Chapter L: PALUSTRE.--Marsh Ledum. This is a common European species, growing

from 2 feet to 3 feet high, with much smaller leaves than the former, and small pinky-white flowers produced in summer. It is an interesting and pretty plant. The Ledums succeed best in cool, damp, peaty soil.

LEIOPHYLLUM.

LEIOPHYLLUM BUXIFOLIUM (_syns L. thymifolia, Ammyrsine buxifolia_ and _Ledum buxifolium_).--Sand Myrtle. New Jersey and Virginia, 1736. This is a dwarf, compact shrub from New Jersey, with box-like leaves, and bunches of small white flowers in early summer. For using as a rock plant, and in sandy peat, it is an excellent subject, and should find a place in every collection.

LESPEDEZA.

LESPEDEZA BICOLOR (_syn Desmodium penduliflorum_).--North China and Japan. A little-known but beautiful small-growing shrub, of slender, elegant growth, and reaching, under favourable culture, a height of about 6 feet. The leaves are trifoliolate, small, and neat, and the abundant racemes of individually small, Pea-shaped flowers are of the richest and showiest reddish-purple. Being only semi-hardy will account for the scarcity of this beautiful Japanese shrub, but having stood uninjured in all but the coldest parts of these islands should induce lovers of flowering shrubs to give it a fair chance.

LEUCOTHOE.

LEUCOTHOE AXILLARIS (_syn Andromeda axillaris_).--North America, 1765. This is of small growth, from 2 feet to 3 feet high, with oval-pointed leaves and white flowers in short racemes produced in May and June. It is not a very satisfactory species for cultivation in this country.

L. CATESBAEI (_syns Andromeda Catesbaei_ and _A. axillaris_).--North America. This has white flowers with an unpleasant odour like that of Chestnut blossoms, but is worthy of cultivation, and succeeds best in cool sandy peat or friable yellow loam.

L. DAVISIAE, from California (1853), is a very handsome evergreen shrub, of small and neat growth, and will be found an acquisition where compact shrubs are in demand. The leaves are small, of a deep green colour, and remain throughout the year. Flowers produced in great abundance at the branch tips, usually in dense clusters, and individually small and pure white.