THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ERIGERON. 



565 



looking shrub, compact in habit, about 4 

 feet high, and a handsome plant. A native of 

 the mountains of Corsica, flowering in summer. 



E. SCOPARIA (Broom Heath}. A tall and 

 wiry-looking Heath, reaching 8 feet or more 

 in our country, flowering in summer, not 

 showy. I have seen this in cold parts of 

 France (Sologne), and it is hardier than most 

 of the larger Heaths : it is often naked at the 

 bottom and bushy and close at the top. 



E. TETRALIX (Marsh or Bell Heather}. 

 This beautiful Heath is frequent throughout 

 the northern, as well as western, regions, 

 thriving in moist or boggy places but also 

 in ordinary soil in gardens. This Heath has 

 several varieties, differing in colour mainly. 

 E. Mackaiana is thought to be a variety of 

 the Bell Heather. There is also a supposed 

 hybrid between this and the Dorset Heath. 

 E. Watsoni is a hybrid between the Bell 

 Heather and Dorset Heath. Flowering sum- 

 mer and early autumn. 



E. VAGANS (Cornish Heath} is a vigorous 

 bush Heath thriving in almost any soil, 3 to 4 

 feet high. A native of Southern Britain and 

 Ireland, and better fitted for bold groups in 

 the pleasure ground or covert than the garden. 

 There are several varieties, but they do not 

 differ much from the wild plant. 



E. VUI.GARIS (Heather : Ling). As precious 

 as any Heath is the common Heather and 

 its many varieties, none of them prettier 

 than the common form, but worth having, 

 excluding only the very dwarf and monstrous 

 ones, which are useless except in the rock 

 garden, and not of much good there. Heathers 

 are excellent for forming low covert, and, of 

 all the plants, none so quickly clothes a bare 

 slope of shaly soil, not taking any notice of 

 the hottest summer in such situations. Among 

 the best varieties are alba, Alporti, cocciuea, 

 decumbens, Haininondi,pumila, rigida, Scarlet, 

 and tomentosa. Syn., Calluna. 



E. DABCECII (Dabcccs Heath}. The name 

 of this fine plant has been so often changed 

 by botanists that it is difficult to find it by 

 name in books, and I give it by the Linnean 

 name here. It is a beautiful shrub 1 8 inches 

 to 30 inches high, bearing crimson-purple 

 blooms in drooping racemes. There is a 

 white variety even more beautiful, and one 

 with purple and white flowers, called bicolor. 

 I have had the white form in flower through- 

 out the summer and autumn on a slope fully 

 exposed to the sun, and in very hot years 

 too. Syn. , Menziesia polifolia, also Dabcccia 

 and Boretta. West of Ireland. 



E. MAWEANA (Maw's Heath}. Ot this 

 Heath, Mr. Robert Lindsay writes as follows : 

 "This is one of the handsomest of all the hardy 

 Heaths and was discovered by Mr. George Maw 

 in Portugal in 1872. It may be best described 

 as a very vigorous-growing Erica ciliaris, 

 which it resembles, but is more robust in 

 all its parts ; the flowers also, besides being 

 larger than those of E. ciliaris, are darker 

 in colour. It flowers from July to De- 

 cember. " 



E. MULTIFLORA (Many -flowered Heath}. 

 Somewhat like a white Cornish Heath but 

 dwarf and close-set ; flowers, in the form 

 usually grown, white ; many in close racemes. 

 Southern Europe and North Africa on cal- 

 careous soil, thriving in ordinary soil in 

 gardens. W. R. 



ERIGERON (Fleabane). Michaelmas 

 Daisy-like plants of .dwarf growth, some- 

 what alike in general appearance, and 

 having pink or purple flowers with yellow 

 centres. They flourish in any garden 

 soil, and some are of a weedy nature ; 

 one or two are best suited for the 

 rock-garden. Of these, E. alpimim 



Erigeron multiradiatus. 



grandiflorum is the finest. It is similar 

 to the alpine Aster, having large heads 

 of purplish flowers in late summer, and 

 remaining in beauty a long time. Suit- 

 able for the rock-garden and well-drained 

 borders. Division or seed. E. Roy lei, 

 a Himalayan plant, is another good 

 alpine, of very dwarf, tufted growth, 

 having large blossoms of a bluish-purple 

 with yellow eye. By far the best of the 

 taller kinds is E. (Stenactis) spetiosus, 

 a vigorous species, with erect stems 

 that grow about i\ ft. high, and bear 

 during June and July many large purplish- 

 lilac Aster-like flowers with conspicuous 

 orange centres. E. macranthns, another 

 showy species, is of a neat habit and 



