August 18, 1900. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
eo3 
LAING’S BEGONIAS 
NOW IN BLOOM. 
The Premier House. Awarded Many Gold Medals. 
Unequalled as a Floral Display. Visitors are cordially invited; free admission. 
Frequent trains from the City and West End to Catford Bridge, Catford, and Forest 
Hill Stations. 
Catalogues Post Free. Telephone 60 Sydenham. 
JOHN LAING & SONS, 
Begonia, Caladium, Olivia, Gloxinia, & Streptocarpus Special¬ 
ists, Seed, Plant, Bulb, & Fruit Tree Merchants, Floral 
Decorations, &c. 
GARDEN CONTRACTORS. 
FOREST HILL, S.E., & CATFORD, KEMT. 
SPECIALITIES. 
Cacti, Hardy Herbaceous Plants, Greenhouse Plants, &c. 
CACTI, our selection ... ... ... 6/-to io/-per doz. 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS 6/ to 12/ per doz. 
Our Firm has been awarded over 160 Medals, Prizes, &c. 
A. W. YOUNG F.R.H.S. & CO., 
The Nurseries, STEVENAGE, HERTS. 
them transferred to the garden with poor 
results, simply because the over-fertile soil 
caused them to make luxuriant and coarse 
growth, with a corresponding decrease of 
flowers for foliage. Other wild plants 
respond admirably to culture in the 
ordinary border where they take chance 
alongside of exotics which thrive under the 
same treatment, in ordinary garden soil of 
varying quality in different localities. 
Few will deny the bold and striking 
beauty of bold masses of Epilobium 
angustifolium ; but those who do not take 
the trouble of checking its rambling habit, 
by digging up the suckers, soon complain 
of its incorrigible habit. In the wild 
garden proper this would not apply, and if 
suitable positions were selected for it no 
check need be given to its rambling. The 1 
plant will thrive in the full sun, but it also 
does well in partial shade where vegetable 
humus from the decaying leaves of trees is 
abundant. In copses which are getting 
crowded this Rose Bay or Willow Herb 
lingers till the undergrowth of trees has 
been cut, or in Fir woods that have been 
more or less thinned, admitting sufficient 
light, when it develops great vigour and 
may cover acres of the loose humic soil 
with a gorgeous display of its dark, rosy- 
purple flowers. These conditions may be 
imitated by lovers of hardy flowers, either 
in the wild garden proper or in open woods 
in the vicinity of the mansion. E. hirsutum 
also attracts much attention along the mar¬ 
gins of streams, its proper position, but 
otherwise it seldom gets introduced to cul¬ 
tivation. Our native Heaths are very 
handsome at the present time, and the 
conditions that suit them might well be the 
subject of study and imitative culture in 
iriegular beds and masses. Where the 
first mentioned Epilobium revels under the 
partial shade of Fir trees, the gray Heath 
(Erica cinerea) covers the ground and 
blooms to perfection on the open heath 
close by where the soil is dry, firm, and 
more or less peaty on the surface, though 
the gravel may not be very far down. The 
Cross-leaved Heath is equally common in 
m 
Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man "— Bacon. 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , AUGUST r8 th, 1900. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Wednesday, August 22nd.—Bucklebury and Mariston Horti¬ 
cultural Society ; Shrewsbury show (2 days). 
Friday, August 24th.—Falkirk Horticultural Society ; Bradford 
Horticultural Society (2 days). 
[ayside Flowers for the Wild Gar¬ 
den. —Quite a respectable list of wild 
flowers, blooming at the present time, 
could be compiled for the guidance of those 
who are apt to forget the merits of many 
British wild plants for garden decoration, 
notwithstanding the fact that many are 
already in hundreds of gardens throughout 
the country without being recognised 
except by the studious few or those who 
are enthusiastic enough to transfer them to 
their gardens either by means of roots or 
seeds, the latter being often a sure means 
of getting the plants established in the 
quarters where they are to bloom. On the 
other hand we have seen wild plants intro¬ 
duced to the garden that d d not prove 
ornamental or pretty, simply because 
planted in unsuitable positions, or too dry or 
too rich soil as the case might be. Pro¬ 
bably hundreds of people, including pro¬ 
fessional gardeners, have often admired the 
Germander Speedwell (Veronica Chamae- 
drysj or the yellow Bedstraw (Galium 
verurn) by the waysides. . We have seen 
places that are inclined to be wet and boggy 
during the greater part of the year. Both 
are well worthy of cultivation where the 
conditions are suitable, or can readily be 
made so. Both of them are really more 
conspicuous and ornamental in our opinion 
than the Cornish Heath (E. vagans) though 
it well deserves a place. The most common 
form of the Ling (Calluna vulgaris) is 
rather pale when in bloom, but many fine 
varieties have been picked up at one time 
or another and deserve cultivation. 
Few wildings are more stately and 
sprightly when seen in perfection than the 
purple Loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria). 
Though its natural habitat is the brook or 
river bank, yet it frequently occurs in the 
wayside ditch. As it takes kindly to culti¬ 
vation, even in borders by no means wet, 
it is a frequent inmate of the garden. 
There are two forms of the wild plant, one 
with bright rosy-red flowers, and the other 
with dull pu r ple flowers. The distinction 
is obvious enough to deserve attention in 
gardens, the rosy-red variety being the 
showiest. The yellow Loosestrife (Lysi- 
machia vulgaris) consorts with the purple 
species, and both occur in similarly damp 
or wet places at present. The Lysimachia 
is equally amenable for border culture. 
The Creeping Jenny (L. Nummularia) is 
remarkably easy of cultivation, as the rich 
and poor alike of London well know. 
Though it creeps over the wet ground, half 
hidden by grass in a wild state, it may be 
used as a basket plant either in flower pots 
or any other make-shift vessel, either in 
shade or the full sun, its requirements being 
chiefly a liberal supply of water in summer 
to make it look happy. The Bog Pimper¬ 
nel belongs to the same natural order and 
is of creeping habit like Creeping Jenny, 
but the leaves are very small and neat, 
hugging the ground while the purple flowers 
just rise clear of the foliage when grown in 
a fully exposed but wet position. The bog 
garden or the wet margin of a lake, pond, 
or pool are the situations that suit it. 
The more common of the British species 
of Mullein are Verbascum Thapsus and 
V. nigrum, which improve in fertile soil, 
especially the former which forms stout, 
rod-like stems varying from i ft. to io ft. 
according to soil and treatment. Needless 
to say the latter height is the result of gar¬ 
den culture, though it attains a height of 
3 ft. on dry chalk banks. The flowers are 
large and handsome individually, but the 
plant cannot be too coarsely cultivated, as 
its stateliness has much to recommend it. 
The Foxglove, Antirrhinum, Linaria 
repens, with its charming white variety, 
and L. vulgaris all belong to the same 
family of plants, and are all highly desirable 
for some or other purpose. The first named 
has been highly improved, rivalling or ex¬ 
celling many garden plants for real beauty. 
The Antirrhinum occurs only as a wild 
plant where it has escaped from gardens, 
but when it mounts old walls like the 
Wallflower it is certainly much admired. 
Under those conditions it stands the winter 
unprotected, whereas good garden soils are 
too rich for it and the stems do not get suffi¬ 
ciently hardened to withstand the frost and 
wet of winter. Linaria repens alba has 
been compared to Lily of the Valley, 
though few seem to recognise in it a variety 
of a member of the British flora. If blue 
is desired where can we find more lovely 
shades of it than in Centaurea Cyanus (un¬ 
improved by the hand of man), Cichorium 
Intybus (Chicory), and Echium vulgare ? 
The colour of the Cornflower, first men¬ 
tioned of these three, has often been spoilt 
in gardens but hardly improved. The 
Chicory is rather a coarse plant and the 
flowers are ephemeral, but they are pro¬ 
duced in succession over a long period of 
