ALPINE PLANTS IN SMALL GARDENS 45 
started in the smallest, most modest and economical way, 
and may be developed and improved upon little by little 
as time goes on. An odd stone may be placed where it will 
be of service at any time it happens to come to hand. A 
fresh plant can always be accommodated even if it means 
reducing something of which we have more than enough, 
and the bed can be extended from time to time as long as 
space for such extension remains. 
Mortar rubble, burnt earth, coarse sand, broken oyster 
shell, etc., dug into the soil must be our substitutes for 
the rock that is lacking, and will provide the roots of the 
plants with the material in which they can make themselves 
at home. 
Quite a large proportion of alpines tend in course of time 
to produce straggling and comparatively bare stems. This 
is a perpetuation of a natural habit that is a necessity to 
their continued existence in their native mountain home. 
We have already referred to the consequences of the spring 
thaw after winter’s frost. Loosened soil, grit and stone, 
tumbling down from the heights above travels until progress 
is checked by some obstruction, and this obstruction is 
frequently a jutting rock or outcrop of stone, behind which 
grows a colony of some alpine plant. Here the descending 
grit and soil is heaped up, and were it not for the ability of 
the plants to throw out stems to a considerable length they 
would be buried so completely that they would be done to 
death. When, however, the débris covers the stems many 
of the tufts of foliage that dangled over the ledges of rock 
remain uncovered, the stems throw out fresh roots, and the 
result is a strengthened and extended colony. We may 
