s, making his
first excursion of the year, but it is one of our most striking and
beautiful flowers, even though they are produced on a plant of such
humble size and habit. The pleasing and descriptive names of this gem of
our hills would form a chapter in themselves. Even the old Latin names
by which it was known, before the time when Linnaeus arranged and
re-named most of our native plants, bespeak a desire to do justice to a
flower of more than ordinary beauty; and, as they were so strictly
descriptive, at least one, I think, may be given without trying the
reader's patience: _Saxifraga alpina ericoides flore caeruleo_, or the
Blue-flowered Erica-like Mountain Saxifrage. Doubtless, shorter names
are more convenient, but such specific names as the one just given are
not entirely useless. Its present botanical name is in reference to the
foliage only, but otherwise so distinct is this plant either in or out
of bloom that no one could well mistake it.

The flowers are 1/2in. to 3/4in. across, produced terminally and singly on
short procumbent stems. They are of a bright purple colour; petals
ovate; the longish stamens carry bold anthers furnished with dark
orange-coloured pollen, which forms a pretty feature. The leaves are
small, crowded, opposite, ovate, entire, leathery, fringed or ciliated,
and retuse. A peculiar feature about this species is the pore at the
blunt apex of each leaf. The habit is prostrate; the stems being long,
tufted, or pendulous, according to the situation; the flower shoots are
upright, on which the leaves are more remote. Under cultivation newly
planted roots will be found not only to flower sparingly, but the blooms
will be rather small until the plant grows large and strong.

On rockwork, with its roots near or between large stones, is in every
way the best place for it; it however, thrives in the borders. The soil
is not of much importance, but without doubt it does best in a compost
of the nature of that of its wild homes. The humus and grit may be
represented by sand and small stones, and peat or leaf soil, all mixed
with loam. This, let me here state, will be found generally the right
stuff for alpines and rockery plants. This plant is useful as a spring
bedder, or for carpeting bare places; and any conspicuous part of the
garden needing bright objects during March and April should give room
largely for this cheerful subject. The bloom is very lasting; no storm
seems to do it any hurt, a