CHAP. V. ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 525 



of a bright pure blue, produced in the Cold season ; does not 

 thrive well unless transplanted occasionally, which is best done 

 in October. 



3. S. patens. A tuberous-rooted herbaceous plant ; bears very 

 large exceedingly beautiful flowers of the purest azure-blue; 

 thrives well and is a common plant at Ootacamund, but is rarely 

 to be met with on the plains, the climate of which it cannot 

 long endure. 



4. S. coccinea. A small herbaceous plant, nearly always in 

 blossom, with long erect spikes of small crimson-scarlet flowers, 

 rather pretty, but not very showy. Raised easily either from 

 slips or from seed. 



Dracocephalum. 



Herbaceous plants, remarkable principally for the aromatic 

 fragrance of their leaves ; particularly 



D. Canariense BALM-OF-GILEAD. They are best treated as 

 annuals, as they cannot be kept through the Hot and Eain 

 seasons without more care bestowed on them than they deserve. 



Phlomis. 



P. leonurus JEKUSALEM SAGE. A coarse-looking, bushy 

 plant, about three feet high, rather gaudy when in full bloom in 

 the Cold season, with its succession of large bright-orange flowers 

 produced in crowded whorls along the stem. Propagated readily 

 from cuttings. 



Holmskioldia. 



H. coccinea. A large woody, spreading shrub, five to seven 

 feet high ; bears, in October and November, very curious flowers, 

 in form like diminutive chamber-candlesticks, of a bright tawny- 

 red, in boundless profusion, and is then a most beautiful object ; 

 requires to be cut closely in after flowering, to keep it compact 

 and within bounds. Propagated from cuttings, or from seed. 



Gomphostemma. 



G. melisssefolium. A small herbaceous plant ; bears, in Sep- 

 tember, whorls of largish orange-coloured flowers; a coarse- 

 looking thing at best, much resembling a Dead-nettle. 



