454 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 



much light and air as possible during the hot weather, more especially in 

 autumn, when they are ripening their wood. During winter they 

 should be kept rather dry, but in summer they must have plenty of 

 water. T. capensis and T. Smithii are grown as pot-plants to flower in 

 winter. Cuttings of them are struck in early spring, and these are 

 grown up as single stems in a light airy house till July, when they are 

 placed outside. They require live-inch pots, and as a rule they each 

 develop a good terminal head of flowers. 



BEAR'S BREECH 



Natural Order Acanthace^. Genus Acanthus 



Acanthus (Greek, akantha, a thorn or spine). A genus of about 

 fourteen perennial herbs, of stately vigorous habit and handsome foliage. 

 The leaves are large, and deeply cut or lobed in a pinnate or bipinnate 

 manner, the lobes ending in fine soft points or harder spines. The calyx 

 consists of four unequal portions, the two side ones being smaller than 

 the others. The corolla is tubular, with a single three-lobed lip. Stamens 

 tour, two longer than the others. Capsule two-celled, each cell contain- 

 mg two seeds only. The species are natives of the Mediterranean Region 

 and Tropical and Sub-tropical countries. 



History. ^^^ Acanthus is chiefly seen in old-fashioned gardens 



and in places where it has room to display its fine foliage. 

 Somewhere about three hundred and fifty years ago A. mollis was 

 introduced from Italy; and this species and A. spinosus, introduced in 

 1629, are the two most commonly grown in this country. Considerable 

 interest attaches to one of these species from the fact that Callimachus, 

 the inventor of the Corinthian column, is said to have copied the leaves 

 in the ornamentation of its capital. Several other species have been 

 introduced, among them A. montanus from West Africa 1865- A 

 longifolius from Dalmatia, 1869; and A. Caroli - Alexandri from 

 Greece in 1887; but the two original introductions are the best 



Principaispecies. ^CANTHUS LOx\GiFOLius (long-leaved). Flowering stem 

 3 or 4 feet high. Leaves radical, 2 to 3 feet long ; those of 

 the stem reduced to bracts, oval, spiny, reddish. Flowers purple or 

 rose; June. ^ 



A. MOLLIS (soft). Flowering stem 3 to 4 feet high. Leaves, general 

 outline heart-shaped, but much indented into toothed lobes; not spiny; 



