622 LAPAGERIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



LARIX. 



various uses in the flower garden, and 

 may be trained as standards. The pretty I 

 L. Sellowi is a good dwarf plant ; but 

 the odour of these plants is unpleasant, 

 and they are not worthy of much use. 

 West Indies. Verbenacese. 



LAPAGERIA (Napoleon's Belf}.^ \ 

 beautiful climber usually grown in the | 

 greenhouse, but hardy and flowering well | 

 in the open air in Cornwall and the south 

 of Ireland ; with care it would be found to 

 do over a larger area round the coast. 

 It forms a lovely picture at Caerhays, 

 trained on a north-west wall, and flowers 

 quite freely. Often at Christmas and 

 onwards through the winter and spring I 

 it comes out beautifully ; the rose and 

 white and other forms have been tried, as 



Lapageria in a Cornish garden. 



well as the original form. Soil should be 

 peaty with plenty of sand and leaf-mould. 

 The great enemy of the plant is the slug, 

 which is fond of browsing about cool north 

 walls, and must be well watched day and 

 night. The plant may be nailed direct to 

 a wall, or planted among choice shrubs to 

 take its own way as a climber, and it 

 might be well to try it in various aspects, 

 as the conditions that suit it in the ex- 

 treme south of England may not do so in 

 all parts. 



Sometimes, where there is the least 

 doubt in less favoured places, success may 

 be obtained by letting a plant growing in 

 a greenhouse get through the glass and 

 make its way along any wall surface near. 

 This has been several times done with 

 success in various gardens about London 

 and elsewhere. Chili and Patagonia. 



LARDIZABALA. L. biternata is a 

 handsome evergreen climber from Chili, 



hardy enough for walls in the south and 

 coast districts ; the foliage a deep green, 

 the leaflets thick. Along the south coast it 

 makes a beautiful wall-covering, reaching 

 a height of 20 ft. or more, but its in- 

 conspicuous purple flowers are seldom 

 borne in the open air. It should be 

 planted in light or well-drained soil. 



LARIX (LarcJi). One of the most 

 beautiful trees of the north, and though 

 much cultivated in our woodlands for its 

 value as a timber tree it is none the less 

 precious for the lawn and home grounds. 

 Belonging to the great Pine family it has 

 the summer-leafing habit of our ordinary 

 trees, which enhances its charms, not only 

 showing the form better in winter, but the 

 fine colour of the budding leaves in spring, 

 and the ripening leaves in 

 autumn. A true child of 

 the northern mountains, the 

 Larch is hardy everywhere in 

 our country, perhaps thriving 

 better in the north, as in the 

 case of the lovely old trees 

 at Dunkeld, its only enemy 

 being a dreadful parasitic 

 fungus which eats into the 

 tree and mars its beauty and 

 vigour. Other kinds of 

 Larch are known, and some 

 coming into cultivation, but 

 it is not always easy to ob- 

 tain them in a good state, 

 and we have yet but little 

 evidence as to their value. 

 All are worth a trial, though 

 it is probable that none will 

 ever rival the charms of the 

 European Larch. 



L. europsea (European 

 Larc/i). A tall and lovely tree with pendant 

 branches emitting a delicate fragrance in 

 the spring when budding. It is a native of 

 the northern and central European Alps, 

 and also the mountains of Northern Asia. 

 The weeping variety is picturesque, but L. 

 dahurica is considered to be a form of 

 this, and is likely to be of distinct value 

 for gardens. 



L. Griffith!! (Sikkim Larch} is a Hima- 

 layan Larch, attaining in its own country 

 to the height of a stately tree, but often 

 dwarfed into an alpine bush. It bears 

 large cones, and in our country has not 

 yet been proved to be of great value. 



L. Kaempferi (Chinese Golden LarcJi}. 

 A beautiful tree of Western China, at- 

 taining in its own country a height of over 

 100 ft. and of good growth and habit in 

 our country, though not so rapid as other 

 species. A choice lawn tree, and also, 

 when it can be got in any quantity in the 



