268 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



with a large, flat, and thick point, rounded on the under side, 

 slightly concave above ; the whole plant has a whitened tone, 

 being densely coated with minute powdery matter, except on the 

 old and weather-beaten leaves, the young leaves and those towards 

 the centre of the rosette being faintly but sweetly suffused with 

 pink. The stout little stems, bearing their columns of fat leaves, 

 usually attain a height of from three to eight inches, this depend- 

 ing a, good dekl on the size they are when placed in the open air ; 

 the strongest of them sending up stems from twelve to sixteen 

 inches long, weighed down at the top with a quaint but singularly 

 pretty inflorescence. The line of flowers springs from the upper 

 part of the stem, but immediately from beneath the footstalk of 

 each blqom a neatly carved leaf (bract), a little more than half 

 an inch, is given off; and, as these all grow in a downward 

 direction, there is a line of small silvery leaves on the under 

 side of the arching inflorescence. The flowers themselves are 

 well enclosed in a calyx with sepals of a bluish-silvery tone, fleshy 

 like those of the bracts. The freshly opened flowers are usually 

 in the drooping portion of the raceme, so that they are not seen 

 till slightly raised up, or the plant, if in a pot, placed on nearly a 

 level with the eye ; but when they are seen, they afford a pleasing 

 surprise, being of a deep crimson with yellow stamens. The 

 unopened part of the inflorescence is composed of the over- 

 lapped small leaves of the calyx and bracts, somewhat resem- 

 bling a hop fruit in outline, but, like all the rest, of a pecuharly 

 attractive hue. 



This plant, first seen about London in the tiny collections of 

 succulents grown for the market in small pots, is now found to 

 be a most valuable addition to the flower-garden in summer, and 

 also merits a place in every greenhouse, and in every collection 

 of window-plants. It has survived out of doors one or two 

 winters about London, but for flower-garden purposes it is best 

 kept over the winter in dry frames, pits, or on a shelf in the 

 greenhouse. On the rockwork, planted out in sunny nooks in 

 light s6il, it may be ventured out all the winter. It is seen to 

 great advantage on glistening carpets of the dwarf mossy Saxi- 

 frages, or diminutive plants of like habit. Readily propagated 

 by merely pulling off the leaves, inserting them in pans or boxes, 

 and placing them in a dry warm pit or frame, or any like place 

 that may be to spare. A httle plant soon appears at the base 

 of each leaf. If it be desired to advance the young plants 



