IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME VI. 



No. 64 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



JUNE 



Treatment of Collected Alpines. 



By W. H. Paine, F.R.H.S. 



iW 



TO complete this series of articles on 

 Nature's great garden in the Pyrenees, 

 I propose to take a review of several of 

 the more important genera not yet treated, 

 the first of these be^ng Campanula, for they 

 play an important part in the colon 

 scheme of those beautifu' 

 mountains, one of the 

 most beautiful 

 and yet most 

 plentiful be 

 ing Cam 

 p a n u 1 a 

 abietina 

 grow 

 ing ir 

 almost 

 e V e r )' 

 case as 

 an iso 

 late 

 plant on 

 the damp 

 semi - shady 

 sides of those 

 small slopes 

 which intercept the 

 different strata of th( 

 rock, its rich, bright tone of 

 blue giving the most telling \'ior.A 



effect when growing in asso- 

 ciation with a Silene, a species which I was un- 

 able to locate. The roots of the former take an 

 absolute horizontal direction until it finds 

 a crevice in the rock, when it at once sets 

 about to make a tuberous-like appendage 

 for storing up food in dry periods, and for 

 this reason the plant is not altogether easy to 

 re-establish in this country. The best treat- 



*^ . •? 



^..U*,*^''- 



itm m* 



ment to give it is to place it in a shady, damp 

 frame, and immediately a little growth is 

 observed cuttings should be taken and inserted 

 in a mixture of sand and leaf-mould of equal 

 proportions. It will be found that, if kept close 

 ^^E— __^._ and well watered, an ample stock 

 of one of the most beauti • 

 ful Campanulas that 

 ever garnished a 

 rock- - garden 

 be ob- 



I -l 



tained. It 

 may not 

 be out of 

 place 

 to state 

 1 hat 

 this 

 [1 1 a n t. 

 after il 

 s two 

 ears' 

 i, be- 

 comes very 

 sluggish in 

 this country, so 

 that it is wise to 

 keep a continual supply 

 of cuttings to ensure flori- 

 ferousness. 

 Campanula Allioni belongs 

 to that section of plants which bear the same 

 specific name, and also require careful treatment. 

 It is essentially a moraine plant, its roots being 

 sometimes three or four feet long, and the diffi- 

 culty is that it does not like water, yet some is 

 required to start it in life. Between the two 

 extremes the difficulty is almost sure to arise. 

 Perhaps the best method of treating it after 



CORNUTA. 



