3o8 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



tance north of New York to Virginia, and westward to Illinois 

 and the Mississippi, usually in sandy swamps. It is very rare, 

 indeed, to see it well-grown in this country, though no plant is 

 more desirable for the rock-garden or artificial bog. The only 

 place in which I have noticed this plant invariably doing weU 

 is in Messrs. Osborn's nursery, at Fulham, planted in beds of 

 deep and moist sandy peat, and I believe it would enjoy even a 

 greater degree of moisture than it obtains there. Deep, sandy, 

 boggy soil, with abundance of moisture at all times, wiU suit it 

 well. Propagated by careful division. 



RHODODENDRON C^SJJJLmC^^^l^J%.— Thyme-leaved R. 



A Lilliputian Rhododendron, rising scarcely a span high, and 

 thickly clothed with small fleshy leaves, ciliated at the edge, 

 and covered with exquisite flowers, of a lively purple colour, 

 three or four together, divided into five segments at the mouth, 

 about the size of those of Kalmia latifolia. This plant is very 

 rarely seen in good health in gardens, and for its successful 

 cultivation requires to be planted in limestone fissures, in peat, 

 loam, and sand in about equal proportions. A native of cal- 

 careous rocks in the Tyrol, and one of the most precious of 

 dwarf rock-shrubs, very suitable for association with such sub- 

 jects as the small Andromedas and Menziesias. Flowers in 

 early summer. 



The well-known Rhododendron ferrugineum and hirsutum, 

 each bearing the name of " alpine Rose," and which ofteij ter- 

 minate the woody vegetation on the great mountain chains of 

 Europe, are easily had in our nurseries, and well suited for 

 large rockwork, in deep peat soil, in which they attain a height 

 of about eighteen inches. R. Wilsonidnum, myrtifolium, amce- 

 num, hybridum, dauricum-atrovirens, Gowenianum, odoratum, 

 and Torlonianum, are also comparatively dwarf kinds, which 

 may be tastefully employed in the rock-garden— the last two 

 very sweetly scented. It is perhaps needless to add that they 

 should rot be too intimately associated with minute alpine 

 plants. 



