THUNBERGIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



THYMUS. 



837 



albida, but larger. Suitable for borders, 

 the spring garden, beds, and naturalising 

 with the dwarfer flowers of spring and 

 early summer in ordinary garden soil. 

 Division and seed. Syn., Iberidella. 



THUNBERGIA. T. alata is a beauti- 

 ful half-hardy annual, common in green- 

 houses, an elegant dwarf climber of the 

 easiest culture, and in summer valu- 

 able for draping dwarf trellises. The 

 flowers of the type, a native of the East 

 Indies, are yellowish-buff, but there are 

 other varieties : alba is pure white ; auran- 

 tiaca, bright orange ; Fryeri, orange with 

 a white eye ; Doddsi has variegated 

 foliage ; and others with yellow and 

 sulphur flowers. T. alata and its varieties 

 .grow 4 to 5 ft. high, and from July till 

 October their slender stems are covered 

 with bloom. Seeds should be sown in 

 heat in early spring, and the seedlings 

 potted separately when large enough. In 

 May plant them out in good light soil. 



THUYA (Arbor-vita}. Evergreen 

 cone-bearing trees, some of much beauty, 

 but the group is represented in gardens 

 by numbers of worthless shrubs and mean 

 trees ; happily, the species are not so 

 numerous as they seem from the many 

 names that have been given to their mostly 

 ugly varieties. 



T. DOLOBRATA (Japanese Arbor-vita). A 

 distinct and beautiful evergreen tree, perhaps 

 the most graceful of the group, fine in colour 

 and very hardy. Happily of this as yet few 

 varieties have been found, these being worth- 

 less dwarf and variegated kinds. The tree is 

 said to attain its finest stature in mountain 

 woods in Japan, and to grow well under other 

 trees, and it should be worth trying in like 

 circumstances in our country. It comes very 

 freely from layers, in fact, the lower branches 

 of the trees root themselves freely, and these 

 over facile ways of increase make it all the 

 more necessary that we should get healthy 

 seedling trees, as suckers are not unlikely to 

 take bushy rather than tree form. Syn., 

 Thuyopsis. 



T. GIGANTEA (Giant Arbor-vita}. A tall 

 and noble tree, fine in stature and form, hardy 

 and healthy in our country, thriving in ordinary 

 soils, and a free and rapid grower, even with- 

 out the special attention in the way of soils 

 such conifers often receive. It attains in its 

 own country a maximum height of 150 ft., and 

 its wood is fine-grained and very useful. 

 N. W. America, finest on the Columbia river. 

 Syn.y T. Lobbi, T. Craigiana, T. menziesii. 



T. JAPONICA (Standish's Arbor-vita}. A 

 graceful evergreen tree of medium size attaining 

 a height of over 50 ft., with branches of a 

 slender pendulous character, of a fresh green 

 colour, and a native of the mountains, of central 

 Japan. It was introduced by Fortune, and 

 sent out by the late John Standish, of Ascot, 



but has not yet been much cultivated. The 

 form usually grown is said not to be the true 

 wild tree, a reason for getting seed from 

 Japanese sources. Happily this has not yet, 

 like the others, sported into a mass of varieties. 

 Syn. , Thuyopsis Standishi. 



T. OCCIDENTALS ( Western Arbor-vita}. A 

 rather poor hardy evergreen tree which has 

 varied much in colour and foliage and form, 

 ponderous Latin names having been applied to 

 worthless varieties, over twenty being given in 

 some catalogues. It is sometimes used to get 

 shelter fences and hedges rapidly, though by 

 no means so good for that purpose as our own 

 native shrubs like the Yew and the Holly, and' 

 it would be no great loss to omit it from the 

 garden altogether ; all the more so, perhaps, 

 as it is one of the cheap evergreens often used 

 to form the muddle mixture of the common 

 shrubbery. 



T. ORIENTALIS (Chinese Arbor-vita). A 

 low tree with little of the beauty of the Pine 

 or Cypress, and which has, unfortunately, 

 given rise to a crowd of varieties, variegated, 

 silvery, golden, and other dense, monstrous 

 and pendulous shapes, "mystified" by Latin 

 names. Not only are they poor in themselves, 

 but they keep the mind away from the central 

 fact of the beauty, dignity and great value of 

 the pine race. These varieties have again 

 synonyms and some of them under the wrong 

 name of Retinospora get into cultivation. 



Thuyopsis. See THUYA. 



THYMUS ( Thyme}. Rock and alpine 

 creeping plants ' suited for arid parts 

 of the rock-garden and where many 

 other plants will not thrive. They spread 

 quickly into wide dense cushions, and 

 ought not to be placed near delicate or 

 minute alpine plants. Nothing can be 

 more charming than a sunny bank 

 covered with the common wild Thyme 

 (T. serpyllum) and the white variety. T. 

 lanuginosus, though usually considered 

 a very woolly variety of our common wild 

 Thyme, is pleasing at all seasons, forming 

 wide cushions in any soil, provided it be 

 thoroughly exposed to the sun. Another 

 desirable plant is the variegated form of 

 the Lemon-scented Thyme (T. citriodorus 

 aureus), which is more robust than the 

 green-leaved kind, and retains its leaves 

 through the winter. The Golden Thyme 

 is 9 in. high, dense and compact, and used 

 for edging. It may be increased by cut- 

 tings, which strike readily in September, 

 either in hand-glasses or in cold frames, 

 and should be planted out in spring. 

 Those cuttings which are best variegated 

 should be chosen, as others may revert to 

 the normal green type. Various other 

 Thymes are worthy of the dry arid slopes 

 of a large rock-garden, and of old ruins. 

 The minute, creeping, and Peppermint- 

 scented T. corsicus, with flowers so small 



