COLLECTIONS OF 1914 
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slightly shaded cool aspect in soil that may be yellow loam, or 
mould, or turfy peat, or limestone detritus. It ascends to some 
7,500-8,000 feet on the moorland ridges above Gahoba, and above 
Siku is as finely developed among the calcareous debris at the 
debouchure of the gorges as is D. alpina among that about the 
Lago di Loppio. It forms a neat, rounded, low bush, about 
15-24 inches high and rather more across, with the foliage and 
after the style of a small D. indica ; and the masses of lilac-pale 
blossom appear in April, filling the air with fragrance, especially 
(as it seemed to me) in the later afternoon, and followed at the end 
of June by a brilliant clustered show of glowing vermilion fruits. 
Daphne sp. (F 271). — This does not grow, like the last, among scrub, 
but all by itself, dotted here and there, in tiny sturdy blots of 
darkness, upon the huge grass-slopes of Tibet. Very small and 
slow of habit, very stiff and dark in foliage, that is all that 
can at present be said of it, the flower not having been as yet 
recorded. 
Daphne sp. (F 378) lives in grassy open places like the last, on the 
hills north-east of Minchow. The last is possibly not distinct, 
but this one we know to have a noble display of fairly sweet 
blossom so densely borne on the shoots that the whole growth 
becomes a solid ball of lilac -pink in May- June, and at other times 
is a perfectly dense dome of very dark leathern foliage, to end 
up with a glowing display of scarlet berries. Coll. W. Purdom. 
This should be a remarkable treasure ; like all the others, it is 
calcicole. 
Delphinium sp. (F 253). — Referring to "The English Rock-Garden," I 
find that D. tanguticum stands closely related to D. caucasicum ; 
and, from the similarity of their styles and sites, I therefore have 
to conclude that F 253 is D. tanguticum and no other. It is a 
noble beauty, confined to the limestone and shalestone screes 
along the upmost gaunt aretes in the Min S'an, extending down 
to Thundercrown. Through the shingle it threads and spreads, 
and over all the grim slope hovers in August a flight, as it seems, 
of enormous violet-purple butterflies, flitting close over the stones, 
with wide-fluttering silken wings, and a black eye, and a body 
furred with white and gold. These single-flowered 2-inch scree 
Delphiniums are none of them known as yet in cultivation ; they 
make an absolutely new tradition of beauty in their race, and 
should be at home perennially in the moraine. Of the larger 
species, so abundant up and down the border, I will not here 
speak ; none, I think, offer any really valuable contribution to 
the garden. F 243, however, of which one rather doubtful pad 
was secured on Thundercrown, is another high-alpine species 
of the screes, with some two to three flowers on a low squatting 
stem among the foliage, and, though large, of a rather indeter- 
minate lilac-purple, with a rather dulling downiness of pubescence 
on their parts. 
