PART I.] CULTURAL 93 



be saturated with rain one day and be as dry as snuff the next, 

 at least to the depths to which the roots of a small or young 

 alpine plant would penetrate, is therefore easily accounted for. 

 Matted through a soft carpet of short grass in their native hills, 

 or rooted deeply between stones, they can stand many degrees 

 more heat than they ever endure in this country. As a rule, 

 it is difficult to water them too freely if the drainage be good, 

 which of course it will be in a well-formed rock-garden. To 

 have the water laid on and applied thoroughly with a fine hose, 

 is the best plan in districts not naturally moist. Some lay 

 small copper pipes through the masses and to the highest points 

 of the rock, allowing the water to gently trickle from these, 

 but, except in special cases, the plan is not so good as the 

 hose. Whatever way be adopted, the rule should be: Never 

 water unless you saturate the soil, say with from 1J to 

 2 inches deep of water over the whole surface. As a rule, 

 pretentious, wall-like, erect masses of "rock-work" require 

 half a dozen times as much water as those made with plenty 

 of soil, so arranged that it is easily saturated by the rains. 

 Indeed, nothing but ceaseless watering could preserve plants 

 in a healthy state on the "rock-work" commonly made. As 

 regards the time of watering, it is a matter of very little im- 

 portance, though, for convenience' sake, it is better not done in 

 the heat of the day. 



PLANTING ROCK AND ALPINE FLOWERS. 



There is a mischievous way of planting almost every kind 

 of small plant, which is particularly injurious in the case of 

 the hardy orchids (whose roots are easily injured), and of all 

 rare alpine plants. I refer to the practice of making a hole 

 for the plant, and, after a little soil has been shaken over the roots, 

 pressing heavily with the fingers over the roots and near the 

 neck of the plant. What is meant will be understood from 

 fig. 2, if the reader assumes that there is a little soil between 

 the fingers and the roots. Where the roots are not all broken 

 off in this way, many of them are mutilated, and often plants 



