April •9, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
281 
tions of wet and dry, heat and cold, which make our English 
winters, are too much for them. I have always dreamed of a 
•sunken pit covered with glass and laid out simply as a rockery 
for these smaller gems, where they could be safe from these 
■changes, and where the lights could be taken otf in the summer. 
Alas ! it is but a dream, and at my time of life must be 
•abandoned. 
Leirisia rediviva. —Another of these trying plants. It is most 
interesting and very pretty, but I confess to having been beaten by 
it, and have to abandon any attempt to cultivate it. It dies, 
hut with me belies its name, for I never see the “ rediviva ” 
part of it. 
lldmoiulia infrmaica alha. —A most lovely variety of the 
•ordinary Ramondia, a plant closely allied to the Primroses, and 
growing on the sunless sides of rocks in the Pyrenees. It is a 
plant of easy culture provided the conditions of its native habitats 
are attended to. My friend Mr. Hammond of St. Albans Court 
had rocks placed perpendicularly and holes bored on their face on 
the north side. Here they flourished admirably. I have grown it 
very successfully on a rockery facing the north, with a high stone 
n,t its back to shelter it from the sun. The variety alba was intro¬ 
duced by M. Otto Froebelof Zurich, and is a most charming flower. 
It is probable that other growers have also found it, for that there 
are different strains of it is, I believe, certain, for when I was 
•showing it to my friend Mr. Ewbank, he asked me. Was it the 
variety with black stamens ? This was the first time that I knew 
there was anything in particular on this point. I had noticed it 
very beautifully shown by Messrs. Paul & Son at Manchester last 
year, but I never examined the colour of the stamens. It is a 
very beautiful plant, and I believe the white variety comes true 
from seed. 
Radbeckia maxima. —A fine stately perennial, growing some 
‘G or 7 feet high, with bright yellow flowers of large size with 
a black disk, giving it a very striking appearance. It is suitable 
for a shrubbery or the back row of an herbaceous border. 
Silens acaulis. —This charming little alpine plant has been 
€ound by many somewhat difficult to grow. It has a long tap root 
which requires some considerable depth to penetrate into. Nothing 
indeed is more remarkable in some of these alpine plants than the 
great depth to which the roots extend. A plan which was suggested 
to me' of planting this charming little Silene in a drain pipe, and 
so giving it plenty of room to send down its roots, seems to have 
succeeded. The plant looks well notwithstanding the severe ordeal 
it has had to go through during the past winter. 
Shortia galarAfoUa. —I am not as yet the fortunate possessor of 
this charming little plant of recent introduction in a living state, 
although discovered more than 100 years ago in North Carolina. 
It is one of those dwarf white flowered plants which are most 
uncommon amongst alpines. The flowers are pure white, about 
an inch in diameter, with somewhat of a drooping bell shape. I do 
•not know whether it will be a difficult plant to grow, but if not it 
will be a great acquisition to our rockeries. 
Fiaxifraga oppositifoUa superha. —This is one of the fine varieties 
•of this charming alpine, which has been introduced by Messrs. 
James Backhouse & Son. All who know the great beauty of the 
ordinary variety will welcome these larger flowered varieties. I 
Iiad tried it on various parts of my garden, and could not get it to 
grow ; but I at last planted it in a sunny spot on another rockety, 
•and there it has flowered and grown well, as has also the pretty 
white variety. 
F^axifraga Burseriana major. —A large flowsred variety of one 
■of the very earliest and best of our dwarf Saxifrages. The flowers 
are an inch across, and completely cover the foliage ; it shows 
itself long before Snowdrops or Crocuses are in flower, and seems 
to bear well all the varieties of weather we are subjected to when 
it is in flower. 
F^axifraga Boydi. —This may be fitly described as a yellow 
Saxifraga in the style of Burseriana, and forms a fitting companion 
to it. I do not know whether it is so early, but is evidently an 
•early flowering species. At present it is scarce, as it was awarded 
a first-class certificate when exhibited by Messrs. Paul & Son this 
month. 
Tecophylcea ajamcrocus. —One of the most beautiful of recently 
introduced bulbs ; it is very early flowering, but as I have as yet 
■only ventured it in pots I cannot speak as to its earliness out of 
doors. The colour of the flowers varies considerably from an 
intense deep blue like Gentiana verna, to a lighter tint almost like 
dhionodoxa Lucilia?; the individual blooms last a long time. 
Tiarella cordifolia. — A very old, but rarely seen, herbaceous 
plant, and rare only in the sense that it is seldom seen ; it has 
■creeping roots, blooms abundantly, the flowers white and feathery, 
making a very pretty object on the rockery.—D., Deal. 
lated. The lip is dark purplish, with a purple staminode. The 
leaves are about li inch broad and 5 to 6 inches long, faintly 
marbled with dark green on a lighter ground. 
AHGNONETTE. 
Mignonette raised from seel sown in August in cold frames 
and kept in them as long as the weather allows is often ruined in 
winter quarters. If the atmosphere is close and confined, and an 
attempt is made to maintain a temperature of 45°, the plant! grow 
weakly and produce only puny heads of bloom. If wintered 
properly they should make very little growth, but that should be 
stout and strong growth. Mignonette winters best on a shelf 
close to the glass, or nearly so, in a cookhouse where frost only^is 
excluded—that is, where the temperature does not fall below 85°, 
rarely at night exceeding 40°, and where liberal ventilation is given 
during mild weather. To have well-grown pots of Mignonette jt 
is important to thin the plants liberally and early while they are in¬ 
frames. Each plant from the first is then of the sturdiest nature, 
Some have fancied that Cypripedium hybrids are becoming too 
numerous, but so long as good novelties are forthcoming they will 
assuredly be welcomed by Orchid lovers, and there are many more 
to come that will gain high favour. That represented in the illus¬ 
tration (fig. 51), C. Maynardi, was raised in Messrs. Sander & Co.’s 
nursery, St. Albans, by the hybridist whose name it bears, and was 
adjudged an award of merit by the Orchid Committee of the Royal 
Horticultural Society on December 9tb, 1890. 
It is a beautiful hybrid between C. purpuratum and C. Spiceri- 
anum, the flowers taking the general form of the latter parent, but 
evidently influenced by other in a material degree. The dorsal 
sepal is rounded in outline, but the lower part is reflexed and white, 
with a deep crimson central vein, and a few lighter ones ; the base 
green. The petals are short, greenish at the base, dotted with 
purple, purplish towards the tip, edged white, the margin undu- 
FIG. 51. —CYPRIPEDIUM MAYNARDI. 
