138 ALPINE PLANTS 
common and extremely attractive about the Dodecatheons, 
which are particularly fine plants for moist, shady inlets 
or recesses in the rockery, or for a similarly cool position 
in the alpine bed, whilst they are choice and excellent 
subjects for pot culture, either in frames or the alpine 
house. A very appropriate arrangement is to intersperse 
a few Dodecatheons among the hardy Cyclamen, which 
require similar environment and cultural details, and the 
flowers of which bear some resemblance to the Dode- 
catheons except that the latter bear their blossoms on 
erect stems, high over the short-stalked Cyclamen. 
D. media, of which there are variously tinted lilac, 
mauve and purple varieties, as well as white; D. Clevelandi, 
deep violet; D. Jeffreyi, clear rose; and D. Hendersoni, 
crimson, will afford a nice variety, but there are a number 
of other Dodecatheons, and all are beautiful. They like 
a peaty soil, and once planted should be allowed to 
develop without disturbance, mulching each year with 
well-rotted leaf mould. The plants will annually increase 
in size, and the stronger growing kinds will sometimes 
throw up a hefty flower spike, over 2 feet high, carrying 
many quaintly shaped and beautifully coloured flowers. 
DraBaA.—In dry sunny places, and in gritty soil, the 
Drabas will make cushions of spiny-looking green foliage, 
over which, in early spring, will be distributed, as though 
thrown lightly with a gentle hand, small stalkless, or 
almost stalkless, flower-heads of yellow, white, or rosy pink. 
The last-mentioned colour is that of D. pyrenaica; yellows 
are azoides, aizoon, brunefolia, and rigida; whilst alpina, 
altaica, and Mawii are good whites, tomentosa having 
