Alyssum.—In spring every little shoot of the wide tufts and flakes of these plants sends up a little fountain of small golden flowers. For bare, stony, or rocky banks, poor sandy ground, and ruins, they are admirable. Alyssum Wiersbecki and A. saxatile are strong enough to take care of themselves on the margins of shrubberies, etc., where the vegetation is not very coarse, but they are more valuable for rocky or stony places, or old ruins, and thrive freely on cottage garden walls in some districts; some of the less grown species would be welcome in such places. There are many species, natives of Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Corsica, Sicily, Hungary, and Dalmatia; Asia, principally Siberia, the Altai Mountains, Georgia, Persia, and the entire basin of the Caspian, is rich in them.
The Alpine Windflower (Anemone alpina).
Windflower, Anemone.—A numerous race of dwarf herbs that contribute largely to the most beautiful effects of the mountain, wood, and pasture vegetation of all northern and temperate climes. The flowers vary from intense scarlet to the softest blue; most of the exotic kinds would thrive as well in our woodlands and meadows as they do in their own. There is hardly a position they may not adorn—warm, sunny, bare banks, on which the Grecian A. blanda might open its large blue flowers in winter; the tangled copse, where the Japan Windflower and its varieties might make a bold show in autumn; and the shady wood, where the Apennine Windflower would contrast charmingly with the Wood Anemone so abundantly scattered in our own woods. The Hepaticas should be considered as belonging to the same genus, not forgetting the Hungarian one, A. angulosa. The Hepaticas thrive best and are seen best in half–woody places, where the spring sun may cheer them by passing through the branches, which afterwards become leafy and shade them from the scorching heats of summer.
St. Bruno’s Lily, Anthericum.—One of the most lovely aspects of vegetation in the alpine meadows of Europe is that afforded by the delicate white flowers of the St. Bruno’s Lily in the Grass in early summer, looking like miniature white Lilies. All who have seen it would no doubt like to enjoy the same in their turfy lawns or Grassy places, and there should be no difficulty in establishing it. The large–flowered or major variety might be tried with advantage in this way, and the smaller–flowered kinds, A. Liliago and its varieties, are equally suitable. They are not so likely to find favour in gardens as the larger kind, and therefore the wild garden is the home for them, and in it many will admire their graceful habit and numerous flowers. All the species best worth growing are natives of the alpine meadows of Europe.
Alkanet, Anchusa.—Tall and handsome herbaceous plants, with numerous flowers of a fine blue, admirable for dotting about in open places in sunny glades in woods or copses. They mostly come from Southern Europe and Western Asia. A. italica and A. capensis are among the most useful. The English Anchusa sempervirens, rare in some places, is an excellent wild garden plant.
Snapdragon, Antirrhinum.—The common Snapdragon and its beautifully spotted varieties are easily naturalised on old walls and ruins by sowing the seed in old or mossy chinks. Antirrhinum Asarinum, rupestre, and molle do well treated in the same way. Probably many other species would be found good in like places. About two dozen species are known, but comparatively few of these are in cultivation. They mostly come from the shores of the Mediterranean.
Columbine, Aquilegia.—Favourite herbaceous plants, generally of various shades of blue and purple, white, and sometimes bright orange. The varieties of the common kind (A. vulgaris), which are very numerous, are those most likely to be naturalised. In elevated and moist districts some of the beautiful Rocky Mountain kinds would be worth a trial in bare places. In places where wild gardens have been formed the effect of Columbines in the Grass has been one of the most beautiful that have been obtained. The flowers group themselves in all sorts of pretty ways, showing just above the long Grass, and possessing great variety of colour. The vigorous and handsome A. chrysantha of Western America is the most hardy and enduring of the American kinds. The species are of a truly northern and alpine family, most abundant in Siberia.[ill126]
