80 ALPINE FLOWERS [PART I. 



habit of flowering of so many beautiful kinds should not be 

 taken advantage of, and by growing some of these early kinds 

 in pots or pans, or shallow baskets, we might, when they were 

 about to flower, transfer them to a very cool greenhouse, or to 

 frames, to a pit with some path in it, or better still when in 

 bloom to the cooler windows of the house, and so enjoy their 

 beauty and save them from the vicissitudes of our often 

 wretched Springs. In the case of the easily -grown kinds, such 

 as our rosy native Eochfoil, Omphalodes, and Alpine Primrose, 

 it would be easy to secure well-grown plants, of which pretty 

 use might be made by many who do not exhibit alpine plants, 

 while some such plan is essential for those who do. 



I do riot advocate their culture in pots at all where there 

 is an opportunity of making a rock-garden ; but there are cases 

 in which they cannot be well grown in any other way. It is 

 often well to keep rare kinds in pots till sufficiently plentiful. 



Prizes are frequently offered at our flower shows for these 

 plants, but the exhibitors rarely deserve a prize, for their plants 

 are often ill selected, badly grown, and such as ought 

 never to appear on an exhibition stage. In almost every other 

 class the first thing the exhibitor does is to select appropriate 

 kinds distinct and beautiful and then he makes some pre- 

 paration beforehand for exhibiting them; but in the case of 

 hardy plants, anybody who happens to have a rough lot of 

 miscellaneous rubbish exhibits them. Yet such plants as the 

 tiny shrubs Cassiope, Menziesia, and Gaultheria procumbens, the 

 Alpine Phlox, and many others, might be found pretty enough 

 to satisfy even the most fastidious growers of New Holland 

 plants. 



The very grass is not more easily grown than plants like 

 Iberises and Aubrietias, yet to ensure their being worthy of a 

 place, they ought to be at least a year in pots, so as to secure 

 well-furnished plants. Such vigorous plants, to merit the 

 character of being well-grown, should fall luxuriantly over the 

 edge of the pots or baskets, the spreading habit of many of this 

 class of plants making this a matter of no difficulty. In some 

 cases it would be desirable to put a number of cuttings or young 



