PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



197 



of the most interesting and brilliant of 

 the shrubs which adorn the rocks, 

 and every year seems to add to their 

 variety and beauty. They are so 

 hardy and so pretty in habit, in 

 flower, and fruit, that we cannot 

 associate any better shrubs than these 

 with our larger rock-gardens. Some 

 kinds are very small and earth-cling- 

 ing in growth. They are mostly 

 natives of India, and of the mountains 

 of China, as well as Northern Europe, 

 and one is a native of our own 

 country. In gardens, generally, these 

 plants are often neglected. Their best 

 use is for banks near the rock-garden, 

 and all the dwarf and bushy kinds are 

 worth a place. 



Cotoneaster buxifolia (Box-leaved Rock- 

 spray). A free-growing bush that at times 

 attains the height of 6 feet, the branches 

 clothed with deep-green box-like leaves ; 

 the crimson berries, nestling in profusion 

 among the leaves, are pretty in autumn. 



C. horizontalis (Plumed C.). In this 

 the branches are frond-like and almost 

 horizontal, while the small leaves are 

 regularly disposed along the thick sturdy 

 branches. The berries are bright ver- 

 milion, and the flowers large and pretty. 

 I find this one of the best of shrubs for 

 rocky banks. China. 



C. microphylla (Wall Eockspray).An 

 evergreen clothed with tiny deep-green 

 leaves, in the spring crowded with whitish 

 blossoms, the berries crimson, and remain- 

 ing on the plants for a long time. There 

 are some well-marked varieties of C. 

 microphylla, one of which thymifolia 

 is smaller in all its parts, while congesta is 

 even more of a procumbent habit. C. 

 microphylla is useful for stony banks, and 

 its variety, congesta, is more at home when 

 draping a large stone than in any other 

 way. Himalayas. 



C. rotundifolia is like the preceding, 

 but with thicker branches and rounder 

 leaves, while the berries are of a brighter 

 tint. 



COTYLEDON UMBILICUS (Wall 

 Navelwort). A native of Britain and 



Ireland and many parts of Western 

 Europe, in some districts common on 

 walls. Of little importance for cultiva- 

 tion, except perhaps now and then as 

 a hardy fernery or bog plant. 



CROCUS. Some ordinary kinds of 

 Crocus are very easily grown, and are 

 so free in the common soil of many 

 gardens, that there is no occasion to 

 make rock-garden plants of them. 

 But some wild species are so refined 

 and beautiful in colour, and in many 

 cases so rare, that the rock-garden 

 would be improved by them, and there 

 we could easily give them the kind 

 of soil that suits them best, usually 

 open warm soil, and also get them 

 out of harm's way a little. The 

 autumn kinds, too, are among the 

 most lovely of wild flowers, and in 

 little groups on our rock-gardens they 

 would be most at home, until we got 

 them plentiful. The very late-flower- 

 ing kinds of delicate colour are best 

 in a sheltered part of the rock-garden. 

 In the case of the pretty autumn 

 Crocuses, their beauty is best seen 

 when the flowers rise from a ground- 

 work of some creeping rock plant. 

 The midwinter blooming species, 

 charming in their own country, will 

 rarely bloom well in our winters. 

 Only the kinds known to be pretty 

 and free under rock-garden conditions 

 are named here. 



Crocus biflorus (Cloth-of-Silver Crocus). 

 A very dwarf early and free kind which 

 varies much. In var. estriatus, from 

 Florence, the flowers are a uniform pale 

 lavender, orange towards the base. In 

 var. Weldeni, from Trieste and Dalmatia, 

 the outer segments are externally flecked 

 with bright purple. In C. nubigenus, a 

 small variety from Asia Minor, the outer 

 segments are suffused with brown ; G. 

 pestalozzce is an albino of this variety. In 

 G. Adami, from the Caucasus, the segments 

 are pale purple, either self-coloured or 

 feathered with dark purple. 



