CHAPTER XIII 

 THE ALPINE GARDEN 



THIS chapter is for the most part a resume* of the 

 teaching conveyed in some highly interesting and 

 instructive letters to The Garden from Mr. Henry 

 Correvon of the gardens of Floraire, Chenebourg, 

 Geneva. No one is more intimately acquainted with 

 the flora of the Alps than Mr. Correvon, or is better 

 able to instruct and advise upon their use and adapta- 

 tion to our gardens. 



In making an Alpine garden, and considering what 

 plants are to adorn it, it must be remembered that in 

 the mountains of Europe there are whole chains that 

 are of limestone and others that are entirely of granite. 

 Many of the failures in our rock and Alpine gardens 

 are due to this fact either being unknown or dis- 

 regarded. Each of those two great main geological 

 formations has a flora proper to itself. It stands to 

 reason, therefore, that if we plant a shrub or herb that 

 belongs to the granite on a calcareous soil, or a lime- 

 stone plant on granite, that we are only inviting 

 failure. 



It is true that there are a good many Alpine plants 

 that will grow in almost any soil, and a number of 



