HARDY PERENNIAL PLANTS. 175 



The flowers are lavender or violet blue, rose and white; A. novse-anglisp 

 is one of the best-known species, tall growing, with purple flowers; its 

 variety, A. n.-a. rubra, bearing rose-colored flowers, should always be 

 included in a collection. Other good forms of this species are A. n.-a. 

 prsecox, crimson purple; A. n.-a. Woolston, light purplish blue, and A. 

 n.-a. pulchellus, violet blue. 



ASTILBE JAPONICA, usually known in gardens as Spirasa japonica. 

 The Spiraeas belong to the Eose family, while Astilbe japonica is classed 

 with the Saxifragas, but A. Lemoinei is said to be a hybrid between A. 

 japonica and a species of Aruncus, which is also a rosaceous genus. If 

 this be the case then both plants must necessarily be closely related, and 

 if not of the same genus then they are of the same family. Astilbe ja- 

 ponica is better known as a forcing plant than as a subject for the hardy 

 border. It is best grown in partial shade, for when in sunny places, 

 unless kept supplied with water during dry spells, the foliage is apt to 

 suffer before the close of the Summer. There are several fine varieties. 

 A. j. compacta has more compact panicles than the type. A. j. grandi- 

 fiora is larger; A. j. variegata has a yellowish variegation; A. rivularia 

 makes a splendid border plant in this section, growing to a height of 

 5 feet, and blooming late in the season. A. Thunbergii grows about 18 

 inches high, and is much used as a forcing plant. In the border it thrives 

 best in heavy, retentive soil. All of the species are propagated by divi- 

 sion, in the early Fall. 



AUBRIETIA DELTOIDEA A low-growing, evergreen Spring-flowering 

 plant, forming dense cushions of growth and thickly studded with small, 

 purple flowers early in the season. There are numerous forms; some of 

 the best are A. d. Hendersonii, more robust than the type, with deep 

 violet-blue flowers; A. d. Eyrei, a free-growing form, and A. d. grseca, a 

 large light-purple flowered variety. Aubrietias are well adapted for 

 rockwork culture, as they like well-drained situations and rather light 

 loamy soil. They will stand full sunshine. The readiest means of prop- 

 agation is by seed which may be sown early enough to have the seed- 

 lings established before freezing weather; or, the old plants may be 

 divided and potted in sandy soil, keeping them in a frame during Winter, 

 and planting out as soon as the weather will permit. 



BAPTISIA PERFOLIATA is a native of the Southern States, and is but 

 seldom seen in cultivation. Owing to its beautifully arranged perfoliate 

 leaves it forms a striking object in the herbaceous border. In Washing- 

 ton it is perfectly hardy, and ripens an abundance of seed yearly. They 

 are sown soon as gathered ; kept in a cold frame they germinate the fol- 

 lowing Spring. B. australis grows from 3 to 6 feet high; the flowers 

 are blue. It seems to do best in deep sandy soil. liaised from seed. B. 

 alba and B. leucautha are white-flowered species. 



BEGONIA EVANSIANA This, the hardiest of the Begonias, is also 

 known as B. discolor and B. grandis. It is a native of China, Japan 

 and Java. It is one of the species which form bulbils, or resting buds, 

 in the axils of the leaves. These bulbils, when ripe, fall to the ground, 

 and it is from them that the young plants grow late in the following 



