ANDROSACE. 
of less; Pseudo-Primula, loose and soft, should be tried in a light 
soil, cool and rich, not exposed to excess of sun or wind, nor allowed 
to suffer from extremes of cold in-winter, or stagnant moisture. 
Chamaejasme offers least difficulty of the lot, and gives the most 
abounding reward—most of the species responding freely to treatment 
in any light sandy soil, well-drained and enriched with chips. They 
answer, too, especially to the conditions of the moraine. Rather 
more sand and a warmer exposure is perhaps indicated for the Indian 
species in climates of especial rigour, though in most districts they 
tend to ramp even excessively. As to the Aretias, vain is any hope 
that we shall ever desist from the effort to grow them—they are so 
incomparably charming ; and one well-flowered clump of A. helvetica 
or A. x Heerz is well worth its long line of dead and vanished prede- 
cessors. ‘This section is undoubtedly very difficult, with the precise 
difficulties that attended the cultivation of Eritrichium ; for the high- 
alpine Aretias, especially the woolly ones (the smooth-leaved species 
are infinitely less troublesome), require a long period of dead and 
absolute rest if they are to tide over the winter and harden their 
souls to a properly generous display of flower again in spring. And 
such conditions of firm drought from November to April are just those 
most difficult of attainment in cultivation; even in the best built 
garden it is not possible to avoid the cireumambient miasma of wet 
that winter brings, even by roofing over the plants with glass, which 
may avert immediate rain-drops indeed, but cannot dry the corroding 
damp of the atmosphere, so keenly resented by those dense fluffy 
tufts that are longing to go to rest, instead of which they have to 
remain awake and act reluctantly as living sponges. And to make a 
high-alpine Androsace do anything reluctantly, is to make it retire as 
firmly and promptly from the world as a cat retires from a chair in 
which it has been placed against its will. However, love and care 
never go eternally unrewarded ; overhanging dry stations can be found 
in the garden, and some of the Aretias are more easily grateful than 
the others. No one need ever despair, so long as the clumps have 
their perfect drainage, their firm and immovable position in a sunny 
crevice of rock (or in good moraine, perhaps), and their due protection 
against damp in winter. And the more complete the plant’s winter 
rest, the more prone will it be to show its alpine generosity and 
brilliancy of blossom when summer wakes it again to life. With too 
many alpines, imperfect rest, as with too many human beings, leads 
to a scanty and pallid efflorescence in the next morning of their life. 
With regard to propagation, nearly all the species of the Chamac- 
jasme section throw runners readily and can be endlessly multiplied ; 
41 
