HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 91 



It is best to retain them as a protection to the crowns, and they will 

 serve this purpose without offending the eye if they are drawn together 

 into a cone and tied in autumn, thus enclosing the crown. 



Flower lovers have become more and more keenly alive to the 

 merits of the Torch Lilies these latter years, and consequently the 

 number of varieties has increased rapidly. The different forms of 

 the old species aloides alone would make a strong company. Some 

 of them are varieties, others are hybrids, which have been secured by 

 crossing aloides with other species. Lachesis, Obe'lisque, nobilis, 

 Pfitzeri, Saundersii, and Star of Baden-Baden are beautiful sorts, 

 of different colours, from yellow to red. They are vigorous growers, 

 ranging up to four feet high. Of other species may be named corallina 

 and its splendid variety superba, which grows about two feet high, 

 and has scarlet flowers ; Macowanii, also about two feet high, and 

 with coral-coloured flowers ; and Rooperi, four feet high, red. The 

 last named is particularly useful, on account of its long period of 

 bloom. 



Liliums. These, being bulbous plants, are described in the bulb 

 section. As there seen, we must certainly introduce some of them in 

 the herbaceous borders. 



Lupins. The Lupine (botanically Lupinus) was an old flower- 

 garden favourite long before herbaceous plants had attained to the 

 popularity which they now enjoy. Cottagers grew it, as they grew 

 Pinks, and Hollyhocks, and Rockets. They bought the annual forms, 

 with their great seeds as large as Beans, and grew them in borders 

 with Larkspur, and Mignonette, and Convolvulus. Perhaps the 

 Lupins have had rather a hard fight of it to hold their own with the 

 great rush of splendid perennial plants that have now come, but 

 there are one or two which have such outstanding merits that they 

 retain favour. Among these is the Tree Lupin, arboreus, which 

 grows about five feet high ; and still more popular is the white 

 variety of it called Snow Queen. This is a strong, upstanding 

 plant, of great worth in the border. Another Lupin that enjoys 



