SOME ALPINE GARDENS 25 



of 5. oppositifolia which grows in the Western Alps and Pyrenees. 

 The Botanical Society of the Valais also bears his name. 



On entering the Linnaea garden from the road on the north side, 

 several shady, winding paths lead up the steep hillside which is 

 clothed with the tall mauve spikes of Mulgedium alpinum, the rosy 

 heads of Adenosfyles, with leaves like Coltsfoot, the nodding 

 blossoms of Cortusa MathioU, and those of the lemon-yellow 

 Primula Sikkimensis. The red-brown Gentian [G. purpurea), 

 and its speckled yellow relative, G. punctata, grow naturally on 

 this slope, and so do the handsome purple madder Lilium Martagon, 

 the steel-blue Eryngium alpinum and the great white Achillea 

 macrophylla with deeply cut leaves. Then on the bit of natural 

 cliff above are such plants as Saxifraga Cotyledon, whose great 

 panicles of white blossom, eighteen inches in length, festoon the 

 black, weather-worn cliffs on the Italian side of the Simplon, just 

 above the village of Iselle. 



Before reaching the summit of the garden we pass rockeries de- 

 voted to Saxifrages, Sempervivums, Pinks, and Primulas, and others 

 which are devoted to the plants of special countries or mountainous 

 regions. Besides the European Alps and the Jura, the Pyrenees, 

 Caucasus, Himalaya, Atlas, North America, and the Arctic regions 

 are all represented by separate rockeries. In the Balkan rockery, 

 built by King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, is a fine selection of Balkan 

 plants sent by his Majesty from Sofia. Self-sown poppies (P. 

 nudicaule) of Siberia and other Arctic regions, in yellow, white, and 

 orange, give a blaze of colour to the scene, and the smaller, more 

 delicate Alpine Poppy thrives there equally well, and sometimes 

 hybridises with the other. 



On our first visit to this garden at the end of June, 1908, among 

 the Arctic plants noticed were Epilobium latifolium from Labrador, 

 with blossoms two inches across, Chrysosplenium glaciale, from 

 Lapland, and Polemonium campanulatum in abundance. We saw 

 the beautiful pink Androsace Chumbyi and Primula Cashmeriana 

 from the Himalaya, and Lindelfia spectabilis with its drooping 

 flowers in purplish blue. 



The collections of Primula and Saxifraga are particularly good. 

 Saxifraga cochlearis, endemic in the Ligurian and Maritime Alps, 

 grows weU at this altitude, notwithstanding the colder clirnate, 

 and S. Aizoon rosea, with red stem and calyx, forrns a striking 

 variety of this common but very beautiful and variable species. 

 The Pyrenees are well represented by such species as Saxifraga 

 capitata, S. longifolia, Erinus hirsutus, Reseda glauca, Geum 

 pyrenaicum, Eryngium Bourgatii, and the tiny Dianihus brachyan- 

 thus, only two inches in height. Saxifraga Camposii, with its large, 

 pure white flowers, was represented from the Spanish Sierras. 



Among the orange-red Composites, so conspicuous by their 

 brilliant colouring, were Senecio.tiroliensis, S. aurantiacus, and the 



