244 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



very much daintier, with only one or two growths, and 

 a fluffy little spire of small pale-yellow flowers. Canali- 

 culata, from the Alps, is rather bigger, and both are 

 interesting for the bog, to combine with the rather 

 similar pink and white spikes of their compatriot. Poly- 

 gonum vivvparvm. As for our rave bog-Orchids, Liparis 

 and Malaoois, let no one, I would urge, attempt them, or 

 nurse hope of growing them. Dull little greenish things, 

 they are no great loss ; but the same sad advice applies 

 to three royally beautiful marsh-Orchids from North 

 America — Pogonia, Calopogon, and Arethusa — plants of 

 the spongiest, wettest peat-bog, loving to grow in 

 cushions of the living Sphagnum, like the Cranberry. 

 The Cranberry itself, with flowers like wee crimson 

 Cyclamens on thread-like stems, is very pretty and 

 harmless for the bog; Andromeda polifolia is larger, 

 with rosy bells of blossom, and no less easy. 



Then there are our own native Pinguiculas, vulgaris, 

 and the very rare white-flowered alpma, for the same 

 facile culture as I have already described for grandiflora. 

 But lusitanica and bizarre •vallisneriaefolia are too diffi- 

 cult for any ordinary garden. Sisyrmchium anceps is 

 an attractive little plant, native to one patch of ground 

 in western Ireland, and delightfully free and happy in 

 the bog — a small bulbous thing, cousin to all the 

 Amaryllids, with grassy foliage, and big stars of bright- 

 blue that break from the rush-like stems. This delights 

 in wet ground, and seeds itself freely without effort ; and 

 altogether is a treasure. Even more glorious is the 

 similar, larger belhtm, for much the same, or drier 

 treatment ; and most glorious of all is grandiflorum from 

 British Columbia, rush-like and very fine in gi'owth, with 

 thready, waving stems that break out in February and 

 early March into immense wide pendent bells of an 

 ardent silky sheen of violet. This lovely, lovely thing is 



