72 ALPINE PLANTS 
sparse erect growth are planted. A. microphylla is one 
of the most telling, its spiny seed heads being of bright 
red, well set off by a close undergrowth of glossy bronze 
tinted foliage. Nove-zealandiz is another with metallic 
tints in its leaves, a silvery leaved variety being adscendens. 
A pot-pyramid of Acena makes a delightful object in 
the alpine house or frame. 
AjyuGA.—Our native bugle flower and its purple-leaved 
variety, are sometimes useful for covering the soil in some 
damp shaded corner where little else will grow, but there 
are, among the less common Ajugas, plants of much beauty 
that deserve more prominent positions among our alpines. 
A. genevensis crispa is a quaint plant, with curled and 
twisted leaves, revealing shades of metallic colours verg- 
ing into the rich glossy green of the ground colour. 
The flowers are blue. The silver variegated form of A. 
reptans makes a capital carpet plant, and also does 
splendidly alongside stone paving. With a few square feet 
of space covered with A. reptans variegata, and a few stems 
of Asclepias tuberosa rising up between the green and white 
carpet, the loveliness of the intensely rich orange-coloured 
Asclepias and the strangely uncommon form of its flowers 
will be brought irresistibly to notice. The Ajuga also 
makes a very effective and suitable undergrowth for a 
colony of Orchis foliosa or other spike-flowered hardy 
orchids. 
ALCHEMILLA.—Both alpina and vulgaris are native 
plants, useful because of the winter beauty of their foliage. 
Spreading around the stalk, umbrella fashion, the lanceo- 
late segments of the leaves are silky on the underside, and 
