HAKDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 73 



and cheapness (for several hundreds of plants can be raised from one 

 packet of seed sown at the end of May) combine to render it indis- 

 pensable. There are blue, rose, and white varieties, and there is a 

 duplex-flowered form (calycanthema) which is commonly called the 

 cup-and-saucer Campanula. No flower gardener of limited means 

 can afford to ignore the Canterbury Bell. It is one of those things 

 of which he should make a special note. It will give him striking 

 beds and beautiful border clumps at a cost of a few pence. As 

 fast as the flowers fade he will pick them off, and fresh buds will 

 form in abundance. If people are disposed to be hypercritical, 

 and to complain that the Canterbury Bell is a common cottage 

 garden flower, let them remember that they can always give it 

 individuality by special care in cultivation thin sowing, planting 

 out a foot apart in nursery beds for the summer, and rich, deep 

 soil in its permanent position. 



Christmas and Lenten Roses (Hellebores}. Outdoor bloom in 

 the dead of winter is not so common that we can afford to ignore 

 any plant which gives it. Still less can we do so when the 

 blossom is so pure and beautiful as that of the Christmas Rose, 

 Helleborus niger. We can have this lovely flower in all its 

 virginal purity on our Christmas table, yet gathered from the 

 open ground. It is, of course, a hardy plant, but gardeners often 

 cover it with a small hand-light, to preserve the flowers from 

 frost, and also to prevent them from being soiled by earth thrown 

 up in rainy weather. In the Royal Gardens at Kew the clumps 

 of Christmas Roses shown in one of the plates are not covered, but 

 are planted among hardy ferns, which no doubt serve as a pro- 

 tection both against frost and flying grit. The plant will thrive 

 in most soils, but prefers well-drained to stagnant ground. There 

 is a large variety of the Christmas Rose called maximus, and 

 another pretty one named angustifolius. The Lenten Rose is 

 also a Hellebore, but a different species orientalis. The flowers 

 resemble those of a Christmas Rose in form, but give a range of 



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