PARNASSIA. 



P. microcarpum is a diffuse beautiful plant, dwarf and hairy, from 

 sub-alpine heights of Kashmir, with large brilliant flowers. 



P. myosotoeides lives in the cliffs of Crete, and on Lebanon above 

 the Cedars ; it makes a matted mass of tufts, with the leaves all ashy 

 in long pressed-down white hairs ; the stems are 4 inches or half a 

 foot high, unfolding lovely stars of azure and violet-blue. 



P. Reuteri is another great beauty and greatly to be desired. Its 

 home is on the rocks of Berytagh, from 6000 to 10,000 feet, where it 

 makes little masses of soft hoary-giev-velvet oblong foliage, and sends 

 up a lavish number of 6-inch flower-stems, which are either simple 

 or else fork into two branches, carrying large blooms of rich blue-violet. 



P. tibetkum is more diffuse than P. himalaiense, and has bright 

 blue blossoms a trifle smaller than those of P. microcarpum. 



Paradisea Liliastrum is the great Saint Bruno's Lily of the 

 alpine meadows that used to be Anthericum Liliastrum until it was 

 felt that such beauty ought to stand apart. St. Bruno's Lily must 

 be seen in the mountains to be believed ; but, even there, lovely as 

 it is, standing rare and pure (like an understudy for Lilium candidum), 

 here and there in the hay-fields, or in open slopes at the edge of the 

 mountain -woods, it has to be seen at its best before its full value is 

 realised : as when in July it floats in a solid shroud of white over the 

 northern slopes of the Mont Cenis, to lay the splendours of spring to 

 rest in fitting purity and state. Li the garden it is grown too much 

 in isolated specimens, whereas in any rich loam it should be planted 

 by stretches of dozens and hundreds where there is room, and given its 

 old neighbours Campanula rhomboidalis and Lilium Martagon, and the 

 field Geraniums, and Astrantia, and Lilium croceum. Then the slugs 

 will not be able to eat all the spikes, and among the characteristic 

 herbage you will see its tall stems appear in July, hanging out their 

 three or four pure candid trumpets of white, against which (as against 

 the whole plant indeed) the only thing that can be said is that they 

 have an almost too blameless and pietistic look, like something on a 

 text. However, set among the wild herbage the Paradisea looks 

 more appropriate and less preachy, like a clean deed in a rough wild 

 world. It can be easily raised from seed, and clumps divided ; there is 

 a superior form in gardens called P. L. major, which successfully 

 accomplishes its difficult task of improving on the typical St. Bruno's 

 Lily. And meanwhile the odious Saint Bernard has, very properly, 

 to put up with quite an inferior article in Anthericum Liliago, though 

 even such a thing as that, so pretty and innocent, is far too good for 

 the preacher of Crusades. 



Parnassia. — The common Grass of Parnassus is the type of the 



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