30 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  July  :  3,  1893. 
FLOWERS  IN  JULY. 
Luxuriance  may  be  said  to  be  the  attribute  of  summer.  It  may 
be  replied  that  this  season  is  not  one  giving  us  summer  in  its  ideal 
aspect.  Complaints  are  rife.  These — like  the  poor — are  always 
with  us,  and  it  is  strange  if  there  are  no  compensations.  It  may  be 
a  bad  Rose  year  for  many ;  yet  there  is  in  many  places  a  freedom  of 
flowering  which  pleases  those  who  care  little  for  blooms  for  the  show 
table. 
The  Queen  of  Flowers  is  ever  welcome,  and  we  in  South  Scotland 
are  now  under  her  sway.  The  highways  and  byeways  have  their 
myriads  of  flowers,  and  some  hedgerows  between  fields  are  no  less 
freely  ornamentel  with  the  blossoms  of  the  wild  Roses  from  white 
through  blush  to  deepest  pink.  Some  of  them  seem  to  be  as  bright  as  some 
of  the  Penzance  Roses,  which  prove  so  useful  for  the  varied  garden  wants. 
In  the  gardens  and  pleasure  grounds  near  by  one  sees  these  grow  in 
favour;  while  Roses  of  the  rugosa  type,  with  the  lovely  Hybrid  Per- 
petuals,  Teas,  and  Hybrid  Teas,  grow  more  liked  from  year  to  year. 
One  delights  in  these;  yet  the  delight  is  not  lessened  by  one’s  admi¬ 
ration  for  the  old  Roses  of  long  ago. 
It  is  my  good  fortune  to  have  the  opportunity  of  seeing  many  of 
these ;  bushes  which  for  long  years  have  given  almost  countless 
blooms  to  delight  various  generations.  The  old  Celestial,  the  Maiden’s 
called  pelviformis.  One  looks  lovingly  upon  carpets  of  the  little 
drooping  bells  of  C.  pulla,  C.  pumila,  or  on  the  taller  Hewers  of 
C.  Hosti  ot;  C.  rhomboidea,  as  well  as  upon  the  masses  of  C.  Porten- 
schlagiana  or  C.  garganica  hirsuta.  All  are  beautiful,  and  add  their 
note  to  the  harmony  of  the  season. 
The  glory  of  the  sun  above  is  reflected  in  the  yellow  composites 
now  appearing  in  increasing  numbers,  urged  into  bloom  by  the 
brighter,  warmer  time.  We  see  the  bright,  gracefully  arranged,  ray- 
petals  of  the  Inulas.  the  flowers  of  the  Anthemises,  with  those  of 
some  of  the  earlier  Heleniums.  None  of  these  is  more  beautiful 
than  Inula  glandulosa  grandiflora,  which,  if  it  can  be  got  tiue,  is 
fine  indeed,  with  its  long,  drooping,  twisted  rays.  If  the  glory  of 
the  sun  is  enshrined  in  the  golden  composites  below,  so  is  the  colour 
o?  the  sky  embodied  in  the  tall  Larkspurs  which  tower  aloft. 
Delicately  blue  are  some  of  these,  emulating  the  pale  blue  of  many 
of  our  days,  while  others  again  are  deeper  in  hue  than  are  our  most 
lowering  clouds  or  the  purple  haze  which,  afar  off.  hangs  over  the 
distant  lulls.  The  July  garden  without  a  Delphinium  is  an 
anachronism. 
As  the  Delphinium  is  needful  to  complete  the  beauties  of  the 
time,  so,  too,  is  the  Carnation,  now  beginning  to  give  its  beauty 
and  its  delicious  odour.  Whether,  as  some  say,  its  name  of  Gilly¬ 
flower  was  a  corruption  of  “July  Flower  ”  or  not  is  of  little  conse- 
Fig. 
7.— PROGRESS 
BEGONIAS 
(First  hybrid,  B.  Sedeni,  1870,  from  B.  boliviensis  and  B.  species.) 
(Begonia  Queen  Victoria,  18SS  ( J.  Laing).  One-third  natural  size.) 
Blush,  the  Damask,  the  Hundred-leaved,  the  Cabbage ;  these  and 
other  names  recall  the  beauties  of  the  garden  Roses  of  old  times.  The 
poet  who  wished  that  the  sky  would  “rain  Roses”  might  almost  feel 
as  if  his  longing  had  been  fulfilled. 
If  it  is  a  time  of  Roses,  it  is,  as  well,  one  of  herbaceous  border  flowers. 
They  are  many,  and  their  charms  are  varied  as  some  of  the  moods  of 
our  summer  clays.  There  are.  Lilies,  ever  precious,  from  the  old 
Martagon,  with  its  prettier  white  form,  and  the  noble  L.  M.  dalmaticum, 
to  the  sweet  Madonna  Lily,  which  brings  with  its  name  recollections 
of  the  legends  and  associations  which  cluster  around  it.  Less  chaste 
than  these,  yet  striking  in  their  brilliance,  are  the  davuricum  or 
umbellatum  and  Thunberg’s  Lilies.  In  a  day  or  two  will  open  by  tlie 
pool  the  turned-back,  spotted  flowers  of  the  Panther  Lily,  which  grows 
so  well  in  the  moisture  on  the  margin.  A  noble  sisterhood  indeed  are 
the  Lilies,  some  sweet  and  gentle  as  mind  can  think  of ;  others  com¬ 
manding,  imperious,  voluptuous  in  their  charms,  and  Cleopatras  of  the 
family,  so  dazzling  is  their  beauty. 
The  taller  Campanulas  are  now  in  their  time  of  highest  beauty. 
There  are  bushes  of  the  latifolia  type — masses  of  foliage,  topped  by 
clustered  spires  of  flowers  of  white  or  purple-blue;  there  are  fine 
spikes,  clothed  with  the  great  flowers  of  the  newer  forms  of  Campanula 
persicifolia.  None  please  more  than  this  Peach-leaved  Bellflower, 
which  with  its  pure  white,  lilac-blue,  and  light  blue  flowers  gives  so 
great  a  beauty  to  the  gardens  of  the  season.  Nor  are  the  dwarfer 
Harebells  less  interesting,  if  they  are  less  majestic  and  impressive. 
One  admires  the  sheets  of  large,  open,  blue  or  white  flowers,  which 
cover  the  plants  of  C.  carpatica,  its  variety  turbinata,  or  that  form 
quence.  It  is,  however,  a  July  flower,  though  not  limiting  its 
favours  to  this  summer  month.  Ooe  need  not  grow  many  Carnations, 
nor  need  one  take  up  their  culture  specially,  to  quality  as  one  of  the 
admirers  of  what  Drayton  calls  “The  brave  Carnation  with  sweet  and 
sovereign  power.” 
One  sees  in  some  few  gardens  stray  lingering  blooms  of  the 
Pseony,  which  have  been  loth  to  quit  the  scene  of  their  past  successes. 
They  may  “  linger  superfluous  on  the  stage  of  time,”  but.  their  place 
is  taken  by  the  Poppy,  with  almost  equally  varied  colouring,  but 
without  the  fragrance  some  of  the  Tmonies  had.  The  beauty  of  the 
Poppy  i3  almost  evanescent;  with  some  species,  such  as  Papaver 
pilosum,  it  may  be  gone  ere  the  shadow  on  the  dial  marks  noon; 
yet  it  is  fascinating  in  its  brilliance  or  its  softness.  The  Shirley 
Poppies,  with  their  exquisite  colouring,  need  no  knight  to  proclaim 
their  beauty.  Nor  do  other  forms,  annual  or  perennial,  though,  sooth 
to  say,  they  are  not  free  from  faults. 
But  the  joys  of  the  time  have  caused  to  run  too  freely  the  move¬ 
ments  of  the  pen.  It  would  take  long  to  tell  of  the  bright  Violas,  the 
Pansies,  the  Water  Lilies,  the  Stonecrops,  the  Nepetns,  the  Geraniums, 
the  Irises  which  decorate  our  gardens  now.  Incarvillea  Delavayi 
would  claim  a  space  beyond  one’s  power  to  give.  The  summer 
Gentians,  the  Evening  Primroses  would  thrust  themselves  before  our 
eyes.  Tall  Mulleins,  yellow,  white,  coppery,  purple,  crave  some 
notice  in  vain.  Stately  and  lowly,  gay  and  modest,  Tich  in  colour, 
charming  only  because  of  their  quietness  or  grace.  These  are  plants 
of  the  time,  flowers  which,  as  Mahomet  said  of  the  Narcissus,  are 
“  food  for  the  soul.” — S.  ArnoTT. 
