Chapter L: VULGARE (syn Cytisus Laburnum).--Common Laburnum. Southern France

to Hungary, 1596. This is one of our commonest garden and park trees, and at the same time one of the most beautiful and floriferous. The large, pendulous racemes of bright yellow flowers are, when at their best in May, surpassed neither in quantity nor beauty by those of any other hardy tree. There are several varieties of this Laburnum--a few good, but many worthless, at least from a garden point of view. L. vulgare Parkesii is a seedling form, bearing large racemes of deep-coloured flowers, often 14 inches long; L. vulgare Watereri was raised in the Knap Hill Nursery, Surrey, and is one of the most distinct and beautiful of the many forms into which the Laburnum has been sub-divided. The flower racemes are very long and richly coloured. L. vulgare quercifolium and L. vulgare sessilifolium are fairly well described by their names; L. vulgare fragans differs only in having sweetly-scented flowers; L. vulgare involutum has curiously-curled leaves; while L. vulgare aureum, where it does well, is a beautiful and distinct form.

LARDIZABALA.

LARDIZABALA BITERNATA.--Chili, 1848. Requires wall protection, there being few situations in which it will succeed when planted in the open. It is a tall, climbing shrub, with dark green persistent leaves, and bearing purplish flowers in drooping racemes in mid-winter. Planted in rather dry soil, at the base of a sunny wall, this shrub forms a by no means unattractive covering, the twice ternate, glossy leaves being fresh and beautiful the winter through.

LAPAGERIA.

LAPAGERIA ROSEA.--Chili, 1847. This is, unfortunately, not hardy, unless in favoured maritime districts, but in such situations it has stood unharmed for many years, and attained to goodly proportions. It is a beautiful climber, with deep-green leaves, and large, fleshy, campanulate flowers of a deep rose colour. There is a white-flowered form called L. alba, introduced from Chili in 1854. Planted on an east aspect wall, and in roughly broken up peat and gritty sand, it succeeds well.

LAVANDULA.

LAVANDULA VERA (_syn L. Spica_).--Common Lavender. South Europe, 1568. A well-known and useful plant, but of no particular value for ornamental purposes. It is of shrubby growth, with narrow-lanceolate, hoary leaves, and terminal spikes of blue flowers.

LAVATERA.

LAVATERA ARBOREA.--Tree Mallow. Coasts of Europe, (Britain). A stout-growing shrub reaching in favourable situations a height of fully 6 feet, with broadly orbicular leaves placed on long stalks. The flowers are plentiful and showy, of a pale purplish-red colour, and collected into clusters. It is a seaside shrub succeeding best in sheltered maritime recesses, and when in full flower is one of the most ornamental of our native plants. There is also a beautiful variegated garden form, L. a. variegata.

LEDUM.

LEDUM LATIFOLIUM (_syn L. groenlandicum_).--Wild Rosemary, or Labrador Tea. This is a small shrub, reaching to about 3 feet in height, indigenous to swampy ground in Canada, Greenland, and over a large area of the colder parts of America. Leaves oval or oblong, and plentifully produced all over the plant. Flowers pure white, or slightly tinted with pink, produced in terminal corymbs, and usually at their best in April. A perfectly hardy, neat-growing, and abundantly-flowered shrub, but one that, somehow, has gone greatly out of favour in this country. This plant has been sub-divided into several varieties, that are, perhaps, distinct enough to render them worthy of attention. They are L. latifolium globosum, with white flowers, borne in globose heads, on the short, twiggy, and dark-foliaged branches. L. latifolium angustifolia has narrower leaves than those of the species, while L. latifolium intermedium is of neat growth and bears pretty, showy flowers.