GROUPS OF GARDEN FLOWERS 5 



overlying chalk. The cultivated plant grows 9 inches high, the leaves 

 of which are deeply lobed and silky, the flowers 2 inches to 3 inches long, 

 bell-shaped, nodding or erect, and varying in colour from pale blue (the 

 best form) to a reddish purple, entirely covered with grey, silky hairs 

 externally, and furnished with a soft, silky, ruff-like calyx. The wilding, 

 as found on the Surrey Downs, is a low-growing plant, i inch or 2 inches 

 high, the flowers of which are pale blue or purple, and nearly stemless. 

 When sheltered it grows much taller, but it never reaches the fine size 

 of the cultivated plant. It may be effectively used with many of the 

 winter-flowering shrubs in the form of a carpet. The wilding requires 

 a rockery, but the Pulsatilla of gardens must have the deeper loams of 

 the cultivated border to maintain its free-flowering qualities and greater 

 vigour. Spring-flowering. 



A. rivularis is a choice Windflower from the Himalayas. It grows 

 12 inches high, and bears freely-branching stems of white flowers 

 i inches to 2 inches across the petals, which are tinted blue on the reverse, 

 and the anthers are blue, purple, or lilac, varying in different specimens. 

 The root-stocks are very stout and vigorous, and the plant's constitution 

 is generally stronger than most of this group. April-flowering. 



A. sylvestris (The Snowdrop Anemone) is a general favourite that 

 everyone can grow. It forms dense tufts of Ranunculus-like leafage, and 

 bears quantities of white, saucer-shaped flowers, each singly on a long 

 wiry stem and quite i inches across the petals. The plant is unduly 

 prolific in offsets, which will need to be removed occasionally if the plants 

 are to maintain flowering strength. Every particle will grow well if 

 severed from the parent plant and carefully treated for a few months. 

 This species will grow where any plant has a chance to exist, and one 

 can recommend it for furnishing the many odd corners that occur in 

 most gardens. It thrives well in grass, and is not particular as to shade, 

 provided it can get plenty of light. Its double form is a capital garden 

 plant with flowers somewhat resembling a large white florist's Daisy, but 

 it does not bloom so freely as the single type plant. It flowers in May, 

 June, and July. 



A. apennina and its Allies (Apennine Windflower). The group 

 of Anemones most like A. apennina inhabiting countries immediately 

 north of the Mediterranean are well adapted for grass planting and more 

 or less informal gardening generally. Their greatest use is for clothing 

 rockery slopes, in planting the higher banks of waterways, and they are 

 charming when grown in small pans for the alpine house. The shade- 

 loving kinds nemorosa, trifolia, and intermedia can be usefully em- 

 ployed in carpeting open copses, while their rarer varieties will prove 

 worthy of the care generally bestowed upon shade-loving alpines. The 

 whole group revels in leaf-soil no matter w r hat the sub-soil may be, a 

 layer of leaf-soil or well-tilled garden soil is necessary as a covering. 

 They do not root deeply, and in planting it is only necessary to cover 

 the curious twig-like underground stems with an inch or two of soil. 

 All flower in spring. 



A, apennina (The blue Apennine Anemone) is a well-known plant, 



