40 



CASSELL'S POPULAE GARDENIKG. 



antennce, "feelers," ia reference to the downy heads 

 of flowers. The common name of Cat's-foot is said 

 to have been hestowed from the same cause. There 

 are tut a few species and varieties composing the 

 genus, and hut three or four of these are grown, and 

 they are decidedly useful plants in the garden. A. 

 dioica, sometimes called Gnaphalium dioimm, is a little 

 creeping perennial from Northern Europe (Britain) 

 and America, also known as the Mountain Everlasting. 

 The leaves are of a silvery-grey tone ; the ilower- 

 stems four inches or so in height, hearing four to 

 six flower-heads close together at the apex of the 

 shoot ; the flowers are white and pink. No Alpine 

 plant is more worthy of cultivation, whether for 

 rockwork, for pots, or for the front margin of the 

 mixed horder, or as an edging to beds of bulbs and 

 Alpine flowers ; used in such a, way the plants 

 form neat close-spreading tufts, dotted over with 

 singularly pretty everlasting flowers in May. It is 

 a plant that appears to thrive in the low open border 

 on good soil near London, as well as in more 

 elevated and favourable spots. It is perfectly hardy, 

 and may be increased to any extent "by division. A 

 variety of this, named minima, is a very small [form 

 that can be grown in the same way. A. hyperborea 

 is the Northern Cat's-foot, and by some is con- 

 sidered to be a variety of A. dioica, with both sides 

 of the leaves woolly. It is a native of the Isle of 

 Skye. The best known is A. tomentosa, the Silvery 

 Antenuaria, and this is perhaps the best of all the 

 dwarf silvery-leaved plants for garden purposes. It 

 is very dwarf and spreading, scarcely rising above 

 the ground, but forms a dense carpet of little, flat, 

 spreading silvery leaves. It may be said to carpet 

 the ground with silver, and, as it is barely an inch 

 in height, it requires to be cut off from coarser 

 plants by a line of some subject of moderate size, or 

 by a bare space, and to be planted in a rather wide 

 belt. It is a native of the Bocky Mountains, and 

 though of comparatively recent introduction, it has 

 spread so rapidly throughout the country because of 

 its usefulness, that it may be said to have become 

 common in gardens. But it should be planted on 

 light warm soils ; on low, heavy, clay ground it wiU 

 perish during winter. When used in the flower 

 garden during summer it should be divided and 

 re-planted annually, as it does so much better when 

 treated in this way. 



Asphodelus {Asphodel).— TT[as is said to be the 

 flower that flourished in the Elysian Fields. Aspho- 

 delus represents a genus of hardy herbaceous peren- 

 nials that will do well in any good garden soil. The 

 few fine forms commonly grown are natives of the 

 South of Europe, and have been cultivated in English 

 gardens for more than a century. The best known 



are — A. lufeus, the Yellow Asphodel, an ornamental 

 perennial, growing from three to four feet in height, 

 producing yellow, or bright yellow flowers, con- 

 tinuing in bloom for a considerable time. (The proper 

 name is Asphodeline lutea.) We have seen this in fine 

 condition in a deep and rather dry sandy loam. There 

 is a double variety that deserves a place in the hardy 

 border. A creticus is the Cretan Asphodel, a native 

 of Candia, and is also yellow-flowered. One of the 

 best known is A. ramosus, the Great Asphodel, a 

 bold vigorous perennial, producing from a slight 

 root a nun^ber of stout branching stems, from three 

 to four feet in height, covered with white flowers. 

 It is a very useful plant for shrubberies and her- 

 baceous borders; it is perfectly hardy, and will 

 thrive in any good garden soil. . 



The Asphodel appears to have been much associated 

 with the ancients. Homer tells us that, having 

 crossed the Styx, the shades passed over a long 

 prairie of Asphodel ; and Lucian makes old Charon 

 say : " I know why Mercury kept us waiting so 

 long. Down here with us there is nothing to be 

 had but Asphodel, and libations and oblations, and 

 that in the midst of mist and darkness; but up 

 in heaven it is all bright and clear, and plenty of 

 ambrosia there, and nectar without stint." The fine 

 flowers of this plant of the infernal regions produced 

 graips which were believed by the ancients to afford 

 nourishment to the dead. Accordingly, we find that 

 the Greeks planted Asphodel and Mallow round 

 graves. The edible roots of the Asphodel were also 

 wont to be laid as offerings in the tombs of the 

 departed, and, according to Hesiod, they served 

 as food for the poor. Asphodels were among the 

 flowers forming the couch of Jupiter and Juno, and 

 Milton has named them as put to the same use by 

 Adam and Eve. In Barbary the wild boars eat 

 the roots of this plant greedily, and in hunting for 

 them they turn up large spaces of ground, rendering 

 it fertile by this mode of ploughing. 



Earbarea, or Cress. — ^What is grown in gardens 

 as the American Cress is JBarbarea prcecox, the Early 

 Winter Cress ; it is also known as the BeUeisle 

 Cress, but why these two names were bestowed upon 

 it we are unable to say, as it is a native plant. 

 Chaucer calls the Cress by its old Saxon name of 

 Kers, which may possibly have been the origin of 

 the vulgar saying of not caring a " curse " for any- 

 thing, meaning a Cress. As the American Cress is 

 treated of under the head of Herbs or Saladings, in 

 Vol. I., it is only introduced here to call attention to 

 a useful form, with variegated foliage, of Barbarea 

 vulgaris, known as the Variegated Cress [Barbarea 

 vulgaris fol. var.), which makes an excellent spring- 

 plant, being very gay quite early in the year. It il 



