102 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



only show a kind of living herbarium. Single 

 examples of these lovely little children of the great 

 mountains may be delightful things to have, and in 

 the very smallest spaces no doubt will be all that is 

 possible ; but we wish to consider gardening in its 

 nobler aspects, not merely the successful cultivation 

 of single specimens of the Alpine flora. 



In planning an important Alpine garden it should 

 be remembered that in preparing homes for some of 

 the best of these lovely plants, not only the rocky 

 places must be considered, but the grassy ones as 

 well, for the pasture land of the Alps is as bright with 

 flowers as the more rocky portions. It is here that 

 are found the Snowflakes and the Snowdrops, the 

 Dog-tooth Violets and the Anemones of the Pulsatilla 

 group. Here also are the glorious Gentiana acaulis, 

 the bright gem-like G. verna t and in boggy places 

 G. bavarica, near in size to G. verna, and sometimes 

 mistaken for it, but different in the shape and 

 arrangement of its more crowded leaves, and in the 

 still more penetrating brilliancy of its astounding blue. 

 These little gems are not often seen at their best in 

 English gardens, but G. acaulis is a much more willing 

 colonist, and in some gardens where the soil is a rich 

 loam it grows rapidly and flowers abundantly and 

 proves one of the best of plants for a garden edging. 

 Though properly a plant of the pastures, the illustra- 

 tion shows how kindly it takes to the rock-garden 

 in England. 



The difficulty of imitating the close short turf of 



