Part II. ANDROSACE. 129 



rather freely ; of a waxy white, five-cleft, contracted near the 

 mouth, and drooping. It is not likely to be confounded with 

 any other plant except the much rarer A. fastigiata, from 

 which it may be distinguished in a moment by the absence of 

 the thin chaffy margin of the leaf. It is a native of Northern 

 Europe and America, quite hardy, but requires a moist peat or 

 very fine sandy soil for its perfect development. I have not 

 elsewhere seen it so plentiful or so healthy as in the nurseries 

 near Edinburgh, where it flourishes in common soil. It is a 

 most fitting ornament for the rockwork, or for planting on the 

 margin of beds of choice dwarf shrubs, in fine sandy peat, 

 loves abundance of moisture in summer, and is easily increased 

 by division, wherever it grows vigorously. 



ANDROSACE CARNEA. — Rose-coloured A. 



One of the prettiest and most distinct of its exquisite family, 

 coming from the highest summits of the Alps and Pyrenees, 

 where it flowers in summer, when the snow has at last yielded 

 to the sun ; opening in our gardens also perhaps among 

 melting snow, but in early spring before any of its relatives. It 

 is immediately known from any of the other cultivated kinds by 

 its small pointed leaves, not, as in them, gathered in tiny rosettes, 

 but more regularly clothing a somewhat elongated stem, so as 

 to remind one distantly of a. small twig of juniper, or of the 

 juniper saxifrage. The flowers are of a lively pink or rose, with 

 a yellow eye. It is not difficult to cultivate in a mixture of sandy 

 loam and peat on rockwork — the spot to be exposed, and the 

 soil at least a foot deep, so that its roots may descend, and be 

 less liable to suffer from vicissitudes. Thorough watering should 

 be given during the dry season, particularly when the plant is 

 young, and before it has taken deep root. Treated thus it will 

 form healthy tufts, and prove one of the most beautiful plants in 

 the rock-garden in spring. Like most of the species, it may be 

 easily raised from seed, which should be carefully sown in pans 

 of sandy peat as soon as gathered, in the case of plants growing 

 in gardens ; but if gathered on the Alps late in summer, or early 

 in autumn, it would, unless in the hands of a skilful propagator, 

 be best kept over till early spring, when it ought, to be sown in 

 cold frames or pits. 



