45 



ASPLEN1UM. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



even in small town gardens and places 

 similarly confined if given plenty of water 

 in hot dry weather. Either alone or in 

 .groups they have a fine effect, as an under- 

 growth to trees in the pleasure-ground or 

 in the shadier parts of the garden, and 

 are evergreen. Their varieties are endless, 

 no fewer than a hundred named sorts of 

 A. aculeatum and fifty of A. Filix-mas 

 being enumerated in trade lists. The 

 smaller and more delicate kinds require 

 some care. A. aculeatum succeeds best 

 in rich loam, with sand and leaf-mould, 

 well drained, and so does the Male Fern. 

 The bolder Ferns of this group give fine 

 cool effects in rightly chosen spots in and 

 near the flower garden. 



ASPLENIUM (Spleenwort}. 1^ fine 

 dark green colour and free-growing cha- 

 racter of most of the Spleenwort Ferns give 

 them distinct value. The best soil for them 

 is a well-drained mixture of peat, sand, 

 and loam, in which the finerkinds of flower- 

 ing shrubs, such as Kalmias and Andro- 

 medas, thrive. A. Adiantum nigrum 

 (the black Spleenwort) would be at home 

 amongst hardy Azaleas, as they lose their 

 foliage in winter, and the Spleenwort would 

 then carpet the surface. The shade 

 of Azaleas in the summer, if not planted 

 too thickly, would suit this Spleenwort, 

 which, when wild, fringes copses or is found 

 on hedge-banks, where it gets a little pro- 

 tection from the summer sun. The various 

 smaller species of this genus belong 

 more to the choice fernery than to the 

 flower garden, unless when we are happy 

 in having old walls near or around it, 

 often so congenial a home for the smaller 

 rock-ferns. 



ASTER (Starwort, Michaelmas Daisy}. 

 Hardy perennial plants of much beauty 



Aster Stracheyi. 



and variety. There is a quiet beauty 

 about the more select Starworts, which 



is charming in the autumn days, and 

 their variety of colour, of form, and 

 of bud and blossom is delightful. 

 For the most part Starworts are regard- 

 less of cold or rain. Less showy than 

 the Chrysanthemum, they are more re- 

 fined in colour and form. Even where not 

 introduced into the flower garden, they 

 should always be grown for cutting ; and 

 they are excellent for forming bold groups 

 to cover the bare ground among newly- 

 planted shrubs. Nothing can be more 

 easy to cultivate. The essential point is to 

 get the distinct kinds, of which the follow- 

 ing are among the best that flower in early 

 October Aster amelhis, acris, cassu- 

 bicus, turbinellus, Chapmani, versicolor, 

 pulchellus, cordifolius, elegans, Reevesi, 

 discolor, laxus, horizontalis, ericoides, 

 Shorti, multiflorus, dtunosiis, Curtisi, 

 Icevis, longifolius, coccineus, sericeus* 

 Nova- Angles, Nova-Belgii, puniceus, and 

 vimineus. Every year adds to our 

 autumn-blooming hardy plants, and a 

 choice of Starworts may be made by 

 autumn visits to collections. As yet 

 gardeners seldom look at general effects 

 at the whole of things. The flowers are so 

 dear to them that the garden, as a picture, 

 is left to chance, and hence there is so much 

 ugliness and formality in gardens, to those 

 at least who regard the robe as more than 

 the buttons. Some years ago Starworts 

 were rarely seen except in bundles in 

 botanic gardens. Since the hardy flower 

 revival, they have become more frequent 

 in collections, but as yet they have no 

 important place in gardens generally, and 

 we may often still see them tied in 

 bundles, though the effective way ot 

 grouping is so clear and simply carried 

 out. The bad effect of staking and 

 bundling may be wholly got rid of, if the 

 plants were supported and relieved by the 

 bushes, and their flowers massed above 

 them here and there. Asters, dwarfer than 

 the shrubs among which we place them, 

 are not less valuable, as they help to give 

 light and shade, and to avoid the common 

 way of setting plants to a face as if they 

 were so many bricks. This is not the 

 only way of growing these hardiest of 

 northern flowers, but it is a charming one, 

 and it lights up the garden with a new 

 loveliness of refined colour. 



Of recent years many seedling forms 

 have been raised and named, but in no 

 case are these so good as the best of the 

 wild species, such as amellus, acris 

 and cordifolius. 



ASTILBE (Goafs Beard). A vigorous 

 group of chiefly tall-branching herbaceous 

 perennials. The robust kinds resemble 



