*Eryngium alpinum.—A singular-looking plant, from 2 ft. to nearly 3 ft. high, forming a rather stiff bush, with leathery and very spiny leaves of a sea-green colour, and bearing numerous roundish heads of bluish flowers, the stems beneath them being also of a very handsome blue for some inches down. Suitable for planting in the wilder parts of pleasure-grounds, for isolation, for borders, or grouping with the finest and most distinct subjects.
*Eryngium amethystinum is not so tall as the preceding, seldom growing more than 2½ ft. high. It is remarkable for the beautiful amethystine bloom which the leaves assume in July, and which they preserve until the approach of frost. It is suitable for the positions recommended for the preceding kind. Various other members of this family are useful in like manner; indeed there is not one of them that is not so, including our own common Sea Holly, E. maritimum.
*Erythrina.—These are very beautiful trees or shrubs, pretty generally distributed through the tropics of both hemispheres. Some attain great dimensions, while others are dwarf bushes with woody rootstocks, and a few have the stems and leaf-stalks beset with prickles. The leaves are trifoliate, with long stalks, and the leaflets oval, lance-shaped, or triangular. Many of the species produce beautiful large pea-flowers, usually of a blood-red or scarlet colour, in terminal racemes. The varieties of these have proved very hardy and useful in the summer garden, flowering freely, and showing considerable beauty of foliage. Two round beds, each of 9 ft., and one oblong bed, 42 ft. by 5 ft., including E. ornata, Marie Belanger, laurifolia, crista-galli, profusa, Madame Belanger, ruberrima, Hendersoni, stood out last winter uninjured in Battersea Park; and, as many people know, the common old Erythrina crista-galli will thrive for years against a warm south wall in a warm soil, if protected about the root in winter.
Eucalyptus.—Handsome Australian trees and shrubs, of which there are a vast number of species, many growing to an immense height. The leaves are of a thick leathery texture, always quite entire, and very variable in shape. In young plants they are opposite, heart-shaped, pointed, and covered with a glaucous bloom; as they grow older, they become alternate and sickle-shaped, the stalks acquiring a peculiar twist, so that the leaves present their edges to the branches. The most hardy kinds are E. globulus and E. Gunni. Other kinds, however, will no doubt be found sufficiently hardy. These are most likely to be attractive in the south of England and Ireland, where a few of the species will be found to thrive in the open air, as the peculiarly distinct and graceful habit of the trees is not observed till they are 12 ft. or more above the ground. Nevertheless some may grow them for the aspect they present after a single year’s growth in the open air about London, in which case they should be put out about the middle of May. I was very much struck with their graceful and singular appearance in California, where they are being planted in great variety.
Farfugium grande.—A very vigorous-growing perennial, with thick fleshy stems, from 1 ft. to nearly 2 ft. high, and broad, cartilaginous, almost heart-shaped leaves, of a light-green colour, variously streaked, and spotted with yellow in one variety, and with white and rose-colour in another. It flourishes best in free, substantial, moist soil which contains a large proportion of vegetable mould, and in a half-shady position. During the heats of summer it will require frequent watering. At the approach of winter it should be removed to the conservatory or cool greenhouse, except in the southern and milder districts, where it survives an ordinary winter. In the colder parts of the country it is scarcely worth planting out, it grows so slowly; but where it thrives it is very ornamental in borders, isolated, or near the margin of beds. Multiplied by division in spring; the offsets to be potted and kept in the propagating-house or in a frame until they are well rooted.
Ferdinanda eminens.—This is one of the tallest and noblest subtropical plants, growing well in the southern and midland counties when it is supplied with rich soil and abundant moisture. It is also very much the better for being sheltered. Where the soil is rich, deep, and humid, and the position warm, it attains large dimensions, sometimes growing over 12 ft. high, and suspending pairs of immense opposite leaves. It will in all cases form a capital companion to the Castor-oil plant, and, though it may not be grown with ease in all parts, it should be in every collection. It requires to be planted out, in a young state, about the middle of May, and grows freely from cuttings. Greenhouse treatment will do in winter. It is better to keep a stock in pots through the summer to afford cuttings, though the old ones may be used for that purpose.
*FERULAS.
I wish it were not necessary to write in praise of such very fine plants as these, so noble in aspect and beautiful in leaf. If 2000 kinds of herbaceous plants are grown, the first things that show clearly above the ground in the very dawn of spring (even in January) are their deep-green and most elegant leaves. In good garden soil they look like masses of Leptopteris superba, that most exquisite of ferns. Their chief charm will probably be found to consist in their furnishing masses of the freshest green and highest grace in early spring. The leaf is apt to lose some of its beauty and fade away early in autumn, but this may to some extent be retarded by cutting out the flower-bearing shoots the moment they appear. Not that these are ugly; for, on the contrary, the plants are fine and striking when in flower. It is indispensable that the Ferulas, like some other hardy foliage-plants, be planted permanently and well at first, as it is only when they are thoroughly established that you get their full effect. At a first view, the best way to treat them would appear to be so to arrange them that they would be succeeded by things that flower in autumn, and only begin their rich growth in early summer; but it will be equally wise to plant them near the margin of a shrubbery, or wherever it is desired to have a diversified and bold type of vegetation. We may look forward to the day when a far greater variety of form will be seen in English gardens than is at present observable, and these Ferulas are thoroughly well worth growing for their superb spring and early summer effect. The best species are