ROMULEA. 



Rindera canescens is a Borragineous plant from the Levant, 

 close to Cynoglossum and Mattia, with greyish foliage and reddish 

 flowers. R. cyclodonta, from the high granites of Turkestan, is only 

 half a foot high, and hairless, with narrow-oblong leaves. 



Rodgersia. — All these are superb, alike for foliage and for bloom, 

 and are the delight of the rich border by the waterside, where they all 

 thrive vastly. In R. aesculifolia, from China, the noble glossy crinkled 

 green foliage is like that of a huge horse-chestnut, and the rose-white 

 plumes of blossom stand a yard high, almost suggesting elongated spires 

 of Saxifraga longifolia ; R. pinnata has similar, more bronzed foliage, 

 more finely divided, and the flowers are borne more aloft in a looser 

 feather of pink or white ; R. podophylla has plumes like those of a 

 richer Spiraea Aruncus, in tiers of foamy crests above mahoganised 

 metallic-shining foliage, of which all the lobes are deeply cut with 

 picturesque teeth ; R. sambucifolia has dark-green leaves like an 

 Elder's, and spires of creamy-white ; and R. tabularis has the hugest 

 leafage of all, like that of a limp green Lotus or Saxifraga peltata — 

 round umbrellas, scalloped irregularly at the edge, while far above 

 them, on tall naked stems, wave small feathers of white blossom. All 

 these bloom in summer and onwards ; all are easy to divide and to 

 raise from seed. See Appendix. 



Rohdea japonica, a Liliaceous plant of Japan for any half- 

 shady place of which it may be thought worthy, with tufts of ever- 

 green leathery foliage 2 feet high or so, and little white bells among 

 the leaves, succeeded by red berries. 



Romanzoffia sitchensis is usually confused with Saxifraga 

 ranunculifolia, the one being a Hydrophyllad and the other a Saxifrage. 

 The true species makes tufts of stalked kidney-shaped scalloped leaves, 

 about 3 inches high, dark-green, and brown underneath ; the flowers 

 are small white stars in branches unfurling like the tail of a scorpion ; 

 whereas in R. unalaschkensis the spike is dense and incurling and 

 one-sided. Both can easily be grown in the damper parts of the rock 

 garden on its shady side. 



Romulea, a race of small and delicate bulbs that send up in 

 spring their flowers, like Crocus, often of the most gorgeous deep 

 violet. They are not trustworthily hardy except in the warmest soil 

 of the warmest driest places ; though they will live elsewhere, if planted 

 far down, they do not flower properly nor make headway. R. 

 Columnae, which is wild on the Warren at Dawlish (though never 

 noted by Mr. Robert Ferrars), is unfortunately a dowdy and ugly 

 little thing, like many ; the best we have are the best forms of R. 

 Bidbocodium, which in some southern gardens is glorious with clumps 



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