HYPERICUM 635 



Flowers solitary, rarely in pairs, at the top of the stem, 3 to 4 ins. across, 

 bright yellow ; petals obovate ; sepals green, roundish, f in. long ; stamens in 

 five bundles, yellow, f to i in. long, very numerous ; styles five. 



Native of the Orient. Introduced in the latter part of the seventeenth century, 

 this has proved so well adapted to our climate as to have become naturalised 

 in some parts of the country. On the whole, it is the most useful and not far 

 from the most beautiful of Hypericums, admirable for making a dense carpet 

 on the ground in half-shaded places beneath trees, etc., where most shrubs 

 would not thrive, flowering from the end of June to September. In hard 

 winters it loses much of its foliage, and in any case, if a clean level growth is 

 desired, it is best to cut the old stems down to the ground just as the new 

 growths are pushing from the base in spring. Propagated with the greatest 

 ease by dividing up the plants. 



H. CHINENSE, Linnceus. 



A tender, quite woody species only hardy in the milder parts of the kingdom, 

 growing about 2 ft. high ; stems round. It has evergreen, narrow-oblong 

 leaves, stalkless, i^ to 3^ ins. long, \ to I in. wide. Flowers either solitary or 

 in terminal cymes of three to seven, bright yellow, i to i\ ins. across ; stamens 

 in five bundles, some as long as the petals ; styles united to form one slender 

 tapering column ^ to f in. long, divided at the top into five radiating stigmas. 



Native of China; introduced in 1753; often used as a greenhouse plant, 

 but I have seen it thriving out-of-doors in the Grayswood Hill garden, near 

 Haslemere, flowering in September. Worth trying in the south and west. 



H. DENSIFLORUM, Pursh. 



(Garden and Forest, 1890, fig. 67.) 



An evergreen snrub, 2 to 4 ft. high (6 ft. in its native state) ; branches 

 erect, two-angled. Leaves I to 2 ins. long, usually less than J in. wide, 

 linear-lanceolate, recurved at the edges. Flowers very numerous, in compact 

 cymose panicles ; each flower \ in. across. Fruit three-celled, slender, in. 

 long, subtended by the five oval-oblong, spreading sepals. 



Native of the pine-barrens from New Jersey to Florida, and Kentucky 

 west to Arkansas and Texas. It is a near ally of the commoner H. prolificum, 

 but is smaller in flower and narrower in leaf ; its fruit also is more slender. 

 Some botanists have regarded them as forms of one species. The following 

 arrangement will help towards the identification of the rather confused 

 American species : 



/ 



FRUIT THREE- CELLED ; STYLES THREE ; FLOWERS STALKLESS. 



1. Aureum. Flowers i ins. across. 



FRUIT THREE- SOMETIMES FOUR-CELLED ; STYLES THREE ; FLOWERS STALKED. 



2. Galioides. Leaves very narrow (see desc.) ; sepals linear. 



3. Buckleyi. Habit dwarf, compact ; flowers up to I in. wide. 



4. Prolificum. Habit tall, erect ; flowers I in. across. 



5. Densiflorum. Habit tall, erect ; flowers \ in. across. 



FRUIT FIVE-CELLED ; STYLES FIVE. 



6. Lobocarpum. Habit tall, erect ; flowers \ to f in. wide ; leaves green. 



7. Kalmianum. Dwarfer ; flowers | to I in. wide ; leaves glaucous. 



All these species have free stamens, being thereby distinguished from the 

 Asiatic species, which have them in bundles, usually five bundles to each 

 flower. 



