214 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part IT. 



ERYTHRONIUM DENS CliXnB.— Dog's-tooth Violet. 



One of the loveliest of all our old garden-flowers, now seldom 

 seen, though it should be in every place where spring flowers 

 are welcome — its handsome oval leaves, rounded below and 

 pointed above, being so marked with patches of reddish brown 

 as to make it worthy of being grown as a diminutive foliage- 

 plant, even if its fine flowers never appeared. These are borne 

 singly on stems four to six inches high, drooping gracefully, 

 and are cut into six rosy purple or lilac divisions. There is a 

 -variety with white, one with rose-coloured, and one with flesh- 

 coloured flowers. The plant is said to like shade, but I have 

 seen it attain its highest beauty in moist, sandy, peaty soil, in 

 positions fully exposed to the sun. It is one of the most valu- 

 able subjects for the spring or rock garden, or border of choice 

 hardy bulbs, and, where sufficiently plentiful, for edgings to 

 American plants in peat soil. The bulbs are white and oblong-; 

 hence its common name ; and it is increased by dividing them 

 every two or three years, replanting rather deeply. A native of 

 the great continental mountain-chains. 



FICARIA GRANDIPLORA.— Zflir^^ Pilewort. 



A LARGE-FLOWERED kind, a near relative of our very common 

 Pilewort or lesser Celandine, F. ranunculoides, but about twice 

 as large in all its parts, the flower being nearly or quite two 

 inches across ; the bases of the leaves meet, whereas they are 

 divergent in the common one. I have little experience of this 

 plant in cultivation, and it is as yet very rare. I brought a few 

 plants from France in 1868, and hope soon to see it generally 

 grown ; it will no doubt prove a desirable addition. It is a 

 native of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, and I believe 

 it to be well worthy of a place on the rockwork in sandy loam, 

 in a warm and well-drained spot. When plentiful, it may be 

 tried as a border-plant. 



Our British and very common Ficaria ranunculoides, or lesser 

 Celandine, would be well deserving of culture were it not so very 

 plentiful. Its white and double varieties, F. ranunculoides alba, 

 and F. r. fi. pi., may, however, have better claims to a place in 

 a collection. 



