AUBRIETIA. 
or hybridised garden forms. And so complete an exception does it 
make, that there is now in cultivation really no room, except in the 
gardens of the most curious, for the original species out of which the 
gorgeous Aubrietias of general cultivation have developed, without 
losing an iota of their native grace and charm, but supplementing it 
with a splendour, hearty yet well-bred, far outshining anything that 
can be shown by most of their parents. 
The species are: A. canescens, lilac; A. croatica, violet blue ; 
A. deltoidea, violet (with variegated-leaved forms, green and “ gold,” 
green and “silver ’—otherwise margined with white or with yellow ; 
A. erubescens, whitish ; A. Hendersonit, violet-reddish ; A. Leichilinii, 
which still holds its head high even in these days of marvellous hybrids, 
for its flowers are very large and of a rich crimson-rose (it has been one 
of the most potent and valuable parents); A. lbanotica, lilac; A. 
olympica, dark purple; A. Pinardw, reddish; A. tauricola, lilac- 
violet to white, with an albino. And it must not be forgotten what a 
debt of gratitude we owe to these, not only for their glorious children, 
but also for their own beauty, even though it now be overshadowed, 
except in the case of A. Leichtlinw (perhaps itself a hybrid). 
Of the hybrids there is no end; every garden has its own named 
forms, and there is no expense more unprofitable than that of giving 
comparatively large sums for some newly-raised Aubrietia seedling, 
when in your own frame, from a packet of seed from some good 
garden strain, you could raise for yourself a whole stock containing 
several plants (at least), which will be quite as good as any pom- 
pously-named novelty. Of these the best are A. Moerheimit, a really 
lovely form, with ncbly-large and ample flowers of soft rose, which 
yields again the most beautiful big-flowered seedlings in tender shades 
of pink and lavender and rich violet ; A. Lavender itself, one of the 
very best, rather tufty and compact, with big well-filled crosses of 
the serenest moonlit lilac-lavender ; Fire King, a result of Leichtlinii, 
of brilliant colour, but sometimes a little thin and straggling in growth, 
inheriting that one fault of A. Leichtlini’s ; Craven Gem, a good purple, 
always in bloom; and, of other imperial violets, a long and ever- 
increasing strain—Pritchard’s A 1, Mrs. Lloyd-Edwards’, Wallace’s, 
Doctor Mules, H. Marshall’s, Potter’s—in fact a named form for almost 
everybody who ever set eyes upon an Aubrietia. Not that one would 
disparage the splendour of the plants themselves, but they are dis- 
honoured by this reckless multiplicity of names. They glorify the 
garden in spring, in sheets of unimaginable violet and rose and 
lavender, such as will make Pinardii or tauricola give up the ghost 
and die; but really it is not worth while to go on so lavishly naming 
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