49 CHIMAPH1LA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



CHIONODOXA. 



value, except C. Atriplitis, a vigorous 

 Chinese annual, with erect reddish stem, 

 slightly branched, over 3 ft. in height, 

 and with its young shoots and leaves 

 covered with a rosy-violet powder, 

 pretty in foliage, in any soil. C. sco- 

 pariinn (Belvedere) is a curious and 

 graceful annual plant, like a miniature 

 Cypress in form, and worth a place among 

 curious annual plants. C. Blitum capita- 

 turn (Strawberry-blite) is a hardy 

 annual, growing from i| to 2 ft. high, 

 the flowers small, followed by high- 

 coloured fruit calyxes resembling small 

 Strawberries. Sow in April in the open air. 



CHIMAPHILA (Pipsissewa}. Small 

 shrubby plants of the Heather order, 

 natives of the dry woods of N. America. 

 C. maculata (Spotted Wintergreen) has 

 small leathery leaves variegated with 

 white, 3 to 6 in. high, and is pretty for 

 a half-shady and mossy, but not wet, 

 place in the rock-garden, with such 

 plants as the dwarf Andromeda and 

 the Pyrola, and succeeds best in very 

 sandy leaf-soil. C. umbellata, with glossy 

 unspotted leaves and somewhat larger 

 reddish flowers, is also suited for like 

 positions. 



CHIMONANTHUS ( Winter- Sweet). 

 C.fragrans is a lovely shrub, which in 

 our country enjoys a wall, flowering in 

 December and January ; beautiful, and 

 of delicious fragrance ; the flowers coming 

 upon young wood after the leaves have 

 fallen, brownish-yellow, marked with 

 purple inside ; and precious for gathering 

 for the house. The best variety is grandi- 

 flora, its flowers being longer and more 

 open, but the shrub varies a little from 

 seed, in which way it is often raised in 

 nurseries. This shrub does best on a wall 

 with a southern or western aspect. A 

 few shoots with blooms upon them placed 

 in a room last a long time, and diffuse 

 their pleasant fragrance, and little harm 

 need be done by cutting these twigs, as 

 in the ordinary course they would be 

 pruned away after their flowers have 

 faded. In fact we may in cutting with 

 some care the precious shoots for the 

 house prune the bush. Layers and seed. 

 Japan. 



CHIONANTHUS (Fringe Tree). A 

 beautiful small hardy tree of the Olive 

 family well grown in this country, in sandy 

 loam or warm soil; it is a dense bush 

 about 12 ft. high, but in its native country 

 it is a tree. In early summer it bears 

 long clusters of white flowers, with 

 petals long and narrow like a fringe. 

 N. America. A newer species is the 

 Chinese C. re/usus, which is not so 



pretty, though its flowers are white and 

 fringed. 



Chionanthus virginica. 



CHIONODOXA (Snow Glory}. beau- 

 tiful early spring-flowering bulbs, forming 

 a precious addition to our garden flora. 

 Their hardiness, beauty, and the rapidity 

 with which they increase in ordinary soils 

 make them valuable. They may be grown 

 from seed or from imported bulbs ; in 

 this case the bulbs are usually gathered 

 before they are fully ripe, and do not 

 regain their vigour until after two 

 or three seasons, but cultivated bulbs 

 are now plentiful and free from this 

 objection. In light, fertile soil seedlings 

 flower in their second year, and well- 

 established plants sow themselves freely 

 in most gardens and soon form strong 

 colonies. Wherever the soil suits, the 

 bulbs should be planted in broad masses 

 and left to spread at will, as they grow 

 more vigorously and flower earlier when 

 undisturbed. They may be freely used 

 in Grass, the stout, erect stems showing 

 finely in this way. Used in broad masses 

 their blue colour gives good effect from 

 February to the time of their full beauty 

 a month later. It is well to arrange suc- 

 cessive groups in sunny and cool parts of 

 the same garden. 



C. cretica (Cretan Snow Glory). A 

 native of the mountains of Crete, with 

 white or pale blue flowers borne spar- 

 ingly upon long slender stems. Not free 

 enough in flower for garden effect. 



C. luciliae. Opening from early in 

 February, with starry flowers an inch or 

 more across and in many shades, from 

 pale to deep blue, shading to a white 

 centre. It is a stout grower, rising about 

 6 inches, and bearing sometimes a score 

 of flowers upon one spike, though eight 

 to fifteen are the usual number. It is 

 found in three or four well-marked forms : 

 alba, a white kind with large flowers, 

 found wild with the blue form but scarce 

 in gardens, its seedlings rarely coming 

 pure, though prolific in pale shades. 



