SEXECIO. 



rounded lobes ; the flowers are yellow, gathered in heads on stems of 

 some 4 to 8 inches (it is found by some cultivators to have a special 

 tendency to rot oS at the neck) ; S. Boissieri. from the Alps of Granada, 

 is a tight silky-silver turret with rayless blossoms on stems of 2 or 3 

 inches ; 5. incanus is the common silver-grey Groundsel-cushion of 

 all the high Alps, very pretty in the deep-toothed oval little leaf, and 

 perfectly boring in the flower ; S. carniolicus is like it, but of a greener 

 grey, much larger and longer in all its parts., with shallower lobes to 

 the drawn-out leaves ; 8. uniflorus is a higher alpine, from the 

 summit -ridges, packed and small,, with foliage especially white and 

 not so specially lobed, and one large orange-golden bloom sitting 

 close to the tuft on a short stem — the best effort of the group in the 

 way of blossom. While S. trifurcatus. probably the prettiest of all, 

 exactly suggesting a pale-yellow Chrysanthemum alpinum. so far 

 baffles our hopes by lingering coyly in the marshes of Tierra del 

 Fuego. 



But the hills have far richer things to give us in the fine-leaved 

 alpine Groundsels. These form almost woody root -stocks, flopping 

 or creeping over the high-alpine and sub-alpine turf in stony places, 

 with bright dark-green foliage, lucent and hairless, very finely cut 

 and curled and feathered. In S. adonidifolius, the least worthy of 

 the group., the stems are about 8 inches high, and the flowers are of 

 brilliant yellow, but the whole effect of the plant is not so brilliant as 

 in S. abrotanifolius from the Engadine and Eastern ranges, which 

 flounders about with its shoots that may be a foot long, ferny with 

 dark glossy emerald leaves., and with loose upcast heads of a few nobly 

 large and well-built blossoms in the most glorious shade of orange 

 flame-colour, making the finest possible comparison in the garden, 

 when established in light rich peaty soil, well-drained and nourished 

 and helped with stones, in company of Campanula alpina or C. 

 rotundifolia — or (as is the fashion that is so beautiful in the high turf 

 of the Engadine) scattering its furious scarlet suns under the hang- 

 ing pale bells of Campanula barbate. But much more valuable and 

 choice even than this last., and quite the most precious of its race for 

 the rock-garden, is 5. tyrolensis. replacing the last (and perhaps only 

 a variety) on the limestones of the Southern and Eastern Alps, most 

 general in the Dolomites. It is much neater and more compact in 

 habit, with smaller more finely, tightly-curled fern -fronds of glossy 

 emerald, and the same fiery splendours of flower hi rather ampler 

 heads upon less straggling sprays. This is a real treasure for any 

 choice place and companionship, its colour loudly clamouring for pale 

 Campanulas to cool it. The flowering moment is in June and July; 



355 



