312 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



vated as a rock, border, and edging plant. Plants of it established 

 two or three years form grey-silvery tufts a foot or more in 

 diameter, and about six inches high, sometimes a few inches more 

 ■^ — ^these great tufts not flowering so freely as the wild plants, 

 which need not be regretted, as it is the silvery mass, and not 

 the flowers, that is sought. The plant is easily distinguished by 

 its rather oblong and obtuse leaves, bordered with fine teeth, the 

 borders densely margined with encrusted pores, and stiffly cili- 

 ated at the base ; and by the flower-stems, which grow from six 

 to fifteen inches high, being furnished with glandular hairs on the 

 upper part, and usually smooth on the lower. As to its culture, 

 nothing can be easier ; it is very often grown in pots, but grows 

 as freely as any native plant, and best perhaps when exposed to 

 the full sun. Easily increased by division. There are several 

 varieties. 



SAXIFRAOA hXiViSCE^^-a..— Andrew^ s Saxifrage. 



This interesting British plant is considered by some botanists 

 to be a garden hybrid, and with pretty good reason, judging by 

 the leaves and flowers ; but nothing more has been ascertained 

 about its history. Mr. Andrews found it first in Ireland, but it 

 has not since been discovered. Among the green-leaved kinds 

 there is no better. Its flowers are large and freely produced, 

 but I never could see any good seed on it. The leaves are long, 

 firm in texture, and with a membranous margin ; the prettily 

 spotted flowers being larger than those of .S". umbrosa, and the 

 petals conspicuously dotted with red, which, with other slight 

 characters, points to the probalDility of its being a hybrid be- 

 tween a London Pride and one of the continental group of 

 encrusted Saxifrages. It is more worthy of a position on a rock- 

 work than the London Pride or the Kidney-leaved S., but does 

 quite freely on any border soil, merely requiring to be replanted 

 occasionally when it spreads into very large tufts, or to have a 

 dressing of fine light compost sprinkled over it annually. 



SAXIFRAGA ARETIOIDES.— ^/-^/za-//fe Saxifrage. 



A VERY gem of the encrusted section, forming cushions of little 

 silvery rosettes, almost as small and dense as those cXAndrosace 

 helvetica, and about half an inch high. It has rich golden- 

 yellow flowers, appearing in April, on stems a little more than 



