244 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
very much daintier, with only one or two growths, and 
a fluffy little spire of small pale-yellow flowers. Canali- 
culata, from the Alps, is rather bigger, and both are 
interesting for the bog, to combine with the rather 
similar pink and white spikes of their compatriot, Poly- 
gonum viviparum. As for our rare bog-Orchids, Liparis 
and Malazis, let no one, I would urge, attempt them, or 
nurse hope of growing them. Dull little greenish things, 
they are no great loss; but the same sad advice applies 
to three royally beautiful marsh-Orchids from North 
America—Pogonia, Calopogon, and Arethusa—plants of 
the spongiest, wettest peat-bog, loving to grow in 
cushions of the living Sphagnum, like the Cranberry. 
The Cranberry itself, with flowers like wee crimson 
Cyclamens on thread-like stems, is very pretty and 
harmless for the bog; Andromeda polifolia is larger, 
with rosy bells of blossom, and no less easy. 
Then there are our own native Pinguiculas, vulgaris, 
and the very rare white-flowered alpina, for the same 
facile culture as I have already described for grandiflora. 
But lusitanica and bizarre vallisneriaefoha are too diffi- 
cult for any ordinary garden.  Sitsyrinchiwm anceps is 
an attractive little plant, native to one patch of ground 
in western Ireland, and delightfully free and happy in 
the bog —a small bulbous thing, cousin to all the 
Amaryllids, with grassy foliage, and big stars of bright- 
blue that break from the rush-like stems. This delights 
in wet ground, and seeds itself freely without effort ; and 
altogether is a treasure. Even more glorious is the 
similar, larger bellum, for much the same, or drier 
treatment; and most glorious of all is grandiflorum from 
British Columbia, rush-like and very fine in growth, with 
thready, waving stems that break out in February and 
early March into immense wide pendent bells of an 
ardent silky sheen of violet. This lovely, lovely thing is 
