EASILY GROWN ROCK PLANTS IoI 
ardent admiration from whomsoever has love for flowers. 
The description of the two might well be identical, but 
for the fact that the Iceland poppy is thrice the size of the 
Alpine poppy in leaf, stem and blossom. A group of 
either planted in early spring will produce a wonderful 
display of glistening flowers, the petals of which are glossy 
and have an appearance as of crumpled silk. The colours 
are clear yellow, rich orange, pure white, and there are 
shades of delicate salmon, rose and buff. Once planted, 
self-sown seedlings may be depended upon to maintain 
stock. In some districts and soils these small poppies 
will survive two or three winters, but sometimes young 
plants on light dry soils will flower with such freedom 
that they exhaust their strength and perish during a wet 
winter. 
Several fine selections and strains of Iceland poppies 
have from time to time been brought forward by various 
hardy plant specialists, but whilst for border work Hark- 
ness’s Giant strain, and Baker’s Sunbeam poppies are 
improvements upon the older type of Iceland poppy, 
the ordinary simple but lovely little Alpine poppy is the 
best for rock gardening. 
POLEMONIUM.—There are somewhere in the neighbour- 
hood of a couple of dozen kinds of ‘‘ Jacob’s Ladder,” 
as the Polemoniums are called, which are worth cultivating, 
but some of these are essentially herbaceous border plants, 
the rock plants being the dwarf, neat-growing and dainty 
little kinds such as P. confertum, P. reptans, P. gracile, 
and perhaps P. humile, a sky-blue, free-flowering plant 
that is frequently met with under the name of P. Richard- 
