310 THE GARDENER. [July 



a greater variety of colour in its species than Alyssum ; but I do not 

 think a more extensive selection would be proper, for though easily- 

 managed hardy plants, only two or three species are far enough removed 

 from weediness to be admitted among ornamental plants. Those in- 

 cluded in the following selection are most easily cultivated, thriving 

 in most soils and in almost any situation. They are, however, most 

 characteristic of rockwork, and even when grown in borders and 

 other flat surfaces have the best effect when raised in hillocks. They 

 are of more straggling growth, if A. lucida is excepted, than the 

 Alyssums, and require a little more attention where trimness and 

 smoothness of surface are required ; but the pegging necessary to 

 secure this object may be turned to account for the purpose of in- 

 crease, as by this means alone, owing to the tendency of all species 

 to strike root from their trailing stems into the ground, if they are 

 kept firmly attached to it, a larger increase may be obtained in one 

 season from a plant than by means of cuttings or division. Cut- 

 tings, if they should be resorted to for increase, require the same 

 treatment as has been already noticed for Alyssum, only the bell- 

 glass is not so indispensable. They must be taken as soon as growth 

 is active, and as they are of an unhandy style — always top-heavy 

 — in the case of the species of the Albida type, as much of the flex- 

 ible cord-like stem should be taken along with the rosette of leaves 

 as is convenient, in order to provide means of fastening the cutting 

 securely in the soil. Seeds also may be used sown out of doors in 

 any spare spot, but only the specific forms may be raised in this 

 way with certainty ; the variegated varieties do not come true. 



A. albida, Sicilian Bock-Cress, syns. A. Caucasica and A. crispata. 

 — This is the best known, and one of the best, of the family. The 

 plant forms diffuse patches of running stems, clothed at the ex- 

 tremities with rosettes of pale-green leaves, wavy and toothed on the 

 margins, and clothed with greyish hairs. Flowers white, in profuse 

 loose panicles about a foot high, appearing in greatest profusion 

 from March till June, but flowering more or less earlier and later 

 than those months. A most valuable plant for spring flower -gar- 

 dening, for rockwork, for the mixed border, and for naturalising on 

 dry banks, about ruins, and in open woods. The variety named 

 A. albida variegata is a beautiful and useful plant for purposes of 

 edging and massing in the flower-garden. There are two distinct 

 forms of this — one with the variegation white, and the plant more 

 weakly and small in all its parts ; in the other, the variegation is 

 yellowish or sulphur, and the plant more robust : both are useful, 

 but the smaller-growing plant is the more elegant of the two. Native 

 of Sicily, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Russia. 



