Hardy Exotic Flowering Plants 175 



these pages, they will tend to form a vigorous herbaceous 

 covert. H. rigidus is a brilliantly showy plant, running very 

 freely at the root, and an excellent subject for naturalization. 

 H. giganteus, common in thickets and swamps in America, 

 and growing as high as lo feet, is also desirable. The showy 

 and larger American Rudbeckia, such as laciniata, triloba, 

 and also the small but showy hirta, belong to the same type. 

 All these plants, and many others of the tall yellow composites 

 that one sees among herbaceous vegetation in America, 

 would give showy effects in autumn, and might perhaps 

 interest those who only visit their country seats at that time 

 of year. The Silphiums, especially the compass plant (S. 

 laciniatum), and the cup plant (S. perfoliatum), are in general 

 character like Helianthus. 



St. John's Wort, Hypericum. — The well-known St. John's 

 Wort does only too freely in many places ; there is scarcely 

 one of its numerous brethren which will not thrive in rough 

 places, in any soil. They have all the same bright yellow 

 flowers as the St. John's Wort, and are nearly all taller. 

 Some of the newer kinds have handsome flowers like the 

 St. John's Wort. It should be noted that the common St. 

 John's Wort so exhausts the soil of moisture that it sometimes 

 is the cause of the death of trees. Many places have too 

 much of it, as they also have of the common Laurel. 



Rocket, Hesperis. — The common single Rocket (Hesperis 

 matronalis) is a showy plant in copse or shrubbery, and very 

 easily raised from seed. 



Evergreen Candytuft, Iberis. — Compact little evergreens, 

 forming spreading bushes from 3 inches to 15 inches high, 

 and sheeted with white flowers in spring and early summer. 

 There are no plants better for naturalization in open or stony 

 places, or, indeed, in any position where the vegetation is not 



