120 ALPINE PLANTS 
its relatives, A. foliosa likes to root among rubble, grit, 
and light soil. It enjoys the sunshine so long as its roots 
are provided with plenty of moisture during the growing 
and flowering period. A good method of propagation is 
to mulch close up to the foliage with a mixture of half 
sharp sand and half sifted peat, pressing the mulch well 
round any bare, elongated stems. Keep the mulch 
frequently moistened from spring to late summer, by which 
time the stems will have made plenty of young roots, and 
may be severed from the main plant. A. lactiflora, 
otherwise named coronopifolia, and A. lactea are as easy 
to grow as forget-me-nots. A pinch of seed scattered 
about over the rockery, or on a patch of gritty soil in 
the Alpine bed, will produce young plants that form close 
rosettes of long narrow leaves, flat on the soil. Erect 
flower stalks shoot up from the centre of each rosette in 
the spring of the second year, shorter and slender foot- 
stalks radiating from the top of the main stem, thus 
poising dainty little white starry flowers in a circular 
umbel, 3 or 4 inches above the foliage. The flowers 
of lactiflora have a faint greenish tint in their whiteness, 
whilst lactea has a distinct yellow eye. Although the 
plants flower themselves to death in a season, no uneasiness 
need disturb their owner. Seeds will be freely scattered 
all around, and plenty of young plants will spring up to 
provide next season’s display. The one essential point is 
that the plants must be grown in good-sized groups. A. 
septentrionalis has an outline resembling the foregoing, 
but it is built on larger lines. The rosette of leaves spreads 
over an area larger than the circumference of a 60 sized 
