200 ALPIN£ FLOWERS. Part II. 



flanks of, or in bushy places near, rockwork, or on low parts 

 where the stone or "rock" is suggested rather than exposed. 

 It need hardly be added that it is well worthy of naturahsation 

 by wood walks, &c., especially on light rich soils. There is 

 a " white" variety, by no means so ornamental as the common 

 one, though worth growing for variety's sake. 



DIOTIS M.ASniM.iL.—Sea Cottonweed. 



A VERY distinct-looking plant, found native on the sea-shore 

 sands of the southern half of Great Britain, and also recorded 

 from Ireland, but most abundant in St. Owen's Bay, Jersey. It 

 is readily known by both sides of its oblong leaves being densely 

 covered with a very white cottony-looking felt. The yellow 

 flower-heads are not ornamental, and except in the botanic 

 garden, the plant is most likely to be grown for the singular 

 appearance of its stems and leaves. It forms a suitable, orna- 

 ment on rockwork, and I have also seen it employed with some 

 effect as an edging plant in the flovyer-garden, though it is apt 

 to grow rather straggling, and should be kept neatly pegged 

 down and cut in well to prevent this tendency, and should have' 

 a very sandy and deep soil. Increased by cuttings, as it seldom 

 seeds in gardens. There is only one species of the genus. 



DODECATHEON yTEKDlA..— American Cowslip. 



The American Cowslip, bright, graceful, and perfectly hardy, 

 is second to none of our old border-flowers. Its blooms should 

 be seen in early summer in every spot worthy of the name of 

 a garden. They are supported in umbels on straight slender 

 stems from ten to sixteen inches high, each flower drooping 

 elegantly, the purplish petals springing up vertically from the 

 poiiited centre of the flower, much as those of the common 

 greenhouse Cyclamen do, and this gives the bloom such a gay 

 and singular appearance that one can understand the natives 

 of the Western United States calling it, as they do, " Shooting 

 Star." It inhabits rich woods in North America, from Maryland 

 and Pennsylvania, in the North, to North Carolina and Ten- 

 nessee, in the South, and far westward, loves a rich light loam, 

 and is one of the most suitable plants for the rock-garden or 

 well-arranged mixed borders, the fringes of beds of American 

 plants,. &c. In many deep light loams, the plant flourishes 



