EPILOBIUM. 
its kind and habit, it resents the mutilation of its woody roots, and is 
usually sent out from nurseries in small over-divided pieces, with no 
possibility of staying power. If, however, good sods of it are got from 
America the plant is still not always easy to make happy in England, 
requiring a light and leafy soil (which is easy enough), but being also 
so devoted to shade that nothing can well be too dense for it ; and in the 
end, the best chance of making it produce its flowers is to grow it in a 
place where there will be no possibility of your ever seeing them. 
However, in April and May, if not earlier, you will suddenly be made 
aware of them by their scent as you pass by. It is not easy of pro- 
pagation either, coming grudgingly from seed, resenting division, and 
chiefly capable of multiplication by cuttings carefully struck in sand 
about the end of the summer. 
Epilobium.—A most fearsome race of rampant weeds, usually 
either 5 feet high or perfectly flat upon the floor, but in all cases weeds 
of the worst, even when pretty. The Alps, however, give us two 
charming species for a stony place where they will be in no one’s 
way. Of these H. Fleischeri, Hochst (#. dodonaei, Vill.), is very 
familiar in all the shingles of the alpine river-beds, which it fills with a 
haze of rose in August. This is a delicate branching plant, about 
half a foot or 9 inches high, set with fine dainty narrow leaves of 
glossy green, and bearing loose clouds of large pink crosses, between 
the petals of which appear the reddish vandyke-brown sepals, thus 
giving the star a special richness. This can only be acquired in its 
home by seed, as its root, woody, dark and devious, wanders so in- 
satiably far down among the barren round boulders. Less commonly 
seen is taller, airily graceful H. rosmarinifolium, whose sheaves may be 
seen waving, for instance, among the red porphyry rocks in the bed 
of the Hisak, going up from Waidbruck towards the close-impending 
Schlern, and the rolling fields of villas at its feet. H. rosmarinifolium 
has tall plumes of narrow foliage topped with loose spires of blossom 
as brilliant asin the last. But here the roll-call of admissible European 
EKpilobiums ends ; for no one is so temerarious as to admit H. hirsutum 
or EL. angustifolium, in any of their forms of pink or white—at least 
if they have any wish or hope for future peace in the garden. 
Of Dwarf Willow-herbs it is New Zealand that is especially prolific, 
our own not being worth the trouble of getting into the garden, though 
well worth the far greater trouble of getting them out of it again. 
The New Zealanders are prostrate rambling small plants, with flat and 
often glossy leaves, and sometimes rather pretty flowers of pink or 
white, uprising from the carpet. They thrive in any cool shady corner 
especially well, and seed themselves everywhere, but are not so im- 
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