PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



193 



CONANDRON RAMONDIOIDES. 



A small Japanese plant, allied to 

 Ramondia, having thick wrinkled 

 leaves, in flat tufts, from which arise 

 erect flower-stems some 6 inches high, 

 bearing lilac-purple and white blos- 

 soms. Though said to be hardy, it 

 is better in a sheltered spot in the 

 rock-garden. Plants placed between 

 blocks of stone thrive if there is a 

 good depth of soil in the chink, and 

 the soil is moist. Japan. 



CONVALLARIA MAJALIS (Lily- 

 of -the- Valley). So long have we been 

 accustomed to this in our gardens that 

 we can scarcely think of it as an 

 alpine plant. But, as the traveller 

 ascends the flanks of many a great 

 alp, he sees it blooming low among 

 the Hazels and other mountain 

 shrubs ; and it grows through Europe 

 and Russian Asia, from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Arctic Circle. A few 

 tufts of it taken from the matted 

 and often exhausted beds in which 

 it is usually grown in the kitchen- 

 garden to half shady spots near wood 

 walks, and among low shrubs on the 

 fringes of the rock-garden or hardy 

 fernery, would be quite at home. It 

 might also be planted in tufts among 

 shrubs, and in any of these positions 

 its beauty will be more appreciated 

 than when it is seen grown as prosaic- 

 ally as kitchen Spearmint. There 

 are several good forms, a variety 

 with double flowers, one with single 

 rose flowers, one with double rose 

 flowers, one with the leaves mar- 

 gined with a silvery white, and one 

 richly striped with yellow. Although 

 growing in almost any soil, it flowers 

 best in a free sandy loam, and thrives 

 in poor healthy places better than in 

 rich heavy ground. 



CONVOLVULUS (Bindweed}. 



Graceful climbing and creeping plants, 

 some of the more northern kinds of 

 a refined and elegant habit, which 

 makes them welcome on the rock- 

 garden, and having distinct value for 

 draping stones. It is well to keep 

 out vigorous growing kinds which 

 may even be too vigorous for a 

 garden, let alone for the choicer 

 morsel of our earth we call our rock- 

 garden. The kinds of best use for 

 our present purpose are the North 

 African Blue Bindweed, a charming 

 rock-garden plant, and I find it quite 

 hardy even on cool soil. It grows 

 abundantly in walls and rocky banks, 

 and even if the plants perish in hard 

 winters, is so easily raised from seed 

 or cuttings. The silvery C. Soldanella 

 of Southern Europe is also worthy of a 

 place on the rocks, and also Althceoides 

 and the Sea Bindweed. 



Convolvulus althaeoides (Riviera Bind- 

 weed) is one of the commonest plants around 

 the basin of the Mediterranean. It is 

 chiefly found on dry banks and among the 

 Olive terraces, and flowers all through April 

 and May. Although a very variable species, 

 both in the leaves and flowers, the form 

 which grows freely round Mentone seems 

 to be the one in general cultivation. This 

 species and its various forms stand our 

 English climate very well. Being a non- 

 climbing sort, it is at home on the rock- 

 garden, where its large, purplish flowers 

 are pretty. Seed or division of root. 



C. cantabricus. A pink-flowered 

 species from Southern Europe, growing 

 a foot or so high, and producing its 

 blossoms in clusters of two or three. 

 The shaggy or dwarf nature of the 

 peduncles, and the distinctly narrow sepals, 

 are distinguishing features of this kind. 



C. Cneonun (Silvery Bindweed). A 

 distinct sub-shrubby kind, having pink 

 blossoms and silvery leaves, and forming 

 a capitate cluster. It is a beautiful 

 plant for a warm position against a 

 rock. In the north it is probably 

 tender, but not so in the sou the- rn 

 counties. S. Europe. 



M 



