HARDY EXOTIC FLOWERING PLANTS. 



153 



Pseony. — Vigorous lierbaceous pLniits, with large and si)lt'n(li(l 

 flowers of various shades of crimson, rosy-crimson, and wliite, well 

 calculated for producing the iinest eifects in the wild garden. There 

 are many species and varieties, tin- llowers of some of the \arieties 

 being very sweet -.scented, doulilc, and amimg the largest llowers we 

 kmiw of. Fringes of shrubberies, open glades in A\oods or copses, and 

 indeed almost any wild place, may be adorned by them ; and they may 

 also be advantageou.sly groupe<l or isolated on the grass in the rougher 

 parts of the pleasure-ground. I never felt the beauty of the fine 

 colour of Poeonies till I saw a group of the double scarlet kind fidwering 

 in the long Grass in Oxfordshire. The owner had placed an irregular 

 group of this plant in an u-nnidwu glade, quite away from the gar<Ien 

 proper ; and yet, seen from the lawn and garden, the effect was most 

 brilliant, as may be imagined from the way in which such high colours 

 tell in the distance. To be able to produce such effects in the early 

 summer for six weeks or so is a great gain from a landscape point of 

 view, apart from the immediate beauty of the flowers when seen close 

 at hand. 



Poppy, Pnpaver, in var. — The huge and flaming Papaver orientale, 

 P. bracteatum, and P. lateritium, are the most important of this type. 

 They Avill thrive and live long in almost any position, but the proper 

 place for them is in open spots among strong herbaceous plants. For 

 the wild garden or wilderness the Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis eambrica) 

 is one of the best plants. It is a clieerful plant at all seasons ; perched 

 on some i:ild dry wall its mas.ses of foliage are 

 very fresh, but when loaded with a profusion of 

 large yellow blossoms the plant is strikingly 

 handsome ; it is a determined coloniser, ready to 

 hold its own under the most adverse circumstances. 

 Its home is the wall, the rock, and the ruin. 

 It even surpasses the Wallflower in adapting itself 

 to strange out-of-the-way places ; it will spring 

 up in the gravel walk under one's feet, and seems 

 (juite happy among the boulders in the coi;rtyard. 

 It looks down on one from crevices in brick walls, 

 from chinks where one could scarcely introduce 

 a knife-blade, and after all it delights most in 

 shady places. No plant can be better adapted 



. , 1 1 TT • Phlomis. — Type of hand- 



for naturahsnig on rough stony banks, old quarries, ^^^^^^ Labiates ; admir- 

 gravel pits, dead walls, and similar places, and ably suited for the wild 



garden. iSee p. 154.) 



