CANDY-TUFT. 267 



The narrow-leaved evergreen species, semper- 

 virens, is indigenous to the rocky grounds of the 

 island of Candia, and was first brought to this 

 country in the year 1731, and cultivated at the 

 Chelsea Garden in 1739. These kinds of Candy- 

 tuft seldom ripen their seed in our climate, but they 

 are easily propagated by planting the slips or cut- 

 tings in the summer, observing to keep them 

 watered and shaded from the sun, until they have 

 taken root. If these plants are set in a rich earth 

 they are apt to grow too luxuriantly, and become 

 so full of moisture as not to be able to endure the 

 winter ; therefore, if the soil is of that nature where 

 the clumps are to be formed, a mixture of lime rub- 

 bish should be added, which causes their branches 

 to become more woody, and consequently better 

 able to resist the frost. 



The purple Candy-tuft, Iberis umbellata, and 

 the common white or bitter species, amara, are 

 raised by sowing the seeds in patches early in the 

 spring, which should be repeated every month until 

 July, and by this means a succession of flowers may 

 be obtained. It is a desirable plant to sow on 

 banks and in the front of taller-growing flowers, 

 ■where it makes a conspicuous figure until the end 

 of the summer, when its site may be occupied by 

 the latest-flowering annuals. 



These latter kinds of Candy-tuft are apt to come 



