CULTURE OF HARDY FLOWERS. 29 



in aspect, as in the case of the little silvery Saxifrages, that they 

 will be very attractive when out of flower, while the flowers are none 

 the less beautiful because the leaves happen to be ornamental in an 

 unusual way. Many plants of a like size, as Erpetiwi reniforme and 

 Mazus Pumilio, must be shown in good flower. All these little plants 

 are of the readiest culture in pans, with good drainage and light 

 soil. The quickest way to form good specimens of the most dimi- 

 nutive kinds is to dot young plants over the surface of the pot or pan 

 at once. 



Some few alpine plants are somewhat delicate or difficult to grow; 

 and amongst the most beautiful and interesting of these are the 

 Gentians, and certain of the Primulas. There are many who will of 

 course be ambitious to succeed in cultivating them, but, in a general 

 way, it would be better to avoid at first all such difficult subjects, 

 since a failure with them is apt to be disheartening. I believe that 

 a more liberal culture than is generally pursued is what is wanted 

 for these more difficult kinds, and such as are usually considered 

 impossible to cultivate. The plants are often obtained in a delicate 

 and small state ; then they are, perhaps, kept in some out-of-the- 

 way frame, or put where they receive but chance attention ; or, 

 perhaps, they die off from some vicissitude, or fall victims to slugs, 

 which seem to relish their flavour, considering how clean they eat 

 off some kinds j or, if a little shaky about the roots, are interred by 

 earth-worms, whose casts serve to clog up the drainage and thus 

 render the pot uninhabitable. With strong and healthy young plants 

 to begin with, good and more liberal culture, and plunging in the 

 open air in beds of coal-ashes through the greater part of the year, 

 the majority of those supposed to be unmanageable would soon 

 flourish beautifully. I have taken species of Primula, usually seen 

 in a very weakly and poor state, divided them, keeping safe all the 

 young roots, put one sucker in the centre, and five or six round the 

 side of a thirty-two-sized pot, and in a year made t( perfect speci- 

 mens" of them, with, of course, a greater profusion of bloom than if 

 I had depended on one plant only. Annual or biennial division is 

 an excellent plan to pursue with many of these plants, which in a 

 wild state run each year a little farther into the deposit of decaying 

 herbage which surrounds them, or it may be into the sand or grit 

 which is for ever being carried down by natural agencies. In our 

 long summer some of the Primulas will make a tall growth and 

 protrude rootlets on the stem a state for which dividing and 



