276 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



[PART II. 



As it creeps along the ground, and gives 

 off numbers of little rootlets from the 

 joints, it is propagated with the greatest 

 ease and facility. A person with the 

 slightest experience in propagation may 

 convert a tuft of it into a thousand plants 

 in a very short time. It is almost in- 

 dispensable for the rock-garden, makes 

 very pretty edgings round the margins 

 of beds, and also capital tufts on the front 

 edge of the mixed border. It may also be 

 used in the spring garden and for vase 

 decoration, and is a native of North 

 America, inhabiting damp woods. It is 

 perhaps better known in gardens as P. 

 stolonifera and P. verna, than by the above 

 name. Mountain woods of Middle States 

 and Virginia. 

 Phlox setacea is sometimes considered 



Phlox divaricata. 



the same as P. subulata, but its leaves 

 are longer and farther apart on its trailing 

 stems, the whole plant being less rigid. 

 The flowers are of a charming soft rosy- 

 pink, and have delicate markings at the 

 mouth of the tube. P. s. violacea is a 

 handsome Scotch variety, more lax in 

 growth, and with deeper coloured flowers, 

 almost crimson. Both are lovely plants 

 for the rock-garden, where, with roots deep 

 among the fissures, they thrive in sunshine. 



Phlox subulata (Moss Pink). A moss- 

 like little Evergreen, with stems from 4 

 inches to a foot long, but always prostrate, 

 so that the dense matted tufts are seldom 

 more than 6 inches high, except in very 

 favourable rich and moist, but sandy and 

 well-drained soil, where, when the plant 

 is fully exposed, the tufts attain a diameter 

 of several feet, and a height of 1 foot or 

 more. The leaves are awl-shaped or 

 pointed, and very numerous ; the flowers 

 of pinkish-purple or rose colour, with a 

 dark centre, so densely produced that 

 the plants are completely hidden by them 

 during the blooming season. It occurs 

 in a wild state on rocky hills and sandy 

 banks in North America, and there are 

 few more valuable plants for the decoration 

 of the spring garden borders or rocks, 

 being at once hardy, dwarf, neat in 

 habit, profuse in bloom, forming gay 

 cushions on the level ground, or pendent 

 sheets from the tops of crags or from 

 chinks on rockwork. It is easily increased 

 by division, forming roots freely at the 

 base of the little stems, and usually thrives 

 in ordinary garden soil, particularly in 

 deep sandy loam. Excessive drought 

 seems to injure it, but it is less likely 

 to suffer when rooted beneath stones. 

 There is a white variety (P. subu- 

 lata alba), known in many gardens 

 as P. Nelsoni, which is also a beautiful 

 plant. Besides this, the late Mr Nelson 

 of Aldborough raised a large number of 

 seedlings, varied in hue, which are 

 given names, and may be had in 

 Nurseries, 



P. stellaria (Cliickweed Phlox). A. 

 fragile-looking but hardy kind, very 

 graceful in bloom in spring, the flowers 

 a bluish-white. It is a pretty rock plant, 

 and with me free on "dry" walls. A 



