PAKT II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



217 



is a beautiful plant, with very long 

 slender leaves covered with glandular 

 hairs, the flowers purple-rose colour, 

 half an inch wide, opening only in the 

 sunshine. Quite hardy, but difficult 

 to cultivate. 



DRYAS OCTOPETALA (Mountain 

 Avens). Few have travelled in alpine 

 districts without seeing how abund- 

 antly the mountains are clothed with 

 the creeping stems and large creamy- 

 white flowers of this plant. An ever- 

 green, good in habit as well as hand- 

 some in bloom, it ought to be grown 

 in every collection of rock-plants. 

 Widely distributed through the moun- 

 tain region of Europe, Asia, and North 

 America, and very abundant in Scot- 

 land. Easy of culture in moist peat 

 soil, in which it grows so freely about 

 Edinburgh, that it is used for edgings 

 to beds in some nurseries. Seed, or 

 by cuttings and division. The var. 

 minor is dwarfer and dense in habit. 

 D. tenella is a rare species from Labra- 

 dor. D. Drummondi, very like it, but 

 with yellow flowers, is also in cultiva- 

 tion. 



ECHINOCACTUS SIMPSONI. A 



beautiful little Cactaceous plant, native 

 of Colorado, high on the mountains, 

 and hardy enough for our climate. It 

 grows in a globular mass, 3 or 4 inches 

 across, covered with white spines. 

 Flowers early in March in this country, 

 the blossoms large, pale purple, and 

 very beautiful. The natural conditions 

 should be imitated as far as may be. 

 It enjoys a dry climate, and is, more or 

 less, protected from the effects of frost 

 by a covering of snow. In this country 

 it has withstood 32 of frost without 

 injury, and, therefore, if in a dry spot, 

 it may escape and flourish. 



EMPETRUM NIGRUM (Crpwberry). 

 A small evergreen Heath-like bush, 



of the easiest culture. May be planted 

 with the dwarfer and least select rock 

 shrubs. It is a native plant, and the 

 badge of the Scotch clan M'Lean. 



EPIGJEA REPENS (May Mower). 

 A little trailing evergreen bush, found 

 in sandy or rocky soil, especially in 

 the shade of pines, common in many 

 parts of North America, with delicate- 

 rose-coloured flowers in small clusters, 

 exhaling a fine odour, and appearing 

 in early spring. It is a plant very 

 seldom met with in good health in 

 this country, and, in planting it, it 

 would be well to bear in mind that 

 its natural habitat is under trees, and 

 plant a few in the shade of pines or 

 shrubs. In New England it is known 

 as the May Flower. It is so common 

 in the cold sandy woods of Eastern 

 America in poor sandy soils, that it 

 is not easy to see why it should not 

 thrive with us. 



EPILOBIUM (Willow Herb). 

 Some of these perennials are occasion- 

 ally grown among alpine plants, but 

 are usually too large for the rock- 

 garden, with the exception of E. 

 obcordatum. This, which is by far 

 the dwarfest of the alpine Willow- 

 herbs, forms handsome little tufts, 3 

 or 4 inches high, and bearing late in 

 summer large rosy-crimson blossoms. 

 Coming from the summits of the Sierra 

 Nevada, it is hardy, and one of the 

 most attractive of rock plants, thriving 

 in sandy loam. 



EPIMEDIUM (Barrenworf). Inter- 

 esting and graceful perennials with 

 finely formed leaves, evergreen in 

 favourable conditions, and precious for 

 the rock-gardener; all the more so, 

 for those who think with me that the 

 hard-and-fast idea of a rock-garden 

 should give way to the more natural 



