222 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



nooks on the sunny sides of rock. It is 

 a plant to try on old walls ; on the level 

 ground the leaves grow fat at the 

 expense of the flowers, and the softness 

 of tissue resulting, causes them to perish 

 in winter. There is a smooth variety, 

 E. luridum, and one with more curled 

 and downy leaves, E. crispum; all are 

 natives of dry rocky places in the Pyrenees 

 and Southern Europe, and are increased 

 by seed or division. 



Erodium Reichardi (Reichard's Herons- 

 bill}. A tufted stemless plant, a native 

 of Majorca. The heart-shaped little leaves 

 rest upon the ground, and the flower- 

 stems attain a height of 2 or 3 inches, 

 each bearing a solitary white flower, 

 faintly veined with pink. It flowers 

 freely, and usually from spring or early 

 summer till autumn ; is quite easy of 

 culture in moist sandy soil, on bare ex- 

 posed spots or in chinks. 



E. Romanum (Roman Heronsbill). A 

 pretty species, with gracefully cut leaves 

 like those of the British Erodium cicu- 

 tarium, to which it is allied ; but it differs 

 in having larger flowers, in being stemless 

 and a perennial ; the flowers purplish, in 

 the end of March or beginning of April. 

 It is easily grown, and comes up thickly 

 from self-sown seeds, at least in light and 

 chalky soils ; would thrive on old walls. 

 S. France and Italy. 



ERPETION RENIFORME (New 

 Holland Violet). This mantles the 

 ground with a mass of small leaves, 

 has slender, creeping stems, and blue 

 and white flowers of exquisite beauty, 

 rising not more than a couple of inches 

 from the ground. A Violet it is in- 

 deed, but a Violet of the southern 

 hemisphere, and without the vigour 

 and depth of colour of our northern 

 sweet Violet. It is good for planting 

 out over the surface of a bed of very 

 light earth, in which some handsome 

 plants would be put out during the 

 summer in a scattered manner, and 

 the little Violet allowed to creep over 

 the surface. Being small and delicate 

 as well as pretty, it should not be used 



under or around coarse subjects. It 

 must of course be treated like a half- 

 hardy plant taken up in autumn, 

 and put out in May or June. In 

 every place where alpine plants are 

 grown in pots, it should find a home ; 

 and in mild parts of these islands, say 

 the south and west coast, it would 

 probably maintain its ground without 

 perishing during winter. Syn., Viola. 



ERYNGIUM (Sea Holly). Though 

 some of the plants of this are beautiful, 

 and some inhabit alpine lands, they 

 are almost, without exception, too large 

 for the rock-garden, though they may 

 be grown with good effect among 

 shrubs near it. The same remarks, 

 however, apply to many fine 

 perennials. 



ERYSIMUM. This is a little genus 

 of alpine plants, very much resembling 

 alpine wall-flowers, but of much less 

 value, though one or two are pretty 

 for the alpine garden. 



Erysimum pumilum (Liliputian Wall- 

 flower}. Resembling in the size and colour 

 of its flowers the alpine Wallflower, but 

 without the rich green foliage of that, but 

 with flowers large for the size of the plant, 

 often only an inch high, above a few 

 narrow leaves barely rising above the 

 ground. I have seen it in bloom with 

 flowers nearly as large as those on the alpine 

 Wallflower, and yet flowers and all could 

 be almost covered by a thimble. In richer 

 soil and less exposed spots it is larger. A 

 native of high and bare places in the Alps, 

 it should be grown in an exposed spot in 

 very sandy loam, surrounded by a few 

 small stones to guard it from drought and 

 accident, and associated with the smallest 

 alpine plants. 



E. Rhseticum (Rhcetian Wallflower). A 

 pretty mountain flower which, though 

 rare in cultivation, is a common alpine 

 in Rhsetia and the neighbouring districts, 

 where in early summer its broad dense- 

 tufted masses are aglow with clear yellow 

 blossoms. E. canescens, a South European 



