Choice "Mossy" Sorts 123 



carpets covering the earth at all times add a fresh 

 beauty to our gardens in late spring days, when they 

 are shrouded with hundreds of purplish red-petalled 

 flowers. This, indeed, was the earliest of the red 

 "mossy" sorts, and long enjoyed a popularity all its 

 own. Then came the larger, more pinky flowered 

 S. Rhei, from which as a spontaneous seedling the 

 first great break in the red-flowered class " Guildford 

 Seedling" arose. This brilliant pioneer occurred in 

 the collection of the lat€ Mr. Selfe Leonard at Guild- 

 ford, and though it might be regarded as the first of 

 the improved reds, it still ranks high with the best 

 that have followed, particularly as concerns freedom 

 of flowering and colour richness, not a few others 

 having surpassed it in mere size of flower. Not con- 

 tent to confine his operations to a single species and 

 its one or two forms, the hybridist invoked the aid 

 of some of the bolder-habited growers, which also 

 have much larger flowers. Hence some of the 

 modern red-flowered hybrids are characterised by 

 greater boldness and flowers of increased size. Com- 

 pared, too, with the pioneers, there is just a sugges- 

 tion of coarseness, which the big-eyed flowers and 

 habit of growth jointly share. Withal, however, they 

 are wondrously showy; of good effect in the distance, 

 and affording pictures of indescribable beauty un- 

 known in former years, rank with the indispensables 

 of to-day. 



Happily, these mossy sorts are of simplest cul- 

 tural requirements, and may be increased with perfect 

 ease. Culturally they ask for nothing more than a 

 well-cultivated garden soil which is also uniformly 

 cool or even moderately moist. Dry, sun-scorched 

 positions and shallow soils are abhorrent to them. 

 Where a stock obtains they should be divided and 

 transplanted every second or third year. At other 

 times rich, finely-sifted soil as a mulch might be 

 broadcasted on the patches and either worked or 

 watered in. To increase them, all that is necessary 



