HIBISCUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HIPPOPH^:. 



609 



" Good night at noon," or " Good night at 

 nine." 



In a fine form, figured in The Garden, 

 this objection is quite done away with, 

 the flowers opening in the morning, and, 

 on bright days, remaining so until late in 

 the afternoon. Individual flowers do not 

 last very long, but there is a succession on 

 a well-grown plant, and these are large 

 and beautiful. It is quite as hardy as the 

 one usually grown, seeds as freely, and 

 much more striking, especially in bold 

 clumps. Simply scatter the seeds in the 

 open on the spots where they are intended 

 to grow, thinning, where too close together, 

 to 6 in. or I ft. apart, and leaving the sun, 

 etc., to do the rest. It will even sow it- 

 self, the seeds coming up in plenty the 

 following spring if the winter has 

 not been too severe, but sowings should 

 be made at different times to ensure 

 bloom all through the summer and 

 autumn. 



H. Syriacus (Syrian Mallow, Rose of 

 Sharon). A beautiful shrub, bearing 

 showy blossoms in late summer and in 

 autumn. It is a very old favourite, and 

 in good moist soils it rises 8 and even 

 10 ft. high. The wild form has bluish- 

 purple flowers with crimson centres, but 

 now there are forms representing every 

 tint from white (totus albus] to crimson 

 and purple, while the blooms of one sort 

 (Celeste] are almost blue. There are also 

 double flowers of varied colours. The 

 best kinds, single and double, are totus 

 albus, Celeste, Violet Clair, Leopoldi, 

 bicolor, roseus plenus, Pompon rouge, 

 carneoplenus, Due de Brabant, albus 

 plenus, puniceus plenus, and anemonce- 

 florus. 



In the South German gardens this 

 shrub assumes a larger growth, and bears 

 much larger flowers, than in England. 

 The usual form has 

 flowers not so attrac- 

 tive in colour as some 

 of the newer forms 

 raised from seed main- 

 ly in France, and there 

 are some double kinds 

 poor in colour and ef- 

 fect. The pure white 

 kind (totus albus] and a 

 few others lead to the 

 hope that it is a plant 

 capable of real improve- 

 Hibiscus syriacus. ment through raising 

 seedling forms, and 

 perpetuating the best of them. Our 

 experience of this shrub in our own 

 islands is that it is best on free and warm 

 soils ; not too dry. Where it thrives it is 



well worth more attention than is usually 

 the fate of flowering trees in the British 

 shrubbery ; all the more so now that we 

 are getting varieties of good colour like 

 the pure white one named above, and 

 Celeste. 



HIERACIUM (Hawkweed}. Peren- 

 nial herbs with yellow flowers, very numer- 

 ous, and often beautiful in nature, but not 

 much grown in gardens. Among the best 

 are aurantiacum with orange flowers, a 

 good plant, but apt to spread too much in 

 the garden ; and villosum, the Shaggy 

 Hawkweed, a handsome plant with silvery 

 leaves and large yellow flowers. Free in 

 ordinary soil. Borders. Division. 



HIPPOCREPIS COMOSA (Horse- 

 shoe Vetch}. A small prostrate British 

 plant, with pretty little deep-yellow 

 flowers, in coronilla-like crowns, the upper 

 petal faintly veined with brown, the 

 pinnate leaves small and leaflets smooth. 

 It is a capital little plant for the upper 

 ledges of rocks in dry positions, as in such 

 places the shoots will fall down some 18 

 or 20 inches ; it is easily raised from 

 seed ; partial to chalky soils ; and is 

 rather common in the South of England, 

 but not a native of Ireland or Scotland. 



HIPPOPH^E (Sea Buckthorn}. H. 

 rhamnoides is a beautiful seashore native 



Hippophae rhamnoides. 



shrub, happy in any free soil. The best 

 position for it is a rather damp spot near 

 a running stream, where the subsoil is 

 always moist. It forms, when wild, a 

 straggling bush, 8 or 10 ft. high. In 

 gardens it grows taller. The Sea Buck- 

 thorn has silvery-looking Willow-like 

 leaves and bears a profusion of orange 

 berries. Apart from the brilliantly 

 coloured fruit, the silvery effect of the 

 leaves is good where the bush thrives. 

 There are other kinds, H fasciculata and 

 R R 



