70 



PAXTON'S FLOWEK GARDEN. 



Ceanothtjs papillostjs. Torrey and Gray. A hardy Calif ornian bush, with bright blue 

 flowers, belonging to the order of Rhamnads. Plowers in June and July. (Pig. 48.) 



An evergreen bush, covered with coarse hair and resinous 

 tubercles, in a wild state forming a compact mass of branches, 

 in cultivation growing longer and weaker. Leaves small, deep 

 green, narrow-oblong, obtuse, with a single mid-rib, and numer- 

 ous lateral veins, covered with down on the under side. Flowers 

 in small roundish terminal stalked heads, bright blue as in 

 C. azureus. — Journ. Sort. Soc. 



This has now been ascertained to be capable of bearing our 

 London winters without protection. But in places exposed to 

 the sun it suffers from frost much more than under a north 

 wall or at the back of rock-work. Very pretty. 



Ceanothtjs rigidus. Nuttall. A hardy 

 evergreen purple-flowered Californian bush, belonging 

 to the Natural Order of Ehamnads. Introduced by 

 the Horticultural Society. (Fig. 49.) 



A stiff branching dark green evergreen bush ; said to grow 

 4 feet high when wild. Young branches downy. Leaves 

 small, truncate, spiny-toothed, subsessile, very shining and 

 smooth on the upper side ; on the under pale and netted. This 

 network is produced by numerous short branching veins, in 

 the interspaces between which are deep pits, reaching half 

 through the parenchym, and each closed up by a dense ring 

 of white converging hairs. Such pits are placed pretty gene- 

 rally in a double row between each of the principal lateral veins. 

 The flowers appear in small clusters or umbels at the end of 

 very short spurs. They are deep purplish violet, not blue, 

 and less showy than those of C. dentatus or C. papillosus. 

 The species seems to be even more hardy than the two last- 

 named sorts, for it has borne the winter uninjured and unpro- 

 tected both in sunny and in northern aspects ; and, in fact, the 

 specimens left unprotected ai'e quite as healthy as those left 

 under glass all the winter. — Journ. Sort. Soc, vol. v. 



These Ceanotlms are suitable for training against low walls, 

 similarly to Crataegus pyracantha. They sometimes suffer in 

 severe winters, but nevertheless are deserving of cultivation. 



DrPTERACANTHUS SPECTABILIS. Hoofor. A 



very fine herbaceous Acanthad from Peru, with deep 

 purple blue flowers of large size. It requires a warm 

 green-house, or stove. Plowers in August. Intro- 

 duced by Messrs. Yeitch and Son. (Pig. 50.) 



Sir W. Hooker states this to be unquestionably the largest 

 flowered plant of the genus, if not of the order. It grows 2 

 feet or more high, much branched, and erect. Leaves nearly 

 sessile, ovate, acuminate, ciliated, slightly pubescent on the 

 surface, rather strongly veined and reticulated. Flowers sessile 

 or very nearly so, two together from the axils of the upper 

 leaves, large, very showy ; more than two inches across. Calyx 

 quite without bracts, deeply cut into 5 erect, subulate lobes, 

 much shorter than the funnel-shaped curved tube of the corolla. 

 The limb of the latter very large, purple-blue, veined, the 5 

 lobes rounded, spreading, crenate, and somewhat waved at 

 the margins. This is found to succeed in a temperature inter- 



