320 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



young plant from the nursery to develop into a sturdy rosette 

 is to put it in a six-inch pot, well drained and filled with a mix- 

 ture of sandy loam and stable manure, and placed in a sunny 

 pit or frame, giving it plenty of water in spring, summer, and 

 autumn. It is propagated by seeds, which it produces freely. 

 In gathering them it should be observed that they ripen gra- 

 dually from the bottom of the stem upwards, so that the seed- 

 vessels there should be cut off first, leaving the unripe capsules 

 to mature, and visiting the plant every day or two to collect 

 them as they ripen successively. 



^. lingulata is by some authors united with the preceding, from 

 which it chiefly differs by having smaller flowers, by the leaves 

 and stems being smooth and not glandular, by its shorter stems, 

 and by the leaves in the rosette being shorter and very much 

 fewer in number than in the Long-leaved S. It is also a 

 charming rock-plant, and will succeed with the same treatment 

 and in the same positions as the preceding, i". crustata is con- 

 sidered a very small variety of the Long-leaved S. with the 

 encrusted pores thickly set along the margins ; being several 

 times smaller, it will require more care in planting, and to be 

 associated with dwarfer plants. 



SAXIFRAOA OPPOSITIFOLIA.— /"^r/fo Saxifrage. 



It is impossible to speak too highly of the beauties of this bright 

 little mountaineer, so distinct in colour and in habit from the 

 familiar members of its family. The moment the snow melts, 

 its tiny herbage glows into solid sheets of purplish rose-colour ; 

 the flowers solitary, on short erect little stems, and often so 

 thickly produced as to quite hide the leaves, which are small, 

 opposite, and densely crowded. In a wild state on the higher 

 mountains of Britain and the Continent, in which it has to sub- 

 mit to the struggle for life, it usually forms rather straggUng 

 little tufts ; but on fully exposed parts of rockwork, rooted 

 in deep, light, and moist loam, it forms rounded cushions, neat 

 at all seasons, and peculiarly appropriate on slopes of rockwork, 

 or fringing over the sides of rocks. Propagated by division, 

 and flowering in early spring. There are the following varieties 

 in cultivation : S. opp. major, rosy pink, large ; S. opp. pallida, 

 pale pink, large ; .S". opp. alba, white. 



