86 ALPINE PLANTS 
their devotees, but candour demands that I should express 
the opinion that the more prudent classification for the 
best and most prized species and varieties is to include 
them in the chapter on choicer plants requiring rather 
more care than the general run of. free-growing subjects. 
The chief reason I have to offer is that the gentians are, 
many of them, plants of very dwarf stature and close compact 
growth, and as they require a liberal root run, with 
abundance of moisture during their growing period, but are 
somewhat impatient of excessive moisture in their crowns 
during winter, there is some risk involved in planting 
them near by plants of a rambling, spreading and quick- 
growing character, where they may suffer from smothering 
or choking. Whilst, therefore, it is by no means my desire 
to suggest that even the novice should omit gentians 
from his collection, I prefer to recommend that they should 
be associated with the smaller and choicer subjects, and with 
that intent details in regard to the many fine kinds avail- 
able are included in the succeeding chapter. 
GERANIUM.—There is scarcely a place too dry or a soil 
too poor to admit of the cultivation of some of the hardy 
herbaceous Geraniums, the plants that are really entitled 
to the name that has been usurped by the zonal Pelar- 
gonium of the greenhouse and formal summer bedding. 
The Geraniums, or Cranes’ Bills, are of strong, luxurious 
growth, with generally prettily cut leaves, sometimes 
red stalked, and in some cases covered with silvery tomen- 
tum. Those possessing the last-named feature are less 
vigorous, but still by no means delicate or weakly, their 
one serious objection being to dripping wet, especially in 
