DRYPIS SPINOSA. 
Rockies, where it forms mats and masses in the shingle, exactly like 
those of D. octopetala, except perhaps that the leaves are greener, and 
stand more erect. The most delirious expectations are roused by its 
habit, no less than by the knowledge that it-has flowers of golden 
yellow ; and are not damped by the profusion with which their hanging 
buds appear over the carpet. And then—nothing more ever happens ; 
those flowers never open, never rise up to take the daylight on their 
golden faces. D. Drummondii is therefore a plant of no value in 
the garden ; but Stindermann has lately sent out D. x Suendermannii, 
a hybrid of the most cheerful and vigorous habit, which ought to 
combine the vigour and rich wide saucers of its one parent, D. 
octopetala, with something of the golden colouring of its too coy and 
unmanly father, D. Drummondui. The whole family is of a pedigree 
and antiquity so dizzying that D. octopetala is even found as a fossil 
in the frozen heart of the world. 
Drypis spinosa is a little branching, thorny-leaved bushling 
of vivid glossy-green leafage, for the hottest of dry places, where it 
covers itself in summer with small white flowers after the fashion of 
microscopic pinks. 
E 
Ebenus Montbretii is a woody-rooted Steppe-species, for a warm 
and stony corner, forming neat low masses of foliage (that endures for 
three or four years), and emitting in summer a profusion of round heads 
of purple pea-blossoms, richly clothed in longish hair. Not unlike an 
Astragalus, its cousin, either in look or needs. 
Echeveria. See under Cotyleden Purpusii. 
Echinocereus. See under Opuntia, for all the hardier Cacta- 
ceous possibilities. 
Echium.—The giant Echiums of Teneriffe are gorgeous and 
tropical-looking splendours, usually monocarpous ; but, though some 
of them prove hardy, they hardly come within the scope of the rock- 
garden, unless upon the boldest and highest ledges of the biggest, in 
warm and sunny parts of England. Such are Z. simplex, EH. fastuosum, 
and many more. But £. albicans from Spain is a hardy perennial 
from half a foot to 18 inches high, with handsome stars of rosy-pink 
that pass to a rich violet. For the one true rock-garden treasure 
that has ever borne this name, see Lithospermum petraeum. 
Edraianthus has only minute barriers to separate it from Cam- 
panula and Wahlenbergia; for the sake of convenience we will here 
322 7 
