116 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
real jewels of the race (besides nitida) are two Himialyans, 
ambigua, a dwarf runner, with abundance of big golden 
flowers; and Tongui, frailer, but no less vigorous and 
hardy, even in the open ground, with larger flowers of 
blended salmon and yellow, recalling the pure and subtle 
tones of the Tramonto Rose as you see it on the Ligurian 
Riviera. 
Of the closely kindred Geums, I have already told of the 
dwarf glories, reptans and montanwm. Suffice it here to 
say that our own North countryman, rivale, with pendu- 
lous rosy purple bells, is very pretty, but soon seeds itself 
into a perfect pest; bulgaricum is a fraud, with huge 
flannelly leaves, and dull flower-heads of a ghostly lemon 
colour. Heldreichi and aurantiacum are taller (and there- 
fore by me less beloved) orange-red forms of montanum. 
Remains only rhaeticum, a gem too long misprized. 
Rhaeticum, so robust as to be even a border plant, grows 
tall and slender, with graceful leaves; and bears wide 
loose heads of large flowers, so brilliant, so golden, that 
times without number I have mistaken my plant from 
afar for fine specimens of Linum flavum. Until rhaeticum 
flowered I looked askance on my seedlings, disliking 
gawks; now the plant has come by its own, I make 
amends ; I know few things more bright and lovely. 
As for Waldstemia geoeides, this is next door to a 
Potentilla, and would be a Potentilla in any less sophisti- 
cated age. It runs about wildly all over the place in any 
rough ground, no matter how weedy, and bears abundance 
of pretty yellow flowers in early spring. The Strawberries, 
too, are Potentillas in nearly everything but name, and 
the wild Strawberry is always a welcome visitor on my 
rougher slopes, where its fruits shine temptingly upon 
the wayfarer as he wends up the steep treacherous steps. 
Fragaria lucida has lively big white flowers and shiny 
leaves, while Fragaria indica is a yellow-flowered trailer ; 
