142 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



such erratic instance as that of Spircea ulmaria 

 growing along a damp, rocky cleft high up above 

 the Grand St. Bernard road, a little beyond the 

 village of Liddes — and growing, too, to all appear- 

 ances, as happily as it grows among the marshes by 

 the Rhone. We could never hope to grow it on a 

 rock like this in our gardens. Plants in the wild 

 state, with freedom of choice, can often grapple 

 with seemingly adverse conditions by ways and 

 means so subtle that they defy imitation in a 

 garden. Moreover, if we knew all, when we find 

 them, like this Spiraea or like Gentiana verna, 

 flourishing though exceptionally placed, we should 

 be aware that their circumstance was importantly 

 allied to normal circumstance, and that they have 

 found in this position the vital essentials of their 

 ordinary life. But in a garden we must not think 

 to treat a species after the successful eccentricity 

 we have noted in some individual of that species ; 

 and it is in this, among other important m:itters, 

 that the gardens in the Alps can offer so much 

 useful direction. Here we are afforded a ready 

 means of studying hundreds of different plants 

 tended by experts, and growing, as far as is possible, 

 according to the normal requirements of each 

 individual kind. 



