SAXIFRAGA. 



logged hollows on the Col de la Croix., it is hardly ever that an indi- 

 vidual b!o ins the passer-by with especial brilliancy of colour 

 or rotundity of form. Far better varieties can be Been in a day on 

 the Yorkshire fells than in weeks if not years of the central Alps. 

 The following is a list of some more recognised developments, often 

 offered in catalogues as species ; but it must be borne in mind that some 

 of the most lovely forms of the type are nameless, sent home by . 

 eyed collectors long since, who went for themselves, and were not 

 content with hiring some German botanist to go and rake up a few 

 thousand indiscriminate Oppositifolias out of flower. Some of these 

 older importations, now grown into vast masses in many a garden, 

 are superb beyond expression, sheeted with upstanding cups of very 

 Large and comely -formed blossoms, often of a soft cheer}- pink that 

 conquers the aniline-magenta tone which is so general a drawback to 

 the species in the individual — though not in the mass, as you see it 

 glowing far above you in cushions among the rippling and glittering 

 water-courses from the melting snow. 



S. opp. alba. — This is an albino from the worst European type ; a 

 thing mean in the star and dingy in the colour, suggesting, when in 

 flower, an inferior Arenaria. If an albino could be found among the 

 good forms, it would indeed be a treasure. This straggly weed, how- 

 ever, is no such thing. 



S. opp. blepliarophyUa has curious large oval concave leaves, 

 without a keel at the back, and fringed almost to the top with long 

 incurving hairs. 



S. opp. latina is a pre-eminent variety, to be known by the extra- 

 silvery look of its extra-huddled foliage. The flowers are especialiy 

 large and brilliant, even among the best. 



S. opp. Murithiana is often sent out as 8. pyrenaica. This is the 

 dominant form in the Central and Western ranges of the Alps, and 

 the least effective. However, the Pyrenees are supposed to be fertile 

 in better varieties of it, and certainly the plants sent out under the 

 name of »S'. pyrenaica by nurserymen are incomparably finer in all 

 their forms than the prevalent type of S. opp. Murithiana. They an* 

 nobly free and large in growth, nobly free and large in upstanding cups, 

 ample and well-rounded, of bright and beautiful rose-pink flov. 

 darker or lighter. There is also a variety called S. opp. coceinea. frailer 

 in growth, with blazing blossoms which, however much they blaze, can 

 a name that ought to be reserved for the most furious 

 blood-scarlets; another, S. opp. sphndens ; another, called C 

 variety ; another, called the Wetterhom variety, of tight and cush 

 habit ; Ingleborough, besides typical large and pale-flowered S. 



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