2g6 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



made rockwork in some spot where it would have perfect 

 drainage, and not be injured by strong-growing subjects shading 

 it. The soil should be a friable loam, mixed with sandy peat 

 or a little cocoa-fibre, and made perfectly firm. If placed on 

 the level ground or on a raised border, a few pieces of broken 

 porous rock should be placed firmly in the ground around it, 

 so as to show half their size above tlie surface, prevent evapo- 

 ration, and also act as a guard to the very diminutive plant ; 

 and the same plan might be followed to some extent on a 

 rockwork. If a coating of dwarf moss is spread over the earth 

 after a time, I should not remove it, believing the tiny plant 

 to enjoy such a carpet, whether grown in pots or the open 

 air. Although so small, it is, when in health, a vigorous Lillipu- 

 tian, and seeds very freely, the self-sown seedlings having often 

 formed with me good plants on the mossy surface of the ground 

 or pots. I have grown. -it in the open air in the suburbs of 

 London ; but as a rule it is best for all who do not try it in a 

 pure atmosphere to grow it in well-drained pots or pans, using 

 the same kind of soil, and protecting the plants in a cool shallow 

 frame in winter, placing the pots out of doors in summer plunged 

 in coal-ashes or sand. In all cases the plant should be abun- 

 dantly watered in dry weather, whether in spring, summer, or 

 autumn. Easily propagated by seeds, which should be sown 

 soon after they are ripe in shallow pans of sandy peat or 

 fibrous loam mixed with cocoa-fibre, and placed in an open pit or 

 shallow cold frame. 



PRIMULA SIKKIMENSIS.— i'/^-JzOT Cowslip. 



This, one of the most remarkable of Primroses, has a leaf- 

 development not unlike that of P. denticulata, but when well 

 grown, it throws up strong flower-stems from fifteen inches to 

 two feet high, bearing numerous bell-Shaped, pale-yellow flovS'ers, 

 without a spot of any other colour, the pedicel smealy, the 

 blooms of an agreeable and peculiar perfume. Some of the 

 stems bear a head of more than five dozen buds and flowers, 

 and each individual flower is nearly an inch long and more than 

 half an inch across. It is perfectly hardy, and loves deep well- 

 drained and moist ground ; spots in the lower parts of rock- 

 work near water, or in deep boggy places, suit it best ; begins to 

 flower in May, and remains in flower for many weeks. It is a 



