260 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA 



(Backbeam). A beautiful British 

 aquatic herb, with trifoliate leaves, 

 flowering in early summer; corolla 

 white inside, tinged with red outside, 

 beautifully bearded. Common in 

 Europe and North America, and at 

 home by margins of lakes, ponds, and 

 streams, or in the bog garden. 

 Division. 



MENZIESIA Dwarf shrubs and 

 alpine, admirably suited for rock- 

 gardens, or wherever there is a moist 

 peat soil. They are all of compact 

 growth, and pretty in flower. 



Menziesia caerulea is a tiny alpine 

 shrub, native of Scotch mountains, and of 

 northern European mountains. A pretty 

 bush for the rock-garden or for choice 

 beds of dwarf plants, 4 to 6 inches high, 

 with pinkish-lilac flowers, flowering rather 

 late in summer and in autumn. Europe. 



M. empetriformis. A tiny shrub, neat 

 in habit and of much beauty, with rosy- 

 purple bells in clusters on a dwarf heath- 

 like bush, seldom more than 6 inches 

 high. This plant is one of the best for 

 the rock-garden, thriving in a rather 

 moist sandy peat soil. It is cultivated 

 with most success in Nurseries in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh. It flowers 

 in summer, and is sometimes known as 

 Phyllodoce empetriformis. America. 



See also Erica for the plant known in 

 Nurseries as M. polifolia. 



MERENDERA BULBOCODIUM. 



A bulbous plant, very like Bulbo- 

 codium vernum, but flowering in 

 autumn. The flowers are large and 

 handsome, and of a pale pinkish-lilac. 

 Suitable for the rock-garden and bulb- 

 garden, till plentiful enough to be 

 used in borders. Increased by separa- 

 tion of the new bulbs and by seed. 

 S. Europe. 



MERTENSIA (Smooth Lungivort). 

 Graceful plants of the Borage order, 

 of much beauty of colour. One, vir- 



ginica, grown in leafy and peaty soil 

 in a cool place, is one of the most 

 graceful of hardy spring flowering 

 plants. 



Mertensia alpina is a pretty alpine 

 kind, and should only be associated with 

 the choicest plants. The leaves are bluish- 

 green ; the stem from 6 inches to 10 inches 

 high, and has from one to three terminal 

 drooping clusters of light blue flowers in 

 spring or early summer. 



M. dahurica, although of a very slender 

 habit, and liable to be broken by high 

 winds, is perfectly hardy. It grows from 

 6 inches to 12 inches high, with erect 

 branching stems, and flowers in June, 

 bright azure-blue, in panicles. It is a 

 very pretty plant for the rock-garden, 

 where it should be planted in a sheltered 

 nook in a mixture of peat and loam. It 

 is easily propagated by division or seed. 

 Syn., pulmonaria dahurica. 



M. maritima (Oyster Plant). A beauti- 

 ful native plant, and though usually found 

 growing in sea-sand, it is amenable to 

 garden culture. Given a light sandy 

 soil of good depth, and a sunny position 

 where its long and branching succulent 

 flower-stems may spread themselves out, 

 carrying a long succession of turquoise- 

 blue flowers, it is a plant that we may 

 expect to see appearing with renewed 

 vigour year after year. It is much loved 

 of slugs, and is best on an open part of the 

 rock-garden. 



M. oblongifolia is another diminutive 

 species, with deep green, fleshy leaves. 

 The stems are 6 inches to 9 inches high, 

 and bear handsome clustered heads of 

 brilliant blue flowers. 



M. sibirica. The peculiar value of this 

 species is that it has the beauty of colour 

 and grace of habit of the old M. 

 virgimca, and at the same time grows and 

 flowers for a long period in ordinary 

 garden soil. The flowers are small and 

 bell-shaped, and in loose drooping clusters 

 that terminate in graceful arching stems. 

 The colour varies from a delicate pale 

 purple-blue to a rosy pink in the young 

 flowers. It is a hardy perennial, and may 

 be propagated by division. 



M. virginica (Virginia Cowslip). A 



