24 BANK. FOR ALflNE TLANTS. 



IV. 



Description of a Bank for Alpine Plants, by Monsieur Thouin, 

 abridged from his Paper in the Annales du Museum. V. 6, 

 p. 183. By Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq.F. R. S. 

 kc* 



Bank for the 

 culture of 



PLANTS from alpine and frozen countries are cultivated in 

 the Jardin des PLantes at Paris, ma bank, 60 feet long, 

 in the botani- placed against the wall cf a terrace, 10 feet high, which faces 

 Paris. • tDe south-east so much, that the sun ceases to shine upon it 

 between 10 and 11, A. M. This bank is divided into 5 steps, 

 1 foot wide, by nailing planks of oak, 10 inches deep, to the 

 top of as many rows of strong posts, charred at the bottom, 

 and driven firmly into the ground ; the taller posts are still fur- 

 ther secured in their places by cross bars let into the wall. 



Through the whole length of this bank runs a ditch, 2 feet 

 deep, but sloping gradually towards the front up to 9 inches in 

 height, under* the general level of the ground ; and in making 

 this ditch, its sides were plastered 6 inches thick with mortar 

 of brick mould and chopped straw ; filling up all the cracks 

 which appeared during the week it was left exposed to the aiu. 

 After nailing the planks to the posts, the natural soil, which is 

 of a light nature, was thrown*into the hollow up to within about 

 a foot of the surface of the slope, above which it was filled with 

 sandy peat, such as ling and heaths grow in, passed through a 

 screen. My reason for using all these precautions was topre- 

 Vent the water necessary for the health of those alpine plants in 

 summer, running off too quickly into a bed of dry gravel un- 

 derneath j in a naturally moist soil, this expense and trouble 

 may be saved. 

 Seeds sown in I have sown on this bank the seeds received not only from 

 r* the Alps, but several other frozen regions j for it is probable, 



that the elevation of the atmosphere near the poles corresponds 

 with that of the highest mountains in France, rising gradually 

 toward the equator - 7 nor is this consideration so foreign to the 

 business of a gardener in naturalizing vegetables, as might be 

 at first supposed. 



* Horti. Trans, vol. I, appendix, p. 24. 



Roots 



