Shortia

Shortia - S. galacifolia is an interesting and beautiful plant, first discovered over a hundred years ago by Michaux in the mountains of N. Carolina, and rediscovered in 1877. It was found growing with Galax aphylla, and forms runners like that plant, and is propagated by this means. The plant is of tufted habit, the flowers reminding one of those of a Soldanella, but large, with cut edges to the segments, like a frill, and pure white, passing to rose as they get older. There is now a pretty variety in which the flowers are of a delicate pink from the very first, and plants with semidouble flowers also occur. There is much beauty in the leaves, which are of rather oval shape, deep green, tinged with brownish-crimson, changing in winter to quite a crimson, when it forms a bright bit of color in the rock garden or border. A correspondent, writing in The Garden, says: "The cultural directions given in catalogues to keep the plant in a shady situation and grow it in Sphagnum and peat deprive us of its chief charm-i.e., the handsome-colored leaves during the winter and spring months. Instead of choosing a shady spot I selected a fully exposed one, and here two plants have been for over a year, one in peat and the other in sandy loam. Both are vigorous." It succeeds well in various soils, as described, and is hardy. It is also a delightful plant in a pot, as the flowers on their crimson stems are pretty, and one gets also the prettily tinted leaves. North America. A new species, S. uniflora, has recently come to us from Japan, but is still rare. While not unlike the American plant, this differs from it in having larger flowers, broader and more prostrate leaves, and shorter flower-stems, some of the flowers hardly rising above the leaves, which turn a fine crimson from August to the following spring. The plant thrives in a mixture of peat and loam, in full sun, and is fully hardy. S. u. grandiflora is the finest of all.

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