September 9, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
21 
bihusiensis, the latter being the name adopted in the 
“Students’ Flora of the British Islands.” The leaves 
are oblong or elliptic, broad, and lie mostly on the 
ground. The stems vary from i8 in. to 2 ft. in 
height, bearing a flat panicle on the top with the 
flowers aggregated in short, one-sided branches. All 
the lower branches are barren. The flowers are 
large and blue-purple, with five darker purple rays. 
The calyx is white with red ribs. It flowers earlier 
than the type, being now mostly out of flower in 
gardens alongside of the latter. 
A much stronger grower than either of the above 
is S. L. Gmelini often considered a species. The 
leaves are elliptic, deep green, recurved at the tip or 
emarginate there with the midrib excurrent some dis¬ 
tance below the apex. Both surfaces are stellately 
pubescent. The stems are 2j ft. to 3 ft. high and 
much branched near the top. The flowers are of a 
forms of S. Limonium in cultivation, and a con¬ 
siderable amount of confusion prevails amongst their 
nomenclature. We are not surprised at this, for they 
are troublesome and difficult to distinguish. The 
flowers of some of them are distinctly and agreeably 
fragrant. 
One of the finest, if not the finest of all the larger 
forms of hardy Statices, is S. lychnidifolia, a native 
of South Europe, and now getting very popular both 
as a border and as an exhibition plant. It grows about 
2j ft. high and branches so profusely that it forms a 
round-headed mass of the most slender and graceful 
character, indeed so much so, that the slender sprays 
might well be used for mixing with cut flowers and 
for lightening up dinner table decorations in the 
same way as the more perishable Gypsophila pani- 
culatais at present. The numerous, slender, droop¬ 
ing ramifications cover the lower and bare part of 
branches from the middle upwards; mostly all the 
branches produce flowers which are blue-purple with 
a white calyx. The leaves are 2 in. to 4 in. long, 
spathulate and form tufted rosettes. The variety 
S. a. occidentalis has slender, erect or ascending 
spikelets with its numerous flowers closely crowded 
together. In a wild state it may be found on the 
coasts of Kent and Sussex. Sometimes a good few 
of the lower branches are barren. On the contrary, 
S. a. intermedia has short and very stout ascending 
spiklets and the branches mostly always bear 
flowers. 
Another small type is S. caspia, a native of the 
Caucasus, growing about i8in. high, with slender 
pyramidally branched stems, forming a round 
headed mass in the case of many crowned plants. 
The flowers are blue-purple with five deep purple 
rays, and the calyx is white with greenish ribs. 
Ruellia macrantha. 
deep lilac blue with five purple rays and rather 
thinly disposed on the spikelets. The lower 
branches are barren. Comparable with this is S. L. 
puberula, the leaves of which are narrowly obovate 
with an acuminate point, but not excurrent below 
the apex. They are glabrous, but the stems are 
downy. The flowers are pale blue with a pinkish- 
white calyx. The stems grow 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, and 
many of the lower branches are flowerless. It 
comes into bloom early and was partly out of bloom 
by the fourth week in August. 
Very distinct and readily recognisable from either 
of the above is S. L. alba, having stems about 18 in. 
high and profusely branched so as to form around- 
headed mass of slender, drooping sprays. The 
stems and both surfaces of the leaves are covered 
with starry pubescence of a more decided character 
than in S. L. Gmelini. Horticulturists may readily 
recognise it by its dwarf habit, slender, and diffuse 
branches and white flowers. The anthers aie red 
and the calyx is striate with red. The leaves have 
an excurrent tip below the apex, thus showing 
further affinity with S. L. Gmelini. There are other 
the stems better than any of the above with the ex¬ 
ception, perhaps, of S. Limonium alba. The flowers 
themselves are small and lilac with red anthers. They 
are distinctly fragrant in the mass in the mornings 
or through the day in cool weather. The leaves are 
oblong-elliptic, with an excurrent midrib and both 
surfaces are finely and stellately pubescent, that is, 
covered with short hairs in starry clusters. It 
seems to have considerable affinity with S. Limo¬ 
nium alba, than which it is a stronger grower. 
In habit and general appearance, S. tomentella, 
otherwise known as S. sareptana, is very similar to 
S. Limonium puberula, but its flowers have five 
more decidedly purple rays, and there are many 
barren branches on the lower part of the stout stems, 
so that the flowers are mostly confined to the top. 
The leaves are also similar to those of that variety, 
but are scabrous with short stiffish hairs or points. 
The British S. auriculae folia may be taken as the 
type of some of the smaller forms of Statice grown 
in gardens and for the most part on rockwork. It is 
perhaps best known under the name of S. spathulata. 
It generally grows about a foot high, and the stem 
They are aggregated in small clusters of short, but 
not dense, spikelets. The leaves are oblong, narrowed 
into the petiole, 3in. to 5in. long, softly downy on 
both surfaces and curled up at the sides. 
An early flowering species now nearly out of bloom 
is S. oxylepis. The spathulate leaves are 2 in. to 
3 in. long and the stems 12 in. to 18 in. high, rigid, 
with a narrow panicle of ascending branches of 
which the lower ones are barren. The flowers are 
blue-purple, with deeper rays, and produced in dense, 
linear, one-sided spikelets. The calyx is white with 
reddish ribs on the middle only. The bracts have 
crimson-red edges fading to brown. S. gougetiana 
is a native of Spain, and grows only about 6 in. or 
9 in. high. The leaves are very small, spathulate, 
and revolute at the sides, while they are elevated in 
tufts upon short stems, so that old plants form an 
elevated green tuft above which the short stems rise 
only a few inches. The flowers are blue-purple, and 
the calyx striped brown. The panicle is short and 
close, bearing the flowers in dense spikelets. 
Other hardy species of this type appear from time 
to time in cultivation, but they have less permanency 
