PHLOX (floks). In Greek the name phlox means “flame.” The plant is so called from the red color of one species. The colors of others range from white and pink to purple. Many species of phlox are native to the United States. They are among the most abundant and showy of all wild flowers. One light lavender species is found commonly in moist woodlands throughout almost the whole north central and northeastern region. Another pink-flowered species grows in dense tufts on rocky ledges. Still others occur in the western states. Different kinds of phlox may occur at high or low altitudes, in areas that are dry, or in those that are moist. Some are annuals; others are perennial. Through many years of cultivation, hybridization, and selection, a very great variety of phlox is now grown in gardens. They are grown as annuals in many colors and forms. Others occupy places in the rock garden. Still others are among the most brilliant and easily grown of the summer perennials. Dozens of varieties have been named. Most of them are easily grown and flower abundantly from spring to autumn.

PINK (pingk) is the common name of a large group of flowering plants known to botanists as Dianthus. Many Dianthus flowers are pink, but the name pink is used to describe the scalloped or “pinked” edges of the flower petals. Pinks are mostly natives of Europe and Asia, where many kinds have been cultivated in gardens for centuries.

Plants of the pink family have stems with swollen joints and leaves growing in pairs on opposite sides of the stems. Flowers of cultivated pinks are white, pink, red, sometimes yellow, and often striped. They may be single or double, alone, or in clusters. Many are sweet-scented.

Cultivated pinks include the carnation, grown more in English, gardens than in the United States. Other garden pinks are: fragrant cottage, or grass pinks; small-flowered, mat-forming maiden pinks; sweet-scented clove pinks; fragrant Cheddar pinks, with blue-gray foliage; scentless China pinks, often grown as annuals; and bunch pinks, such as sweet William, with closely clustered flowers.

Pinks are easy to grow in ordinary garden soil. They enjoy sunshine, but do best in temperate and cool climates. Some are annuals, but most are biennials or perennials.

Pinks are grown from seed or cuttings. Some, sweet William, for example, often self-sow and grow year after year in old gardens or even escape to roadsides and waste places.

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　　IRIS is a flowering plant that has been commonly confused with the lily. Some botanists think that the “lilies of the field” in the biblical lands were irises, and one of the names for the older garden irises means lily.

In Egypt the iris was regarded with reverence. It is named for the Greek goddess of the rainbow. The Moslems, invading Europe, took along plants of a white iris from Arabia to plant on the graves of their dead. It has grown wild ever since in the countries of their conquest long ago flower loving peoples carried other kinds of ones with them in their travels; so it is difficult to tell where in the Old World they grew originally.

Instead of being related to the lily, the iris is a member of a quite different family. Its family also includes the gladiolus, the crocus, and the freesia. The species and other “wild types” of his number more than 200, native to lands north of the Equator. In general, they have flat upright leaves, and flowers with three outer brightly colored sepals, which spread or droop, and three inner petals which in some forms stand upright The bulbous class is represented by the so-called Spanish, Dutch, and English irises. Their blooms are firm in texture, and are not too fragile to be handled in florists’ shops. They with creeping rootstocks are represented by the groups that are familiar in gardens. The bearded irises have hair like brushes, or beards, on their sepals. There are also beardless varieties. “German” irises, none of which came originally from Germany, are an example of the bearded group; and Siberian and Japanese irises, the beardless. Other groups are those of the “cushion” irises, native to the Near East and Egypt, and that of the crested irises, one of which is the famous roof iris of Japan, and another which is an American species. Nearly all American wild irises, such as the common blue flag of marshy places and the dainty California irises are beardless.

Although irises are so little grown for florists, a few have commercial value otherwise; Iris root consists of dried and ground rootstocks of the Florentine and two other European irises. It has long been used in medicine, and is still an ingredient of toilet preparations. The fragrant flowers of the pallid iris are grown in southern Europe as a field crop for the making of perfumery. In the main, however, cultivated irises are garden flowers, grown by amateurs.

The ordinary iris season lasts nearly three months. In the latitude of New York City it opens late in April, when the dwarf bearded irises begin blooming. These are jaunty little flowers, white, yellow, or violet, on stalks 3 to 12 inches tall. In May, as their bloom wanes, the intermediates begin. These also are bearded, and come in the same colors, but are considerably larger and taller. Some of them are hybrids between dwarf and tall varieties or species. Others are types of the iris botanically misnamed germanica. Late in May, when the great tall bearded section begins to bloom, the iris garden becomes a carnival of virtually all the colors that are known among flowers.

At the height of the blooming of the tall bearded varieties, the Siberian irises join in, and late in June, before the last of either have faded, the first Japanese irises open. These are majestic, with broad, soft flowers poised on slender stems. They were patiently developed by old Japan’s gardeners from one medium-sized Far Eastern species.

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HEATH. The word heathen originally meant one who lived on the heath, a term commonly applied to uncultivated land covered with low shrubs. The name heath was given also to any plant growing on the heath, but it is used botanically only for the species of the heath family, the Ericaceae.

Heaths, dunes, and moors have a similar origin and are made up of closely related plants. The shrubs known as heath have small evergreen leaves and bell-shaped four-petal flowers. The common ling, or heather, is the heath that covers the moors and heaths of Great Britain and much of the Continent. It has flowers of a lilac-rose color, rarely white, which grow in spikes. Beehives are carried to the moors during heather blooming time, since the little flowers produce an abundance of honey.

When tender, the plant is used as fodder. Mixed with oak bark, it is used in tanning. Its larger stems are used for brooms. Its small ones are tied into bundles for brushes, while the shoots may be woven into baskets. Heather when decomposed helps to form the peat commonly used for fuel in Europe. It is not this heather but two other species which produce the heather bells of Scottish song and story. There are about 500 species of heath, but none is native to North America. Some African species, however, are widely grown in greenhouses.

HELIOTROPE is any plant belonging to the genus Heliotropium. The name is given also to one species (V. officianalis), called the garden heliotrope, of the genus Valeriana.

More than 220 species of Heliotropium are known. They are all small, herblike or shrub like plants that grow from one to four feet high. They have oval or oblong shaped leaves. Their fragrant flowers, which appear in summer, may be white, violet, or blue. In all the species, the flowers grow in one-sided clusters that face the sun. The plant’s name comes from the Greek words Helios, meaning sun, and Tropos, meaning turn.

Heliotropes are found in temperate and warm climates throughout the world. Several species have been introduced into the United States and grow along the Atlantic Coast and throughout most of the southern states. The common heliotrope (H. arborescens) is popular with florists because of its delicate fragrance. Perfume is sometimes made from various species of heliotrope.

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