HARDY PEA FLOWERS, 173 



cannot see much (if any) difference between 

 them. I have them both — i.e., if paying means 

 possessing — as also the white variety C. purpu- 

 reas albus, a plant of exceptional beauty. I see 

 in the catalogue of a well-known purveyor of 

 these things C. glabrescens, said to be a yellow 

 facsimile of these, but more yellow Brooms 

 can hardly be an especial need of the garden. 



C. Ardoinii is a dwarf shrub of more pros- 

 trate habit, which grows very slowly, as does 

 also the rare native G. pilosa. This is, perhaps, 

 the best (in the matter of neatness) of the 

 prostrate Brooms ; but there are others that, 

 being more vigorous, are possibly more use- 

 ful. Of these may be mentioned the common 

 Dyer's Greenweed (G. tinctoria), its double 

 variety, and also the Alpine variety called G. 

 tinctoria, var. liumifusa, and G. sagittalis,a plant 

 abundant in places on the Alps, among others 

 on the Grand Saleve, near Geneva, though no 

 one need avail themselves of this information ; 

 to distress the Society for the Protection of 

 Alpine Plants by digging it up, for they have 

 not a chance of making it grow by this sort 

 of transplantation. 



G. anxantica is another very good dwarf 

 species, coming later than some of the others ; 1 

 while G. anglica (a small native species, not 

 prostrate), G. radiata, and the strong-growing 

 G. dalmatica or hispanica, are all well worth 

 growing. A plant that I came across the other 

 day in a friend's garden, and which came, I un- 

 derstood, from Messrs. Waterer, who sell it as 

 C. decumbens, is exceptionally good and dis- 

 tinct, having a creeping habit and pale lemon- 

 coloured flowers. G. shipkaensis, from the Bal- j 

 kans, is, I believe, the only dwarf white pros- 

 trate Broom in commerce, if not in cultivation. 

 It is a valuable and beautiful thing, though, in 

 my garden at present, it is neither one or the 

 other, for it has got into a place where it is 

 starved and overcrowded, and when it attempts 

 to grow the snails and slugs punish it unmer- 

 cifully. Unfortunately these things are quite 

 untransplantable. The Wew hybrid, known as j 



C. kewensis, which is said to be something of 

 the same sort, is not, I believe, as yet in com- 

 merce, and I have never seen it. The value 

 of Spartium junceum (the Spanish Broom) is 

 known to everybody, but the pink Broom of 

 New Zealand {Notospartium Carmichaelice) has 

 certainly not yet achieved any wide popularity. 

 The best specimen — for the matter of that, 

 the only good specimen — 1 have ever seen of 

 this was in Veitch's nursery at Exeter. I had 

 at one time two plants, one of which has 

 long " gone home," and the other, though not 

 actually dead, can hardly be called " alive," 

 and is never likely to flower again. It is clear, 

 I think, that these are not worth attempting 

 anywhere east, or perhaps north, of the Isle of 

 Wight. At best the plant is, perhaps, more 

 interesting than showy, while the colour of 

 the flowers is of the particular shade which, 

 as I am given to understand, artistic people 

 disapprove. The nomenclature of the Brooms, 

 to most of which Latin names are attached, 

 is hazy, and often, I suspect, very doubtful. 

 There are, however, other sorts beside those 

 already mentioned, which are not only beau- 

 tiful but distinct. At the moment of writing 

 (June 1) the most beautiful flowering shrub 

 in bloom in my garden is a Broom which 

 reached me through a friend from South Italy. 

 I have not taken the trouble to get it named, 

 but it is evidently quite hardy. 



The Coluteas (Bladder Sennas) are good 

 shrubs with yellow flowers, the best of them, 

 perhaps, being C. bu/lata, a dwarfer variety of 

 very compact growth, and very suitable for 

 rockeries. Cassia marylandica I have never 

 tried, and probably should lose if I did, for 

 want of wall protection ; but the beautiful 

 late-blooming shrub, Desmodium pendulijlorum 

 (syn. Lespedeza Sieboldi), seems to do well. It 

 is said to like peaty soil, but, nevertheless, it 

 thrives in mine, where there is enough lime 

 to kill everything that objects to the latter 

 ingredient. It has purple flowers. 



T. C. L. 



(To be continued.) 



