334 



ALPINE FLOWERS. 



Part II. 



without exception of the easiest culture and rapid increase in 

 ordinary soil. 



SEMPEEVIVTJM ARACHNOIDEUM.— CoiJw^^ Houseleek- 



One of the most singular of alpine plants, its tiny rosettes of 

 fleshy leaves being covered at the top with a thick white down, 

 which intertwines itself all over each plant like a spider's web. 

 Widely distributed over the Alps and Pyrenees, this plant is 

 perfectly hardy in our gardens, in which, however, it is rarely 

 seen, except as a frame-plant. It thrives in exposed spots, in 

 sunny arid parts of rockwork, forming sheets of whitish rosettes, 

 which look as if a thousand fine-spinning spiders had been at 

 work upon them, and send up pretty rose-coloured flowers in 

 summer. About London it sometimes suffers from the sparrows 

 plundering the "down." It should be on every rockwork; is 

 easily increased by division, and thrives in moist sandy loam. 



SEMPERVIVUM CltJATVU.— Fringed Houseleek. 



The margins of the leaves of this species are edged with trans- 

 parent hair-like bodies, which give the whole plant a distinct 

 appearance. The leaves are barred lengthways with brown and 

 deep-green stripes. Flowers freely in summer, in close corymbs 

 of many fine golden.yellow flowers, each scarcely half an inch 



