244 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



LITHOSPEEMUM '£'E,'T:'KMUM..—Rock Gromwell. 



A NEAT and dressy dwarf shrub, somewhat like a LiUiputian 

 'Lavender-bush, with leaves from half to three quarters of an 

 inch long, rarely more than one-eighth of an inch broad, and of 

 a greyish tone, like those of Lavender. Late in May or early in 

 June all the little grey shoots of the dwarf bush begin to exhibit 

 a profusion of small, oblong, purplish heads, and early in July 

 the plant is in full blossom, the full-blown flowers being of a 

 beautiful violet blue, with protruded anthers of a deep orange 

 red, the buds of a reddish lilac. The flowers are barely more 

 than a quarter of an inch long, and tubular, not at all open, 

 like those of the valuable Lithospermum prostratum, but as every 

 shoot is crested by a densely-packed head of flowers, the effect 

 is very pretty and distinct. The best position for this plant is 

 on the rockwork, somewhere near or on a level with the eye, on 

 a well-drained, deep, but rather dryish sandy soil on the sunny 

 side. A native of dry rocky places in Dalmatia and Southern 

 Europe ; propagated by cuttings, or seeds if they can be ob- 

 tained. 



LITHOSPEEMUM VROS.'S'R&.'SXm..— Gentian-blue Gromwell. 



A PERFECTLY hardy little evergreen spreading plant, having 

 rich and lovely blue flowers, with faint reddish-violet stripes, 

 about half an inch across, produced in great profusion where 

 it is well grown. A native of Spain and the South of France, 

 easily propagated by cuttings, very hardy, and peculiarly valu- 

 able as a rock-plant from its prostrate habit, and the fine 

 blue of its flowers — a blue scarcely surpassed by that of the 

 Gentians. It may be planted so as to let its prostrate shoots 

 fall down the sunny face of a rocky nook, or allowed to spread 

 into fiat tufts on level parts of the rockwork. On dry and sandy 

 soils it forms an excellent border-plant, and where the soil 

 is deep and good, as well as dry and sandy, it becomes a 

 round spreading mass, a foot or more high. It is in such soils 

 suited for the margins of beds of choice and dwarf shrubs, either 

 as an edging or as a single plant, or in groups. In heavy or 

 wet soil it should be elevated on rockwork or banks, and planted 

 in sandy earth. It is sometimes grown as Z. fruticosum, but 

 the true L. fruticosum is a httle bush, whereas our plant is 



