706 



SAXIFRAGA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



SAXIFRAGA. 



sandy loam mingled with grit and 

 broken stone, and made very firm. 

 Very dwarf and rather slow-growing 

 kinds, like 5. ccesia and 5. arelioides, 

 should be surrounded by half-buried 

 pieces of stone, to prevent their being 

 trampled on or overrun. Stone will 

 also help to preserve the ground in a 

 moist healthy condition in the dry 

 season, when the plants are most likely 

 to suffer. Very dry winds in spring 

 sometimes have a bad effect when such 

 precautions are not taken. The Saxi- 

 frages, or Rockfoils, are such an 

 enormous genus of plants in the 

 northern and temperate world, and 

 so many species in gardens have lately 

 been added to, in the shape of numerous 

 hybrids, that for these and various 

 reasons it is impossible that any 

 garden, generally speaking, could grow 

 so many kinds, and as the best and 

 rarer kinds can only be grown in rock 

 gardens, their shortness of bloom 

 excluding them from the flower gar- 

 den, the result is that only a limited 

 number can be grown with profit. 



The following are among the most 

 important cultivated kinds, though 

 the list excludes many species that are 

 difficult to grow or to procure, and 

 which are found only in very full 

 collections : 



S. AIZOIDES. A native plant, very 

 abundant in Scotland, the north of Eng- 

 land, and some parts of Ireland, and 

 generally found in wet places and by the 

 sides of mountain rills or streams. At 

 the end of summer or in autumn' it has 

 an abundance of flowers, \ inch across, 

 bright yellow (inclining to orange in the 

 form aurantiaca) dotted with red towards 

 the base. Although a mountain plant, 

 it is easy to grow in lowland gardens in 

 moist ground. Division. 



S. AIZOON. A good rock, border, and 

 edging plant. Plants established for two 

 or three years form grey-silvery tufts, 

 which do not flower so freely as the wild 

 plants, but this need not be regretted, as 

 it is the silvery mass, and not the flowers, 

 that is sought. There is a host of named 

 varieties. 5. a. balcana, pink spotted, and 

 5. a. rosea, are very desirable forms. 

 Division in spring. 



S. ANDREWSI. Among the green-leaved 

 Saxifrages there is no better kind than this. 

 Its flowers are freely produced, prettily 

 spotted, and larger than those of 5. 

 umbrosa. The plant is finer in the rock 

 garden than London Pride, grows as freely 

 on any border soil, and merely requires 

 to be replanted occasionally, when it 

 spreads into very large tufts, or to have a 

 dressing of fine light compost sprinkled 



over it annually. A distinct variety, 

 Guthrieana, is from the Pyrenees. 



S. APICULATA. Apart from these there 

 are other varieties showing minor differ- 

 ences of leaf and times of flowering. Re- 

 cently, and almost simultaneously, in 

 different collections pure white sports of 

 these apiculata forms have appeared, 

 differing in no wise except the colour of 

 the flowers. Of easy culture, free growth 

 and flowering, they are welcome additions. 



S. ARETIOIDES. A real gem of the en- 

 crusted section, forming cushions of silvery 

 rosettes about inch high. It has rich 

 golden-yellow flowers in April, on stems 

 a little more than i inch high, which 

 remind one of the flowers of Aretia vital- 

 liana. S. aretioides require a moist and 

 well-drained soil, and, being so tiny, must 

 be protected from coarser neighbours. 

 There is a pretty form of it with pale 

 yellow flowers called primulina. It is 

 a rarity and a great improvement on 

 the type. Seed and careful division. 

 Pyrenees. 



S. BIFLORA. A dwarf kind coming near 

 S. oppositi folia, but larger in growth and 

 in its rosy flowers, fading to violet and 

 clustered loosely in twos and threes. It 

 grows in the loose, moist grit of the alpine 

 ice-fields, flowering as soon as the snow 

 melts in June. 



S. BOYDII. A presumed hybrid of 

 burseriana and aretioides, and one of the 

 most beautiful of yellow-flowered Saxi- 

 frages. It is, indeed, only eclipsed by 

 Faldonside, the queen of the yellow- 

 flowered set, which occurred as a seedling 

 from the original S. Boydii. Of the two, 

 Faldonside is the least exacting in its 

 requirements. Both should be grown in 

 gritty, well-drained loam, and are readily 

 increased by means of cuttings. The plant 

 known as S. Boydii alba, while very desir- 

 able, has nothing in common with the 

 others named. All were raised by Mr 

 James Boyd of Melrose. 



S. BURSERIANA. None of the Rockfoils 

 surpasses 5. Burseriana in vernal beauty. 

 The blossoms are borne singly on slender 

 red stalks, which rise 2 or 3 inches above 

 the silvery tufts, and are pure white, the 

 margins of the overlapping petals ele- 

 gantly frilled or crisped. They appear 

 freely in January and February. 5. flitr- 

 seriana soon forms good-sized tufts in the 

 open border or in the rock garden, but 

 prefers a dry sunny situation and calcare- 

 ous soil. All lovers of hardy spring 

 flowers should possess it. There are two 

 or three distinct forms which differ from 

 each other chiefly in habit or time of 

 flower. Readily increased by cuttings in 

 the spring. Austrian Alps. 



S. BURSICULATA. A beautiful hybrid 

 of burseriana major and apiculata, raised 

 by Mr E. H. Jenkins of Hampton Hill, 

 and probably the purest white-flowered 



