22 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



them. Early in August they are replanted on a fresh piece of ground 

 that has been manured and got ready some few weeks before. Some 

 of the varieties of A. blanda are very beautiful, especially A. cypriana 

 and A scylhinica. All these early Anemones last in flower a long 

 time as they have the habit of closing their flowers when cold wind 

 or rain comes. They seed very freely, and if not collected the 

 seedlings spring up all round. Unfortunately they do not come true 

 to colour, and this leads some growers to fancy the colour of the old 

 roots deteriorates. A. apennina flowers later, and is quite distinct in 

 the form of root and its seeding from A. blanda, although botanists 

 class A. blanda as a variety of A. apennina. A. jnlgens requires the 

 same treatment as A . blanda, and is a magnificent plant where it does 

 well. It increases very freely with me under the above treatment, and 

 flowers early. Sometimes a good handful can be gathered in January. 

 The variety A. graeca does not succeed well at Belvoir. It is dwarfer 

 and of a more intense colour, almost a real scarlet. Another Anemone 

 succeeds these and is very useful where it does well. This is a double 

 variety of A. hortensis called ' King of Scarlets.' Another plant that 

 seeds and sows itself freely is the Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), 

 not a very showy flower it is true, but one of the best for naturalizing 

 under deciduous trees. It soon establishes itself and will thrive 

 without further attention. I find it is liable to be thinned by pheasants 

 eating the roots in summer, after the leaves die away. It usually 

 commences flowering in the first week of January. This season it 

 opened its first flowers on November 24. I have never seen it open 

 in November before. The larger variety, called E. cilicica, is not so 

 effective as the old kind. Irregular patches of Snowdrops may be 

 arranged among the Aconites, they will extend the season of flowers 

 after the Aconites are over. Anemone apennina would also succeed if 

 the shade was not too dense overhead. 



Another plant that dislikes frequent removal is Gentiana acaitlis. 

 More people complain to me of failures to grow this plant than any 

 other hardy plant that I have mentioned. I believe the chief cause 

 of failure is owing to frost pushing the roots out of the ground. I 

 always make it a rule to tread it well all over as soon as the hard 

 frosts have ceased, and find no difficulty in getting abundance of 

 flowers. The best time for replanting is soon after the flowering is 

 over. It is best to pull the shoots apart and put them in singly in 

 broad rows, with the pieces about an inch apart each way ; we usually 

 make the rows about 9 inches wide, as an edging to other things. 

 They grow into a thick mat in a year or two. This plant likes a moist 

 position, and will grow either in full sunshine or where it is shaded 

 during some part of the day. There is a sky-blue variety, but it is 

 very scarce, and I have never been able to obtain it. 



Chionodoxa is another group of early-flowering plants that succeed 

 best if left for several years in the same place. They throw much 

 stronger spikes and larger flowers after being well established, and 

 the border around the plants becomes full of young seedlings, which 



