PART L] CULTURAL 17 



This list is necessarily incomplete, and comprises only the most 

 characteristic examples of the plants special to the limestone and to 

 the granite, and those which we have actually tried and proved, 

 either at Geneva, at the alpine garden of the Linnsea at Bourg St 

 Pierre, which is essentially granitic, or at the one at the Rochers de 

 Naye, which is of limestone. The names of the plants are so placed 

 in the two columns that related species are opposite one another, so 

 that readers may see at a glance the part that is played by the 

 presence or absence of lime. 



While in our garden on the Rochers de Naye above Montreux, 

 which is essentially calcareous, we have never been able to establish 

 species essentially granitic; in that of Bourg St Pierre, which is 

 granitic, we are unable to cultivate Primula Auricula, Campanula 

 thyrsoides, Gentiana lutea, alpina,. angustifolia, and Clusi, and other 

 calcareous plants. 



It is always well, however, in considering alpine plants in 

 relation to soil in their native homes, to remember that the 

 nature of the rock is but one of the conditions that may lead 

 to the presence or absence of plants in any given situation; 

 rainfall, altitude, temperature, length of growing season, 

 presence or absence of snow, and the absence of more vigorous 

 plants, having all to be counted with, and other conditions not 

 so clear to us. 



Need of poor soil for certain plants. The tendency of 

 gardeners is to overrich earth in almost everything, and among 

 alpine flowers we often see the effects of this in too rank a 

 growth, making some plants less able to endure our winter and 

 early spring weather. Deep soil is not against us, but it would 

 be better in many cases without any humus, but formed of grit, 

 broken sandstone, or other stones, as the case may be. On such 

 earth plants that fail in the ordinary borders or banks might 

 often be grown in a firm and healthy state. 



I mean simply heaping up banks of rough sand or decayed 

 stone, and so as to secure various aspects. In certain cases 

 there should be no rich soil whatever, so as to get the dwarf, 

 wiry growth that we often find on the more arid and stony 

 parts of the Alps. 



Grit. A gritty soil, or pure grit, are often very useful in 

 the rock-garden, and where there is a large collection of plants 



B 



