326 THE ALPINE FLORA 



nowhere perhaps in the botanical world does such con- 

 fusion exist, but the best authorities have at last brought 

 something like order into the chaos by a division into 

 sixteen sections, of which some ten are represented in 

 the varieties mentioned below. Still for pratical purposes 

 in the garden it is not more useful than the popular 

 grouping into incrusted (or silver) saxifrages, mossy 

 saxifrages, cushion saxifrages, London Prides, etc. 

 As to culture they are the easiest, on the whole, of 

 alpines to grow, easily propagated by seed or division 

 (except the Kabschia group, with which it is somewhat 

 risky). The smaller, rarer alpines need moist, sandy 

 loam with plenty of grit and broken stone, regular top- 

 dressing, and firm planting. Established clumps of the 

 mossy and creeping kinds have a habit of turning brown 

 in the heart of the plant; when this happens top-dressing, 

 which appears at first sight the obvious remedy, is of 

 little use ; the only preservative is to tear the plant in 

 pieces and strike the fragments, a thing readily done and 

 invaluable as a means of giving new life and vigour. 

 Speaking generally the mossy varieties are best for 

 carpeting, the silver most useful, the Porphyrion group 

 most brilliant in flower and the Kabschia most utterly 

 charming. The multiplicity of natural varieties has still 

 further been augmented by an ever increasing number of 

 garden hybrids and it would be beyond the scope of this 

 work to attempt a selection; it must suffice to say that of 

 those here described the best are aizoon, longi folia, cxsia, 

 cotyledon, diapensioides , tnutata, oppositifolia, retusa and 

 Ttydolphiana ; on the other hand androsacea, aphylla. and 

 varians are poor, dingy things, best omitted. 



The section Euaizoonia, which corresponds to the 

 group popularly known as "silver," is distinguished by 

 rosettes of hard, fleshy leaves, with a white deposit at the 

 edges. The varieties are of the easiest growth, in full 



