THE ROCK GARDEN 177 



flowers, and may be easily raised from seed and grown 

 in any dry sunny place among rocks. Another late 

 flowering plant of the pink tribe is Silene schafta, 

 which also blossoms in August and September. It is 

 not one of the most beautiful of the silenes, but easy 

 to raise from seed and to grow; and its pink flowers 

 are very useful, if a little dull in colour. Sedum Ewersii 

 and S. Sieboldii are both late flowering plants with 

 pink flowers and neat grey leaves. They thrive in 

 any dry place, but sometimes suffer from severe frosts. 

 Their foliage dies down in the winter. Polygonum 

 vaccinifolium is a most valuable late-flowering plant 

 for the rock garden. It has a creeping habit and soon 

 covers a good deal of space. It is deciduous, and its 

 leaves appear rather late; but they remain fresh and 

 bright until the autumn, and it bears its delicate pink 

 flowers up to the frosts. It does well on the north 

 side of the rock garden in rather poor soil if it gets 

 plenty of light and air. In rich soil and shady places 

 it often refuses to bloom. The beautiful Polemonium 

 confertum mellitum flowers both in spring and in au- 

 tumn; in fact, it is apt to flower itself to death. But 

 it is easily raised from seed, and does well with a north- 

 west or west aspect in sandy loam and leaf mould. 

 Erodium reichardi, the smallest of the Erodiums, 

 flowers into late summer, and so does Erodium ma- 

 cradenium. In a large rock garden Nierembergia 

 rivularis is a most valuable plant for the later months. 

 It makes a bright-green carpet, which keeps its fresh- 

 ness well up to the frosts, and continues to throw up 



