98 



THE FLOWER GrABDE-ST. 



more or less ornamental, and well deserve to have winter 

 shelter bestowed upon them. _P. Murray antes, requiring 

 heath-mould and protection from the frost, is a striking 

 plant, with terminal bunches of vermilion blossoms. 

 The specific names of other Pentstemons are indicative 

 of their beauty; as speciosus, gracilis, venustits. pulohek 

 lus, roseus, and so on. 



Perennial Aster — Aster spectabilis, ccespitosus, argen- 

 teus, JParisiensis, JReeversii (which makes a pretty edging), 

 and several other species sporting into varieties and hybrids. 

 The smaller their stature, and the more herbaceous their 

 habit, the more desirable are they as border plants. 

 "Will thrive in warm light loam, and are increased readily 

 by root-division. 



PeriivinMe — Vinca major and minor, the Greater and 

 Lesser P. — Native trailing evergreens, which spread 

 rapidly at root, and produce abundance of sky-blue 

 flowers in spring, in light moist soil and somewhat shady 

 situations, and are suitable for covering banks, or for 

 forming edgings of a certain breadth. There are white- 

 flowered and variegated-leaved varieties of the Lesser 

 Periwinkle. Both are readily propagated by cuttings 

 of their creeping shoots. Some of Rousseau's most 

 sentimental effusions were called forth by the Peri- 

 winkle flowering amidst the mountains of Switzer- 

 land. V. lierbacea, a Hungarian species of still more 

 humble growth, requiring the same soil and culture as 

 the preceding, has varieties with double blue and also 

 double reddish-purple flowers. The Madagascar Peri- 

 winkle, V. rosea, is a stove-plant, with dark shining 

 green leaves, with pink flowers darker in the centre, a 

 variety of which has white flowers with a crimson centre. 

 A pretty pot-plant, with the family habit, flowering, in its 

 place, all summer long and part of the winter ; but a green- 

 house even is not warm enough for it to grow thriftily. 



Phlox. — There are robust Phloxes, hardy perennials, 

 of considerable stature, which help to fill up vacancies in ex- 

 tensive pleasure-grounds ; there are others, tenderer, more 

 delicate, of humbler growth, in request as free-blooming 



