Part II. PYXWANTHBRA— RANUNCULUS. 303 



PYXIDANTHEEA BAKBVLAi: A— Bearded P. 



A CURIOUS and minute American plant, plentiful in sandy 

 dry " pine barrens " from New Jersey to North Carolina. It is 

 an evergreen shrub, yet smaller than many mosses ; the leaves 

 narrow, awl-pointed, and densely crowded; bearded at the base ; 

 the flowers are placed singly, and are stalldess, but very numerous, 

 rose-coloured in bud, white when open. The effect of the rosy 

 buds and five-cleft white flowers on the dense dwarf cushions is 

 singularly pretty. Generally found in low, but not wet, places, 

 and usually on little mounds, it is a gem for the rockwork, on 

 which it should be planted in pure sand and vegetable mould, 

 and fully exposed to the sun. Flowers in early summer ; in- 

 creased by division, and is as yet very scarce. 



EAMONDIA PYRENAICA.— Pyr«»^a« Ji- 



An interesting, distinct, and rather ornamental Pyrenean plant, 

 found on steep and somewhat shady rocks, and, according to 

 Ramond, exclusively in valleys leading from north to south ; 

 having leaves in rosettes spreading very close to the ground, 

 blistered, deeply wrinkled, and densely covered with short hairs 

 —quite shaggy beneath and on the leaf-stalk. The flowers are 

 borne on stems two to six inches long, from an inch to an inch 

 and a half across, purple-violet, with orange-yellow centre. It 

 does very well on rockwork in mossy fissures filled with well- 

 dr^-ined peaty earth, and is easily grown in cold frames in well- 

 drained pots, well watered during the warm months. Flowers 

 in spring and enrly summer. Increased from seed with the 

 greatest facihty, and well worthy of general culture. 



RANUNCULUS AOONITIFOLIUS.— /7zz> Maids of France. 



This white-flowered Crowfoot, which grows from eight inches to 

 a yard high in moist parts of vaHeys and woods in the Alps and 

 Pyrenees, is too large and not sufficiently ornamental for culti- 

 vation in the rock-garden; but its double variety (R. aconitifolius 

 fl. pi.) is a beautiful old border-flowei", now rarely seen. The flowers 

 are not large, but are so white and neat and pretty and double 

 that they resemble a miniature double white Camellia, and are 

 useful for cutting, apart from their appearance in theborder. A 

 rich light soil and partial shade will be found to suit it best. 



