608 HESPEROCHIRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HIBISCUS. 



when they are about 3 in. long, they strike 

 very freely in the open ground, and the 

 spikes of bloom on the remaining stems 

 are all the finer when some of the others 

 have been removed. When shaded from 

 the sun for about three weeks with a few 

 Laurel branches, the cuttings do better 

 than when covered with a pot or box, as 

 has been advised. They like a rich soil, 

 rather moist, and are all the better for 

 repeated applications of liquid manure if 

 the soil is not as deep and good as it 

 should be. Double Rockets really belong 

 to the garden plants requiring annual 

 attention, and they therefore cannot well 

 be used as true perennials. It is always 

 worth while having a bed of them in the 

 reserve garden in case the plants should 

 be lost or neglected in the borders. We 

 have seen them best grown where there 

 was a yearly transfer of plants from the 

 reserve garden to the mixed border, 

 and the groups look very well. The 

 single Rocket is easily naturalised, and 

 is a showy plant in woods or shrubberies. 



H. tristis (Night-scented Stock}. A 

 quaint plant with dull-coloured flowers, 

 sweet-scented at night. It is rather 

 tender, and requires a light warm soil 

 and a sheltered position. 



HESPEROCHIRON.- -H. pumilus, a 

 pretty Californian rock plant, is stem- 

 less, dwarf in growth, with leaves borne 

 on slender stalks, forming a rosulate tuft. 

 The flowers are bell-shaped, \ in. across, 

 and white, varying to a purplish tinge. 

 It grows in marshy ground, and in damp 

 places in the Rocky Mountains and 

 Northern Utah, and is apparently quite 

 hardy, as it thrives in ordinary soil in 

 well-drained parts of the rock-garden. 

 H. californicus is a species of somewhat 

 the same form. 



HEUCHERA (Alum Roof). Dwarf, 

 tufted, perennial herbs, with distinct and 

 sometimes finely-coloured leaves, and 

 modest but inconspicuous flowers. Of 

 little value for their flowers, one or two 

 kinds give pretty effects of foliage either 

 as edgings to or beneath groups of shrubs ; 

 the best are also worth growing for their 

 leaves for cutting for the house in winter, 

 lasting as they do fresh for weeks in winter, 

 the foliage being good in form as well as 

 colour. Among the best are H. hispida 

 (Richardson?), americana, pubescens, and 

 sanguinea, the last the only one with any 

 Showy bloom. They are North American 

 plants, of the easiest cultivation in ordinary 

 soil. Division. Saxifrage order. 



HIBISCUS (Rose Mallow). Shrubby 

 and herbaceous perennials and annuals. 

 They are numerous in hothouses, but few 



are suited for the flower-garden. The 

 splendid hardy Rose Mallows of the woods 

 and swamps of N. America will live with 

 us, but our climate is not warm enough 

 for them, though it would be well to try 

 tufts of them in warm sunny places in the 

 southern parts of England, in deep, moist 

 soil. They have splendid crimson or rosy 

 flowers, as large as saucers, and are from 

 4 to 7 ft. high. The finest are H. Mos- 

 cheutos, H. palustris, H. grandiflorus, 

 and H. coccineus. They seldom bloom 

 in the open air in England, as they 

 flower late in the season. There are two 

 or three annual kinds, the finest being 



Venice Mallow (Hibiscus Trionum). 



H. Manihot, which forms handsome 

 pyramids 4 to 6 ft. high, the flowers being 

 3 or 4 in. across, and pale yellow with 

 a dark centre. H. Manihot should be 

 treated as a half-hardy annual, sown in 

 heat in February, and in May planted out 

 in good deep soil. H. africanus is a 

 hardy annual with showy pale yellow 

 flowers that only open in fine weather. 

 In light soil it usually sows itself. 

 H. Trionum appears to be extremely 

 variable, and has long been cultivated 

 in gardens. It is widely scattered over 

 all the warm regions of the Old World, 

 and is usually described as a common 

 sub-tropical weed, found plentifully in 

 cultivated fields in Afghanistan. It is 

 found in several places in China, and is a 

 very common weed in waste garden 

 ground and rich damp soil throughout 

 the Cape Colony, and has given rise to 

 almost innumerable varieties, a few of 

 which are so distinct as to have at one 

 time been considered species. The great 

 objection to the type is the short-lived 

 flowers, which Gerard says open at eight 

 in the morning and close at nine, and 

 which supposed fact gave rise to the 

 curious appellations, " Flower of an hour " 



