HERBACEOUS ELOWEKS. 



105 



faded, clip their stems, not the herbage, close with a pair 

 of shears. A. plantaginea. which abounds in dry and 

 sandv districts in the interior of France, would equally 

 answer the purpose of an edging in gardens. A. pseudo- 

 Armeria, False-thrift, from Barbary, is a magnified species 

 altogether on a larger scale, which produces several times 

 a year heads of rosy flowers at the top of stems half a 

 yard high. Must be treated as a greenhouse plant in 

 winter. The Thrifts were Stat ices in the days of Lin- 

 nseus. The modern Statices are mostly greenhouse 

 plants, of sub-shrubby stature, with pleasing rather than 

 handsome flowers, and, like their half-brother the Thrift, 

 fond of a sea-side residence. 



Valerian. — Valeriana hortensis, and Tyrenaica, are 

 common garden perennials, with white and red flowers 

 respectively. The latter will grow and bloom weli on a 

 wall or rock-work. They have no right to take higher 

 rank than that of hardy filling-up stuff. V. cornucopia?, 

 Horn-of-Plenty Valerian, from the JSTorth of Africa, is- 

 a tall annual, which produces numerous red flowers, and 

 is eaten as a salad, like the Maches (or Corn Salads, 

 mentioned in our former volume), of which some people 

 are very fond in winter and spring. Sow in light soil in 

 spring, or better in autumn. 



Veronica Chama?dri/s, or Earth- Oak Veronica (from 

 the 3hape of its leaves), — the pretty blue-flowered Ger- 

 mander Speedwell of our hedges, — is the type of a large 

 genus, which furnishes several easily-cultivated border- 

 plants that supply a long succession of fleeting 

 t flowers, on spikes, in shades mostly varying from white 

 to deep blue. St.. Veronica was the compassionate 

 female who, the legends tell us, offered a napkin to the 

 Saviour on his way to the Cross. He used it to wipe 

 the perspiration from his face, and his likeness remained 

 miraculously imprinted thereon. The napkin itself is 

 still occasionally exhibited to the public from a lofty 

 balcony beneath the dome of St. Peter's, at Eome. The 

 Veronicas are aptly named after a benevolent woman, as 

 there is something graceful, feminine, and fragile in their 



