INTRODUCTION. 
For I admit no question as to the survival of the collected 
plant. Properly collected, it runs no risk at all. There are, of 
course, many species that should never be touched, as their full- 
grown roots defy dynamite. Such are the Columbines and the 
great Anemones; of these you must either seek out seedlings, 
or return for seed; though all, and especially the Anemones, ° 
will speedily root again in sand from a mutilated stock. Hn- 
trenched in stark cliffs, too, many an alpine derides the trowel ; 
and here its conquest is a matter of hunting for some more rotten 
piece of rock, and there bringing the persuasion of hammer and 
chisels to bear. In all these cases there is risk of failure or damage 
to the plant ; the true-hearted collector will go very cautiously, and 
if he fails, as fail he sometimes must, to get his plant unhurt, he 
will feel pangs of manslaughterer’s conscience that will impel him 
to greater care and delicacy than ever. The remaining children 
of the hills, however, lend themselves lovingly to the trowel, 
whether they be dug from the alpine turf or lifted from the stony 
screes and arétes of the summits (or, as can be done with all 
cushion Saxifrages, merely torn off rootless in the wad, then pulled 
to pieces, and every rosette grown on as a cutting). The essentials 
are due reverence, and a straight downward drive, about five 
inches away from the plant, with a long and narrow flat fern- 
trowel, made all in one piece. 
The whole sod should thus be dug all round, and levered up, 
when it will be found that the perfect root has usually been 
secured entire. Now, the plant should be enucleated from the 
sod, and every particle of earth removed. For besides adding 
to the weight of the package, earth is harmful to the roots in 
transit, breeding stagnation and decay. Then the plant goes 
into the collecting-box at once ; and this should always be of tin. 
If ever an accident should happen, and a too difficult plant be 
badly dug, or an inferior form collected and then discarded in 
favour of a better, these sad victims must never be cast out root- 
less to perish by the wayside, but should reverently be planted 
again in some propitious place of the hills. No true collector 
marks his track with disjecta membra. 
lv 
