20 ALPINE PLANTS 
The fact that plants are seen covering the face of huge 
impenetrable rocks has sometimes led to the supposition 
that they require little or no soil or nourishment, and in 
endeavouring to provide “ natural’’ conditions builders 
have fallen into the error of planting in a heap of stones 
with but an inch or two of soil in shallow depressions. 
The inevitable result is that the first drying wind parches 
the mere handful of soil about the roots, and a day’s hot 
sunshine completes their destruction, and even if the 
succulent nature of the foliage and stems suffices awhile 
to maintain an appearance of life, the period will be of 
but brief duration, and the absolute destruction of the 
plant is an ultimate certainty. 
A closer inspection of these curtains of the rocks will 
reveal the fact that the trailing stems can be traced back 
to a rootstock snugly tucked in some fissure or crack filled 
with rich compost, an admixture of pulverized stone and 
decayed vegetable matter, which has been washed down 
by descending torrents of melted snow, and if we could 
follow the fine root fibres in their tortuous windings and 
penetrations we should find that they travel an extra- 
ordinary distance until they reach a vast bed of soil behind 
or beneath the rocks that is never dried by sun or wind. 
Thus, we learn that the root system of an alpine plant 
is infinitely more expansive than its herbage, and wherever 
it is planted it must have a great body of soil for the 
accommodation of its roots, the real office of any stone 
being to shield the roots from parching influences, and 
also in some cases to provide a drained surface for sensi- 
tive crowns and herbage, for many alpines which root 
