GEUM. 
Gerbera Jamesonii is not in place among alpines, nor hardly, 
unless with precautionary fusses which its spidery and artificial beauty 
does not entitle it to receive, in the garden at all. “As for the Asiatic 
Gerberas, GG. piloselloeides, nivea, lanuginosa, Anandria, and Kunzeana, 
these indeed are hardy, but instead of an artificial beauty have a wholly 
natural ugliness that disqualifies them no less for the garden, being 
dowdy little weeds after the style of Homogyne alpina, with nothing 
that even enthusiasm can say for them, except that the cottony re- 
verse that some of them have to their dark and shining leafage has a 
certain value. And we do not possess any other of the South Africans, 
some of which, such as the purple-flowered G. asplenifolia and G. 
Elsae, might well be beautiful, if one had any hope that they would not 
prove tender as well. 
Geum.—Many and bad are the bad Geums, and very good the 
good. In almost all cases any quite ordinary soil and sunny situation 
suits them; and they flower freely through the summer, and can 
readily be raised from seed. 
G. Borisii, from Bulgaria, has merit in the rock-garden, producing 
flowers of brilliant yellow on stems of only 6 inches. 
G. bulgaricum is a worthless plant when true, forming tufts of 
immense leaves like washed-out green flannel, among which appear 
clusters of bloodless little pale-yellow flowers. But there is a false 
plant under this name newly come into cultivation, which promises 
to be magnificent, having fine foliage, not unlike that of G. reptans, 
but neater, and fine glowing flowers of flame. 
G. coccineum, a much confused species from Asia Minor, which has 
yielded many varieties, especially Mrs. Bradshaw, a double form 
about a foot high with fiery scarlet blossoms of special size; like all 
the red Geums it does best in a rather cool place, and like the rest, it 
is spoiled for the rock-garden by its height, and the legginess of its look. 
The same applies to the quite different G. chiloense, which is often con- 
fused with G. coccineum, being a distinct and much taller species from 
Chili. G. Hweni and G. Heldreichii are forms of garden origin arising out 
of G. coccineum, with big flowers of orange red, more or less double, and 
varying into other developments, perpetually appearing as “ magni- 
ficum,”’ “‘ splendens,’’ and so forth, but all inclined to look gawky in 
the rock-garden, with no mass of uprising stalks, but three or four 
sticking out this way and that. 
G. dryadoeides, from Northern Japan, strikes out a wholly new line 
of attractiveness, however, for it makes running masses, closely clus- 
tered, of toothed, leafleted foliage, like that of a Rose or a Sanguisorba, 
and well above these, alone on perfectly bare stems of 3 or 4 inches, 
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