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PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS acanthus 



namoTis, with smooth or bearded anthers. 

 Capsule thick and leathery, abruptly 

 narrowed into a sword-like beak. 



T. alata. — A pretty velvety S. African 

 annual climber with stalked, heart-shaped, 

 sagittate leaves having winged stalks. 

 Mowers in summer, IJ in. long, purple 

 below, with a curved tube and a bell- 

 shaped limb. Calyx 10-12-toothed, en- 

 closed by 2 ovate-acute bracteoles. The 

 white-flowered forms are cdba and Baheri ; 

 OMrantiaca is orange-coloured ; Fryeri, 

 orange with a white throat ; sulphurea, 

 pale yellow ; and Doddsi, pale orange with 

 a rich purple-violet throat, and leaves 

 irregularly edged with white. 



Culture and Propagation. — T. alata 

 and its several varieties are valuable 

 for covering trellises, arbours, porches, 

 old tree-stumps, walls &c. during the 

 summer and autumn. They are raised 

 from seeds sown in heat in March, and 

 grown on and planted out in June in 

 ordinary garden soil. They are of the 

 easiest cultivation and are very hand- 

 some when in bloom. A packet of mixed 

 seed will probably give all the varieties 

 mentioned, and if their stems are allowed 

 to ramble about together, the various 

 coloured flowers produce a fine effect. 



All the other species of Thunbergia 

 require greenhouse treatment. 



ACANTHUS (Bear's Bkeech).— A 

 genus containing about 14 species of tall, 

 Thistle-like herbs or shrubs, having radi- 

 cal or opposite leaves, sometimes very 

 large, sinuate-toothed or pinnately divided, 

 with spiny teeth, or rarely almost entire. 

 Flowers white or blue, sessile, crowded, 

 in dense or interrupted spikes. Bracts 

 sometimes large and spiny-toothed, some- 

 times smaller, quite entire, or rarely 

 obsolete ; bracteoles narrow, entire or 

 spiny-toothed. Calyx 4-parted. the 2 

 outer ones large-veined or cartilaginous 

 at the base. Corolla tube short, some- 

 what beU-shaped, often cartilaginous; the 

 lower lip broad and flat, 8-5-lobed. Sta- 

 mens 4, with cohering bearded anthers. 

 Capsule ovoid or oblong, leathery, con- 

 taining 4 or fewer seeds. 



Culture and Propagation. — The 

 Acanthuses succeed best in a well-drained, 

 deep, rich, sandy loam, and warm, sunny 

 situations, but they also attain handsome 

 proportions in ordinary, well- worked 

 garden soil, and in partially shaded but 

 airy positions. They may be increased 



by dividing the roots in autumn, or 

 preferably in spring. Seeds may also be 

 sown in gentle heat in March, the young 

 seedlings being pricked off singly into 

 small pots, and grown on until the end 

 of May, when they can be transferred to 

 the open border. Cuttings of the roots 

 inserted in sandy soil early in the year, 

 with a little bottom heat, may also be useri 

 for increasing the stock of plants. 



Acanthuses are highly ornamental 

 and picturesque plants, and are more 

 valued for their noble appearance than 

 for the splendour of their flowers. They 

 may be used in many ways in the border, 

 in nooks of the rockery, on old ruins &c., 

 but they are admirably adapted for grow- 

 ing as isolated specimens on lawns, 

 where their beauty can be seen to the 

 best advantage. A. mollis and A. spino- 

 sus are interesting, inasmuch as they 

 have been more often conventionahsed in 

 sculpture and decoration than almost any 

 other plants. The former is said to have 

 suggested the idea of the Corinthian 

 Capital to Callimachus, who lived about 

 the end of the fifth century before the 

 Christian Era. 



A. longifolius. — A beautiful Dalma- 

 tian perennial 3-4J ft. high, with numer- 

 ous radical, pinnately divided leaves, 2-3 

 ft. long. Flowers in June, rosy-purple, 

 in dense spikes about 1 ft. long, having 

 spiny, reddish bracts, veined with green. 



Culture do. as above. Increased by 

 division and seed. 



A. mollis. — A vigorous Italian peren- 

 nial 3-4 ft. high, with large, heart-shaped, 

 lobed and toothed leaves, about 2 ft. long 

 and 1 ft. broad. Flowers in summer, 

 white, rose, or lilac, in the axils of deeply 

 toothed bracts, and borne on spikes about 

 18 in. long, thrown well above the 

 foliage. 



The variety latifolius (also known as 

 A. lusitaniaus) is perhaps the finest of all 

 the Acanthuses. It is larger in every 

 way than A. mollis, with more leathery, 

 rigid, and broader leaves, less deeply cut, 

 and the flower-stems often attain a height 

 of 5 ft., when the plants are grown in 

 rich warm soil. A beautiful plant for 

 sub -tropical effects on the lawn. It 

 grows practically all the year round. 

 Planted out in spring it soon pushes forth 

 vigorous growths, and its flowers appear 

 from June to August. In the autumn it 

 may be lifted and placed in large pots or 



