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BEAUTIFUL GARDEN FLOWERS. 
The perennial kinds are mostly evergreen, and form 
mossy patches of foliage on the rocks or soil, looking 
gay all the year round. A s pot plants for the decora- 
tion of cold greenhouses they are charming, and some 
of the rarer and choicer sorts are better grown in this 
way to avoid risk of loss in the open ground. Another 
very remarkable group is the “ encrusted ” Saxifrages, 
so called owing to the incrustations of lime that are 
often to be found on the margins of the silvery leaves. 
The latter are arranged in dense rosettes, and are 
peculiarly conspicuous clothing the mounds or boulders 
in the rock garden. 
The well-known “ London Pride ” or “ St. Patrick’s 
Cabbage *’ (S. umbrosa) may be taken as the representa- 
tive of another group, easily grown and increased from 
offsets or division. S. umbrosa has rosettes of broadly- 
ovate coarsely-toothed leaves and panicles of pretty 
white flowers, speckled with crimson. 
The Umbrella Plant {8. peltata ) from California 
is the largest Saxifrage known. It is remarkable 
for its large roundish peltate leaves, 6 to 8 inches 
wide with 6 to 10 inch lobes, and borne on stalks 
1 to 2 feet high. The leaves being depressed in the 
centre are capable of holding a large quantity of water 
after a heavy rain. The flowers appear about April, 
being white or pale lilac in colour. 
A very distinct group of Saxifrages are those 
which were at one time known under the name of 
Megasea. They are easily recognised by their large 
beautiful leaves in dense masses, and the sturdy spikes 
of numerous flowers. S. cordifolia, with roundish 
heart-shaped leaves, has clear rose blossoms from 
