CHOICE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 117 
thenceforward their roots shall be left undisturbed. Choose 
a sunny position, and work a quantity of mortar rubble, 
broken bricks or bits of limestone into the soil. Plant 
firmly and allow a good space for development. Propa- 
gation may be effected by cuttings stripped off with a 
heel in early spring, or later on after the plants have finished 
flowering, about the latter end of August. 
The compost should be almost half sand with sifted 
peat and loam, and it is better to use thimble pots for 
each cutting singly than to put a number in a large pot. 
A frame or a bell glass will provide accommodation for 
the cuttings, which should be potted into 60’s before the 
thimbles become filled with roots. 
Seeds sown as soon as ripe germinate freely, and if the 
seedlings are potted whilst quite small they will soon make 
plants strong enough to be put out permanently. Any seed 
not required should be removed from the plants, and the 
growths that have flowered should be shortened back 
almost to the main stem. This will encourage strong 
vigorous young growths that will bloom freely next season. 
Among the easiest members of this family for the small 
Alpine bed or rockery in a town garden may be mentioned 
A. coridifolium, A. grandiflorum, and A. pulchellum, all 
of which have branching stems clothed with glaucous 
foliage, terminating with heads of pink flowers. A. 
iberidium may be had in white or pale mauve forms; and 
A. saxatile, quite a miniature shrub of 3 to 4 inches in 
height, runs to almost a purple tint. 
ANDROSACE.—As a family the Androsaces may claim 
to be among the very aristocracy of the alpine flora, but 
