tiniest plants completely, and it is really wiser to take out 

 from England a couple of boards with straps and a good 

 supply of blotting paper. The special paper sold for press- 

 ing plants is much to be preferred to ordinary white or 

 pink blotting-paper, as the plants tend to stick to it much 

 less. A fair amount will be required, as the plants need 

 frequent changing and the paper must be dried. Specimens 

 should be carefully set out by pressing on them with the 

 finger till they take up the required positions, and stored 

 when dry in some exercise book or between sheets of paper. 

 The cultivation of Alpine plants in our gardens at home 

 is by no means as easy as might at first be supposed. The 

 climate and conditions of life in Peckham are very different 

 to those at the summit of Pilatus, and unless the thing is 

 done carefully and thoroughly it had better not be attempted 

 at all. The chief difficulty in growing Alpine plants in our 

 climate is not the cold but the excessive moisture of winter, 

 which tends to rot their roots, and from which they are 

 protected in their native home by their snowy covering. 

 Our object should be to reproduce, as far as possible, 

 in our gardens the conditions under which the plants 

 grow in the high Alps. For the rockery a porous stone 

 will be required, such as limestone or sandstone, and it is 

 essential to select a kind that does not crumble with the frost. 

 The partially fused masses of brick, which can be obtained 

 very cheaply as a waste product from brick kilns, when 

 washed over with a mixture of cement and sand do very 



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