Part II. TEUCRIUM—THALICTRUM. 345 



the level of the eye in the rock-garden, but it is also a first-rate 

 border-plant, and thrives in ordinary garden soil. 



TEUCRIUM MARUM.— Ca/ Thyme. 



I SHOULD no more have thought of including this in the present 

 selection than I should the British Oak, previous to one beautiful 

 afternoon in July, 1868. Sailing to one of the islands on Lago 

 Maggiore, I noticed a charming mass of lilac flowers, on some 

 plant that, from the great profusion of its bloom, appeared to be 

 a dwarf well-grown Heath. I was pleasingly surprised to find it 

 our old friend the Cat Thyme, which, flowerless and neglected, 

 used occasionally to be seen in old greenhouses. Here in this 

 dry old wall it had found a most congenial home, and become 

 a perfect mass of flowers. This suggested that its true garden 

 home was not in the greenhouse, but on some dry old sunny wall, 

 or in a chalk pit or very dry spot on the southern face of rock- 

 work. And indeed wherever there are cats the wall would seem 

 to be the only way of preserving it, for they are desperately fond 

 of it. I once placed a bushy old plant of it in the open air in 

 early summer, and in passing a few days afterwards noticed it 

 had disappeared, but, on looking closely, observed a stout stump 

 about two inches high arising from one of the pots and quite 

 covered with cats' hairs, just like a stake in a sheep-gap, and this 

 was all they had left of our pungent Cat Thyme. Therefor^ 'a 

 precipitous spot on a wall or very dry bank in the sunny and 

 warmer districts is what is wanted for it, for two reasons. It 

 is somewhat like the common Thyme, but quite grey, and more 

 wiry and taller ; but when grown out of doors, as I suggest, it 

 is dwarf and neat in habit. Hitherto it has in this country 

 been grown as a greenhouse under-shrub, as which it has no 

 merit except as a curiosity. A native of Spain ; readily increased 

 by cuttings. 



THALICTRTJM ANEMONOIDES.— i?a^ Anemone. 



A DELICATE, diminutive, and interesting species, with the " habit 

 and frondescence of Isopyrum, the inflorescence of Anemone, 

 and the fruit of Thalictrum." These qualities, in addition to its 

 dwarf habit, usually only a few inches high, make it worthy of 

 cultivation. The flowers are white, nearly an inch in diameter, 

 open in April and May, the flower-stem bearing a few leaves 



