EASILY GROWN ROCK PLANTS 103 
pink flowers and trailing stems clothed with foliage of 
changing tints. P. spherostachyum has flowers as red 
as blood, and there are still others possessed of individual 
charms. Layers, cuttings, division of the underground 
rhizomatous root stems offer means of increasing stock- 
but the finest results are obtained by leaving an estab, 
lished plant undisturbed, to cover as great an area as can 
be spared, mulching with rich soil from time to time 
when a tendency to bareness of stems is noticed. 
POTENTILLA.—Apart altogether from the florist’s double- 
flowered Potentillas, which are themselves quite suitable 
for rock-garden culture so long as a cool moist root run 
can be provided, there are quite a host of dwarf or trailing 
species and their varieties with foliage simulating the 
strawberry, and bearing flowers more or less like straw- 
berry blossoms, but of brilliant colours such as golden 
yellow, rose pink, ruby red, and crimson. Quite distinct, 
and exceptionally attractive, is the shrubby little plant, 
P. fruticosa, illustrated in our coloured plate. This is 
one of the best of flowering shrubs for the rockery, simply 
wanting a well-nourished patch of soil in some fairly 
prominent position to make it a most striking object. 
Layers, put down after the manner advised for Veronica 
salicornoides (see illustration), will produce young stock 
of this species, but most of the soft wooded species may 
be propagated from divisions, runners, or seeds. A few 
of the prettiest potentillas for rock or Alpine gardening 
are P. hopwoodiana, with buff-coloured flowers shaded 
with salmon and pink; P. Tonguei, rich orange, with spots 
of vivid red; P. nitida, of which there are white, pink, 
