320 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



care in planting, and should be 

 associated with the most minute alpine 

 plants, in a mixture of peat and good 

 loam, with plenty of sharp sand, and 

 get abundance of water in summer, 

 especially in dry districts. 



According to Mr H. Correvon, who 

 knows these plants well, writing in the 

 Garden, there are five wild and two 

 hybrid kinds, natives of the mountain 

 chains of Middle and South Europe, 

 Jura, Pyrenees, Apennines, Tyrol, 

 Transylvania, Carpathians. 



Soldanella Alpina known by its rent- 

 form, entire leaves, very sparsely toothed, 

 with two ear-like drooping lobes at the 

 base, and by its flower-stem of a height of 

 3 inches to 5| inches ; the pedicels are 

 a little roughened by the presence of sessile 

 glands ; the scales of the corolla (abortive 

 stamens alternating with the lobes of the 

 corolla) are attached to the filaments. 

 Alps and Pyrenees. 



S. montana. In this species the leaves 

 are rounded instead of being kidney- 

 shaped, more or less crenate, the under- 

 side often of a strong purple colour ; the 

 flower- stem has a height of 12 inches to 

 14 inches ; the scales of the corolla are 

 free ; the leaves are indented, and with 

 untoothed lobes ; the pedicel, calyx, and 

 petiole bear with glandular hairs. 



S. pyrolaefolia. Leaves orbicular, thick, 

 and bright green ; undersides strongly 

 ribbed and regularly pitted above ; flower- 

 stem very long, glandular at the base. 

 Easter Alps. 



S. pusilla. Plant very small, leaves 

 minute, very slightly crenate, and a little 

 pitted towards their base ; flower-stalk 3 

 inches to 6 inches high, set with small 

 glands ; flower solitary, corolla narrow, 

 long-shaped, reddish-violet, fringed for 

 nearly one-third of the length. Alps 

 and Carpathians on granite. Syn., S. 

 Clusii. 



S. minima. The smallest kind, lili- 

 putian ; leaves very small, quite round, 

 and never indented at the base ; flower- 

 stems from 3J inches to 4 inches high, 

 slightly downy, one-flowered ; lilac- white, 

 with fringing barely a quarter of the 



[PART II. 



length. Limestone Alps of Switzerland 

 and Austria. 



Soldanella Gauderi is intermediate be- 

 tween S. alpina and 8. minima, but rather 

 nearer the former ; and 8. hybrida. Syn., 

 Media, is half-way between S. alpina and 

 S. 



SPARTIUM JUNCEUM (Rush, or 

 Spanish Broom). A handsome flower- 

 ing shrub, valuable on account of its 

 blooming in July and August, when 

 shrubs are usually flowerless. It is 

 8 or 10 feet high, and its Rush-like 

 shoots have so few leaves as to appear 

 leafless. It bears erect clusters of 

 fragrant bright yellow flowers, shaped 

 like Pea-blossoms. It is hardy, and is 

 useful for dry, poor soils, railway 

 banks, or dry rocky places. I have 

 naturalised it abundantly on very 

 rocky and shaly railway banks, by 

 merely throwing the seed down the 

 bank. South Europe. 



SPIGELIA MARILANDICA 



(Wormgrass). A distinct and beauti- 

 ful plant; the flowers Ij inch long, 

 crimson outside and yellow within, 

 from three to eight borne on a stem 

 from 6 to 15 inches high, and as, 

 when the plant is well grown, these 

 stems come up very thickly and form 

 close erect tufts, the effect, when in 

 bloom, is brilliant. A native of rich 

 woods in North America, from Penn- 

 sylvania to Florida and Mississippi, 

 flowering in summer, and increased 

 by careful division of the root. I 

 have not seen it grown to perfection 

 except in deep and moist sandy 

 peat. 



SPIREA (Meadow Sweet). Some 

 of the smaller of these handsome 

 shrubs may well find a place in our 

 bushy rock-garden, taking the dwarfest 

 and neatest kinds, such as bumalda, 

 Thurnbergi, Bella japonica, also S. 



