trailing shoots will be found to exhibit a perfectly extraordinary Lime Lovers 



gift for perishing. Erica meditcrranea and Erica Mackaii are (calcicole) 



even more obstinate, but this no botanist can regret, seeing how 



rigidly limited is the habitat of both. The Saxifrages, on the 



other hand, are most of them amiability personified. Not 



alone the two London Prides, but S. Sternbergii^ S. hypnoides, 



and others, moving with the greatest ease. With the Orchises 



we come again to difficulties. Habenaria Intacta^ perhaps the 



greatest of all these western rarities, being, like its cousin, 



Opbrys apt/era, the Bee Orchis, extremely difficult to re-establish 



permanently. Even more hopeless, for most people, is the great 



Pinguicula. I have myself several times persuaded it to exist for 



a while in a tiny make-believe bog, but alas, it was only for a 



time ! The end, if slow, was sure. 



Setting aside the Ferns for a moment, there is another, and 

 an especially characteristic group of west-country plants, which 

 are highly desirable as garden inmates, but are anything but 

 easy to induce to stay there. The group, I mean, of pecu- 

 liarly lime-loving plants (calcicole is, I believe, the orthodox 

 term), of which a large number, almost unknown in a 

 wild state elsewhere, are to be found here. Foremost 

 amongst these stands the never sufficiently to be praised spring 

 Gentian (Gentiana verna]. Although abounding in several 

 places in Connaught in a wild condition, and though again 

 and again transplanted with every care and precaution, 

 I fail to recall a single instance, either of my own or other 

 people's efforts, which can be said to have been crowned with 

 genuine and final success. Dryas octopetala^ on the other 

 hand another very desirable plant belonging to the same 

 group will live and flourish indefinitely if properly attended 



II 



