162 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
their places with hits of brick or stone pressed in beside them. 
The work is done, and you may rest from your labours for ten 
years at least. S. arachnoideum forms an elegant tuft, covered 
with white threads, as if enveloped in cobwebs ; the flowers 
are purplish pink. S. ccdifornicum is the best for bedding, 
the leaves are dark green, tipped with brown. The offsets 
should be taken off in August, and potted in sandy soil, and 
wintered in a light dry pit for next year’s use. 8. hirtum 
is a close-growing hairy plant, producing myriads of white 
flowers, which the honey-bees will never leave while daylight 
lasts. 8. montanum, producing purplish pink flowers, is another 
favourite with the bees. 8. tectorum is the “ houseleek” of 
the cottage roof, a good old homely plant that the heart will 
not willingly let die, though, for the matter of that, it is 
privileged with a thousand years’ lease of its life, and will 
stoically defy a few kicks and scofnngs :— 
Oh, such be life’s journey, and such be our skill, 
To lose in its blessings the sense of its ill; 
Through sunshine and shower, may our progress be even, 
And our tears add a charm to the prospect of heaven! 
Silene (Catchfly).—These plants require a rich sandy 
loam and a pure air, and some amount of attention in the 
way of cultivation. As for multiplication, it is no vexation, 
for they produce seed in plenty, and cuttings of those with 
trailing stems can be struck in the summer with the greatest 
ease imaginable. 8. acaulis grows in cushion-like tufts, the 
flowers reddish purple or pink. There is a white variety; 
both are good rockery plants. 8. aljpestris produces a lovely 
sheet of white flowers in May and June, and is well adapted 
for bedding purposes. A dry sandy soil, and the most free 
exposure to all the winds of heaven, are necessary to its 
vrell-doing. 8. Jimbriata , growing 2 feet high, and producing 
panicles of inflated white flowers, is a good border-plant. The 
double variety of S. maritima is a lovely plant for rockeries, if 
it can have a moist sandy soil. It is also a good bedding plant 
in a soil suited to its constitution. It grows about four inches 
high, and the flowers are pure white. 8. sehafta is one of the 
best for any and every purpose; a good border, rock, and 
bedding plant, nine inches high, producing reddish purple 
flowers in June and July. 
Sisyrinchium. —A small group of interesting little irids 
