PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



317 



the preceding, and not so easily grown. 

 The flowers are poor, and should be 

 removed, as tending to weaken the plant. 

 A native of Switzerland, and perfectly 

 hardy. S. incanus is another pretty 

 dwarf alpine kind, and there is also jS. 

 alpinus and S. carniolicus of like use and 

 culture. Increased by seed and division. 



SHEFFIELDIA REPENS. A 



hardy little New Zealand creeper, with 

 small leaves, small slender stems, and 

 tiny white flowers in summer. It is 

 interesting for the rock-garden, _ and 

 grows in any good well-drained soil. 



SHORTIA. S. galacifolia is an 

 interesting and beautiful plant. First 

 discovered over a hundred years ago 

 by Michaux in the mountains of 

 North Carolina, and rediscovered in 

 1877, it was found growing with 

 Galax apliylla, and forms runners like 

 that plant, being propagated by this 

 means. The plant is of tufted habit, 

 the flowers reminding one of those of a 

 Soldanetta, but large, with cut edges to 

 the segments, like a frill, so to say, and 

 pure white, passing to rose as they 

 get older. There is much beauty, 

 too, in the leaves, which are of rather 

 oval shape, deep green tinged with 

 brownish-crimson, changing in winter 

 to quite a crimson, when it forms a 

 bright bit of colour in the rock-garden. 

 A correspondent writing in the Garden 

 says : " The cultural directions given 

 in Catalogues to keep the plant in a 

 shady situation and grow it in sphag- 

 num and peat, deprive us of its chief 

 charm i.e. the handsome-coloured 

 leaves during the winter and spring 

 months. Instead of choosing a shady 

 spot I selected a fully exposed one, 

 and here two plants have been for 

 over a year, one in peat and the other 

 in sandy loam. Both are vigorous." 

 It succeeds well in various soils as 

 described, and is hardy. N. America. 



SIBTHORPIA (Cornish Moneywort). 

 S. europcea is a little native creep- 

 ing plant, with slender stems and 

 small round leaves. In summer it 

 forms a dense carpet on moist soil, 

 and should always be grown in the 

 bog-garden. The variegated form is 

 more delicate than the wild plant, 

 and rarely succeeds in the open air. 



SILENE (Catchfly). Tufted alpine 

 herbs, or herbaceous plants, of the 

 Pink order, often of much beauty, 

 and not difficult to grow. 



Silene acaulis (Cushion Pink). Tufted 

 into dwarf light-green masses like a wide- 

 spreading moss, but quite firm, this plant 

 defies the storms, snows, and Arctic cold 

 of numerous mountain climes in northern 

 regions of the globe, from the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire to the 

 Pyrenees, covering the most dreary 

 positions with glistening verdure. In 

 summer it becomes a mass of pink-rose 

 flowers barely peeping above the leaves, 

 and making lovely carpets where all else 

 is branded with desolation. Many places 

 on the mountains of Scotland, Northern 

 Ireland, North Wales, and the mountains 

 in the Lake District of England, are 

 sheeted with its firm flat tufts, often 

 several feet in diameter. This plant is 

 indispensable for our purpose, and those 

 who can, would do well to transfer 

 patches from the mountains to humid 

 but sunny slopes on the rock-garden r 

 in peaty or sandy soil. It is, however, 

 not a slow grower, and is easily increased 

 by division. There are several varieties : 

 alba, the white one ; exscapa, with the 

 flower-stems even less developed than in 

 the usual form, and muscoides, dwarfer 

 still ; but none of them are far removed 

 from the wild plant. 



S. alpestris (Alpine Catchfly).Tl\is has 

 beauty of bloom, perfect hardiness, dwarf 

 and compact habit, growing only from 

 4 to 6 inches high, and a constitution 

 that enables it to nourish in any soil. 

 It flowers in May, the flowers being of a 

 polished whiteness, with the petals 

 notched, and abundantly produced over 



