212 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part 11. 



dicates, like a finely-cut fern. I saw it in the botanic garden 

 at Geneva, and believe it would prove hardy on rockwork in our 

 gardens, and well suited for the positions recommended for the 

 Rock and Spotted Heronsbills. 



EEPETION EENIFOEME.— iWa/ Holland Violet. 



This mantles the ground with a mass of small, kidney-shaped 

 leaves, has numerous slender, creeping, and rooting stems, and 

 bears blue and white flowers of exquisite beauty, rising not more 

 than a couple of inches from the ground, and produced con- 

 tinuously throughout the summer. A violet it is indeed, but a 

 violet of the southern hemisphere, one at home under a Port 

 Jackson sun, but without the vigour and depth of colour of our 

 northern sweet Violet, which braves and bestows its sweets on the 

 " hard, hard, hard north-eastern breeze that breeds hard English- 

 men," yet having a simple loveliness that prevents its omission 

 here, even though it is not hardy enough to stand our winters. It 

 is peculiarly fitted for planting out over the surface of a bed of 

 peat or very light earth, in which some handsome plants would 

 be put out during the summer in a scattered or isolated manner, 

 and the little herb allowed to crawl rapidly over the surface. 

 For example, that handsome succulent, Echeveria metallica, has 

 been found to grow admirably in the open air in England for 

 several summers past, and in consequence of its bold habit it is 

 necessary to place it, say, a couple of feet from plant to plant. 

 Our little Australian friend is one of the very best things to fill 

 up the surface ; and, as the practice of placing plants of some 

 character in flower beds is likely in due time to get the pre- 

 ference which it deserves over the massing system pure and 

 simple, dwarf plants to form a carpet around and beneath the 

 taller ones will be requisite. This should form one for the 

 choicest positions. Being very small and delicate as well as 

 pretty, it should not be used under or around cparse subjects. It 

 must of course be treated like an ordinary tender bedding plant^ 

 taken up or propagated in autumn, and put out in May or June. 

 In every place where alpine plants are grown in pots, it should 

 find a home ; and in mild parts of these islands, say the south 

 and west coast, it would probably maintain its ground in sunny 

 spots without perishing during winter. 



