Lea 
for the plants of the high mountains. These aristocrats of the 
mountain tops need special treatment in order to enable them to 
thrive under cultivation in lowland regions of the temperate zone 
and this can best be provided in a rock garden. The thing to 
remember in the construction of an alpine and rock garden is that 
the majority of these plants require a soil that is gritty and well 
drained, for most of them resent stagnant water at the roots. In 
making a rock garden, therefore, one should provide perfect 
jan 
drainage and a sandy, porous soil to be used in filling in the 
spaces between the rocks. When a soil of this kind is used, it is 
easy by the addition of crushed limestone, bluestone screenings, 
peat, or humus, as the case may be, to modify the soil in such a 
way as to make it suitable for the more pernickety plants. 
Mr. Clarence Lown, dean of rock gardeners of the United 
States whose recent demise (1931) was a great loss to our horti- 
culture, had great success in growing alpine plants, and in his 
garden at Poughkeepsie had the choicest collection in the country. 
Mr. Lown has said: 
“If ordinary soil is used in the rock garden and no especial 
pains are taken as to drainage, many of these plants will do 
beautifully in the early months and the gardener will be delighted 
with the ease with which they may be grown. But this is some- 
what in the nature of a false triumph and a different story is told 
when real summer comes. The heat is bad enough and if the 
weather be dry, watering is to be done at evening; then the plants 
will be fairly comfortable. But it is when we have a spell of hard 
showers, with heat and humidity that these same plants suffer. 
The ground remains soaked around the crown and the leaves do 
not dry off quickly enough and the result is the damping of some 
choice plants. The porous soil advised will in great measure 
prevent this by giving quick drainage. 
“ A great many of the plants suitable for growing in rockeries 
will not require any special soil mixture, but all or nearly all will 
grow well in it and, to assure better success, it is advised that the 
soil mixture be approximately as follows: 
3 parts good loam from rotted sods, 1 part sharp sand. 
2 parts humus. I use swamp muck that has been exposed to 
weather for two years and become fine. When freshly 
