CRUCIFERAE 63 



white-flowered native annual J. maritknum, now called 

 Koeniga. Then there are viontanum and alpestre, plants 

 of the Southern Alps, prostrate and more or less grey- 

 leaved, with heads of blossom that have a certain acrid, 

 mean tone in their yellows. They have double varieties 

 which are fairly pretty. Alyssum gemonense is a seed- 

 ling here, and proves the best of all in colour — a really 

 pure, gentle yellow ; Shivereclda podolica, otherwise known 

 as Alyssum podolicum, is rather an uninteresting, white- 

 flowered plant, and both species seem very fertile and 

 robust. Alyssiim saxatile is a well-known plant, and 

 really invaluable with its dense masses of grey foliage, 

 quite hidden by the astonishing abundance of its yellow 

 flowers. The variety citrinum is paler in colour and 

 even more attractive. The double form and the varie- 

 gated form move no emotion in me. My own favourite 

 in the family is the rather rare and delicate Wttle Alyssum 

 idaeum, the only one of its race I know that can be used, 

 or deserves to be used, in any choice place on the rock- 

 work. Idaeum is a small, prostrate species, with tiny 

 roundish leaves in pairs down its stem. And it is the 

 leaves that make the plant so charming, for they are 

 absolutely silver — not white exactly, not glaucous, but 

 true silver. All the Alyssums, I believe, without excep- 

 tion, are southerners, and all want dry light spots in full 

 sun. Their only constitutional dislike is for excessive 

 moisture. And this may be made a rule for all the Cross- 

 bearers that one is ever likely to let into the garden. 



The Drabas have some reputation, and are generally 

 advertised in rosy terms. I must be honest and own 

 that I don't really like any of them. They are all neat- 

 habited, true rock-plants, and no doubt very useful, but 

 I can never feel any enthusiasm for them. Their flowers 

 are mean and ragged in shape, a dullish white, or sharp, 

 bitter yellow. I grow aeizoeides, scabra, and olympka 



