110 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
do well. It is a slow grower, and its synonym is Anthyllis 
Erinacea, a rare, difficult plant to get hold of, though 
now I have one very fine specimen firmly established in 
rich warm loam on a sheltered corner of a sunny bank. 
The Rest-harrows make dwarf shrubs, and are coveted 
by many, though I myself have little enthusiasm for them. 
They are a little coarse and undistinguished to my taste, 
though their golden or rose-red flowers are undeniably 
effective. Fruticosa, Natrix and rotundifolia seem the 
best; and thrive in any good sunny place. ‘To my mind, 
though, they have a good deal of leaf to not quite 
enough flower, as a rule. 7 
Astragalus is a large race, containing many valueless 
weeds, and a few good things, of which Astragalus mon- 
spessulanus, with its variety albus, is almost the best. 
This Vetchling roams about on the ground, with hand- 
some rose-crimson spikes of blossom. <Ambiguus is a 
seedling of which I have great hopes. His foliage is pure 
silver, his habit neat and sub-shrubby. And his flower 
is to be rosy-pink, But he seems very slow to flower. 
Alpinus is handsome, but I have never possessed him. 
(With rare exceptions, I must say that the Papilionaceae 
don’t excite in me any very keen interest.) T'ragacanthus 
is a strange, thorny creature from the Mediterranean 
coasts, rather curious than lovely. Our own native trailer, 
though, Hypogiottis, is distinctly pretty, and I have just 
got seed, too, of an undescribed Astragalus mongolicus, 
on the usual gambler’s blind chance of finding a beauty ; 
but indeed, these Milk Vetches, for the most part, are 
coarse and dowdy plants. All, without exception, I 
believe, thrive in open, sandy, sunny places, and their 
finest species is Astragalus Vandasii, a rarity from Servia, 
loving a hot dry bank, and making a mass of prostrate 
branches, richly covered in the summer with spikes of 
brilliant rose-purple flowers. In his weedy order Astra- 
