EASILY GROWN ROCK PLANTS 81 
covered with brightly coloured flowers. If, however, the 
plant is left to itself for two or three years, the wiry stems 
become considerably lengthened, with the result that the 
tufts of foliage dangle about untidily at the ends of a mass 
of naked, dead-looking stems, and the whole beauty of 
the plant is lost. Two methods, either or both of which 
may be adopted, will obviate this blemish, and keep the 
plants close and compact in growth, robust in health and 
prolific in their production of bloom. The first method is to 
cut back the plants to within an inch or two of their base 
immediately after flowering, and the second is to mulch 
with a mixture of grit, lime rubble and loam, passed through 
a sieve. This is about all the cultural information that 
needs be given, for Aubrietias are of simplest requirements, 
thrive in most soils, especially if wedged between stones 
on a well drained site, with a body of good soil behind 
them, and they may be propagated with ease, by division, 
by cuttings dibbled in a cold frame in early summer, or 
by seeds. The flowers, however, are very readily cross 
fertilized, and seedlings may be expected to vary con- 
siderably in shade of colour. Quite a number of named 
varieties are offered in any hardy plant catalogue, the 
colours embracing many shades of lavender, mauve, purple 
and blue, with a few pink and reddish shades. 
CERASTIUM.—The mouse-ear chickweed, although a 
pretty enough plant with its frosted white foliage and 
snow-white flowers, is of so rampant a habit that it 
frequently becomes murderous toward other and _ less 
vigorous plants growing near by. Its only recommenda- 
tion for small gardens is that it will clothe dry, steep 
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