EMBOTHRIUM. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



EPHEDRA. 



541 



on our shores, but more abundant in the 

 north than in the south. E. condensatus 

 (Bunch Grass) is a vigorous perennial 

 Grass from British Columbia, forming a 

 dense, compact, column-like growth, and 

 more than 8 ft. high. It is covered from 

 the base almost to the top with long 

 arching leaves, and in the flowering season 

 is crowned with erect rigid spikes 6^ in. 

 long, so that it resembles an elongated ear 

 of wheat. It is very ornamental, and maybe 

 grown in the same way as the Lyme Grass. 

 Other kinds might be mentioned, but 

 one or two give us the best effect of the 

 race. 



EMBOTHRIUM (Fire Bush\E.coc- 

 cineum is a very beautiful S. American 

 evergreen shrub of the Protea family, hardy 

 in warm parts of Britain, even without 

 the protection of a wall. At Coombe 

 Royal, in South Devon, it grows quite 

 20 ft. high, and is a spectacle of won- 

 drous beauty about the end of April or 

 the beginning of May, when every twig 

 carries a cluster of fiery flowers. Even 

 on the favoured Devonshire coast a 

 sharp late frost will sometimes injure the 

 flowers. It thrives near the coast in 

 southern Ireland and in Wicklow at 

 Mr. Acton's, but soon perishes in less 

 favoured places. 



EMPETRUM (Crowberry}. E. ni- 

 grum is a small evergreen Heath-like 

 bush, of the easiest culture, which may be 

 associatedwith the dwarfer rock shrubs. 

 It is a native plant, and the badge of the 

 Scotch clan McLean. 



ENKIANTHUS. E. campanulatus is 

 a pretty shrub, native of Northern Japan. 

 It has slender branches covered with a 

 light brown bark, and campanulate flowers 

 produced in a pendulous cluster, and of a 

 pale rosy-red colour, with three darker 

 lines on each of the five sections of the 

 corolla. 



E. cermms. A little-known species 

 only recently introduced from Japan, 

 where it is said to be a bush 6 ft. to 

 8 ft. high. The reddish flowers are 

 campanulate, and slightly five-lobed. 

 Syn., Me.isteria cernua. 



E. japonicus. A rare and desirable 

 shrub, first discovered by Sir Rutherford 

 Alcock near Nagasaki, Japan, in 1859, 

 and afterwards introduced by Messrs. 

 Standish. The leaves turn to a beautiful 

 deep orange colour before falling in 

 autumn. The pendent flowers are pure 

 white, globose, and contracted to a much 

 narrower mouth than in E. campanu- 

 latus. Ericaceae. 



EOMECON (Cyclamen Poppy}. E. 

 chionanthus is a very charming hardy 



perennial Poppy intermediate between 

 Stylophorum and Sanguinaria. The root- 

 stocks are usually as thick as the finger ; 

 they run freely underground, and increase 

 rapidly ; leaves all from the base, long- 

 stalked, and resembling those of the 

 hardy Cyclamen. The flowers, 2 to 3 in. 

 in diameter, are pure white, with a bunch 

 of yellow anthers in the centre ; several 

 borne on stems about i ft. high. It is 

 a native of China, and will be found 

 perfectly hardy out-of-doors ; it has stood 

 the winters of 1890 and 1891 without 

 injury. This Poppy will be found a 

 delightful plant in moist situations in free 

 soil, and fully exposed to the sun. The 

 pure pearly-white Poppy flowers, in a 

 setting of bold yellow-green foliage, make 



Epigaea repens (Mayflower). 



an elegant picture, and as it continues in 

 flower all through the summer, it is a 

 good plant for the rock-garden. It can 

 be increased to any extent by division. 



EPHEDRA. (Shrubby Horsetail}. 

 Curious greyish, wiry trailing bushes of 

 Southern Europe and Northern Africa, 

 rare in our gardens, but hardy here and 

 there, as in the Cambridge Botanic 

 Gardens, where there is light warm soil. 



All these plants resemble to a certain 

 extent the Equisetums, and though they 

 are leafless, or nearly so, the bright green 

 colour of the bark makes them conspic- 

 uous at all seasons. E. distachya\s a native 

 of the southern part of France and Spain, 

 in sandy soils on the seashore, a yard or 

 more high, forming a spreading mass of 

 bright green cylindrical branches distinct 

 from our hardy shrubs ; the berries, which 



