Hardy Exotic Flowering Plants 183 



are easily grown and beautiful. They, however, from their 

 boldness, are suited for. shrubberies, copses, and the like, 

 sowing themselves freely. 



Cotton Thistle, Onopordon. — Large thistles, with very 

 handsome hoary and silvery leaves, and purphsh flowers on 

 fiercely-armed stems. No plants are more distinct than 

 these, and they thrive freely in rough open places and rubbish 

 heaps, and usually come up freely from self-sown seeds. 



Star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum. — Various handsome 

 hardy species of this genus will thrive as well as the common 

 Star of Bethlehem in any turf; other less popular kinds 

 have a quiet graceful beauty, and not being generally admitted 

 to the gay company of showy tulips and the like, there is 

 all the more reason to give them a home in the grass. 



Creeping Forget-me-not, Omphalodes. — The creeping 

 Forget-me-not (Omphalodes verna) is one of the prettiest 

 plants to be naturalized in woods, copses, or shrubberies, 

 running about with freedom in moist soil. It is more compact 

 in habit. and lives longer on good soils than the Forget-me- 

 nots, and should be naturalized round every country place. 



Wood Sorrel, Oxalis. — Dwarf plants with clover-like 

 leaflets and pretty rosy or yellow flowers. Two of the 

 species in cultivation, viz. O. Bowieana and O. floribunda, 

 thrive on sandy soils amidst plants not more than 6 inches 

 high ; the family is so numerous that probably other members 

 of it will be found equally free-growing. 



Knotweed, Polygonum. — Vigorous herbaceous plants, two 

 at least very precious for our present aim, i. e. P. cuspidatum 

 and P. sachalinense. These are among the plants that 

 cannot be put in the garden without fear of their overrunning 

 other things, while outside in the pleasure ground or planta- 

 tion, or by the water-side where there is enough soil, they 



