Part IT. GERANIUM. 



during the warm and dry months, and perfect exposure to the 

 sun. Grit or broken Hmestone may be advantageously mingled 

 with the soil, but if there be plenty of sand, they are not essential ; 

 a few pieces half buried on the surface of the ground will tend 

 to prevent evaporation and guard the plant till it has taken root 

 and begun to spread about. It is so dwarf that, if weeds be 

 allowed to grow around, they soon injure it. In moist districts, 

 where there is a good deep sandy loam, it may be grown on the 

 front edge of a border carefully surrounded by half plunged stones. 

 It may also be grown in pots of loam with plenty of rough 

 sand, well drained and plunged in beds of coal ashes or sand, 

 thoroughly exposed to the sun, and well watered from the first 

 dry days of March onwards till the moist autumn days return. 

 In all cases good well-rooted specimens should be secured to 

 begin with, as failure often occurs from imperfectly rooted, half- 

 dead plants that would have little chance of surviving even if 

 favoured with the air of their native wilds. In a wild state this 

 plant is abundantly distributed over mountain pastures on the 

 Alps of Southern and Central Europe, and those of like latitudes 

 in Asia. 



In addition to the preceding kinds, there are various other 

 Gentians in cultivation : G. caucasica, adscendens, gelida, cru- 

 ciata, Fortunei, lutea, punctata, and purpurea. Of these, the 

 four first mentioned are those most likely to be attractive, 

 especially G. gelida. Some of the last are scarcely worthy of 

 cultivation, and certainly not in choice collections. Most of 

 the Gentians may be raised from seed, but it is a very slow 

 process, and, except in the hands of careful propagators, a very 

 uncertain one. 



GERANIUM ARGENTEUM.— A'/wry Cranesbill. 



A LOVELY alpine Geranium, with leaves of a silvery white, and 

 large pale rose-coloured flowers, on stems seldom more than 

 two inches high, and usually nearly prostrate. It is nearly allied 

 to the grey Cranesbill [G. cinereuni), but is known from that 

 plant at first sight by its more silvery, somewhat more deeply 

 divided, leaves, and it is of smaller stature. It comes from the 

 Alps of Dauphiny and the Pyrenees, is perfectly hardy, flowers 

 in early summer, and is a gem for association with the choicest 



