66 4 



MENTZELIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



MERTENSIA. 



rock-garden. I use it often for covering the 

 ground beneath Tea Roses, and it spreads 

 and grows everywhere. It is the smallest ; 

 flowering plant grown in gardens. 



MENTZELIA. Lovely Californian 

 plants, mostly of biennial duration, and re- 

 quiring more care than most half-hardy 

 plants. A successful cultivator of them 

 writes toT/ie Garden : " I find it necessary 

 to sow the seed as early in the season as pos- 

 sible, and to grow the seedlings on in a 

 frame, giving liberal shifts, and using a ; 

 compost of fibry loam and a small quantity I 

 of leaf-mould and sand. After the final shift 

 they should be plunged in a sunny border | 

 until autumn, and then removed to a frame j 

 for wintering. In the spring they should j 

 again be plunged in the open air, and by I 

 occasionally assisting them with weak ! 

 manure water, strong and healthy flowering 

 specimens will be produced. When begin- 

 ning to show flower they should be removed 

 to a cool greenhouse or frame, as excessive 

 humidity at this stage is injurious to 

 them. They may indeed be grown en- 

 tirely in the open air if the weather be 

 favourable, but in our climate the former 

 mode is by far the most satisfactory." 

 The following is a selection of the prettiest 

 kinds : M. (Bartonia) atirea I. A showy 

 golden-flowered hardy annual, i to 2 ft. 

 high. Should be sown in April in groups 

 or patches where it is to remain in light 

 soil and warm situations, the plants being 

 thinned to about i ft. apart. As the seed 

 is very small, care should be taken not 

 to bury it too deep. When well grown 

 it might be used as a bold group, relieved 

 here and there by tall plants. Chili. 

 M. laevicaulis is a good kind, with 

 whitish stem, i to 3 ft. high, both stems 

 and leaves covered with short and stout 

 bristles, the rich yellow flowers opening 

 only in bright sunshine. M. nuda is 2 to 

 4 ft. high, with flowers resembling the last. 

 M. oligosperma is a perennial, i to 3 ft. 

 high, with bright yellow flowers jin. across, 

 opening in sunshine. M. ornata is a 

 biennial, 2 to 4 ft. in height, with creamy- 

 white fragrant flowers 2^ to 4 in. across. 

 It belongs to the vespertine section, that 

 is, to those in which the flowers expand 

 towards evening. Syn. Bartonia. 



MENYANTHES (Buckbean\M. tri- 

 foliata is a beautiful and fragrant native of 

 Britain, found in shallow streams or pools, 

 in very wet marshy ground, and in bogs ; its 

 strong creeping, rooting stems often float- 

 ing in deeper water. The flowers are 

 borne on stout stalks, which vary in length 

 with the depth of the water, and are beauti- 

 fully fringed and suffused with pink. M. 

 trifoliata is easy to establish by introducing 



pieces of stems, and securing them till, by 

 the emission of roots, they have secured 

 themselves. In some moist soils it thrives 

 in the ordinary border. 



MENZIESIA. Dwarf shrubs, resemb- 

 ling Heaths, and, like them, admirably 

 suited for large rock-gardens or wherever 

 there is a moist peat soil. They are all of 

 neat growth, and bear pretty flowers. 



M. ccerulea is a tiny alpine shrub, 

 native of Scotch mountains and of northern 

 European mountains. A pretty bush for 

 the rock-garden or for choice beds of 

 dwarf plants, 4 to 6 in. high, with pinkish- 

 lilac flowers, flowering rather late in 

 summer and in autumn. Europe. 



M. empetriformis. A dwarf Heath- 

 like bush, seldom more than 6 in. high, 

 with clusters of rosy-purple bells in 

 summer. Though not common in gardens, 

 it is one of the brightest gems for the 

 choice rock-garden, and thrives in exposed 

 positions in moist sandy peat soil, and 

 should be associated with the dwarfest 

 rock plants. N. America. Syn. Bryanthus. 



MEEENDEEA. J/. bulbocodium is 

 very much like Bulbocodium vernum, but 

 flowers in autumn, having large handsome 

 blooms of a pale pinkish-lilac. Suitable 

 for the rock-garden and the bulb-garden 

 till plentiful enough for borders. In- 

 creased by separation of the new bulbs 

 and by seed. S. Europe. 



MEETENSIA-BeautifulBorageworts, 

 formerly known as Pulmonarias. There 

 is something about them more beautiful 

 in form of foliage and stem, and in the 

 graceful way in which they rise in panicles 

 of blue, than in almost any other family. 

 There are in cultivation above half-a- 

 dozen species, all of which are pretty 

 plants. 



M. alpina is a beautiful alpine kind, 

 and should only be associated with the 

 choicest alpine plants. The leaves are 

 bluish-green ; the stem is only 6 to 10 in. 

 high, and has in spring or early summer 

 one to three drooping terminal clusters of 

 light blue flowers. 



M. dahurica, although very slender and 

 liable to be broken l}y high winds, is 

 hardy. It is 6 to 12 in. high, has erect 

 branching stems, and bears in June race- 

 mose panicles of handsome drooping 

 bright azure-blue flowers. It is very 

 pretty, and suited for the rock-garden or 

 borders, and should be planted in a shel- 

 tered nook in a mixture of peat and loam. 

 Easily propagated by division or seed. 

 Syn., Pulmonaria dahurica. 



M. maritima (Oyster Plant}. Though 

 one of our British sea-coast plants, I find 

 that it is very little known among owners 



