64 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



hetericoma. The other species all bear a very strong 

 family resemblance to these, and none of them have any 

 radiant loveliness, though I make one exception in favour 

 of the rare dicranoeides, who has well-built, solid little 

 flowers of a soft, pure yeUow. He is thriving in the 

 moraine, of which he is well worthy ; and as for the 

 others, their only need is a sunny crevice. The one 

 species that does sound exciting is Draba violacea, a deep 

 purple-flowered plant from the Quito Andes. 



There are a few other dwarf Crucifers of moderate 

 merit. Huichinua alpina is a common, pretty little 

 thing, which soon, if you are not careful, eats you out of 

 house and home, by seeding itself everywhere. Not to 

 mention that the plant itself runs about and ramps in a 

 deceptively modest way, which conceals its depredations 

 tin too late, when you suddenly find a dying sprout of 

 Androsace villosa gasping piteously at you out of a dense 

 impracticable j angle of Hutchinsia. But the invader is 

 such a pleasant-looking, hearty thing that I never have 

 the heart to wage internecine war upon him. I have not 

 admitted him to the New Garden, though. 



Cochlearia alpina is a dwarf plant, with glossy, heart- 

 shaped leaves in a neat rosette, and white flowers, which 

 occurs rarely in England, at high elevations, and haunts 

 the western face of Ingleborough. It is fairly pretty for 

 the garden, but tends to grow rank, and revert to its 

 type. Parrya Menziesit, from the Rockies, I have only 

 just got. It is a near cousin of Auhrietia, with purple 

 flowers, that promises to be charming. Megacarpaea 

 polyandra is a rare, tall plant, of which I have one 

 stout seedling who is now reappearing for the second 

 season. I don't know what he will be like, except that 

 he is bound to be robustious and big. Heaven send he 

 bear no resemblance to my pet dislikes — the Honesties 

 and single Rockets ! 



