PYROLA. 



Fyrola. — Wlien once these are obtained in good sound pieces, 

 rooted and ready, they are all quite content and hearty in light wood- 

 land soil at the fringe of bushes, in cool aspects, where they will spread 

 heartily and give more joy from year to year. Unfortunately it is 

 very difficult so to obtain them, owing to their odious habit of running 

 through their native forests in long, fibreless runners like fine macaroni, 

 that never stop to rest, and offer no opportunity to the collector, and 

 are shy about striking out fresh life for themselves. Even in pots 

 they are most deceptive ; for the clump of evergreen foliage is im- 

 mortal ; you take up the pot which for months has had a goodly glossy 

 tuft of Pyrola sprouting from it, and which is obviously, therefore, 

 ready by now to be put out, having clearly filled its receptacle with new 

 roots. Out it accordingly goes, and lo, there is .still nothing more than 

 2 inches of inert spaghetti (exactly as the nurseryman potted the shoot 

 a year ago), on which the clump has immovably lived, but made no 

 preparations for a fresh start. If, however, sound plants can be got, 

 the best species are : P. rotundifolia (perhaps the best of all), a rare 

 native, and most abundant in open stony and bushy places on the 

 Alps, where it is perpetually being picked as a summer-flowering Lily 

 of the Valley. Especially ample are its tufts of long-stemmed, leathery, 

 round leaves, dark and glossy, and its sturdy spire of 10 inches or a 

 foot, well furnished with fine white waxen cups with style and anthers 

 of orange scarlet. Very similar is the American P. asarifolia, but 

 that the duller leaves are not only round, but lobed at the base on 

 either side of their stalk But this has a variety which is the loveliest 

 thing in the race, P. a. incarnata (P. uliginosa, Torrey), indistinguish- 

 able in vigour and stature, but with bells of the most exquisite true 

 and tender waxy pink, clear and strong and clean and rich in colour 

 as raspberry cream. P. media and P. minor are smaller stages of 

 P. rotundifolia,' as far as the garden is concerned, though P. minor 

 is distinct by a very short, instead of a very long style ; while P. media, 

 though much nearer to P. rotundifolia and with a style as long, wears 

 it nearly straight instead of violently curved. Inferior in value 

 are P. arenaria, P. elliptica, P. chlorantlia, and P. secunda, with bells 

 that verge towards a greenish tone, as is also the case with the plant 

 one buys with hoping heart as P. picta, which turns out only to be 

 Chiniaphila, and only " picta " so far as white mottlings on the dark 

 leaves go, instead of having the rose-painted waxen face that one 

 had hoped. P. umbellata is also Chimaphila, q.v., and the sweetest of 

 all has struck out a line of its own so distinct that it is usually set 

 nowadays in a race to itself as Moneses grandiflora. This is P. 

 uniflora, which may often be seen in the moss-banks round the stones 



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