IN AN ALPINE GARDEN 14.7 



is it?' and when, told it was Peziza, she said she 

 had *been working at that for a week'! Mathe- 

 matical observation as a department in Botany is, 

 of course, of inestimable value ; but it can hardly- 

 lay claim to make a complete and final statement 

 of the whole matter. Readily may we grant that 



' They only know what Nature means 

 Who watch the play behind the scenes'; 



but the * gardener ' gets behind the scenes quite as 

 efficiently as does the ' botanist,' and he sees things 

 of which the ' botanist ' frequently never dreams. 

 But what may be called the School of Realistic 

 Botany is rapidly gaimng ground. We are coming 

 to see that we can be a little too jealously inclined 

 to condemn our sciences to separate and solitary 

 confinement. We are coming to see that no 

 speciality can stand alone in any final sense and 

 yet speak the full, round truth ; and that, vital 

 as is particularization, generahzation is no less 

 important, and must, in the end, be allowed ' the 

 last word.' 



Then, again, a visit to a garden in the Alps offers 

 a convenient opportunity for examining some of 

 the numerous theories concerning Alpines. For 

 example, one of these theories is that the proportion 



