ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



good opportunity of growing these 

 beautiful plants in their fine variety 

 of good form and colour. As the 

 manner and descriptions of Lilies are 

 to be found in so many books and 

 lists, there is no need to name them 

 here. 



LINARIA (Toad Flax}. Annual 

 and perennial plants, rather fine and 

 graceful in form, some, though not 

 many, pretty. Some of the species 

 have not beauty enough for our 

 present purpose, and a close selection 

 of the best only should be made where 

 the aim is beauty. 



Linaria alpina (Alpine Toadflax}. A 

 true alpine plant, from the Alps and 

 Pyrenees, found on moraines and debris of 

 the mountains ; allied to the Ivy-leaved 

 Linaria, but quite different in aspect, 

 forming dense, dwarf, smooth and silvery 

 tufts, covered with bluish-violet flowers, 

 with two bosses of intense orange in the 

 centre of the lower division of each. Its 

 habit is spreading, but neat and very 

 dwarf, rarely rising more than a few 

 inches high. On the Alps I have seen 

 it flowering profusely at 1 inch high, 

 the leaves which attain a length of three- 

 quarters of an inch in our gardens being 

 almost rudimentary and scarcely per- 

 ceptible beneath the flowers, which quite 

 obscure stem and leaves, being larger 

 proportionately than on the cultivated 

 plant. It is usually a biennial ; but in 

 favourable spots, both in a wild and 

 cultivated state, becomes perennial. Its 

 duration, however, is not of so much 

 consequence, as it sows itself freely, and 

 is one of the most charming subjects that 

 we can allow to "go wild" in sandy, 

 gritty, and rather moist earth, or in 

 chinks of rockwork. In moist districts 

 it will sometimes even establish itself in 

 the gravel walks. It is readily increased 

 from seed, which should be sown in cold 

 frames, in early spring, or out of doors. 



L. antirrhinifolia. An elegant little 

 rock plant, forming a very neat spreading 

 mass about 6 inches to 8 inches high. It 

 has the advantage of not spreading so 



rapidly as some of its congeners, flowering 

 incessantly throughout the summer. The 

 flowers are of a bright purple colour. 

 The plant is of the easiest possible culture, 

 and can be highly recommended for the 

 rock-garden. 



Linaria crassifolia (Thick-leaved Toad- 

 flax). A small and pretty, though not 

 showy species, 3 to 6 inches high, flowering 

 in summer ; fine blue, with a yellow throat. 

 A native of Southern Spain, near the 

 town of Chiva. This plant resembles L. 

 origanifolia, but the living plants present 

 a marked difference. The rock-garden, 

 walls, ruins, borders, light, sandy soil. 

 Division and seed. 



L. Cymbalaria (Ivy Toadflax). This is 

 the wild Ivy-leaved Linaria, that drapes 

 over so many walls so gracefully. It has a 

 white variety. The plant itself would be 

 here, were it not that it usually takes 

 possession of old walls, but it is always 

 one of the most graceful of the plants 

 that adorn them, and it should be en- 

 couraged. It occurs on old walls and stony 

 places in many parts of Europe, and is 

 wild in Britain, but probably only natura- 

 lized. Any soil suits it, or dry walls with- 

 out soil. It usually establishes itself. 

 Seed. 



L. hepaticsefolia (the Hepatica-leaved 

 Toadflax), from Corsica, is also a good 

 alpine plant, but not so attractive as 

 alpina. It is nearly always in flower, in 

 summer and autumn, and masses in a rock- 

 garden are good in effect. 



LINN^A BOREALIS (Twinftower). 

 A fragile trailing evergreen, bearing 

 delicate, fragrant, and gracefully droop- 

 ing pale pink flowers. This plant is 

 named after Linnaeus, with whom it 

 was a favourite. A native of moist 

 mossy woods, in Northern Europe, 

 Asia, and America, and sometimes 

 of cold bogs or rocky high places 

 in Britain, occurring in fir woods 

 in a few places in Scotland and 

 Northern England. It loves a sandy 

 peat and moist soil, and may be 

 grown as a trailer, the shoots being 

 allowed to fall down over the faces 



