IRISH GARDENING 



19 



The King of the Alps. 



[Eritrlclilum naniun). 

 By Henry Correvon, Geneva. 

 This is one of the best, but one of the most 

 (lifticult to grow and to acclimatise, of the plants 

 of the whole Alpine 

 Hora. Growing 

 either on limestone 

 or on granitic soil 

 on the highest 

 rocks of the Alpine 

 chain, the King of 

 the Alps is one of 

 those things every- 

 one would like to 

 possess in their 

 garden or rockery, 

 but few, very few, 

 can succeed with. 

 I saw it lately in 

 the maritime Alps 

 above Nice, in 

 such an abundance 

 and luxuriance 

 that I, at first 

 sight, hardly could 

 believe it was not 

 a dwarf King of 

 F o r g e t-m e- N o t s 

 (Myosotis alpes- 

 tris). There it was 

 at an altitude of 

 over 8,000 feet, 

 and only on primi- 

 tive rocks ; but hi 

 the Champorcher 

 Valley (Valles 

 d'Aosta) it grows 

 on the chalk, and 

 not higher than 

 6,000 feet, and is 

 beautiful in colour 

 and health. 



The plant grows 

 all over the Alpine 

 chrin, always on 

 dry cliffs, facing 

 full sun, and in the 

 purest light of the high Alps. In the Western 

 Caucasus it ascends to 9,000 feet, and is ver\- 

 abundant. A friend of mine brought me once, 

 from the highest summits of the Cordilliera in 

 North America, some dried s],ecimcns of Eri- 

 trichium nanum, saying the plant w.is very 

 abundant there. In fact it is a very near s])ecies 

 of Eritrichium called argenteum, and given by 

 Clements (sje ' Clements" Rock Mountaiii 

 Flowers," p. Ill) and plate 21, tig. S) quite 



CoLLETIA CKUt'IATA. 



wrongly as an annual, the plants I had in my 

 hands being very old ones. 



The acclimatisation of Eritrichium is difficult, 

 and the best means of succeeding with it is to 

 sow and raise it by seeds, or to make cuttings 

 and treat the cuttings like those of Myosotis, 

 We, of course, have 

 old plants which 

 flower well in 

 spring, and are 

 quite acclimatised 

 in pots. But they 

 require special 

 treatment, and 

 cannot be left out 

 through the wet 

 winter. These 

 i:)lants, raised in 

 1 ots,and which we 

 have already grown 

 for two to three 

 \eR,rs, we have to 

 keep under a cold 

 frame through the 

 winter, and keep 

 them very dr^^ I 

 have now an ex- 

 ceedingly good and 

 healthy co'ony in a 

 turf frame, Avhich 

 are watered from 

 below. They flower 

 in such a cor^dition 

 a,s well as on the 

 Alps, and give good 

 seeds. But that 

 treatment requires 

 A hard insolation, 

 and this you can- 

 not have hi your 

 island climate. I 

 think that the best 

 means of growing 

 and succeeding with 

 Eritrichium hi the 

 j^ritish climate is to 

 grow it in the wall, 

 facing south, and 

 kec])ing it dry, and 

 oven very dry in winter, and togrow it inajoor soil. 

 Although difficu't to keej), I krow in England 

 many ro;!k gardens where Eritrichium nanum 

 does splendidly, and evcii some where it sows 

 itself round the mother plant. I think, how- 

 ever, that it cannot be considered as a true 

 ])erennial, and although I saw some patches in 

 nature which might be more than twenty years 

 old, the ])lant must l)e, when cultivated in 

 Britain, considered as a biennial. 



