136 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



give the poor things — ^j ust The Plant ! As for the 

 Michauxias (how can an ordinary person be expected to 

 pronounce this? — 'Me-show-ia' is right, but is beyond 

 most people ; the name usually emerges as My-corks-ia), 

 they are tall things, more or less biennial, with panicles 

 of reflexed flowers like tiny blue Panther lilies in general 

 effect. Caimpanuloeides has not done much good, but 

 Michauxia Tchihatchewi (there's the worst name in the 

 garden) is a handsome-leaved grey person, who thrives 

 persistently in a warm, well-drained nook ; both are 

 easterners, hating mould. 



The Thrifts are rather respectable than beautiful. 

 Tall, g\aMtArmeria Cephahtes is very splendid if you get 

 him in a good shade of pink, bright and warm. For he 

 varies in colour, from seed, and, besides, is more than a 

 little of a miff — dying out suddenly under a heavy rain, 

 if your climate be chilly and wet, or your soil too heavy. 

 However, while he lives he thrives heartily, and so 

 escapes the reproach of being a mimp. For a miff is a 

 plant which, in the midst of seeming life, is in death, and 

 expires abruptly ; a mimp is one that for ever hangs on 

 the edge of death, trailing a sickly existence towards in- 

 evitable extinction. Thus Gentiana verna in too many 

 gardens is a mimp ; Myosotis rupicola is a mitf. Of the 

 other Thrifts, the only one to trouble with is Armeria 

 caespitosa, a tiny, furry little ball from blazing rock-clefts 

 in Provence, thickly covered, in spring, with globes of 

 pale rosy flowers. This is lovely, if not brilliant, but 

 wants careful watching, perfect drainage, and a warm, dry 

 corner where damp may never lodge round its crown. 

 Our own Armefia plantaginea is a dull, reduced edition of 

 Cephahtes, and any varieties advertised as brighter are 

 certain to be only of a more tedious because more pro- 

 nounced magenta than the type. 



The A cantholimons, however, are the most delightful of 



