HARDY PEA FLOWERS, 



23 3 



Mediterranean littoral, and is found in several 

 places on the south coast of France. People 

 with large gardens and rough places in the 

 form of banks or rockeries to cover may do 

 worse than introduce the British plant A.gly- 

 ciphyllus. The flowers are of a greenish white 

 and quite inconspicuous, but the leaves are 

 rich and beautiful, greatly resembling the Aca- 

 cia. A. glyciphyllus is, I believe, widely and 

 generally distributed as regards its habitats in 

 this island, but it is not common, and com- 

 paratively few people know it. I have found 

 it in Kent both on the chalk and more plenti- 

 fully on the ragstone. 



Coronilla iberica is one of the most beau- 

 tiful and floriferous of dwarf Alpines, and C. 

 varia (also a good plant for a rough bank) is 

 one of the most aggressively weedy. Thelatter 

 is abundant in places on the banks of the lower 

 Rhine as well as on the Alps. The dwarf C. 

 minima, and also C. monfana, are both said to 

 be good, but I have never grown either. 



Probably theHedysarum now commonest 

 in gardens is the Mongolian H. multijugum, a 

 beautiful shrub which merits a good place and 

 good cultivation. It is generally said to grow 

 between 2 and 3 feet high, but the fine speci- 

 men on the top of the rockery at the Cam- 

 bridge Botanic Garden must be close on 5 feet 

 high and as much through. The best known 

 Alpine form, H. obscurum, is growing here, I 

 believe, as is also a richer-coloured form known 

 as H. neglectum. H. boreale I never could get to 

 grow. I was under the impression (probably 

 picked up at school) that the Latin word Jia- 

 vescens meant yellowish or inclining to yellow. 

 The true meaning of the word, however, is 

 apparently purplish or inclining to purple — at 

 any rate, that is, or was, the colour of a plant I 

 bought some years ago under that name, but 

 which, for reasons of its own, gave up flowering 

 and is now dead. 



Anthyllis montana and its variety rubra are 

 two beautiful plants, and suitable for good 

 places among choice flowers. There is a small 

 Alpine shrub, A. barba Jovis, which I have 

 grown here for the last year, it has good fo- 

 liage and white flowers, and is very distinct. 

 The common Lady's Fingers {A. vulnerarid) 

 is a beautiful plant in growth, having entire 

 leaves of a peculiarly rich glassy green, though 

 the yellow flowers are of little value. The pale 



straw-coloured variety, found sparingly at the 

 Lizard, is common in Switzerland, but, though 

 I have once or twice paid for it, I have never yet 

 succeeded in getting the var. rubra, which is 

 probably rare even in its own habitat. 



Ononis rotundifolia is a beautiful Rest-har- 

 row, which, in spite of its sub-shrubby habit, 

 I have found at high altitudes on the Alps. 

 I can never keep it for more than two or 

 three years at the outside, nor can I get seed- 

 lings spontaneously from the parent plant. 

 O. fruticosa, also with pink flowers, is an Al- 

 pine shrub of quite exceptional beauty, which 

 is much to be recommended. There is a spe- 

 cies with yellow flowers, which I saw on the 

 rockery at Kew a year or two since, that 

 struck me as decidedly distinct and desirable. 

 I fancy I have been told by some nurseryman 

 that this is not hardy, but I do not quite see 

 why it should not be , for, though it bears the 

 name O. arragonensis, it is found on the high 

 Pyrenees " au Port de Benasque," according 

 to Grenier and Godron. O. natrix, a plant to 

 which Pliny seems to have stood godfather, 

 is also pretty, with flowers of a rich, though 

 not, perhaps, a very refined shade of yellow. 

 The plant appears to be somewhat local in 

 Switzerland. Where it grows, as it does in the 

 Val d'Herens, below Evolena, it is extremely 

 abundant, but you may walk whole days in 

 other valleys not far off and never see a sign 

 of it. It has never proved lasting here. 



Tetragonolobus siliquosus (a truly appalling 

 name) is a pretty little Alpine, with pale yellow 

 flowers, borne singly. It seeds about a little, 

 being, along with Orobus roseus and O. /uteus, 

 the only Alpine Leguminosa which sponta- 

 neously produces seedlings here. The native 

 Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) is one 

 of the best of yellow rock plants. 



One of the most beautiful of the family in 

 cultivation is the Himalayan Blue Clover (Pa- 

 rochcetus communis) ; this, however, is not hardy 

 in most gardens, though I believe I kept it 

 more than one season, even in this cold soil 

 and climate, when it was first given me many 

 years ago. It is not to be relied on, however ; 

 moreover, it blooms in the autumn, which I 

 do not consider an advantage, though others 

 may. 



Vicia pyrenaica is a pretty plant, with a 

 somewhat aggressive and weedy habit, and 



