44 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



in growth, producing yellow heads at the end of each 

 shoot, is good for any very hot, dry, rubbly bank where 

 nothing else will do. Genista andreana is the gold-and- 

 copper form of the common Broom, and is splendid up 

 at the back, together with Mr. T. Smith's lovely new 

 hybrids in shades of rose and lemon and coral — T. Smith, 

 Firefly, Daisy Hill, and so on. 



We come now to the Pines, Firs, Ivies. These hardly 

 bear cataloguing. Hedera minima is a charming, serried 

 wee ivy, quite stiffs and stout, and very effective in the 

 rock-garden. As for the Firs^ — not to wander into such 

 debatable territory as Thuya and Retinospora — Ahies 

 excelsa gives us a perfect miniature of itself in clanhra- 

 siliana. Pumila and pygmaea are other minute firs that 

 adorn and dignify an outstanding coign of the rock. 

 Retinospm-a obtusa, if I may beg the question, is also 

 good ; but the two finest things in this group, beyond all 

 cavil, are the mimic Cedrus atlantica which they call 

 Comte de Digon (or should it be Dijon ?) and the rare 

 heuvronensis dwarf of the Scotch Fir — a perfect reproduc- 

 tion of the type, but never of more than a foot's height 

 or so, — and indescribably alluring. 



Of tlie Junipers, prostrata and hibernica are beyond 

 price — the one a trailer, the other erect, columnar. 

 Sanderiana is wonderful beyond the ordinary, though, 

 and so is pachyphlaea, a new introduction from Oregon. 

 Sanderiana is a little Japanese, making a round bush 

 about six inches high. All through the summer it is of 

 a glaucous pearly grey, and with winter deepens to a 

 metallic purple. Pachyphlaea promises to be much larger, 

 and already has more or less columnar varieties. Its dis- 

 tinguishing note is the clear and brilliant glaucousness of 

 its foliage, which is more clearly and conspicuously blue 

 than even Abies Parryi or Cedrus atlantica glauca. Nor, 

 apparently, is any miffiness or delicacy to be feared from 



