244 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
mentioned may be utilised in summer out of doors for edging and 
ornamental bedding. They are sometimes grown in room windows, 
very fine specimens being not uncommon in cottagers’ windows in this 
country. Propagation is effected by breaking off small pieces and 
laying them upon damp sand in full sunshine, and in the course of a 
few weeks they will emit roots. 
Description of A, Mesembryanthemum violaceum; 1, A, section of 
Plate 120. flower. B, M. echinatum. C, M.cymbifoliwm. All of the 
natural sizes. 
UMBELLIFEROUS FLOWERS 
Natural Order UMBELLIFERZ 
This important Natural Order of plants, comprising one hundred and 
fifty-two genera and about thirieen hundred species, is singularly poor 
in garden flowers, though its contributions to the kitchen-garden are 
neither few nor unimportant. Most of those that appeal to the horti- 
culturist do so not on account of their flowers, but of their much-dissected 
and handsome foliage. Several species of Hryngium (allied to our native 
Sea-holly) are occasionally cultivated for the sake of their stiff glaucous 
leaves and heads of small blue flowers. <Astrantia major, the Black 
Masterwort, with pink and white flowers, is a showy border perennial. 
The Australasian genus TJ'rachymene contributes a single annual species, 
T. cerulea, with bright blue flowers. The genus Ferula is sometimes 
represented in beds bordering lawns by single specimens of F. communis, 
the Giant Fennel, whose finely divided foliage forms dense tufts, 3 or 4 
feet high and wide, from which rise the flower-stems 3 feet higher. 
F. tingitana and F. glauca are also cultivated like F. communis as 
foliage plants. The genus Heraclewm, represented on our roadside 
wastes and hedge-banks by the Hogweed (H. sphondyliwm), includes 
several noble species that have been introduced to our shrubberies and 
wild-gardens from abroad. The most frequently seen is H. villoswm, or, 
as it is more generally but less correctly named, H. gigantewm. It 
grows to a height of 10 or 12 feet, but is quite out of place ina small 
garden, or indeed any place where it has not plenty of room to show 
itself. It is a native of the Caucasus. 
A few other genera are occasionally represented in gardens, but on 
the whole the Order has very little interest for the gardener, though it has 
much for the botanist. 
