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282 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 29, 1881. 
the Royal Horticultural Society. They filled five large boxes 
and weighed when dried within a few pounds of 5 cwt. I have 
been requested to submit them to the Scientific Committee, 
and intend doing so. 
The water we are supplied with is from the Southwark and 
Vauxhall Water Company.—J. Ollerhead, Wimbledon House. 
[This is a question of very great importance, and suggests 
that full provision should be made for cleansing boilers from 
the deposit that may accumulate. Defective circulation in 
boilers is no doubt often the result of furring, and few gar¬ 
deners could have worked for eight days in a cylinder 2 feet 
10 inches in diameter, and have done the cleansing and patch¬ 
ing above narrated. We have inspected the work, and must 
say it was a wonderful performance ; the deposit we have also 
seen, and some of it is an inch in thickness and as hard as 
flint. The boiler thus saved cost £160. But such a waste of 
fuel as furring involves, besides the risk of fracture, ought 
never to be incurred, and need not be if provision were made 
for supplying boilers with rain water, which should be col¬ 
lected in tanks for the purpose, where the ordinary spring or 
river water is unsuitable. —Ed.] 
HARDY PERENNIALS. 
Whatever may have been the case elsewhere, the arrange¬ 
ments of ordinary flowering bedding plants about this neighbour¬ 
hood may be pronounced a failure this season. They grew well 
and flowered well to the end of July, when the petals of Pelar¬ 
goniums fell with the falling rain, and the colours of the Ver¬ 
benas were washed out, leaving us rather too much of one thing. 
True, the lost colours are brightening up now with the returning 
sunshine, but the thermometer at the freezing point bids us 
remember that they must be short-lived. Amongst hardy peren¬ 
nials the case has been different. These have grown as well as 
ever, and the rain has only had the effect of making them last 
longer in beauty. 
I will name a few of the best of those in flower now, and add 
that all may be relied on as perfectly hardy, they having passed 
through the trying ordeal of the last two winters unprotected. 
Coreopsis proecox is 4 feet high, of a bright but peculiarly soft 
yellow colour, flowers abundantly for three months, and stands 
a long time when cut, for which it is very suitable. This is, 
perhaps, the easiest to grow of all the herbaceous species of this 
genus. C. lanceolata, which was figured in the Journal a few 
weeks back, is perhaps more beautiful in its individual flowers, 
but its season is not so prolonged as the first named. C. auri- 
culata, nearly out of flower now, is also good and distinct. 
Monarda didyma is 3 feet high, its flowers and leaves being 
Bergamot-scented, but it is past its best, though the colour of its 
scarlet flowers appears to have been caught by the edges of its 
leaves, and consequently it is not altogether without beauty as well 
as perfume. M. mollis, taller, with lilac-coloured flowers, is rather 
later and is still beautiful. Another variety which I have under 
the name of M. purpurea (this and Vallota purpurea were pre¬ 
sumably named by some botanist afflicted with colour blindness) 
is nearly pink and is still in flower. 
Centrocarpha grandiflora, syn. Rudbeckia fulgida, is a beautiful 
plant which flowers all through the summer and is useful for a 
variety of purposes. I have it in circular masses of 5 feet 
diameter on the grass, in smaller patches dotted amongst Purple 
King Verbenas, a patch here and there at the edges of shrubberies, 
besides being freely intermixed in the herbaceous borders. It 
looks well in each of these places, and I have never heard anyone 
say there is too much of it. Its flower stalks grow about 18 inches 
to 2 feet high, while its foliage forms a dense carpet close to 
the ground. Its flowers are 2] to 3 inches across, the centre of 
which is raised in a half-globular form, is dark brown, and forms 
a perfect contrast with its bright yellow petals, which are not set 
close enough to please a florist, but are perfection in the eye of an 
artist. It is not too much to say that in beauty this plant isjequal 
to the Japan Anemones, while its season is three times as long. 
Amongst Asters or Michaelmas Daisies there are a great many 
weeds which, by some unaccountable stretch of the imagination, 
some people will persist in calling beautiful, but which find no 
home amongst my selection. There are, on the other hand, amongst 
them some of the most telling border plants we have, and I think 
at the present time there is nothing more beautiful than Aster 
pendula, which I have also received under the name of A. patens. 
This grows 4 feet high, has bright lavender-coloured star-shaped 
flowers, produced in such abundance as to completely cover the 
foliage on the upper part of its stems. The petals turn down¬ 
wards after they have been expanded a day or two. A. longi 
folius formosus is a dwarf plant about 2 feet high, just showing 
its beautiful rosy lilac flowers, which will continue till the frost 
cuts them off. A. Amellus, almost a bright blue and only 18 inches 
high, is probably the flower amongst Asters which most people 
would select as the best; it is indeed very pretty, requires little 
or no support, and is useful for both borders and late autumn 
beds. Another variety called A. Amellus bessarabicus has larger 
flowers with more purple in them. A. amelloides closely resembles 
the last-named, and is not required where the two others are 
grown. A. rosmarinifolius, 1 foot high and lilac-coloured, is 
useful because of its dwarf and rigid habit, as is also A. hyssopi- 
folius, which is about the same height, nearly the same colour, 
but distinct in growth, having a light airiness about it such as few 
dwarf plants possess. A. ericoides is scarcely in flower yet; it 
grows 4 feet high, has small white flowers produced in great 
abundance, which are useful for cutting for the purpose of 
lighting up heavier-looking flowers. A. dumosus is a dwarf¬ 
growing variety, about 2 feet, with similar flowers to the preced¬ 
ing and a spreading habit. These are the best of the Asters in my 
possession which are flowering now ; other good forms, amongst 
which is A. grandiflora, are too late to be of much service. 
Of Achilleas, the best, A. Ptarmica flore-pleno, a small double 
white one 2 feet high and invaluable for cutting, is almost over, 
but A. ageratoides, 3 feet high, also white but single, and with 
handsome serrated foliage, is not an unworthy successor. A. Eupa- 
torium, 4 feet high, with Artemisia-like foliage and Golden Cauli¬ 
flower-like heads of bloom 4 inches across, is very distinct and 
good ; while A. egyptiaca, as well as having similar heads to the 
preceding, has a base of silvery foliage which forms a most 
pleasing contrast to the flowers. This plant is dwarf, scarcely 
exceeding a foot in height. 
Most Veronicas are over, but here are two which are pretty in 
the background. V. exaltata is rather too exalted perhaps for a 
small garden, being 7 feet high, but the blue spikes are very 
conspicuous behind other plants and about 9 feet from the walk. 
V. virginica is not quite so tall, has white flowers, and is a good 
companion to the former. 
Physostegia speciosa is even taller than the Veronicas, and has 
pink Salvia-like flowers, which are pretty in a suitable position. 
Further back than the last-named plant, not because it is taller, 
but because it is more massive, is Polygonum Sieboldii, with its 
white feathery-like flowers and handsome foliage. This plant is 
scarcely suited for an herbaceous border of limited extent, as it 
requires much room, and notwithstanding its beauty it becomes a 
troublesome weed if not closely looked after. It is suitable for a 
semi-wild shrubbery or to plant by itself on the grass. We have 
here broken the line of shrubs by making a special recess for it, 
and the result is satisfactory. P. Brunonis is a very different 
plant, growing close to the ground and producing pink spikes of 
flower 9 inches high. P. viviparum, another dwarf species, though 
not particularly beautiful, is interesting from the fact of its seeds 
vegetating on the plant. 
Colchicums are now fine. C. byzantinum is particularly showy, 
and C. speciosum has beautiful flowers as large as a Tulip. Other 
good sorts are C. autumnale album, C. autumnale plenum, 0. au- 
tumnale album plenum, C. autumnale striatum, and C. autumnale 
variegatum. The blue Eryngos are still good, Eryngium amethjs- 
tinum being the showiest; but E. falcatum and E. Bourgati are 
both worth growing. Sylphium trifoliatum is a very handsome 
yellow Sunflower-like plant about 6 feet high, and S. laciniatum 
has reached an altitude of 12 feet, but is by no means so handsome 
as the first-named species. 
Other good plants in flower are Chrysocoma Linosyris, 3 feet, 
yellow ; Sedum Fabaria, 18 inches, opening pink and getting 
darker afterwards; Tradescantia, 2 feet, in variety blue, purple, 
and white ; Lobelia syphilitica and S. syphilitica alba, 2 feet; 
Chelone obliqua, or “ Turtle Head,” lately figured in the Journal, 
and its white variety C. obliqua alba, both about 3 feet; Japan 
Anemones, three varieties, too well known to need description ; 
Pyrethrum uliginosum, a C-foot Marguerite of great beauty ; Soli- 
dagos in variety ; Harpalium rigidum, 4 feet, yellow ; Gaillardia 
hybrida, 3 feet, yellow and brown ; and Origanum sipyleum, the 
pretty little Hop plant with pink flowers. 
Only a single spike of Crocosma aurea is visible ; the root pro¬ 
ducing this was possibly planted deeper than the rest and thus 
escaped the frost. A tall variety of Eupatorium purpureum 
annually rises to the height of 12 or 14 feet, and is handsome in 
the background. Hyacinthus candicans withstood the frost and 
has flowered well, being nearly over now. Aconitum autumnale 
is later than usual and scarcely showing colour yet, and Phygelius 
capensis was so hard cut back by the frost that it has not flowered 
much. 
