OF ODD TREASURES 141 



Alexandri. This is hardy and vigorous, quite small and 

 low in leaf, with a very stodgy, important-looking spike 

 of pinkish flowers about a foot high or more. Except 

 for its quaintness and rarity, I do not think this a very 

 wonderful plant ; it has not the choice brilliancy of an 

 Alpine, while it has lost the tropical grandeur of the 

 typical Acanthus. 



Glossocomia, Codonopsis, and Cyananthus are cousins of 

 the Campanulas, which deserve a place to themselves. 

 I will not pretend to distinguish between the indistin- 

 guishable Glossocomia and Codonopsis. They are flaccid, 

 rather loose-growing herbaceous things, witli nodding, big 

 bells of blossom, which vary infinitely from one packet of 

 seed ; the prettiest, very pretty indeed, of a soft green-blue, 

 with brilliant, many-coloured gold and blue markings 

 inside. The most frequently grown plant is called ovata, 

 but I believe the true ovata is very rare in cultivation, 

 and I am anxiously awaiting flowers from the seed of it 

 that was given me last season. Then there are two or 

 three other species or forms, of which I am rearing seed- 

 lings, of viridijlora, ussuriensis, and Tang-sheng. They 

 are all quite hardy, and ought to be planted high, high 

 up on the rockery, so that their pendent bells with the 

 quaint interior markings can nod down at you in all their 

 delicate beauty. 



And now we come to a. race indispensable beyond all 

 other indispensables for the rock-garden. For who will 

 deny this claim to the dwarf Phloxes, to the innumerable 

 cheerful family of setosa and subulata ? Of the species 

 I grew caroliniana, a vigorous trailer that runs about all 

 over the place, in any ordinary loam, sending up heads 

 of rosy pink flower, large and bright even in the late 

 autumn, after a gorgeous display in the spring. Pihsa 

 and Douglasi are rather rare, sand-loving plants, very 

 pretty and choice, but not making any attempt to rival 



