bloom the same year. The flowers last well in water and 

 should be cut with long stems to get the benefit of the 

 delicately-cut foliage. L. pinnata is perfectly hardy at 

 New York and is a serviceable perennial. 



A. Rays oval, scarcely as long as the disk at its longest: 

 If.-segms. linear. 



columnaris, Torr. & Gray (Ratibida columnaris, D. 

 Don). Fig. 2133. A rough-pubescent perennial, branching 

 from the base, 1-2^ ft. high in the wild, often 



