MAY. 



51 



DELPHINIUM ALOPBOUROIDES. 



WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 



Wjs now offer to the notice of our readers an illustration of a class of 

 plants which, as a rule, is too much neglected at the present day, we mean 

 that of hardy herbaceous perennials. The bedding system, by being followed 

 to excess, has too nearly converted our gardens into dreary wastes in winter 

 and spring, and left us, even in the gay months of summer and autumn, with 

 little variety beyond differing shades of colour in some half-dozen kinds of 

 flowers. The loss of the many spring flowers which a mixed flower-border 

 used to afford is especially felt not only in private but in public establishments, 

 where the formal style associated with the "bedding-out" system has mono- 

 polised all the space allotted to flowers. 



Our subject is not, indeed, one of the spring-flowering class just alluded to, 

 but it is one of those hardy herbaceous perennials which are just suited for 

 mixed borders, and which are not only beautiful in themselves but beautiful 

 in' such an association. We, therefore, have no hesitation in recommending 

 both the subject of our plate, and the class of plants to which it belongs, 

 to the notice of all lovers of their gardens. 



This variety of double Larkspur, which the raiser has called alopeeuroides, 

 doubtless from the close brush-like form of the principal part of the* spike, was 

 shown at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society's Floral Committee in 

 July, 1861, and was then awarded a First-class Certificate. The specimens 

 exhibited on that occasion were over 2 feet in length, furnished below with 

 palmatifidly-lobed leaves, having incised segments and a ciliated margin, and 

 terminated in a flower-spike or raceme slightly branched below and densely 

 crowded with small double flowers of a bright blue, paler and reddish-tinted 

 towards the centre. It was regarded as a most desirable and very ornamental 

 hardy plant. 



Mr. G. Wheeler, of Warminster, by whom it was raised and exhibited, has 

 furnished us with the following memorandum respecting it : — 



" This unique and very double Larkspur came up in a bed which had been 

 sown with mixed seeds of Delphiniums, and is, therefore, an accidental garden 

 variety. It withstood, without the slightest injury, the severe frost of 

 Christmas, 1860, in the open border quite unprotected, and is consequently 

 perfectly hardy. It has always appeared robust and healthy, growing freely 

 in the open border, which is its proper place. It blooms in June and July, 

 the spikes of flowers being about 2 feet in length when well grown, the tip of 

 the spike then from 3 to 4 feet from the ground. It is propagated by dividing 

 the roots, never producing seeds." 



CAPE BULBS. 



In the days of my youth I was an enthusiastic cultivator of these curiou,, 

 and most interesting plants. The very intractability and almost impractica- 

 bility of some of them was inspiring. One coaxed and bullied them alternately, 

 hunting down a difficulty like a fox, until caught and annihilated by the good 

 hound Perseverance. 



I possess many still, and am extremely fond of them. I now propose 

 making a few remarks which may be useful to your correspondents. I 

 will first, then, take the dark side of the question. The whole of the Cape 



VOL. II. -p 



