July, 19 11 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



355 



greatest range of color among these sum- 

 mer windflowers, including white, yellow, 

 and red, though the red is rather dull and 

 the other colors greenish. The flowers are 

 about an inch across and the plant grows 

 about a foot high, though it is reported 

 two and a half feet high at Ottawa. Curi- 

 ously enough this species grows as far 

 north as Hudson Bay and is also found at 

 the Straits of Magellan. Like all the 

 windflowers it has a wooly fruit-head, 

 which is rather pretty. The expression 

 "wild and woolly westerner" is literally 

 true of this flower. 



THE LONG-FRUITED ANEMONE 



The long-fruited anemone (A. cylindrica) 

 is chiefly remarkable for its pencil-like 

 fruit-heads about an inch long, which are 

 in marked contrast to the globose heads 

 of the Canada and cut-leaved anemones. 

 It is practically unknown to cultivation. 

 It has the smallest flower of the group 

 (one half to three quarters of an inch) 

 and inhabits open places, generally grow- 

 ing a foot or two high. 



A BOG-LOVING ANEMONE 



The most exquisite of these summer 

 windflowers is the riverbank anemone 

 {A. rivularis), which has white flowers, 

 shaded outside, with rose or blue, and about 

 two inches across. Like many other 

 plants from the Himalayas it has blue 

 anthers. It is hardy at Ottawa, but I 

 doubt if it could be treated as a border 

 plant in the region of variable winters. 

 Reginald Farrer gives it a choice place in 

 his bog garden and praises it highly in 

 his "Alpine and Bog Plants." 



THE GIANT ANEMONE 



Even more tender, I fear, is the giant 

 anemone {A. Fannini), a native of South 

 Africa, which sometimes attains the as- 

 tonishing height of five feet, bearing 

 fragrant, white flowers three or four inches 

 across in June. Like many other flowers 

 from the Cape it has numerous linear 

 petals — or "sepals," as the botanists 

 say in this genus — twelve to thirty of 

 them, whereas an ordinary anemone has 

 about five. The foliage, also, is inter- 

 esting, the leaves being sometimes two 

 feet long, with stalks a foot or two long. 

 Truly a giant among anemones! 



THE NODDING WINDFLOWER 



Last, but not least, is the nodding wind- 

 flower (Anemonopsis macro phylla) which 

 is practically a small, summer-blooming 

 edition of the Japanese anemone, growing 

 only a foot and a half high and bearing 

 white flowers, shaded with pink, and about 

 an inch and a half across. The foliage 

 is quite unlike any anemone, but resembles 

 Aetata or Cimicifuga, since the leaves 

 are ternately. Moreover, anemones have 

 erect flowers, while these are drooping 

 or, at least, nodding. This plant must 

 have well drained soil and partial shade. 

 Occasionally you hear of its being a suc- 

 cess in an ordinary border, but I should 



The Canada anemone {Anemone Canadensis or Pennsylvanica) is the best of the summer windflowers 



for naturalizing 



not trust so precious a plant outside the 

 rock garden. This genus comes from Japan 

 and has only one species. Its large clus- 

 ters of waxy flowers are clearly forerunners 

 of the glorious plant which I hope to 

 describe in the autumn. 



HINTS TO COLLECTORS 



Collectors will find other names of 

 summer-blooming anemones but if there 

 is any good reason why we should part 

 with our hard earned money to get them 

 I do not know it. The collector is sure 

 to stumble upon A. dichotoma, which 

 sounds interesting, but the European 

 nurseryman thinks it the same as our 

 old friend the Canada anemone. Dr. 

 Britton says the true dichotoma is a Si- 

 berian species differing from Canadensis 

 in having glabrous, ovate achenes instead 

 of pubescent, orbicular ones. It may 

 be worth growing, but I want to be 

 "shown," for there is not much human 

 interest in achenes, and Anemone Can- 

 adensis is so lovely and cheap that I hope 



all my readers will grow it or, at least, 

 learn to know it this month. 



CULTURE 



All the anemones here mentioned should 

 be planted in spring rather than in au- 

 tumn, but now is the time to study them, 

 while they are in flower, and arrange for 

 buying or collecting them in sufficient 

 quantity for pictorial effects next year. 

 They can be raised from seed, and it is a 

 good plan to mark now any anemones that 

 are in flower and note the localities, so 

 that you can gather the seed in early au- 

 tumn. You can label a colony in the 

 woods; otherwise, you may forget all about 

 it or else lose it entirely. 



No one American nurseryman offers all 

 these species. Some can be procured from 

 specialists in native plants and collectors 

 in New Jersey, Colorado, North Carolina, 

 etc. Others must be imported from Eng- 

 land or Scotland. The Readers' Service 

 will help any beginner by suggesting where 

 rare plants of any kind may be secured. 



