PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



249 



the whole changing to blue. It is no 

 fastidious alpine plant that, when carried 

 to our gardens in the cultivated plains, 

 sickens and dies, but a vigorous native 

 of Southern and Central Europe, well 

 able to make the most of our warm deep 

 sandy loams, growing in almost any soil, 

 and hardy everywhere. It varies a good 

 deal all the better, of course the most 

 marked of the known varieties or sub- 

 species being ruscifolius and flaccidus. 



LEDUM (Labrador Tea). The best 

 of the few species of Ledum grown in 

 gardens is L. latifolium, which repre- 

 sents the genus well. Its usual height 

 is under 2 feet, but sometimes it 

 reaches 3 feet. It is dense and com- 

 pact, and has small dull green leaves 

 of a rusty brown beneath. During 

 the latter part of May it bears clusters 

 of small white flowers, which being 

 abundant are showy. It is a very 

 old garden plant, and was brought 

 from North America more than a 

 century ago. The Canadian form of 

 it (Canadense) is found in some gardens, 

 but does not differ materially from 

 the type. A form called Globosum is 

 finer, as the flower-clusters are larger 

 and more globular. L. palustre is 

 commoner than L. latifolium, smaller 

 in every part, and much inferior. 

 It is dwarf and spreading, and its 

 flowers are white. A native of both 

 North America and Northern Europe. 

 They thrive best in a peaty soil or 

 sandy loam, and are usually in- 

 cluded in a collection of so-called 

 American plants, and are charming 

 grouped in the bog -garden, fully 

 exposed. 



LEIOPHYLLUM BUXIFOLIUM 

 (Sand Myrtle). A neat and pretty 

 tiny shrub, forming compact bushes 

 from 4 to 6 inches high, and densely 

 covered with pinkish-white flowers in 

 May, the buds of a delicate pink hue. 



It is suited for grouping with diminu- 

 tive shrubs, such as the Partridge 

 Berry and smaller Daphne, thriving in 

 sandy peat. A native of sandy " Pine 

 Barrens " in New Jersey, and often 

 to be had in our Nurseries under the 

 name of Ledum thymifolium. 



LEONTOPODIUM ALPINUM 



(Edelweiss). A native of high pastures 

 on many parts of the great continental 

 mountain ranges. The flowers are 

 small, yellowish, the leaves covered 

 with white down, like those of many 

 mountain composite plants, but it is 

 distinguished by a beautiful whorl 

 of oblong leaves, springing star-like 

 from beneath the closely set and in- 

 conspicuous flowers, and almost 

 covered with white, dense, short down. 

 It is a hardy perennial, growing from 

 4 to 8 inches high, and thriving in 

 firm, sandy, or gritty and well-drained 

 soil, in well-exposed spots in the rock- 

 garden. The soil should be poor, as 

 in rich soil it loses its charm, and 

 often perishes through overgrowth. It 

 is best to raise it from seed. 



LEUCANTHEMUM ALPINUM 



(Alpine Feverfew}. A very dwarf 

 plant, with small fleshy leaves, deeply 

 cut, and hoary, and not rising more 

 than half an inch above the surface. 

 It bears pure white flowers more than 

 an inch across, and with yellow centres, 

 borne on hoary little stems, from 1 to 

 3 inches long. It is a rather quaint 

 and pretty plant, and well deserves 

 cultivation on the rock-garden, in bare 

 level places, on poor, sandy, or gravelly 

 soil. Syns., Chrysanthemum alpinum 

 and Pyrethrum alpinum. Alps of 

 Europe. Division or seed. 



LEUCOJUM (Snowflafce). Grace- 

 ful bulbous plants, the taller of which 

 are easily grown plants anywhere, 



