TERILLA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



PETROCALLIS. 709 



blossoms of clear blue and violet. It is 

 about i| ft. high when well grown. P. 

 acuminatus is a beautiful similar kind. 

 These all require to be raised from seed 

 annually, and to be planted out the second 

 year. 



PEEJLLA. P. nankineiisis is a half- 

 hardy annual, with dark vinous-purple 

 foliage. Seed should be sown about the 

 middle of February in pans or boxes in 

 heat ; the seedlings should be transplanted 

 into boxes in soil not over-rich, and after 

 being gradually hardened off, they should 

 be planted out about the end of May, 

 For those without artificial heat in spring 

 it is not a very suitable plant, as it requires 

 heat to get to the requisite size for plant- 

 ing in proper time. It is much used in 

 bedding-out, and often with the worst re- 

 sults as to effect. 



PERIPLOCA(6V/, Vine\P.grceca is 

 a rapid-growing shrubby climber of the 

 Stephanotis order, excellent for walls, ar- 

 bours, trellises, and the like, but on ac- 

 count of the somewhat unpleasant odour 

 of its flowers it is not advisable to 

 plant it against the walls of a dwelling- 

 house. Its long slender stems and 

 branches form a dense mass, and at 

 midsummer are covered with brownish- 

 red velvety flowers ; it is deciduous, and 

 therefore unsuitable for a winter-screen. 

 A native of Southern Europe, it is hardy 

 in garden soil, and has been grown in 

 English gardens for nearly three centuries. 

 PERNETTYA (Prickly Heath}. P. 

 mucronata is a little Evergreen of the 

 Heath family from South America, but 

 hardy enough for our gardens, its beauty 

 lying mainly in the berries which it bears 

 in autumn, the size of small Cherries, dull 

 purple, but there are varieties with berries 

 of white, rose, pink, crimson, purple-black, 

 and every intermediate shade. They 

 should be planted where the soil is 

 peaty or sandy, and even a heavy soil 

 may be made suitable by adding decayed 

 leaf-mould and sand. For autumn and 

 winter beds on a lawn near the house 

 they are excellent, as they have a cheerful 

 aspect throughout the winter. 



PETASITES ( Winter Heliotrope}. P. 

 fragrans is a rampant weed with fragrant 

 flowers 4 to 12 in. high, in December and 

 January, unless the weather is very severe, 

 bearing flowers, deliciously fragrant, of a 

 pale dingy lilac, in a rather short panicle. 

 It is unfit for garden culture, as it runs 

 very much at the root and becomes a weed, 

 but it maybe planted on rough banks, lanes, 

 and in hedgerows, as it is very useful for 

 winter bouquets, and may carpet, so to 

 say, a small clump of shrubbery, where it 



can be conveniently gathered. Another 

 species, P. vulgaris (Common Butterbur), 



The Winter Heliotrope (Petasites fragrans). 



is a native plant, 2 to 2^ ft. high, closely 

 allied to the common Coltsfoot, but having 

 great Rhubarb-like leaves ; the flowers 

 appear in spring before the leaves, and 

 are of a dull pinkish-purple. Exotic 

 plants, with less effective leaves than 

 this have been used in gardens ; but 

 it should not be allowed to come nearer 

 to the garden than the margin of some ad- 

 jacent[stream or moist bottom. Division. 

 PETROCALLIS (Rock Beauty\P 

 pyrenaica is a beautiful little alpine plant 



Petrocallis pyrenaica. 



forming dense cushions 2 to 3 in. high, when 

 not in flower resembling a mossy Saxifrage ; 

 it flowers pale lilac faintly veined, sweet 



