ANCHUSA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ANDROSACE. 



423 



rose. There are several varieties rubra 

 %randi flora, Wilmoreana, bright blue 

 'purple, yellow eye ; Phillipsi, deep blue, 

 rose-coloured centre ; Breweri, intense 

 blue ; linifolia, fine blue, very dwarf ; 

 Napoleon III., maroon ; and sanguinea, 

 bright ruby, all flowering from July to 

 September. The Indian Pimpernel 



Bastard Indigo. 



(A. indica] has small bright blue flowers. 

 It is a hardy annual, but the Italian 

 Pimpernel should be grown as a half- 

 hardy annual. The seed may be sown 

 any time from March till July, the later 

 sowings to be made in pots and put into 

 a greenhouse or window in autumn. Pim- 

 pernels grow well in ordinary garden soil, 

 and are used with good effect in broad 

 masses in borders, or edgings to beds, 

 and make good pot plants. The pretty 

 little bog Pimpernel (A. tenella) is a native 

 creeping plant, with slender stems and 

 myriads of tiny pink flowers. It is pretty 

 in suspended pots or pans, and may be 

 grown in the bog or a moist corner in the 

 rock-garden. 



ANCHUSA (Alkanet}. Stout herbace- 

 ous and biennial plants of the Forget-me- 

 Not family ; some worth growing, amongst 

 the best being A. italica, which is vigorous, 

 3 to 4 ft. high, with beautiful blue blossoms. 

 A. hybrida is similar, about 2 ft. high with 

 flowers of rich violet. A. capensis is a 

 pretty plant with large bright blue flowers, 

 rather tender ; it should be planted in a 

 sheltered well-drained border. A. semper- 

 virens is a British perennial, i^ to 2 ft. 

 high, with blue flowers, worth a place in 

 the wild garden. Seeds or division. 



ANDROMEDA. Handsome dwarf 

 hardy shrubs of the Heath Family, thriving 

 in peaty soil. Various shrubs usually called 

 Andromedas in gardens, belong in reality 

 to several other genera, and there is only 

 one true species of Andromeda known, 



viz. : A. polifolia (Moorwort), a native 

 of Britain and N. Europe growing from 

 about 6 to 1 8 inches high, and bearing 

 purplish-red flowers from May to Septem- 

 ber. It is best grouped in peat beds or in 

 the bog garden. For allied plants usually 

 known as Andromeda see Cassandra, 

 C as slope, Lencothoe, Lyonia, Oxyden- 

 drum, Pieris, and Zenobia. 



ANDROSACE. Alpine plants, of very 

 small stature and great beauty, belonging 

 to the Primrose order. Other families, 

 like Primroses and Hairbells, do come 

 down to the hill-pastures, the sea-rocks, or 

 the sunny heaths, but these do not. They 

 are more alpine than even the Gentians, 

 which are as handsome in a hill-meadow 

 as on the highest slopes ; and as Andro- 

 saces are, among flowering plants, the 

 most confined to the snowy region, so 

 they are the dwarfest of this class. 

 Growing at elevations where the snow 

 falls very early in autumn, they flower 



Amelanchier canadensis. 



as soon as it melts. Sometimes, like 

 some other alpine flowers, they frequent 

 high cliffs with a vertical face, or with 

 portions of the face receding here and 

 there into shallow recesses. Here they 

 must endure intense cold cold which 

 would destroy all shrub or tree life ex- 

 posed to it. And here in spring they 

 flower. Their small evergreen leaves, 

 often downy, retain much more dust and 



