40 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



open place, over any sunny rock. Besides all the innumer- 

 able single and double varieties {AmaUle is a double 

 ball of crimson scarlet, and there is a similar lemon globe 

 called Ball's Green) of vulgare, notably a copper-coloured 

 one from Mr. Wolley-Dod, and a beautiful big rose-pink 

 variety, I grow also purpureum and roseum, species so far 

 doubtful as far as the flower is concerned. Then comes 

 umbellatum, tall, erect, wiry-leaved, with heads of snow- 

 white flowers. This is tender and miffy, though less so 

 than the, to me, impossible Tuberaria, so abundant by 

 the roadside over the hills from Cannes. But our own 

 most rare white-flowered native, Helianthemum polifolium, 

 from Brean Down (you see masses of it, too, on the rail- 

 way cuttings as you leave Dijon), is very valuable, and so 

 is the tiny grey bush of H. lunulatwm, with its profusion 

 of small lemon blooms. And a special favourite of mine 

 is the too seldom seen H. oelandicum, which I collected 

 in the Oberland — a wee, frail thing, with little blossoms 

 of brilliant gold. 



As for Helianthemum vulgare — type of all its kin — no 

 culture, in the sun, comes amiss to it, but there is one 

 cultural recommendation I should very strongly make to 

 every one who grows it. Cut it over hard, as soon as the 

 spring blossom is done. This causes the plant to break 

 anew, forming a neat round tuft ; and has the further 

 advantage of securing a second season of bloom later on. 

 Not to mention that otherwise the Rock-rose grows leggy, 

 lanky, sickly, and ultimately moribund if left too long 

 to its own devices. The same advice I have already 

 given about Potentilla fruticosa, and it is, of course, of 

 the first importance in the case of all slender, tall-grow- 

 ing shrubs, from Lavandula vera to Boronia megastigma. 



The same applies, too, to Ereica and Pernettya. Past 

 Pernettya I slide, for though useful little berried heaths, as 

 it were, in the rock-garden, they have never made any 



