62 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
of carrying its fine purple spikes long after all the other 
Aubrietias are over. As for Fire King, Dr. Mules, 
Pritchard’s Al, Purple Robe, and the many other named 
forms, they are glorious in colour, but not invariably nor 
everywhere, quite so robust in character as the types, I 
think ; or, perhaps, it is that some of them have a rather 
lax, straggling habit. Speaking generally, the Aubrie- 
tias will bear anything in the way of culture except 
shade and excessive moisture. 
The Arabises, I must frankly confess, I almost detest. 
‘To me they seem rank, coarse, evil-smelling, obstreperous 
creatures. I am now describing Arabis albida and its 
varieties, but no Arabis, think I, has any great beauty. 
No form of albida, not even the double one, is really 
admissible to any small rock-garden; and, even in a large 
one, there are so many better things to fill rough corners 
with, that there is no need to waste space on an 
Arabis. The Alpine tufted species are less tiresome, 
only because less rampageous. Sturit is an uninvited 
guest here, and is still welcome. He came in something 
else, and now has made himself quite at home, a neat- 
habited rosetty thing, with heads of white blossom. 
Arabis lucida variegata is useful too, with shiny rosettes 
very neatly variegated with yellow. And I also grow a 
pretty creature whose name is usually made a battlefield, 
some people calling it Billiardierii rosea (the name I 
bought it under) and others aubrietioeides. 'This last 
name exactly describes it; it has erect spikes of big pale 
pink flowers like an Aubrietia, and also the same woolly 
leaves. It very much dislikes damp, and, on the whole, 
is miffy. As this is the case, why be bothered about 
growing what is, to all intents and purposes, a not con- 
spicuously beautiful Aubrictia, with a far worse constitu- 
tion than any Aubrictia ever raised ? 
Alyssum gives us the precious, little, honey-scented, 
