PART 11] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



261 



lovely perennial, distinguished from its 

 allies by the smoothness of all its parts, 

 and by its large leaves, the lower ones 

 being 4 to 6 inches long. The flowering 

 stems are from 10 to 18 inches, suspending 

 blooms of a beautiful purple blue, trumpet- 

 shaped, and about an inch long, from the 

 beginning of April to May or early June, 

 and loves a soil cool and light, and a 

 half -shady position. This fine plant often 

 fails to thrive in stiff soils. It is a 

 native of marshy meadows and by streams 

 from Canada to New Jersey, and also 

 southward and westward, so there can be 

 no doubt of its hardiness, but the mis- 

 take is often made of planting it in dry 

 borders, though in parts of our islands, 

 where the rainfall is copious, it may 

 succeed in that way. In the drier parts 

 of our islands, the bog-garden is the place 

 for it. 



MIMULUS (Monkey Flower). Of 

 this numerous genus few of the species 

 after the common Musk have come 

 into cultivation to stay. The yellow 

 (M. lutea) is naturalised, and a pretty 

 plant for the marsh garden. There are 

 one or two brilliant forms of the copper 

 Mimulus which succeed well in like 

 positions, but most of the introduced 

 species are too coarse and short-lived 

 in bloom for the rock-garden : the 

 common Musk, M. moschatus, is pretty 

 in moist corners. 



Mimulus radicans. A very pretty 

 and interesting species from the shady 

 ravines of New Zealand. It forms a dense 

 creeping mass of dark green obovate obtuse 

 slightly hairy foliage, stems creeping, with 

 short leafy branches, and flowering freely 

 about the end of May ; the flowers are 

 white with a very conspicuous violet 

 blotch, the upper lips small and divided, 

 the lower much larger and three-lobed. 

 It is of the easiest cultivation, growing in 

 mud or on old pieces of wood, so long as 

 it is kept damp. When it is protected by 

 taller growing plants, which retain their 

 foliage during winter, it is perfectly hardy, 

 but when fully exposed to a severe winter 

 it frequently goes off. 



MITCHELLA REPENS ( Variegated 

 Partridge Berry). One of the pretty 

 woodland plants that accompany the 

 May Flower (Epigcea), the tree Lyco- 

 podium, and the Rattlesnake Plantain 

 (Goody era), in the Pine woods of 

 North America. It is a trailing little 

 evergreen, with roundish shining 

 leaves, the flowers white, sometimes 

 tinged with purple, followed by scarlet 

 berries in autumn. I saw it in Long 

 Island, running about in the Moss, 

 beneath Pine trees, and it occurred to 

 me at the time that it would be a 

 pretty addition to shady parts of our 

 rock-gardens, in which it would thrive 

 under the same conditions as the 

 Pyrolas, and the Linncea. 



MODIOLA GERANIOIDES (Ger- 

 anium-like M.). A hardy, tuberous- 

 rooted, trailing Malvaceous plant, 4: 

 or 5 inches high, flowering late in 

 summer; rich rosy-purple, marked 

 with a dark line in the centre, soli- 

 tary, 1 inch or more across, on long 

 and slender flower - stalks. Easily 

 grown in well -drained sandy soil. 

 Division. 



M(EHRINGIA MUSCOSA , 



M.). A very dwarf evergreen herb, 

 2 or 3 inches high, with prostrate, 

 thread-like stems, clothed with very 

 narrow leaves, like those of an 

 Arenaria. Flowering in early summer, 

 white, small, solitary. A native of 

 Europe, on the margins of woods, in 

 humid parts of mountains. The rock- 

 garden and borders, in fine, very sandy 

 loam. Division and seed. 



MORISIA HYPOG^A A pretty 

 hardy alpine, and one of the most 

 charming re-introductions of recent 

 years. It was first flowered by Mrs 

 Marryat in April, 1834, and is figured 

 in Sweet's "British Flower Garden," 



