286 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



bogs and mountain pastures of Northern England, and it should 

 be doubly interesting to the British cultivator because it is a 

 true native, found in Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Durham, 

 Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Cuiaberland,' and in Scot- 

 land, at Bridgehouse near West Linton, on the south side of 

 the Pentland Hills. It is, however, a local plant. To find it 

 profusely inlaid over moist parts of the great hill-sides on an 

 early summer morning as one ascends the Helvellyn range for 

 the first time, is to a lover of our wild flowers a great pleasure, 

 and one that will be long remembered. I have mostly seen 

 it in very moist spots where running water spreads out all over 

 the surface, still, however, continuing to flow ; but it is also 

 found under somewhat different conditions. I have seen it at- 

 tain a height of nearly eighteen inches in a cultivated state, and 

 it is also occasionally seen very tall and strong in a wild one, 

 though generally it is little over half a foot. In our gardens, as 

 in Nature's gardens, it loves a moist vegetable soil. On the 

 west coast, and in moist and elevated parts of the country, I 

 have seen it flourishing on rockwork and slightly elevated beds 

 without any attention ; but in most parts of the country a little 

 care will be necessary to ensure its perfect health. On rock- 

 work a moist, deep, and well-drained crevice, filled with peaty soil 

 or fibry sandy loam, will suit it to perfection. It is easy to cul- 

 tivate in pots, the chief want, whether in pots or in the open, 

 being abundance of water in summer, and where this does not 

 fall naturally, it ought to be supplied artificially. When planted 

 on rockwork in the drier districts, it would be weU to cover 

 the soil with cocoa-fibre or leaf-mould, which would protect 

 the surface from being baked and from excessive evaporation ; 

 broken bits of sandstone would also do. It varies a little in the 

 colour of the flower, there being pink, rose, and deep crimson 

 shades. 



P. farinosa acaulis is a very diminutive variety of the pre- 

 ceding. The flowers are not freely upheld on stems like those 

 of the common wild form, but nestle down in the very hearts 

 of the leaves, and bath flowers and leaves being very small, 

 when a number of plants are grown together on one sod, or 

 in one pan, they form a singularly charming little cushion of 

 leaves and flowers not more than half an inch high. The same 

 positions will suit it as have been recommended for the Bird's-eye 

 Primula, but being so very diminutive, it ought to have more 



