CHOICE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 167 
cover with a couple of inches of light soil freely intermixed 
with sand, sifted mortar, rubble, or limestone chippings. 
Allow just the green growths to peep through the mulch, 
and the result will be a luxurious carpet of foliage and 
a great sheet of glorious colour the following spring. 
Furthermore, plants treated in this way can at any time 
during late summer or autumn be lifted, divided, and re- 
planted, a better method of increasing stock than striking 
cuttings. The species subulata, with its many varieties, 
is a group to which the foregoing remarks particularly 
apply, but P. amcena, P. stellaria and its varieties, and 
P. verna may all with advantage be similarly treated. 
P. divaricata and its varieties, such as canadensis, 
Laphami, alba, and others, constitute a group of different 
habit. They form clumps or tufts from which flower 
spikes rise erect. These do not require mulching, but 
should have their flower spikes cut back when flowering 
has ceased, and the plants may be nourished with a 
sprinkling of good fertilizer or with liquid manure. Large 
roots may be divided, or cuttings of young growth from 
the base may be rooted in sandy soil. 
The phloxes are superb plants for the alpine house or 
frame. Pans of P. stellaria or subulata varieties, pots 
of divaricata or P. ovata, and of any other of the dwarf 
and trailing members of the genus, are extremely effective 
and will grow with quite ordinary care. 
PHUOPSIS STYLOSA.—A trailing plant with slender 
wiry stems clothed with light airy foliage, and producing 
throughout summer masses of lively pink tubular flowers, 
the Phuopsis, or Crucianella is dainty and charming. It 
