PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



173 



ARMERIA (Thrift or Sea-Pink). 

 Modest perennials, natives of the 

 rocky shore and mountain ground ; 

 of much beauty of colour. They are 

 plants of easy culture and increase, 

 and they may be used as carpets and 

 edgings, one or two kinds being native. 



Armeria vulgaris (Thrift). This in- 

 habitant of our sea-shores, and also of the 

 tops of the Scotch mountains and the Alps 

 of Europe, is very pretty, with its soft lilac 



15 inches to 20 inches high, each bearing 

 a large, roundish, closely-packed head of 

 handsome satiny rosy flowers. It comes 

 from North Africa and S. Europe, and, 

 though hardy on free and well-drained 

 soils, occasionally perishes during a very 

 severe winter, especially on cold soils ; 

 it should therefore be placed in a warm 

 position on the rock-garden, and in deep, 

 sandy loam. It is known under various 

 names A.formosa, A. latifolia, A. mauri- 

 tanica, A. pseudo-armeria, Statice lusitanica. 



Thrift on the hills at Anglesey. (Engraved from a photograph by Miss A. 

 Cummings, King's Buildings, Chester.) 



or white flowers springing from cushions 

 of grass-like leaves ; but it is the deep 

 rosy form of it, rarely seen wild, that 

 deserves a place in rock-gardens. It is 

 like the common Thrift in all respects 

 but the colour of the flowers, which are 

 of a showy rose. It is useful for the 

 spring garden, for covering bare banks 

 or borders in shrubberies, and for edg- 

 ings. Occasional division (say every two 

 or three years) and replanting are desirable. 

 A. cephalotes (Great Thrift}. From a 

 dense mass of crowded leaves, 4 inches 

 to 6 inches long, spring numerous stems 



It is, fortunately, easily raised from seed ; 

 and, as it is not easily increased by divi- 

 sion, it is a good plan to sow a little of 

 it every year. Varies a little when raised 

 from seed ; but all the forms I have seen 

 are worthy of cultivation. 



ARNEBIA ECHIOIDES (Prophet- 

 flower). Borage-worts, and among the 

 handsomest of flowers, distinct and 

 singular. 



A. echioides is 1 foot to 18 inches 

 high, the flowers primrose-yellow, with 



