232 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



P^eony Species and Varieties — continued. 

 P. Brownii. 

 ,, coccinea. 

 ,, corallina. 

 ,, coriacea. 



„ daurica (triternata). 

 „ decora. 



„ „ angustifolia. 



elatior. 

 „ „ Pallasii. 

 „ Emodi. 

 ,, humilis. 



„ lanceolata (Hort.). 



macrocarpa (Hort.). 

 „ microcarpa. 



mollis. 

 „ Moutan. 

 „ obovata. 

 ,, officinalis alba. 

 „ ,, anemonaeflora, single. 



P lena - 



„ blanda. 

 „ ,, canescens. 

 „ fine variety, 

 lobata. 



Sunbeam. 



plena. 



„ „ rosea plena. 

 Sabini. 



,, paradoxa. 



„ fimbriata. 

 „ peregrina. 

 „ „ byzantina. 



„ compacta. 

 „ „ Grevillei. 



precox (Hort.). 

 „ pubens. 

 ,, Russi. 

 „ sibirica. 

 ,, tenuifolia. 



„ „ A. Pi- 



,, villosa. 



„ Wittmanniana. 

 Passing through one of the most beautiful planta- 

 tions of Pines we have seen in England lately, we 

 were surprised to see the scene marred by wretched 

 specimens of dying variegated conifers. Variegation 

 in conifers is disease, and however freely they may 

 be grown and pushed on in a nursery they die when 

 planted out, and in dying disfigure all the ground 

 about them. Why people go on planting them at a 

 high price, giving them good positions that might 

 be occupied by real trees, we cannot see. 



HARDY PEA FLOWERS. 



{Continued from page 202.) 



TheOxytropis is among Alpine species the 

 ne plus ultra of the order ; but, unfortunately, 

 these will not stand being moved ; they appear 

 to be difficult to raise from seed, and they cer- 

 tainly are very difficult to grow in any posi- 

 tion I have ever been able to invent for them. 

 The only species I ever succeeded in keep- 

 ing at all was O. campestris, with dull straw- 

 coloured flowers, common in the vicinity of 

 Zermatt. This is dead now. Stagnant mois- 

 ture, which they seem to find at once, is fatal 

 to them, as it is to many other analogous spe- 

 cies, such as some of the Alpine Coronillas and 

 Astragali. Possibly a miniature " moraine," 

 composed entirely of gravel and sand with a 

 little soil on top, might enable some of them 

 to survive, but I have not yet tried this plan, 

 though it has been suggested to me. The 

 fault of the Astragalus is the weedy and aggres- 

 sive habit of many of the species, of which 

 there are vast numbers. Some few of them, 

 however, make good garden plants. A. mon- 

 spessulanus has died in this garden, as has also 

 one of the best and most distinct of them, A. 

 adsurgens, from Lake Baikal, probably from 

 the same causes that kill the Oxytropis. I be- 

 lieve, too, I have lost the dwarf A. hypoglottis 

 albus, a pretty and unaggressive little plant ; 

 and the only species at present on my rockeries, 

 as well as I can recollect, are A. alpinus, an 

 American species, strangely like Vicia pyren- 

 aica and A. ponticus, recommended to me by 

 a gardening acquaintance. This grows vigo- 

 rously, but I have not yet seen it in flower. 

 The tall-growing and quaint A. alopecuroides 

 (or it may have been A. narbonensis) has died 

 here. According to Grenier and Godron's 

 "Flore de France" this has only one habitat 

 within the French limits, viz., Boscodon-pres- 

 d'Embrun, but it is seemingly found in the 

 Alps, though, perhaps, only on the southern 

 side of the watershed; at any rate, there is a 

 specimen of it in the little botanic garden close 

 to the English church at Zermatt, which is, I 

 believe, supposed to illustrate more or less ex- 

 clusively the flora of the neighbourhood. A 

 somewhat uncommon species is A. tragacan- 

 tha (the Goat's Thorn), a dwarf, almost ever- 

 green bush, which grows slowly. It has never 

 flowered here. This is indigenous to the 



