158 BRITISH PLANTS. 



well with tlie purple flowered sort. Plants may be lifted in the spring- 

 time to the garden ; but the preferable way is to gather the seeds in 

 the month of September, and sow them in April or May following. It 

 is a perennial, and will of course be a year in flowering under this 

 treatment. However it is better to have good cultivable plants, than 

 to have bad ones, even althougli a season is lost in getting them for- 

 ward. 



ViciA CRACCA, or Tufted Vetch, is a showy plant, growing wild in 

 bushy places ; and only fitted for a shrubbery, as an ornamental object. 

 Some others of our British Vetches may liiiewise be used for trailing 

 in thick shrubberies, where nature is allowed to have a good deal of 

 her own way. 



Spiraea filipendula, or Common Dropivort. This is a very beau- 

 tiful plant, both in regard to foliage and blossom, and it is sometimes 

 cultivated in gardens. It grows in dry and gravelly pastures, &c., but 

 is somewhat rare in Scotland, and flowers throughout July and August. 

 It is a perennial, and has long tuberous roots, which go deeply into the 

 soil. It grows easily in any soil or situation ; but prefers a light dry 

 soil, and warm exposure. Tiie flowers are in a sort of panicle, and of 

 a yellowish-white tipped with rose-colour. And tiie leaves are very 

 neatly cut and serrated, and of a dark liealthy green hue. 



Alchemilla alpixa, or Alpi7ie Ladijs Mantle. As lias been re- 

 marked by Hooker, this is perhaps one of our most beautiful Scottish 

 plants. It is by no means showy ; but the beautiful lobed leaves 

 (which are nicely serrated at the extremity) are covered with a silky or 

 silvery down on the back ; and this renders tiie plant a very elegant 

 one. Tiie flowers are small and inconspicuous, altliough not destitute 

 of lovelines wlien closely examined. It forms a neat litlle ornamental 

 plant in the flower border, and has the recommendation of always keep- 

 ing itself neat even witii little help. It forms a fine little clump, and 

 keep always green on tlie top, althougli we may find many witliered 

 leaves of a beautiful silky brown if we examine near the roots. It 

 should be planted in a dry situation, and in peat eartii, as, if planted in 

 common earth, or a wet siiaded situation, it loses much of its silvery 

 down, and this is the cliief ornament of tiie plant. We have proved 

 by experiment tlie powerful influence of soil and situation on the pu- 

 bescence of the Alchemilla alpiiia ; and as some of our readers may be 

 interested in matters relating to vegetable physiology, it may be proper 

 here to remark that (as a general rule, and with very few exceptions 

 indeed), plants tiiat grow in a dry soil and sunny situation, are more 

 pubescent or hairy tlian plants growing in moist soil and shady situa- 

 tions ; and that aquatic or water plants are generally entirely void of 

 pubescence. Some plants that grow in dry situations are quite gla- 

 brous ; but these are exceptions to the general rule. We may perhaps 

 enter upon this interesting subject fully some months hence, if we can 

 find a spare page or two to devote to tiie matter. It grows abundantly 

 on tiie lofty mountains of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and 

 is most frequent on the banks of alpine rivulets. It is beautiful to see 

 a bank sloping gently to a little stream, covered with this most lovely 

 gem of Flora ; while the wild and rocky mountains around are empur- 

 pled with the bright heather, and made calm and lovely by the first 



