240 HARDY PERENNIALS AND 



from the type, but there are other features quite as marked as 

 that of its extra size in all its parts ; the foliage is more 

 crowded, which seems to cause the largest leaves to become more 

 erect, and the habit, too, perhaps from the same cause, is ball 

 shaped ; the small rosettes of thick encrusted leaves, from the 

 manner in which they are packed together, form a rigid mass, 

 which differs widely both in detail and effect from any other 

 Saxifrage I know. 



These dwarf subjects are best suited for rockwork; but 

 another plan, now much practised, is to grow them in pots. This 

 in no way implies that protection is given or needed these 

 sturdy subjects are far better fully exposed but the pot system 

 has advantages ; when so planted, the roots are more likely to 

 be placed in a better selected compost, and the specimens can be 

 raised in order to examine their miniature beauties. The above 

 kinds enjoy a gritty vegetable soil; perfect drainage is indispen- 

 sable. These are not among the Saxifrages that are readily 

 propagated ; a few crowns or rosettes with short pieces of stem 

 are "not sure to root, and if more careful division is not carried 

 out, perhaps but two or three growing bits from a large specimen 

 may be the result, so lessening instead of increasing the stock. 

 Before cutting let the roots be washed clear of soil, trace the 

 long roots, and so cut up the plant that each division will have a 

 share of them. Sometimes a rather large specimen will have 

 but few of such roots, in which case it will prove the better and 

 safer plan to make only a corresponding number of divisions, so 

 making sure of each. A further help to such newly planted 

 stock is gained by placing small stones about the collars ; this 

 keeps the plants moist and cool during the dry season, when 

 (after flowering) the divisions should be made. 



Flowering period, May and June. 



Saxifraga Ceratophylla. 



HORN-LEAVED SAXIFRAGE; Nat. Ord. SAXIFRAGACE^J. 

 FOR the most part, this numerous genus flowers in spring and 

 early summer, the species now under notice being one of the 

 late bloomers; its flowers however, like most of the Saxifrages, 

 are small and insignificant ; on the other hand, its foliage, as 

 may be seen by the illustration (Fig. 83) is highly ornamental. 

 In November, the grand half-globular tufts of rigid dark green 

 foliage are delicately furnished with a whitish exudation, which, 

 seen through a magnifying glass, resembles scales, but seen by the 

 naked eye and it can be clearly seen without stooping it gives 

 the idea of hoar frost. We have here, then, an interesting and 

 ornamental subject, which, when grown in collections of con- 

 siderable variety, proves attractive; and as even after many 

 degrees of frost, it retains its beauty, and, I may add, its finest 



