OF ODD TREASURES 141 
Alexandri. This is hardy and vigorous, quite small and 
low in leaf, with a very stodgy, important-looking spike 
of pinkish flowers about a foot high or more. Except 
for its quaintness and rarity, I do not think this a very 
wonderful plant; it has not the choice brilliancy of an 
Alpine, while it has lost the tropical grandeur of the 
typical Acanthus. 
Glossocomia, Codonopsis, and Cyananthus are cousins of 
the Campanulas, which deserve a place to themselves. 
I will not pretend to distinguish between the indistin- 
guishable Glossocomia and Codonopsis. ‘They are flaccid, 
rather loose-growing herbaceous things, with nodding, big 
bells of blossom, which vary infinitely from one packet of 
seed ; the prettiest, very pretty indeed, of a soft green-blue, 
with brilliant, many-coloured gold and blue markings 
inside. The most frequently grown plant is called ovata, 
but I believe the true ovata is very rare in cultivation, 
and I am anxiously awaiting flowers from the seed of it 
that was given me last season. ‘Then there are two or 
three other species or forms, of which I am rearing seed- 
lings, of viridiflora, ussuriensis, and Tang-sheng. 'They 
are all quite hardy, and ought to be planted high, high 
up on the rockery, so that their pendent bells with the 
quaint interior markings can nod down at you in all their 
delicate beauty. 
And now we come to a race indispensable beyond all 
other indispensables for the rock-garden. For who will 
deny this claim to the dwarf Phloxes, to the innumerable 
cheerful family of setosa and subulata? Of the species 
I grew caroliniana, a vigorous trailer that runs about all 
over the place, in any ordinary loam, sending up heads 
of rosy pink flower, large and bright even in the late 
autumn, after a gorgeous display in the spring. Pilosa 
and Douglasi are rather rare, sand-loving plants, very 
pretty and choice, but not making any attempt to rival 
