ALCHEMILLA ALPINA. 
is wet or inclement. The especial association of all these should be of 
course with the glowing spires of the earliest and smallest Kniphofias, 
so precious even by themselves, in little groups of delicate aspiring 
flames, on bold high places of the rock-work in August and September. 
Agaveé applanata var. Parryi is a splendid neat-rosetted 
huge Agave from stations so high in the mountains of Arizona that it 
proves hardy in Europe if duly considered in the matter of a dry, well- 
drained, and sheltered position, with, perhaps, in districts especially 
raw, a little protection of bracken or yew-boughs in winter. 
Agrimonia.—Not one of the species of Agrimonia is worth the 
trouble of planting in the garden. 
Ainsliaea, a quaint race of Japanese Composites, of most graceful 
appearance, suggestive of Prenanthes, but often more dwarf and 
fountain-like in effect. The best species are A. acerifolia, dissecta, 
uniflora, and cordata. 
Ajuga, a robust and not very interesting group of Labiates, most 
useful for covering tracts of ground in unconsidered corners. A. 
genevensis, however, with a specially fine deep blue-flowered variety 
Brockbankii, throws out no runners, but sends up in May and June 
loose shaggy spikes of 6 inches or so, revealing flowers of blue or rose, 
and suitable for dry sunny places. A. pyramidalis is much the same, 
but only short-haired, with thicker columns of clear blue blossom. A 
form of this is A. metallica crispa, a very favourite catalogue-plant, 
with smooth curled leaves of a dark and splendid metallic sheen, 
admirably setting off the sapphire blue flowers that peer out from the 
thick-leaved column of the spike. The most useful coverer of dis- 
honourable ground, however, is our own smooth and glossy A. reptans, 
which throws out runners in every direction with feverish rapidity, 
and is profuse, in spring, with its shining leafy columns a-twinkle with 
blue dragons. The type varies indefinitely in colour, and there are 
many named forms, besides a metallic-leafed one, and another of dense 
compact habit. Much less attractive is the Bulgarian A. Laxmannit, 
with small striped blossoms of blue and white. 
Alchemilla alpina, the alpine Ladies Mantle, about the most 
interesting alpine plant produced by the jejune mountains of the 
English Lake-district, is often admitted to the rock-garden on that 
account, no less than because of the beautiful silver sheen on the 
under side of its five- to nine-fingered leaves, gathered into spreading 
mats. However, the spreading mats so freely spread, and the in- 
significant flowers so pitilessly seed, that the garden is likely to be 
happier in the end without Alchemilla alpina. And there is no other 
of its large race that at present has any claim to enter there. 
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