220 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



Erica mediterranea (Mediterranean 

 Heath}. A bushy kind, 3 to 5 feet high, 

 best in peat, and flowering prettily in 

 spring. Although a native or Southern 

 Europe, it is hardier in our country than 

 the Tree Heaths of Southern Europe. Of 

 this species there are several varieties. 



E. stricta (Gorsican Heath). A wiry- 

 looking shrub, compact in habit, about 

 4 feet high, and a handsome plant. A 

 native of the mountains of Corsica, flower- 

 ing in summer. 



E. tetralix (Marsh or Bell Heather). 

 This beautiful Heath is frequent through- 

 out the northern, as well as western, 

 regions, thriving in boggy places, but also 

 in ordinary soil in gardens. This Heath has 

 several varieties, differing in colour mainly. 

 E. Mackaiana is thought to be a variety of 

 the Bell Heather. E. Watsoni is a hybrid 

 between the bell heather and Dorset Heath. 



E. vagans (Cornish Heath) is a vigorous 

 bush Heath, thriving in almost any soil, 

 3 to 4 feet high. A native of Southern 

 Britain and Ireland, and better fitted for 

 bold groups in the pleasure ground or 

 covert than the garden. There are several 

 varieties, but they do not differ much from 

 the wild plant. 



E. vulgaris (Heather: Ling). As pre- 

 cious as any Heath is the common Heather 

 and its many varieties, none of them 

 prettier than the common form, but worth 

 having, excluding only the very dwarf 

 and monstrous ones, which are useless, 

 except in the rock-garden, and not of 

 much good there. Heathers are excellent 

 to clothe a bare slope of shaly soil, not 

 taking any notice of the hottest summer 

 in such situations. Among the best 

 varieties are alba, Alporti, coccinea, de- 

 cumbens, Hammondi, pumila, rigida, 

 Searlei, and tomentosa. Syn., Calluna. 



E. dabcecii (Dabcecs Heath). A beauti- 

 ful shrub, 18 inches to 30 inches high, 

 bearing crimson-purple blooms in droop- 

 ing racemes. There is a white variety 

 even more beautiful, and one with purple 

 and white flowers, called bicolor. I have 

 had the white form in flower throughout 

 the summer and autumn on a slope fully 

 exposed to the sun, and in very hot years, 

 too. Syn., Menziesia polifolia, also Dabcecia 

 and Boretta. West of Ireland. 



ERIGERON (Fleabane*). Michael- 

 mas Daisy-like plants of dwarf growth, 

 somewhat alike in general appearance, 

 and having pink or purple flowers with 

 yellow centres, and a few of the 

 dwarfest suited for the rock-garden. 

 Of these, E. alpinum grandiflorum is 

 the finest. It is similar to the alpine 

 Aster, having large heads of purplish 

 flowers in late summer, and remaining 

 in beauty a long time. E. Roylei, 

 a Himalayan plant, is another good 

 alpine, of very dwarf tufted growth, 

 having large blossoms of a bluish- 

 purple, with yellow eye. E. mucron- 

 atus, known also as Vittadenia triloba, 

 is a pretty Daisy-like flower, compact, 

 and for several weeks in summer is a 

 dense rounded mass of bloom about 9 

 inches high. The flowers are pink 

 when first expanded, and afterwards 

 change to white. All are easily in- 

 creased by division in autumn or 

 spring. 



ERINUS ALPINUS (Wall E.) A 

 pretty and distinct little plant, with 

 many violet -purple flowers in short 

 racemes, over very dwarf tufts of 

 downy, toothed leaves. A native of 

 the Alps of Switzerland, the Tyrol, and 

 the Pyrenees, perishing in winter on 

 the level ground in most gardens, but 

 permanent on old walls or ruins. I 

 have seen brick garden walls with 

 every chink between the bricks filled 

 with this plant, so as to look at a 

 distance as if covered with moss in 

 winter, and in summer becoming 

 covered with masses of lovely colour. 

 It is easily established on old walls, 

 by scattering the seeds in mossy or 

 earthy chinks, and is of course well 

 suited for the rock-garden, growing 

 thereon in any position, often flower- 

 ing bravely on earthless mossy rocks 

 and stones, naturalised on the Roman 

 remains at Chesters, Northumberland 



