1 58 FAMILIAR GAIWEN FLO jr ESS. 



Britishers for tbe decoration of the g-arden proper; hut for 

 the wild garden and the rough, damp parts of the shrub- 

 bery, the red campion {Lijvlniu diuriui) and the rago-ed 

 robin (S. fos-cucnli) are pre-eminently valuable. 



But to furnish the rockery effectuallj-, we must have 

 certain of the species from the south of Europe, and the plant 

 before us comes in force to declare itself a hardy garden 

 plant of the first quality, though set down in the books as 

 a half-hardy plant of the second quality. It is one of the 

 most popular of rockery and bedding plants^ being equally 

 useful to form a shining clump in front of green saxifrages 

 and sheets of sun-roses, or to dress a bed with the best of 

 millinery, that will be full of high colour in the merry 

 months of May and June. We have many such, of which, 

 as examples, may be named the Alpine catch-fly (.S'. al/ies- 

 tri.<i), with glittering white flowers; Elizabeth^s (iS'. ElUa- 

 hetluc), with large rosy flowers; the marine (/S'. maritiiiia), 

 that shows a few white flowers all the summer long; the 

 Pennsylvanian (Ji. Peniisyhiniico), with purple flowers; 

 and the autumnal flowering {S. Schufhi), purplish-rose, 

 a first-class rock plant, adapted also for grouping in the 

 borders. For the insatiable collector there remain many 

 more, such as the oriental [S. orientalu), with rosy flowers, 

 and the cushion catch-fly {S. pumilio), of the most dwarfed 

 growth of a true Alpine, the leafage forming a cushion, 

 above which appear the large rosy flowers, in delightful 

 freshness of form and colour. 



These several species vary slightly in relative hardiness, 

 but they are all hardy enough for the experienced culti- 

 vator of Alpine plants, who has a golden rule to cheat the 

 frost when the frost appears to have a silver rule to cheat 

 him. They all agree in requiring full exposure to light 



