APRIL NOTES IN THE GARDEN 75 



the snow-covered ground last Sunday morning. Tulipa 

 biflora, a beautiful little species, with several white 

 blossoms on a stalk, is also in flower now. There ap- 

 pears to be a dwarfer variety of this, called Afghanica, 

 which is an excellent plant for the rock garden and 

 very easy to grow, increasing in ordinary well-drained 

 soil. Tulipa lownei, a dwarf Tulip with delicate pink 

 blossoms, is passing over, and so is T. pulchella, a 

 pretty red Tulip marked inside like a Calochortus. 

 These are apt to suflFer and even to die under severe 

 frosts in March, imless grown in a warm protected 

 situation. Tulipa Batalinii and T. linifolia come late 

 enough to be safe usually from such dangers- — they 

 wiU not flower for some weeks yet — and they are the 

 most beautiful, perhaps, of all the small mountain 

 Tulips, the first having creamy yellow flowers edged 

 with a thread of crimson, the second being aU of a 

 scarlet that seems to glow with its own fire. Both 

 have leaves that spread out prostrate on the ground, 

 and are curiously crinkled. T. linifolia is supposed 

 to be capricious; but it is fairly sure to succeed on a 

 southern bank in a rubbly soil. T. batalinii is as easily 

 grown as most Tulips. They both look their best 

 rising through a carpet of some close-growing stone- 

 crop such as Sedum glaucum, whose roots are too 

 shallow to interfere with the bulbs, and whose leaves 

 are not thick enough to prevent them from ripening 

 well in the summer. 



The Aubrietias are fast coming into full flower. 

 Such excellent strains of seed are now sold that it is 



