SAX1FRAGE/E 333 



prostrate and spreading; the branches entirely covered 

 with opposite leaves, which are arranged in four dark 

 green rows with stiff bristles on the edges and ending in 

 a white point; flowers large, sessile, solitary, of most 

 brilliant carmine. These are sometimes so numerous 

 that it is hard to see the foliage through the corollas 

 which plaster the tuft with a carmine cushion. Flowers 

 from the earliest days of spring (May-July in the 

 mountains) ; in our gardens, where it requires the north 

 side of the rockery or wall, it has flowered as early as 

 February or March. S. T{udolphiana , which Gremli 

 cites as found in the Alps of Valais and Grisons, but 

 which 1 have not yet met in Switzerland, differs in its 

 shorter leaves, closer branches, more compact habit and 

 the glanduliferous hairs on the calyx-lobes. 



S. biflora. A native of icy heights and lofty moraines. 

 Differs from oppositifolia in the much looser nature of 

 the tuft, much larger flowers, in 2-3, of variable colour 

 (from rosy-white to blood-red), with petals twice as long 

 as the sepals. S. J^ochii or macropetala has still larger 

 petals, obovate in shape and twice the length of the 

 sepals, and reddish-yellow stamens. S. retusa, which 

 Gremli notices as a native ot the south walls of Monte 

 Rosa, but which 1 have only found on Italian ground, is 

 distinguished by the triangular, 3-5 pointed tip of the 

 leaves, by the much denser habit of its sombre green 

 tuft, and its small, clear carmine flowers, in i-3 on the 

 tops of the branches. 



The above varieties are best grown in deep, open loam 

 in a deep fissure, packed with broken limestone ; retusa 

 may be better for a little peat. Those who have seen 

 oppositifolia burst in glowing sheets of pink the moment 

 the snow melts will infer that copious, even dripping 

 water is necessary in spring; but there must be no 

 stagnation, drainage must be perfect, and especially so 



