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THE EREMURI.

[Illustration: EREMURUS HIMALAICUS. (Flowers white.)]

It has often been a matter of astonishment to me that eremuri are not
more frequently seen in our gardens. There are certainly very few
plants which have a statelier or more handsome appearance during the
summer months. Both in point of brightness of color and their general
habit and manner of growth they are very much to be recommended. For
some reason or other they have the character of being difficult
plants, but they do not deserve it at all, and a very slight attention
to their requirements is enough to ensure success. They can stand a
good many degrees of frost, and they ask for little more than a soil
which has been deeply worked and well enriched with old rotten manure.
Give them this, and they are certain to be contented with it, and the
cultivator will be well rewarded for his pains. Only one thing should
perhaps be added by way of precaution. If an eremurus appears too soon
above ground, it is well just to cover it over with loose litter of
some sort, so that it may not be nipped by spring frosts; and one
experienced grower has said that it answers to lift them after
blossoming, and to keep them out of the ground for a few weeks, so
that they may be sufficiently retarded. But I have not yet been able
to try this plan myself, and I do not speak from experience about it.
My favorite is Eremurus Bungei, which I think is one of the handsomest
plants I have in my garden. The clear yellow color of the blossom is
so very good, and I like the foliage also; but of course it is not the
most imposing by any means and if height and stateliness are
especially regarded, E. robustus or E. robustus nobilis would carry
off the palm. This commonly rises to the height of eight or nine feet
above the ground, and on one occasion I have known it to be greatly in
excess even of that; but such an elevation cannot be attained for more
than a single year, and it afterward is contented with more moderate
efforts. E. Himalaicus is of the purest possible white, and the spike
is very much to be admired when it is seen at its best. It can be very
easily raised from seed, but a good deal of patience is needed before
its full glory has come. E. Olgae is the last of all, and it shows by
its arrival that summer is hastening on. It is of a peach-colored hue,
and very pretty indeed. Altogether it is a pity that eremuri are not
more commonly grown. I think they