136 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part 11. 



flowers of a fine sky-blue, as large as a crown piece, and dis- 

 tinguished from the common kind by its five-lobed and toothed 

 leaves. It is a native of Transylvania, and hardy everywhere 

 throughout these islands. Obviously the only thing to determine 

 about such a valuable addition is how to best grow and enjoy it. 

 It is naturally more an inhabitant of the elevated copse than the 

 crest of the Alps ; it is hot able to flourish when thoroughly 

 exposed to the fiercest blasts, like the little alpine plants that 

 cushion down their stout, if diminutive, leaves shorter than the 

 very moss, so that injury from the fiercest gale is out of the ques- 

 tion. I have seen it in sandy soil in a thin shrubbery attain a 

 height of more than a foot when not in flower, and the shelter 

 and slight shade received from surrounding objects is decidedly 

 favourable to its development. In all properly formed rockworks, 

 or in their immediate vicinity, it will be possible to give it a 

 suitable position ; while in spaces between American plants 

 and choice dwarf shrubs in beds it will succeed to perfection. 

 When plentiful enough, it may be used as an edging to beds 

 of choice spring-flowering shrubs, and for planting in wild open 

 spots in shrubberies, or in open, rather bare, aiid unmown spots 

 along the margins of wood walks. Let us hope that time will 

 see it sport into several colours like its relative, our common 

 Hepatica, one of the oldest, as well as brightest, inhabitants 

 of EngUsh gardens. 



ANEMONE APENNINA. — Apennine Windflower. 



Has erect flowers of a bright sky-blue— the blue of an Apennine, 

 not a British, sky. These star-like flowers are larger in size than 

 a half-crown piece, and are paler on the outside than within. 

 The plants grow in dense tufts, so that, though there is but one 

 flower to a stem, they are thickly scattered over the low cushion 

 of soft green leaves. Although figured in most of our works on 

 British plants, and naturalised at Wimbledon Park, CuUen in 

 Banffshire, Tonbridge Castle in Kent, and various other places, 

 it is not a true native of this island. But the hardiest of our 

 native plants take not more kindly to our clime ; and neither the 

 Bluebell, the Forget-me-not, nor the Speedwell, surpasses its 

 purity of colour. It is one of the sweetest of spring flowers, and 

 among the many lovely plants that gem the alpine or Apennine 

 pastures there is not one more worthy of being abundantly 



