DESCRIPTIVE AND SELECTIVE. 223 



as well as an interesting plant, growing about six inches 

 high. The white flowers are produced in July. Fili- 

 formis is a pretty North American species with rosy 

 purple flowers, which it produces in summer. It has 

 slender, threadlike leaves. The Droseras are bog 

 plants and not easy to grow. They like a moist atmo- 

 sphere as well as moist soil, and this is difficult to provide 

 in some gardens. Peat is the most suitable soil, and 

 sphagnum moss should be encouraged to grow in it. 

 Propagation is by seeds, or division. 



DRYAS (Mountain Avens). — Handsome dwarf 

 shrubs, suitable for the rock garden. Octopetala is 

 the best known species. It is an evergreen trailer, 

 spreading freely in peaty loam with plenty of sand in 

 it, and bearing numerous white flowers in July. It 

 likes moist soil and a cool site. See coloured plates 

 with Gentiana brachyphylla. There is a variety with 

 woolly leaves, called lanata, and a small one called 

 minima or minor, Drummondii is the most familiar 

 of the others, and it bears yellow flowers in early 

 summer. They may be propagated by seeds in spring, 

 division between autumn and spring, or cuttings under 

 a handhght. 



EDELWEISS (Leontopodium Alpinum). — A Swiss 

 Alpine, with woolly foliage and silvery flowers, much 

 sought after by the public, but not of outstanding 

 value in the rock garden. It is hardy, and thrives in 

 most soils. I have used it for a rock wall on poor 

 limestone soil, where it thrives. In wet places it ought 

 to be protected with a square of glass in winter, or it 

 will suffer from the rain. It is easily raised from 



