OUR NATIVE PLANTS. 139 



may draw from the soil they are growing in. This may be so iu 

 their natural stations, where they grow for years, dropping off a 

 mass of stems and foliage annually which deeaj's and forms the 

 best and most natuial nutriment for them. But the case is differ- 

 ent in culture in our gardens, where for the sake of cleanliness 

 any decaying leaves or stems are taken from them ; an.l there a 

 dressing of good well rotted manure is very essential to the well- 

 being of this class of plants. 



Among our hardy herbaceous and perennial plants we rate 

 the Phlox as one of the best, for with the different species of this 

 showy genus alone we could have flowers at all seasons. P. subu- 

 lata forms a dense mass of rose colored flowers with pink eyes, in 

 the earliest spring. From this species a good many garden varie- 

 ties have been produced, such as Nelsoni^ atropiirparea^ The Bride, 

 nivalis, and others, varying in the color of their flowers from the 

 darkest purple to snow white. P. amoena is another beautiful ver- 

 nal bloomer ; it grows about three inches in height, and produces 

 in Ma}" a profusion of purple flowers. Not less valuable is P. 

 ovata, which sends up large heads of beautiful purple flowers, on 

 stems from a foot to two feet high, in June. P. maculata pro- 

 duces pyramidal spikes of purple flowers ; while P. divaricala has 

 pretty bluish or lilac flowers on stems a foot high, and blossoms in 

 May. A very neat and compact growing species is P. glaberri net ; 

 it grows a foot high, has long shiny folinge, and dense heads of 

 pinkish flowers in June and July. P. reptans is a dwarf and neat 

 species, never growing over six inches high ; it produces large 

 flowers in May. But P. paniculata is the best known and most 

 widely cultivated ; it grows from two to six feet in height. The 

 type has usually purple (seldom white) flowers, in large and dense 

 pyramidal spikes. Innumerable garden varieties have been pro- 

 duced from this species, presenting all colors from red to white. 

 This species and its varieties flower from Jul}' to October. 



Tiie Rudbeckia, or Cone Flower, is another very valuable genus ; 

 the best species is R. S2)eci,sa, which grows from one to two feet 

 high and produces a quantity of large flowers, the disk dark pur- 

 ple and the rays orange-yellow; it blooms in July and August. 

 R. maxima is very striking on account of its ample glaucous foli- 

 age and the very large flowers, with very high black disks, and 

 long yellow rays. It flowers in August. R. sabtomentosa grows 

 from three to four feet high and produces a large quantity of showy 



