THE 
ENGLISH ROCK-GARDEN 
A 
Abronia, a race of very attractive little plants from California, 
of prostrate habit, with heads of flower suggesting a Verbena, though 
in reality they claim no relationship. In cultivation are A. arenaria, 
A. latifolia (yellow), A. fragrans, and A. umbellata (which has 
sometimes been called A. rosea). All four, being Californians, re- 
quire consideration of that fact, and, though not necessarily tender, 
are best adapted for covering some warm and open slope on the sunny 
side of the rock-work in light and sandy soil. They are easily to be 
raised from seed, and are most to be recommended for climates 
warmer and drier than those of the Northerly and Westerly mountain- 
regions of England and Scotland. 
Acaena forms a curious small group among Rosaceae, having some 
affinities with Poterium. The race belongs almost entirely to New 
Zealand, Chile, and the Antarctic Islands, being peculiarly abundant 
in New Zealand. None the less the Acaenas are thoroughly hardy, 
and deserve to be freely used as foliage plants, for tucking into any 
soil, to cover any unconsidered or useless tract of the rock-garden 
in sheets of most beautiful foliage, from which, in due course, spring 
spinous or inconspicuous heads of blossom, quite unattractive except 
in the case of A. microphylla. Their value for furnishing is their 
special merit, and they serve admirably for carpets to Crocus and Col- 
chicum, delicately enhancing the flawless cups that spring through 
their carpet of roseate or blue-grey ferny foliage. They can be raised 
from seed, or multiplied with almost excessive ease by bits pulled off 
and stuck in somewhere else. Many species now appear in lists, but 
often without specific description. Here, then, is an account of what 
may be expected from the best of them : 
(1,919) 1 A 
