ROSA. 



of imperial dark-violet Crocus-blooms in spring, followed by very long 

 thin rashlike leaves that flop about in grassy tangles ; R. rosea is 

 from South Africa, pink, with a yellow eye. and purple lines on the 

 three outer g a ■ ts; and among many others are R. Requieni, R. 

 Candida, R. Linaresii, and. R. rami flora. 



Rosa. — There is no room here to say more than that the rock- 

 garden should not lack R. uJpina, all the prettiest forms of R. spino- 

 sissima, R. altaica, R. dahurica, R. pyrcnaica ; golden little dainty 

 /.'. h._rbcridifoUa Hardyi, with a purple blotch at the base of its petals, 

 making r ilowers look like a Cistus on their dainty arching 



sprays. (It must have a warm place and full sun ; R. berberidifolia 

 is a miff, and so is R. svlfurea.) And there are many others to be 

 admitted, such as neat little R. Sictda, or the long glaucous 

 pinky-blue fine-leaved boughs of R. WiUmottiae ; but all these will bo 

 found amply commented in catalogues, and are in any case adorn- 

 ments for only the largest rock-gardens, and there, though delightful, 

 by no means essential to salvation, as they all tend to be rather 

 tyrannous shrubs, and may well be set apart in ground apportioned 

 for such : but th i pros ra.te R. alp'na is a treasure. 



Roscoea purpurea had never raised its family into any high 

 favour. It is a tub reus Himalayan species, to be planted deep in rich 

 well-drained soil, from which it will send up foot-high stems, sheathed 

 in ample corrugated oval foliage, and ending hi an autumnal spike of 

 dark-purple si range flowers, like a compromise between a Gladiolus 

 and a Cephalanthera. There is also R. sikkimensis. But these 

 rather dim additions to the garden have suddenly been iliunnnated by 

 the moonlight radiance of R. caidlioeides, introduced by Messrs. Bees 

 from China. For this is a plant of quite singular loveliness, thriving 

 readilj' in rich woodland soil, increasing freely, and apparently of 

 perfect hardiness, though it should be planted at least 6 inches deep. 

 In spring the graceful stiff stems arise to the height of a foot, 

 hed here and there with narrow iridaceous leaves of glossy green, 

 that shoot also in long pointed lances from the base. The flowers 

 may be six or seven in a head, opening in succession ; they arc ex- 

 tremely large, with a narrow hood and then a huge bilobed expanded 

 fall or lip, wide and open, and seeming as if cut from the finest of 

 crimpled silk as delicate as that of the most delicate poppy. 

 their colour is of a yellow unparalleled in the garden, uniform, soft 

 and clear, Beeming to contain living luminosity in its texture, but a 

 luminosity more m< flow and pure and cool than that of our crude and 

 dusty daylight here upon earth. Its nearest match is in the lucent 

 citrons of Meccmopsis integrifolia, but here the tone is yet blander 



221 



