DIANTHUS. 
and on the Col de Pesio may be found straggling among the bushes on 
stems almost as long as in D. inodorus, though stiffer and less graceful. 
Ii is here, accordingly, that we can, if we wish, differentiate a second 
species, D. dissimilis, taller in habit, with two or four flowers to the 
stem of 8 inches or so, instead of the shorter stalk, and the solitary 
(rarely two, but never more) flowers of typical D. neglectus, but with a 
throat more or less hairless, as against the invariable fluff in which the 
throat of characteristic D. neglectus is clothed. But these are rather 
idle subtleties for the gardener, to whom D. neglectus will always 
remain one, glorious and indivisible. The plant has a limited range, 
only being found in Dauphiné, the Graians, Cottians, and Maritimes, 
in the upper alps, and so to the uppermost (though never to the highest 
alpine elevations) ; D. glacialis has a wider range, from the Engadine 
away over all the granitic chains to Transylvania; D. alpinus only 
begins in the Salzkammergut, on the high limestones, where it is local 
if not rare, and thence stretches away eastward over the calcareous 
ranges of Styria, and down to the Semmering ; last of all comes D. 
callizonus, dwelling alone among the vampires in the remote seclusion 
of Transylvania. D. neglectus, however, varies in its forms far more 
than D. alpinus or D. callizonus (though this also has worse and better 
forms, while hardly any flower of D. alpinus is surpassable, except by 
its next-door neighbour). Many are the thin stars, many the ragged 
and ruptured wheels of rose that you will find, and many the lanky 
and untidy growers. It is not safe (if you want that very best which 
alone is good enough for good gardeners) to procure D. neglectus at 
haphazard, out of flower. It should either be picked out at a show, 
or selected amid the far more enormous display on its own hills. (And 
this truth applies to all the race.) But the colour hardly ever alters 
by a shade, nor the delicate nankeen reverse that so enhances it. 
In nature D. neglectus runs riot with runners from its central tap, 
often wandering threadily here and there through the grasses, and 
coming up in tufts that are almost indistinguishable; but in the 
garden its tendency is to sit tight in its place, and there make a tufiet . 
the size of a dinner-plate, hidden from sight in June by its round 
patines of pink on 6-inch stems springing all in a mass of glory 
together. 
D. nitidus, in another style, is well worthy of praise—a neat cushion 
of prostrate shoots, forming a mat with weakish bluntish little narrow 
leaves, one-nerved, and of very brightly-shining green, with a suspicion 
of hairy fringe at their base; and then short stems of one inch only, 
perhaps (or as many as four) each carrying one or two buds, with 
short calyces of dark purple or black, from which issue blossoms of a 
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