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ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



0. Sipyleum is similar, and quite as 

 pretty. If grown in the open, these 

 plants must have a warm spot in the 

 rock-garden in very light, open soil, 

 and then mostly in the south or very 

 mild districts. 



ORONTIUM AQUATICUM (Golden 

 Club). A handsome water- side per- 

 ennial of the Arum family, 12 inches 

 to 18 inches high. The flowers, which 

 are yellow, densely crowded all over 

 the narrow spadix, and which emit a 

 singular odour, are borne early in 

 summer. The plant may be grown 

 on the margins of ponds and fountain- 

 basins, or in the wettest part of the 

 bog-garden. North America, in rivu- 

 lets and bogs. 



OTHONNA CHEIRIFOLIA (Bar- 

 bary Ragwort). A plant of distinct 

 character ; the leaves and shoots quite 

 smooth and glaucous, and the habit 

 spreading, forming silvery tufts from 

 8 inches to a foot or so high. It 

 flowers sparsely on heavy and cold 

 soil, but on light soils it blooms 

 freely in May, a rich yellow, and is 

 useful for its distinct aspect ; propa- 

 gated by cuttings. N. Africa. 



OXALIS (Wood Sorrel).- A large 

 group of dwarf, often curious and 

 often pretty, plants, which, so far as 

 they are hardy, may well come into 

 the warm parts of the rock-garden ; 

 but, being mostly plants of the Cape 

 and warm countries, few of those 

 known to us are hardy, excepting 

 always the few that are natives of 

 our own country, among which the 

 most graceful is the little native Wood 

 Sorrel. The following are the kinds 

 of proved hardiness in our gardens. 

 In warmer lands than ours some are 

 apt to become troublesome as 

 weeds. 



Oxalis Acetosella (Stubwort, Wood 

 Sorrel). The prettiest kind known so far 

 for our gardens is our native Wood Sorrel, 

 Avhich bore in old times the name of 

 " Stub wort " a name which should be 

 used always. This grows itself in such 

 pretty ways in woody and shady places that 

 in many gardens there will be no need to 

 cultivate it. Where it must be cultivated 

 it will be happy in shady spots in the rock- 

 garden. 



0. Bowieana. A robust grower, form- 

 ing masses of leaves 6 inches to 9 inches 

 high, the flowers rose, in umbels, borne 

 continuously throughout the summer. 

 It is best for warm soils, and in cold 

 ones seldom or never flowers ; on well- 

 drained and very sandy ones it does 

 so abundantly. The soil that suits this 

 fine plant being often found on the rock- 

 garden, it would be well to have a seam 

 or two of it there at the foot of a hot 

 rock. Division. Cape of Good Hope. 



0. corniculata rubra is a form of a 

 native kind, with brown purple leaves 

 that might be encouraged where there are 

 stony banks, for this handsome plant 

 speedily covers the most unpromising 

 surfaces. In gardens, however, it may 

 become a weed. With me, this plant 

 comes up everywhere among stone edg- 

 ings and also in the joints between stone 

 pavings, and is so far an interloper sowing 

 itself very pretty. 



0. floribunda. A free-flowering kind, 

 quite hardy in all soils, and producing, 

 for months in succession, numbers of 

 rose-coloured flowers with dark veins. 

 There is a white-flowered variety as free- 

 flowering and in every way as valuable 

 as the rose-coloured form. Both are very 

 useful for rockwork and for the margins 

 of borders, and are easily increased by 

 division. This appears to be the com- 

 monest kind of Oxalis in cultivation. It 

 is hardy enough to encourage one to 

 attempt to naturalise it on any rocky 

 place or about ruins. S. America. 



0. lasiandra is one of the most distinct, 

 with large dark green leaves, and, in early 

 summer, umbels of numerous flowers of 

 a bright rose-colour. Best on warm parts 

 of the rock-garden. Mexico. 



