46 GAKDEN FLOWERS. 



One of the prettiest species is the round- 

 leaved, {Saxifraga I'otuncUfolia,) which blooms 

 later in the summer, and is most abundant on 

 the rocks and in the valleys of Piedmont ; 

 those valleys made deeply interesting, not only 

 by natural scenery, but by the faith of many, 

 who have in these seclusions died martyrs for 

 the truths of the gospel. A flower allied to the 

 saxifrages, and called golden saxifrage, grows 

 there too, and is eaten by the Piedmontese. 



The purple flowers of the opposite-leaved 

 saxifrage, and the white-flowered granulated 

 kind, often bearing double flowers, are very 

 common in the garden during April. The 

 former was much admired by Dr. Clarke in 

 Norway. The most beautiful and scarce 

 plants were, he says, here pendant among the 

 cliffs : this species of saxifrage especially, and 

 a kind of gentian peeping above the snow. 

 The clustered Alpine, the starry, the larger 

 mountain, and the opposite-leaved species, also 

 grew in great beauty ; and " nothing," he adds, 

 " can be more elegant, than the hanging clusters 

 of the last, like pendent pearls upon the 

 rocks." 



The bright flowers of the double furze 

 (Ulex Euro2)CBus) are very fragrant now. It 

 is merely a variety of our common moorland 

 furze. It is not often that double flowers are 

 found wild in this country, but this was dis- 

 covered some years ago to be growing on some 

 uncultivated moors of Devonshire, and has 

 since been propagated by cutting in the nursery 



