DAPHNE. 
attraction, for, even though it ultimately attains 2 feet or so, its 
owner will probably be a great-grandfather before it does so. 
D. rupestris=D. petraea. 
D. sericea (D. collina, Smith; D. neapolitana, Loddiges), our 
well-known round bush, covered in summer with heads of lilac fra- 
grance silky outside. It differs from D. collina in having thinner 
and less downy stems, while the grey-green leaves that tend to roll 
down at the edge are smaller and not so hairy. JD. sericea is of per- 
fectly easy culture, forming comfortable-looking round puddings often 
2 or 3 feet high; but it has a way of dying off suddenly in parts, 
—a trick which sadly damages the symmetry of its growth. 
D. striata is the commonest and the least attractive of the European 
alpine Daphnes, being of the same growth and habit as C, Cneorum, 
but with flowers of half the size, and no brilliancy at all by compari- 
son, either in shape or colour—sad and dingy tubes of lilac, more 
pallid within. Unlike the rest it is indifferent to its rock, and is as 
abundant on the granites of the Engadine as on the slopes of the 
Pordoi or the Tombea. At the same time this must not be taken 
as meaning that D. striata has no beauty ; only that D. Cneorum and 
D. petraea have so completely spoiled the market for any competitor 
in the same line that one can hardly have eyes afterwards for even 
the neatest mass of D. striata condensed over the face of a rock, and 
hali-hiding it with its delicious flowers of fragrant lilac-pinkness. 
The plant, in point of fact, has indeed been crowded out of catalogues 
by its rivals, and is very rarely grown, but chiefly requires sandy 
and thoroughly stony peat in full sun and air to do nearly as well 
as the rest; though, like all the rest, it resents disturbance, and 
its fat yellow roots have no friendly feeling for the collector. This 
species, however, sets seed ; and inthe Heuthal or on the South side 
of the Bernina its orange berries may be gathered in quantity, and 
should then be sown as soon as possible. Sharp and skilful eyes have 
lately discovered a white form of remarkable beauty on the Grigna, 
and no doubt it may well also be found elsewhere. 
D. tangutica is a species from the East, evergreen, and attaining 
a height of some 24 inches. And that seems about all there is on 
record of Daphne tangutica. But see Appendix. 
D. x Thauma, Farrer, has the romance of high parentage. For it 
is the result of D. striata by D. petraea, found in a lonely colony on one 
precipitous pinnacle of the Cima Tombea in company with a few dying 
tufts of Saxifraga tombeanensis. It has the whole habit of D. striata, 
but is much neater and more compact, and the smaller neater foliage 
has the bright glossiness inherited from D. petraea, The flowers, 
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