212 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



glass. For rapid growth cordifolium, with its 

 tiny red flowers, is useful, forming in a few 

 weeks a cascade of greenery, or the Ice-Plant 

 (M. crystallinum) with its glistening stems and 

 leaves, always showy and easily raised from 

 seed. Other annual kinds well worth grow- 

 ing for the Succulent garden are pomeridianum 

 with golden flowers, and tricolor, either pink 

 or white, a little gem in the sunlight. Portu- 

 lacas, too, in a good year make a blaze of colour, 

 lasting for weeks when the old flowers are re- 

 moved as they fade. Clumps of Echeveria are 

 very telling here and there for leaf and blos- 

 som ; the larger kinds, such as metallica and 

 secunda, are showy, agavoides and Desmetiana 

 small but dainty. The Crassulas do not help 

 much in the open, but such sorts as multicava 

 and spathulata will grow in sunny spots be- 

 tween stones, and some of the bigger kinds 

 can be used for awhile during the warmest 

 weather with Rocheas, and such Kalanchoes 

 as glaucescens and marmorata. There are several 

 kinds of rambling Senecio to give brightness 

 with their golden clusters during summer, and 

 the best shrubby Sempervivums of the Canary 

 Islands (such as arboreum) will bloom in hot 

 seasons. The Chilian Oxalis (O. earned), with 

 its fleshy leaves, also gives a gleam of colour 

 in autumn, and Talinum patens, a little shrub 

 easily grown from seed, gives spikes of blue 

 flowers and red berries quite in keeping with 

 the more pronounced Succulents. Of Cacti 

 there are few which it is safe to plant out, 

 though many succeed in cold frames. Such 

 plants as Cereus Fend/eri, Echinocactus Simpsoni, 

 Mamillaria vivipara, and several sorts of Opun- 

 tia from the Rocky Mountains are hardy in 

 favoured districts, but none of these yield 

 much effect, and the larger kinds of Prickly 

 Pear, though picturesque, are tender and awk- 

 ward to move. To fill such shady nooks of 

 our Succulent garden as are unsuited to the 

 tender sun-loving plants we may fall back upon 

 the great variety of Stonecrops or the House- 

 leeks, invaluable hardy plants which, with 

 many of the Saxifragas, may be used to com- 

 plete the general effect, forming tufts of rich 

 beauty of leaf and flower ; but their merits de- 

 serve a separate article. Where there are stones 

 to drape, or bare stems to hide, the graceful 

 Parrot's Bill Lotus (L. peliorhynchus), or a few 

 cool-grown plants of Asparagus Sprengeri may 



may be added, giving tones of grey or bright 

 green. A rock-garden so formed is a novel and 

 striking feature during summer, but it is im- 

 portant that no plants are placed in the open 

 unless well-rooted and healthy, or, should the 

 season be wet, loss will ensue. The tender 

 plants, sunk in pots, must be housed before 

 chilly weather sets in, and those hardier should 

 not be exposed too long to the cold autumn 

 rains, though if means of cover exist they are 

 quite safe until actual frost. Thus, many of the 

 bigger plants which need considerable house- 

 room may be sheltered in a shed until the 

 Chrysanthemums are fairly over. With a mi- 

 nimum of care and expense they are safely 

 wintered in any light airy house, with just 

 enough warmth to exclude frost and dry the 

 air, and the plants as near the glass as possible 

 to keep them dwarf and healthy. 



A word of caution : — While in the open 

 Succulents require constant guarding from 

 slugs and snails, which come from all parts 

 during damp weather to such toothsome dain- 

 ties, and damage is soon done which it may 

 take years to repair. B. 



CLIMBING KNOTWORTS 



(Polygonum). 

 The herbaceous Knotwortsare common in gar- 

 dens, but the climbing and creeping forms are 

 not so often seen, and even the best known are 

 not often well used, nor are they, perhaps, suf- 

 ficiently striking in appearance for the kept 

 garden though well fitted for the wild gar- 

 den. Amid such surroundings there frequent- 

 ly occur rough banks or bare places difficult 

 to clothe — trees and bushes dead or spoiled in 

 the lower limbs, which may be improved by 

 draping — or it may be sheds or huts, neces- 

 sary, but not ornamental in their strict plain- 

 ness. For just such uses, the rampant Climbing 

 Knotworts are well suited, being hardy plants, 

 requiring, when once established, little or no 

 attention. Planted in good soil, the space 

 which they will cover in one season is surpris- 

 ing, and they spread each year with increasing 

 vigour. Thirty to fifty feet of vigorous growth 

 in one year is not unusual ; indeed, they are 

 just of that irrepressible type of growth which 

 is best abandoned to its exuberance in half- 

 wild spots where a few feet more or less of 

 space is of little moment. Their flowers, too, 



