630 



LIATRIS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



I.IGUSTRUM. 



districts, with white flowers tinged with 

 purple ; the leafy purple bracts, suc- 

 ceeded in autumn by purple berries, are 

 eaten by pheasants, and therefore it is 

 planted in some places for covert. In 

 mild districts it is an evergreen, but 

 generally loses its leaves in late autumn. 

 It thrives in various soils, and under 

 trees. 



LIATRIS (Snakeroof]. North Ameri- 

 can perennials of some beauty, having 

 the flower-heads arranged in long dense 

 spikes. Some are effective border 

 flowers when well grown, and well re- 

 pay good cultivation. L. elegans grows 

 about 2 ft. high, and has pale-purple 

 spikes i ft. or more in length. L. 

 pycnostachya, 2 to 4 ft. high, has deep 

 purple flower-spikes from August to 

 October. L. spicata is one of the hand- 

 somest and neatest, growing i to 2 ft. 

 high, and its violet-purple spikes con- 

 tinue long in beauty. L. scariosa, 

 squarrosa, cylindracea, elegans, and 

 pumila much resemble the foregoing, 

 and, like them, succeed in any rich 

 light soil, and are best here and there in 

 among peat-loving shrubs or in good 

 borders. Propagated by division in 

 spring or by seed. 



LIBERTIA. Beautiful plants of the 

 Iris Order, of which some are hardy 

 enough for the open border. L. formosa 

 is beautiful at all seasons, even in the 

 depth of winter, owing to the colour of 

 its foliage, which is as green as the 

 Holly ; and it bears spikes of flowers of 

 snowy whiteness like some delicate Orchid. 

 It is neat, dwarf, and compact, and has 

 flowers twice as large as the other kinds. 

 They lie close together on the stem, and 

 remind one of the old double white 

 Rocket. L. ixioides, a New Zealand 

 plant, is also a handsome evergreen 

 species, with narrow grassy foliage and 

 small white blossoms. L. magellanica 

 is also pretty when in flower. All 

 of these thrive in borders of peaty 

 soil, and in the rougher parts of the 

 rock-garden, but they grow slowly on 

 certain loamy soils, living perhaps, but 

 never showing the freedom and grace 

 which they do on free or peaty soils. In- 

 creased by seed or by careful division in 

 spring. 



LIBROCEDRUS (Incense Cedar]. L. 

 decurrens is a handsome evergreen tree of 

 the mountains of Oregon and Northern 

 California, being very distinct in habit and 

 found in the Sierra Nevada as high as 

 8,000 or 9,000 feet, is likely to prove a 

 tree that will last in our climate. It is a 

 beautiful tree for grouping with the choicer 



Pines ; more columnar in habit than most,, 

 it does not therefore require the wide 

 spacing too often given to our trees in 

 the pinetum. This tree, more than most 

 other Pines, illustrates the mistake of sup- 

 posing that conifers should be clothed to 

 the ground with branches, as the natural 

 habit of such trees is often to shed their 

 branches as other trees shed their leaves. 

 In its native country the stem of this tree 

 is often quite free and clear of branches 

 to a height of 70 feet, and this instead of 

 taking from the beauty of the tree really 

 adds to it. Syn. Thuja gigantea. 



The Chilian Incense Cedar (L. Chilense} 

 will just live out of doors in the most 

 favoured situations and is therefore not 

 worth attempting in the country gene- 

 rally. 



LIGULARIA. Large perennials, re- 

 markable for bold foliage, one or two of great 

 size, and strikingly distinct aspect, though 

 not quite beautiful in flower. L. macro- 

 phylla is vigorous, with an erect stem 

 nearly 3^ ft. high, and very large glaucous 

 leaves, the yellow flowers borne in a long 

 spike. Free, moist, and somewhat peaty 

 soil is the most suitable for this plant, 

 which is multiplied by careful, division in 

 autumn or in spring ; it is useful for group- 

 ing with fine-leaved herbaceous plants, but 

 will seldom find a place in the select 

 flower garden. Caucasus. L. sibirica, 

 Fischeri, and thyrsoidea are fine-leaved 

 plants, and worth growing with L. macro- 

 phylla for their foliage. The Japanese 

 species, L. Kaempferi and Hodgsoni, are 

 better grown under glass, except in 

 summer, when they may be used among 

 fine-leaved plants in the sub-tropical 

 garden ; but the hardy kinds are most 

 interesting. Syn., Senecio. 



LIGUSTRUM (Privet). The meanest 

 of all mean shrubs, I think, but popular 

 beyond all others, its weed-like facility 

 of increase making it dear to those to 

 whom something growing with a fungus- 

 like rapidity is a treasure. It is not only 

 that Privets are poor in themselves, and, 

 as a rule, without beauty of leaf or flower, 

 but it is the number of beautiful shrubs 

 they shut out, millions being annually 

 sold to take the places of better things,, 

 and helping to kill the few that are 

 planted near them or among them. The 

 commoner sorts have no beauty whatever, 

 and they all have the same vile odour in 

 summer days when they flower, a sickly 

 smell. Happy in the possession of the 

 finest hedging and fencing plants of the 

 northern world, quick, holly, box, yew and 

 sweet briar, nurserymen and jobbing gar- 

 deners make hedges and fences with these 



