194 HOME AND GARDEN 



No family of plants is more absolutely at home 

 in sandy ground than the Sea-Hollies. If I had some 

 long stretches of bare, unsightly heaps or ridges of 

 sand, how I would plant the noble Eryngiums: the 

 dwarf blue-leaved kind {Eryngium maritimum), native 

 of sandy dunes near the sea ; the taller blue (E. 

 oliverianum), both perennial and long enduring; the 

 grand biennial {E. giganteum) ; giving this lovely so- 

 called Silver Thistle room to sow itself for future 

 years. Such a planting on a large scale would pre- 

 sent a picture of rare beauty, especially if approaching 

 the flowers of blue and silver there was a planting 

 of the blue-leaved Lyme Grass {Elyinus arenarius). I 

 have no such stretches of sandy waste, but knowing 

 how it will do in a place that is poor and dry, I grow 

 it in the end of a shrub-clump, where a large Birch 

 tree robs the ground, and where I think nothing but 

 this fine handsome Grass would be likely to flourish. 

 I believe I may truly say that of all the groups of 

 plants in my garden there is none that attracts so 

 much notice and admiration. 



There are families of aromatic plants that do well 

 in the poorest ground ; many of them are in pleasant 

 harmony of leaf-colouring of whitish or bluish-grey. 

 Such are many of the Wormwoods, of which the 

 fragrant cottage favourite. Southernwood {Artemisia 

 dbrotanum), is one. This grows into a dense bush 

 two feet high, and may well be associated with some 

 of the smaller kinds such as A. nana and A. sericea. 



