NATURAL ALPINE GARDENS 
53 
been several times figured and described under 
this and other names, such as Cypella ccerulea 
and Cypura ccerulea. 
M. gracilis. — A plant of more slender habit 
than other kinds and so much hardier from 
its more northerly range as to succeed in a 
greenhouse temperature, where I have grown 
it with Morasas, Iris Jimbriata, and Aristea, 
with perfect success. The flowers are on leaf- 
like flower-stalks which lengthen to produce 
offsets. They are from i|- to 2 inches wide, 
the outer segments being white with cross- 
bars of brown and yellow at the base, the 
inner segments reflexed, and blue, like a very 
small flower of Marica Northia?ia. Sy n . Cypella 
gracilis. 
M. humilis. — A Brazilian species probably 
long lost to cultivation though flowered by 
Loddiges in 1825. It comes very near M. 
lutea, differing from it mainly in its forked 
flower-stem and the blue-tipped inner seg- 
ments. 
M. longifolia. — Another yellow -flowered 
species from Rio de Janeiro, which has also 
disappeared from gardens. It must have been 
an attractive plant, as the flowers were golden 
yellow, 2 inches across, with the inner seg- 
ments banded with brown. It was grown in 
the Berlin Botanic Gardens about 1828, and, 
like many other kinds of Marica was originally 
placed in the genus Cypella. 
M. lutea. — A dwarf and early-flowering 
plant, with narrow erect leaves little more 
than 6 inches high, and blooming in April. 
Its flowers are yellow and like those of M. 
humilis but of somewhat brighter tone, with 
five reddish bars upon the outer segments in 
place of four, and the ends of the inner seg- 
ments white with green bars instead of plain 
purple or blue. 
M. Northiana. — One of the finest of the 
group, with flat sword-shaped leaves i to 2 
feet in length and 2 inches wide. The flower- 
stalk is yet longer and flattened in the same 
way, with fragrant flowers borne near the end, 
and 3 to 4 inches across when fully expanded. 
The beautiful blend of colours seen in the 
flowers is faithfully rendered in the plate, the 
variety splendens being distinguished from its 
parent only in its intensity of colour. It is not 
a new plant, having been known for more 
than a century past, though so scarce as to 
have almost disappeared. Syns. Iris Northiana^ 
Ferraria elegans, and Morcea Northiana. 
M. occidentalis. — A plant more recently dis- 
covered than others of the group, and coming 
from a region in Peru more to the west of 
the continent. Its leaves grow in a fan-shaped 
cluster of about a foot, with erect and winged 
flower-stems exceeding the leaves. The flowers 
appear during July in clusters of three, with 
outer segments white and spreading, the inner 
mottled with brown and tipped with violet. 
Stanmore. JOHN W. ODELL. 
NATURAL ALPINE GARDENS. 
A MOVEMENT, which should have some 
influence on this branch of flower 
gardening, has lately taken place abroad, 
in the formation of alpine gardens in 
their natural homes, at the elevations 
and among the rocks where they are 
happiest. We have seen some of these 
gardens, and while in sympathy with 
the movement, we regret that instead of 
taking Nature as it is, and massing the 
mountain plants upon the ground as 
they ought to be, they are formed more 
upon our garden ideas of "rockeries." 
Surely the right way is to accept the 
rocks as they are, and plant the ground 
in natural ways. Not only in Switzer- 
land and other parts of Europe might 
this be done, but there are many districts 
in northern England, Wales, Ireland, 
and Scotland, in which work of the 
same kind might be undertaken. Even 
the south in some districts has natural 
rock cropping out where fine planting 
might be done in private places too. As 
to what has been already accomplished 
in various parts of Europe, we have the 
following from M. Correvon 
The Jardin de la Linnaea at Bourg 
St. Pierre, Valais, is the oldest alpine 
