322 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



SWERTIA PERENNIS (Fellorworf). 

 A curious perennial, with slender 

 stems, 1 to 2 feet high, and erect 

 spikes of flowers, greyish - purple 

 spotted with black, in summer. It is 

 interesting for the bog-garden, or for 

 moist spots near the rock-garden. 

 Seed or division. 



SYMPHYANDRA. Campanula- 

 like plants, S. pendula being a showy 

 perennial from the rocky parts of the 

 Caucasus, with branched pendulous 

 stems and large cream-coloured bell- 

 like flowers, almost hidden in the 

 leaves. It is hardy, and rarely more 

 than 1 foot in height is best seen 

 about the level of the eye in the rock- 

 garden. The Austrian S. Wanneri 

 rarely exceeds a foot in height, with 

 deep mauve flowers borne freely on 

 branching racemes, preferring a light, 

 rich soil, and a half-shady place. Seed. 



TCHIHATCHEWIA. This beauti- 

 ful alpine plant, T. isatidea, is a native 

 of Asia Minor, hardy, and not 

 particular as to soil, preferring to 

 grow among rocks. From a tuft of 

 oblong leaves, formed in the first year, 

 appear the flowers in the second year ; 

 the leaves dark green, with shining 

 silky hairs, from amongst which rises 

 the thick flower-stalk of Syringa-like 

 bright rosy lilac flowers, fragrant like 

 vanilla. The bunch is over a foot 

 across, and is in great beauty through- 

 out the month of May. 



TEUCRIUM MARUM (Cat Thyme). 

 I should no more have included this 

 in the present selection than the Oak, 

 previous to one afternoon in July 

 1868. On a dry old wall in one of 

 the islands on Lago Maggiore, I 

 noticed a mass of lilac flowers, on a 

 plant which, from the profusion of 

 bloom, appeared to be a dwarf heath ; 



but was only our old friend the Cat 

 Thyme, that, flowerless and neglected, 

 used occasionally to be seen in old 

 greenhouses. Here it had become 

 a mass of flowers. This suggested to 

 me that its true home was not in the 

 greenhouse, but on some dry old sunny 

 wall, or in a chalk pit or very dry spot 

 on the southern face of a rock-garden. 

 And, indeed, the wall would seem to 

 be the only way of preserving it from 

 cats, for they are desperately fond of 

 it. A native of Spain; readily in- 

 creased by cuttings. 



Teucrium polium (Poly Germander), 

 witli silvery foliage, is also worth growing, 

 and perhaps others, but they are southern 

 rather than northern plants. 



THALICTRUM (Meadow Rue). 

 Usually vigorous hardy perennials, a 

 few of which are good in the rock- 

 garden, not so much for their flowers as 

 for the effect of their fern -like leaves. 



Thalictrum anemonoides (Rue Ane- 

 mone}. A delicate, diminutive species, with 

 the habit and f rondescence of Isopyrum, the 

 inflorescence of Anemone, and the fruit of 

 Tlialictrum. These qualities, in addition to 

 its dwarf stature, usually only a few inches 

 high, make it a plant for the rock-garden. 

 The flowers are white, nearly an inch in 

 diameter, open in April and May, the 

 flower-stem bearing a few leaves near the 

 summit, in the form of a whorl round the 

 flowers. A native of many parts of N. 

 America, increased by seed or by the division 

 of its tuberous roots. There is a pretty 

 double variety, T. anemonoides fl. pi., with 

 smaller flowers than those of the single 

 one. Being small and fragile in its parts, 

 it requires a little care, a light, peaty, and 

 moist soil, and to be associated with 

 other delicate growers. Syn., Anemone 

 thalictroides. 



T. minus (Maidenhair Meadow Rue). 

 A native of Britain, but also found on 

 the Continent and in Russian Asia. By 

 pinching off the inconspicuous blooms that 

 appear in summer, the plant can be made 

 to resemble, in outline, the Maidenhair 



