MERTENSIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



MESPILUS. 



665 



of choice hardy flowers. Another in- 

 teresting fact, though a seaside plant and 

 usually found growing in sea sand, it is 

 amenable to garden culture. Given a light 

 sandy soil of good depth, and a sunny 

 position where its long and branching suc- 

 culent flower-stems may spread them- 

 selves out, carrying a long succession 

 of hundreds of turquoise-blue tubular 

 flowers, it is a plant that we may expect 

 to see appearing with renewed vigour year 

 after year. It is a coveted morsel of slugs, 

 and is best on an open part of the rock- 

 garden. 



M. oblongifolia is another dwarf 

 species. The stems are 6 to 9 in. high, 

 and they bear handsome clustered heads 

 of brilliant blue flowers, and deep green 

 fleshy leaves. 



M. sibirica. This species has the 

 beauty of colour and the grace of habit of 

 the old M. virginica, and grows and 

 flowers for a long period in ordinary 

 garden soil. The small bell-shaped flowers 

 are borne in loose drooping clusters, 

 gracefully terminating in arching stems. 

 The colour varies from a delicate pale 

 purple-blue to a rosy-pink in the young 

 flowers. It is more vigorous than the 

 Virginian Lungwort (M. virginica), an 

 older and better-known kind. A perfectly 

 hardy perennial propagated by division. 



M. virginica (Virginian Cowslip}. 

 The handsomest of all, bearing in early 

 spring drooping clusters of lovely purple- 



Mertensia virginica (Virginian Cowslip). 



blue blossoms on steins I to i^ ft. high, 

 the leaves large and of bluish-grey. In 

 many gardens it never makes the slightest 

 progress ; but a sheltered, moist, peaty 

 nook is the best place for it. The finest 

 specimens are grown in moist, sandy peat 



or rich free soil, with shelter near. It is a 

 charming old garden plant, and one which 

 unfortunatel has never become common. 



gold}. Dwarf or trailing succulent plants, 

 of which there are several grown in the open 

 air, though none are hardy. The Common 

 Ice Plant (M. crystallinum) is grown for 

 garnishing in most large gardens and is 

 also used as a pot-plant ; but it is most 

 effective when planted out in the rock- 

 garden or on an old wall. In a sunny 

 situation, however, it will grow in any 

 good soil. It will grow from 3 to 4 ft. in a 

 season, and on w r arm days has a refresh- 

 ing look. Its flowers, unimportant com- 

 pared with the stems and foliage, are 

 bespangled with crystal. Seeds should be 

 sown in heat in March, and the seedlings 

 planted out 6 to 8 in. apart. There are 

 two varieties one red and the other 

 white. M. cordifolium is a perennial, the 

 variegated form of which is used in carpet- 

 gardening. M. Pomeridianum is a strong 

 species with broad foliage and large 

 purple and rose flowers. It is not so com- 

 mon as the last, but it deserves a place on a 

 south border. M. tricolor is the most showy 

 of the annual Mesembryanthemums. It is 

 a neat plant with cylindrical foliage, grow- 

 ing in neat tufts 4 to 6 in. in height ; its 

 abundant flowers, of purple rose or white, 

 afford good contrast. It should be sown 

 in sandy soil in the open garden about the 

 end of April ; it dislikes transplantation, 

 and lasts longer in the ground than in a 

 pot. Those who possess a collection of 

 Ice Plants in pots should turn the whole 

 out on banks or the rock-garden and 

 leave them there, taking cuttings off them 

 yearly. Out-of-doors they attain beauty 

 never seen in pots. Their foliage is singu- 

 lar and diversified, and the brilliant lustre 

 of their flowers white, orange, rose, 

 pink, crimson is unequalled. They are 

 children of the sun, and a rock-garden de- 

 voted to a collection in an open sunny 

 spot is worth seeing. A soil consisting 

 of little besides sand and gravel suits 

 them perfectly. As the plants have been 

 so little grown in the open we scarcely 

 know which are hardy and which are 

 tender, but experiments would be interest- 

 ing, for some would probably prove 

 almost hardy in the south. 



MESPILUS (Medlar}. M. germanica 

 is a beautiful small tree or bush with large 

 and handsome flowers, and a wide-spread- 

 ing head and is beautiful in early summer 

 when studded with great white flowers 

 among its large pale green leaves. The 

 only other species in gardens is M. grandi- 

 flora, also called M. Smithi It is a per- 



