SOLDANELLA. 



S.xHandel-mazettii (S.xAschersoniana, Vierh.) is the hybrid of 

 S. minima and S. montana ; it may be seen on the Austrian limestones, 

 and imagined as being much in the same way as S. xRichteri, the in- 

 fluence of S. pusilla being hero replaced by that of 8. minima. 



S.xGanderi (S. x )Vettsteinii, Viorh.) is the only one of tho hybrids 

 that has yet strayed into catalogues. Tho parents, here, are S. alpina 

 and S. minima, so that their child may be imagined as having very 

 much the same -elfin loveliness as S.xhybrida. The bell, however, 

 though of the same size and dainty streaking, has the yet paler colour- 

 ing contributed by S. minima, and the plant is always to be at once 

 known by the rather long-stemmed leaves, that, on their larger scale, 

 keep exactly tho perfect roundness and salt-spoon effect that is so 

 characteristic of 8. minima. This is not an uncommon hybrid in the 

 Dolomitic limestones of South Tyrol, being found among its parents 

 in great abundance (as are most of the crosses). It is, in effect, like 

 a doubled and tri-flowered S. minima, taller and stouter, with the 

 ampler bell more deeply fringed to half its length. 



S.xneglecta (S.xJancheni, S.x mixta, Vierh.) has 8. minima and 

 S. pusilla for its parents, so that, between beauties so similar, nothing 

 specially distinct could have been expected to emerge in the way of fresh 

 beauty. The flowers, however, solitary on their stems of 3 or 4 inches, 

 are both larger and longer in the bell than either parent's, and the whole 

 plant seems to have developed a special robustness and amplitude in 

 its small way, retaining the salt-spoon leaves of 8. minima, by which 

 chiefly, among the millions of its progenitors, it may be known. It may 

 be seen on the high limestones of the Karawanken, the Hochschwab, 

 &c. ; records of all these hybrids can no doubt be still widely extended, 

 but that of S. X neglecta from the Pasterze is doubtful, as S. minima 

 is not thought to occur in the Hohe Tauern. Of all the species there 

 are, of course, albinoes, especially valuable in the case of 8. montana, 

 and only less so in that of S. alpina ; not so much to be desired among 

 the paler tinier blooms of 8. minima and S. pusilla, though very beauti- 

 ful indeed when you see a mat of those tiny huddled leaves hovered 

 over by little fairy bells so waxen-white that they look as if they were 

 carved from tho snow to which they owe their beauty. Division is 

 the ready means of propagating all Soldanells, which can be taken to 

 pieces with the greatest ease, but only slowly, and with uncertainty, 

 be raised from their abundant seed. All clouding and confusing 

 synonyms have here been given, in due order, to the several species 

 whose personalities obscure each other and multiply in catalogues ; 

 and it is proper also to note that S. crenata and S. sinuata are 

 synonyms for — of all impossible things in the world — Schizocodon 



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