IKISH GARDENING. 



171 



Of tile same bluod as C. garganica^ are C. 

 Elatines and C. Elatinoides with crinkly leaves, 

 either smooth or hau'y, and smaller, flat star- 

 shaped flowers produced all along the octopus- 

 like arms, which radiate from the fleshy root- 

 stock. Both these Campanulas mvist be grown 

 in rock crevices in full sun and protected in 

 spring from slvigs. The new C. Istriaca is another 

 garganica cousin, and a most beautiful plant 

 with grey-green, slightly hairy leaves and good 

 sized starry lavender jjurple flowers. This plant 

 seems the least susceptible to damp of any of the 

 hairy Oampanvilas, and I have it growing in open 

 stony soil ; it is slow of mcrease, and is at present 

 extremely rare. C. rui)estris has lovely blue, 

 silver hairy foliage and blue flowers. It is, I 

 fear, only a biennial, and my jjlants do not seem 

 to have set sound seed. C. fragilis and its white 

 form have deep, green crinkly leaves and wide 

 open cups on radiating flower stems. These 

 seem curiously brittle, and the plant is especially 

 slug-beloved. I hate growing plants with zinc 

 rings round them, but by no other method can I 

 keep C. fragilis. Last of the garganica clan comes 

 C acutangula with tiny ivy-shai)ed leases and 

 stai-ry flowers like those of a tiny garganica, but 

 held upright on 2 or 3 inch thread-like stems, the 

 ll()\\ers being of a distinct red purple. The foliage 

 diis away as the flowers fade, but in a few weeks 

 lime a fresh green carpet of leaves springs up ; 

 it Ikus not been a conspicvious success in moraine, 

 but runs about freely in an open situation in very 

 stony soil, and in one place now lills a yard wide 

 l)ocket. In a recent note of Mon. Correvon's 

 1 observe that he doubts whether the plant 

 which we grow under this name is the same as 

 that which he grows, and which apparently he 

 has had for some time, and which from his 

 descrij)tion seems to be larger in growth and 

 floAver. 1 have not yet seen his plant, but I 

 believe all the C. acutangula m cultivation in the 

 British Isles were propagated from the plants 

 collected some four years ago in the Sierra 

 Nevada, and distributed by Svmdermann ; what- 

 ever it may really be, it is a most delightful and 

 easily-grown plant, and possibly one of the best 

 C*ampanula novelties of recent years. 



C*. Abietina makes a close mat of bright green 

 foliage, and bears on rather tall stems large bells 

 of a distinct red purple ; it needs rich soil and 

 frequent division if it is to flower freely, and 

 division should take i^lace in spring when its 

 growth is just commencing. If divided in 

 autumn, slugs are a])t to attack it before it makes 

 new roots ; it likes to have a low stone to grow 

 over, and is not appreciated as much as it 

 deserves, chiefly Tthink on account of its require- 

 ments not being fviUy understood- I received 

 from J.issadeil this season seed <>f a Campanula 

 named C. Abiethui var. Mt. Vitosch. I have not 

 seen it in flower, but its foliage is quite distinct, 

 being larger and looser. C. Steveni is a near 

 relation with upright bells of a beautiful soft 

 mauve, sometimes only three -])etalled, it has a 

 white coimterpart and an even ])rettier dAvarf 

 form — -var. nana. AH three I lind not easy to 

 kee]> through the winter, and slugs seem 

 esju'cially fond of them. 



('. ])usilla is a delightful weed which jnust be 

 kept from choicer things, as it sjireads very 

 ra])idly by means of imdergrouiul runners. The 

 tyi)e has small lieart-shaiied green leaves and 

 nodding tubular blue bells on wiry stems ; its 



white variety is even damtier. There is a taller 

 form with larger bells of deeper blue and two 

 forms with bells of a pale moonlight blue, one of 

 which is sent out as C. Willmottae. Then I have 

 a delightful little dwarf form I found intertwined 

 amongst some Saxifrages collected for me which 

 has .very distinct shallow, wide, open cvip-like 

 bells of deep blue with recvirving edges. This 

 is worthy of a distinctive name, but has not yet 

 received one. The trvie C. c8esi>itosa I always 

 imagined to dift'er froui C. pusilla only in growth, 

 making " tvifts " instead of undergroimd rimners, 

 but Mr. Irving, of Kew, who was recently in my 

 garden, recognised a plant with small narrow 

 tvibular bells — rather consti'icted at the mouth^ — - 

 as C. csespitosa. I got this plant under the 

 name of C csespitosa var. Venzioi. 



C excisa approaches C Stenocodon in growth, 

 but its narrow flowers with their piei'ced lobes 

 are most distinct. In a previous article vipon 

 Campanulas I dwelt upon the difflculty of 

 keeping this plant, remai'king that even in places 

 where it was reported to be growing like a weed 

 one season it mysteriously disappeared the next. 

 I think it was two or three years ago that I wrote 

 thus, and, as I anticii)ated, I at once received 

 letters from an enthusiast who could not imder- 

 stand my ditficultii-s with C. excisa, statmg that, 

 with him, it " grew like a weed." My enthusiast 

 was Mr. H. E. Bichardson, of Lisl)urn, who, 

 despite the unfavourable climatic coiiditions of 

 his locality, is a wonderfully successful grower of 

 alpines. He generously offered to send me a 

 sui)ply, and when it came to hand I planted some 

 of it according to his instructions and somo of it 

 in loose peat, sand and leaf-mould. At the 

 present moment one tiny bit is alive in granite 

 moraine and a line j^iece in the peat, but all the 

 rest is dead, and I have no abiding expectation of 

 seeing any of it pushmg up fresh growth next 

 spring. I received also, as I antici])a(c(T. ai)othcr 

 letter from Mr. Bichardson this year to sa\ (hat, 

 alas ! nearly all his C. excisa had disa|i|)cai-cd. 

 1 have therefore nothing to I'etract from A\hat I 

 said of this niost cvirious plant two years ago. 

 I have never been fortvinate enough to follow its 

 growth for two consecutive years in its native 

 habitat, and can, therefore, only svippose that 

 there are certain constituents in the soil which 

 it needs, and which, not being present in large 

 qviantities, it soon exhausts. By no other 

 supposition can I account for its habit of dymg 

 away in one corner and coming up strongly in 

 another. It certamly seems to aislike lime, and 

 as certamly seems to approve of leaf-mould and 

 peat,. and the only further suggestion 1 can make 

 is that one should lift it annually immediately 

 after flowering, and by replantmg it again in 

 fresh soil give it a chance to make fresh growth 

 and gain strength before its resting i)eriod — 

 spare bits might also be kept in pots for siH'ing 

 ])lanting. It is possibly because the majority 

 of nurserymen divide up their pot jjlants annually 

 that one does not hear more complaints from 

 them (although I think Stansiield wrote me 

 two years ago that he had lost a lot of it. I 

 wonder wlu'ther his ])lants had been divided and 

 rejjotted that year V) It seems absurd that one 

 should be outwitted by a plant that is ai)parei\tly 

 so robust, but in any case one must go on tryhig, 

 as C. excisa is t<io distinct a Cami)aniila for us 

 to lose. 



{To be voiiliniied.) 



