956 



LOMARIA PROCERIA. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



buds often are produced in a single head, so 

 that when commoner it should be a very 

 handsome garden plant. 



LOMARIA PROCERA. A hand- 

 some large-growing fern, thriving in the 

 open air in the milder parts of Britain, 

 particularly where the atmosphere is 

 moist, as in Ireland and the south-west 

 of England. It is a variable plant, 

 spread over nearly half the world, the 

 hardiest forms coming from Chili, New 

 Zealand, and Tasmania. L. p. chilensis, 

 one of the best, grows in comparatively 

 cold regions of S. America, its stout 

 leathery fronds once cut to the midrib 

 being 4 or 5 ft. long, and produced on 

 stout red stalks from a prostrate fleshy 

 stem or trunk. This trunk never rises 

 but creeps along the ground, its under- 

 ground rhizomes freely giving off young 

 plants in rich open soils. L. p. Gilliesii, 

 another fine evergreen form from Chili, 

 differs from that just described in its 

 short erect trunk, and shorter fronds on 

 pale green stalks. 



LOMATIA. Beautiful evergreen 

 shrubs of slow growth, with finely-cut 

 fern-like leaves so tough in texture that 

 they outlast almost any other foliage 

 employed in cut work. Though mostly 

 grown with tender New Holland plants, 

 several kinds are hardy in the milder 

 parts of Britain, and, as shrubs of rare 

 beauty, they deserve a more extensive 

 trial. L. ferruginea, from Chili, has 

 grown well for many years in the north 

 of Ireland, at Castlewellan, making a 

 bush 9 ft. high and 27 ft. in circumference, 

 flowering freely, and never yet injured 

 during the winter, though grown in the 

 open during the past twenty years. L. 

 longifolia, an Australian species, planted 

 out in a bed of Rhododendrons at Forest 

 Hill, near London, grew luxuriantly in the 

 open air, flowering and bearing seed, and 

 only twice cut to the ground by frost during 

 twenty years. L. elegantissima, of New 

 Zealand, has also proved fairly hardy, 

 and with other kinds, such as L. filicifolia 

 and L. propinqua, might be given a trial 

 with the choicer evergreen shrubs in the 

 sheltered shore gardens of Devon and 

 Cornwall. The rather difficult increase 

 of these shrubs has probably been against 

 them. 



LOPEZIA. Pretty little Mexican 

 herbs or sub-shrubs, formerly much grown 

 but now seldom seen, spite of their beauty 

 and easy culture. All grow fast, with a 

 Fuschia-like habit, neat foliage, and small 

 attractive flowers in shades of pink, rosy- 

 purple, crimson, and orange-red. After 

 blooming in the summer garden they may 



be brought indoors, and continue in beauty 

 during a great part of the winter. Increase 

 of the simplest, by seeds or cuttings 

 which even take root in a vase among 

 cut flowers. Those named coronata, 

 miniata, grandiflora, and macrophylla 

 have been in cultivation, but there are 

 many other kinds. All are useful for 

 cutting, the flowers seeming like little in- 

 sects hovering with wings outspread. 



MOR.EA GLAUCOPIS (Blue-eyed 

 Peacock Iris], A charming bulbous plant 



9 to 1 5 in. high, with flowers in early 

 summer, about 2 in. across, pure white, 

 with a beautiful porcelain-blue stain 

 nearly \ in. broad, at the base of each of 

 the three larger divisions. This stain is 

 deep violet at the base, and edged with 

 deep purple teeth. There is only one 

 long narrow leaf. The plant should be 

 grown on warm sheltered borders in 

 sandy peat or sandy loam and leaf-mould. 

 Increase by separation of the bulbs in 

 autumn. Cape of Good Hope. Syns. 

 Vieusseuxia glaucopis, Iris pavonia. 



NARDOSTACHYS (Spikenard). 

 There are two kinds, but only one is in 

 cultivation, N. Jatamansi, a pretty little 

 perennial plant, hardy, and very attrac- 

 tive when well grown in the rock-garden. 

 Its leaves are spoon-shaped and pointed, 

 and rising above them are stems of 6 to 



10 ins. high, bearing dense heads of pale 

 pink or whitish flowers in September. 

 Though the flowers are sweet, the special 

 fragrance lies in the short thick root, 

 from which the celebrated perfume of 

 the ancients is supposed to have come. 

 Himalaya. 



NOCCJ3A. Pretty rock-plants, with 

 evergreen foliage and flowers like a little 

 Candytuft. The most familiar is N. 

 stytosa, perhaps better known as an 

 Iberis, which makes tiny dark green 

 cushions barely 2 in. high, covered early 

 in the year with clusters of rosy-purple 

 flowers smelling like heliotrope. It will 

 root into the narrowest of chinks upon 

 walls or stonework, braving the full sun, 

 and spreading into neat tufts in the rock- 

 garden in dry, gritty soil. In seaside 

 gardens it often comes into flower with 

 the new year, and is seldom later than 

 the first week of March anywhere, 

 blooming thenceforward into early 

 summer. Though short-lived, self-sown 

 seedlings maintain themselves as pretty 

 patches, coming year after year on old 

 walls or any rocky surface. A variety 

 known as speciosa has larger and deeper 

 coloured flowers. Syn. Iberis stylosa. 

 N. alpina is also attractive, with its 



