106 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
where nothing else is wanted, but does not deserve any 
choicer entertainment. The white Herb-Robert is a 
charming little Albino, but a perfect brute for seeding 
itself all over the garden; and Geraniwm Lowi seems to 
me nothing but an enormously-magnified, coarsened form 
of the common Herb-Robert ; while Richardsoni, that I 
had from the Rockies on high recommendation, is only 
a weed, like a smaller, neater pratense, with nothing but 
dull, whitish flowers, poorer than striata’s. 
Only botanical differences, really, separate the Stork’s 
Bills from the Crane’s Bills. The Erodiums are a race 
of heat-loving Southerners, which seem admirably 
amenable to well-drained cultivation. They have no 
very commanding brilliancy, but an extraordinary per- 
sonal charm which puts them very high indeed among 
rock-plants for a sunny corner. Their leaves are ferny, 
finely-divided, sometimes aromatic, sometimes silvery ; 
their flowers, few at a time on long-stalked heads, are 
generally in very delicate colours, and sometimes most 
exquisitely painted and feathered. 'The only absolute 
dwarf I know is the charming Erodiwm Reichardi, whose 
proper name is said to be chamaedryoeides. As life, how- 
ever, is short, I shall continue to economise it by speaking 
of Erodium Reichardt. He makes the neatest, roundest 
flat tufts of stalked wee heart-shaped leaves, and then 
sends up, each on a two-inch stem, innumerable pure white 
flowers, continuing all summer through. He comes from 
Majorca, and I regret to say some of my plants seem to 
have died in the open last winter, though the larger, 
Levantine Stork’s Bills are coming up as gaily as ever. 
These are all exquisite, and all enjoy the same, well- 
drained, dryish treatment, though even here they seem 
as vigorous as Dog’s Mercury. Chrysanthum has pale 
sulphur flowers; guttatwm, white and blotched; macra- 
denium, pink and pelargonium-like, with patches and 
