CHOICE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 185 
pretty free-flowering plants, and a few that deserve 
honoured positions among the choicest collections of 
alpines. Of Silene acaulis, popularly called ‘‘ moss 
campion’”’ or ‘cushion pink,” there are a good half 
dozen varieties, the type making dense little hillocks of 
sharp-pointed green foliage, which during summer are 
mantled with bright rosy pink blossoms on the shortest 
of stalks. There is a larger flowered variety named 
grandiflora, a white, a double flowered, and one with 
bright yellow foliage, named S. acaulis aurea. S. schafta 
is another sweet little plant, with flowers of a very pleasing 
and somewhat uncommon shade of pink, and small dainty 
foliage of a pale shade of apple green. It has the advantage 
of flowering in autumn, when the greater number of alpine 
plants have gone to seed. S. virginica has flowers of 
a particularly bright scarlet, and there are several whites, 
S. quadrifida, and S. maritima, of which there is a large 
flowered double variety, being useful examples. 
Silenes may be used with good effect on wall gardens, 
and anywhere on the rockery where gritty soil and good 
drainage can be afforded. 
SMILACINA.—A small genus of erect-growing plants 
with attractive foliage and blossoms somewhat like a 
small edition of ‘‘Solomon’s seal,’’ the Smilacinas are 
particularly useful for planting in rockeries situated in 
damp, shady places, such as the corners of a walled 
garden or under trees. They demand plenty of moisture 
at the root, and should be left undisturbed until they 
become crowded. 
SOLDANELLA.—The violet that shyly hangs its head 
