BONGARDIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. BRACHYCOME. 



463 



perature so far as now known. Mr. Archer 

 Hind, of Newton Abbot, has B. edulis 

 out-of-doors, and it has flowered well 

 after surviving a temperature of 25 

 below freezing. If any of the other 

 species should prove hardy in the 

 southern counties, their fine bold twin- 

 ing habit and handsome flowers would 

 be a gain. Best in free sandy or peaty soil. 

 BONGARDIA. B. rauwolfi is a plant 

 of the Barberry order, though remarkably 



The Plume Poppy (Bocconia cordatd). 



unlike one, as it has a Cyclamen-like root- 

 stem, from the apex of which spring the 

 flower stems 6 in. high, bearing roundish 

 golden blossoms from | to I in. across, 

 which droop gracefully from slender 

 stalks. Though now rare, this beautiful 

 plant was among our earliest garden 

 plants. Found from the Greek Archi- 

 pelago to Afghanistan, and hardy on dry 

 soils. Seed. Syn. Leontice. 



BORAGrO (The Cretan Borage). B. 

 orientalis is a vigorous perennial, bearing 

 pale-blue flowers early in spring, having 



very large leaves through the summer. 

 Easily naturalised in any rough place, but 

 not worth a place in the garden proper, 

 being coarse and taking up much space. 

 The common Borage is very pretty, 

 naturalised in dry places or banks, where 

 it might often be welcome for use as well 

 as beauty. There is a white variety. B. 

 laxiflora is pretty with suspended blue 

 flowers ; it grows very freely on sandy 

 soils. 



Borkhausia. See CREPIS. 



BORONIA. These are usually treated 

 as greenhouse plants, but succeed in the 

 open in the south-west according to Mr. 

 Fitzherbert. At Tregothnan, at the end 

 of March, two bushes of B. megastigma, 

 planted in front of a wall, the larger of 

 which was about 3 feet in height, were 

 coming into profuse bloom, and already 

 scented the air with the first of their 

 brown-yellow drooping cups. B. hctero- 

 phylla, with its purple-red flowers, was 

 also expanding blooms, and B. Drum- 

 mondii, B. elatior, and B. polygalcefolia 

 were also growing in the same garden. 

 Australia. 



Botryanthus. See MUSCARI. 



BOUSSINGAULTIA (Madeira Vine). 

 B. baselloides is a luxuriant trailing 

 plant of the Spinach order with shoots 

 16 to 20 ft. long, flowering late in autumn,, 

 the flowers small, white, fragrant, and be- 

 coming black as they fade The fine green 

 leaves are shining, fleshy, and slightly 

 wavy ; stems twining, tinged with red, 

 growing with extraordinary rapidity, and 

 bearing many tubercles. Suited only for 

 dry banks and chalk-pits, associated with 

 climbing and trailing plants. Increased 

 by tubercles of the stem ; these break 

 with the least shock, but the smallest 

 fragment will vegetate. South America. 



BRACHYCOME (Swan River Daisy). 

 B. iberidifolia is a pretty Australian 

 annual of simple culture, about 8 to 12 in. 

 high, the flowers about i in. across, in 

 loose terminal clusters, and bright blue, 

 with a paler centre. There are other sorts, 

 with flowers of various shades of blue and 

 purple, and one of pure white. Sow in 

 cool house in September as soon as 

 ready, prick off four or five in a 4-in. pot, 

 keep in cold pits during winter, and 

 guard against damp. Pot on 'again in 

 March singly into 4-in. pots, and finally 

 at end of April plant out into open 

 borders ; or sow on slight hotbed in 

 March, prick out into pits for transplant- 

 ing into open in May ; or sow in open in 

 April and May. B. Sindairi is a pretty 

 little kind with tiny Daisy-like heads which 

 sometimes sows itself in sandy soil. 



