PART L] NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN THE ALPS 131 



in rocks it sometimes looked a mere stain of silvery grey, like 

 a Lichen ; on the ground, it spread into dwarf silvery cushions, 

 from 1 to 3 or 4 inches wide. It seemed quite indifferent as 

 to position, sometimes growing freely along, and even in, a 

 channel, the sides and bed of which are a mass of shattered 

 rocks, and which is in winter a stream and a torrent after 

 heavy rains and thaws. Some plants were as large as a 

 dessert plate, a mass of Liliputian silvery rosettes, each about 

 the eighth of an inch across, and formed of from fifteen to 

 twenty-five diminutive leaves, and hundreds of rosettes going 

 to form a tuft about an inch high. 



This is one of the gems in the large Saxifrage family, which 

 affords a greater number of distinct plants worthy of cultiva- 

 tion in the rock-garden than any other. These plants grow 

 upon the mountain tops, far above the abodes of our ordinary 

 vegetation, not only because the cool, pure air and moisture 

 are congenial to their tastes, but because taller and less hardy 

 vegetation dares not venture there to overrun and finally 

 extinguish them. But though they dwell so high in alpine 

 regions, they are the most tractable of all plants in British 

 gardens, and grow as freely as our native lowland weeds in 

 gardens where Gentian and alpine Primula and precious 

 mountain Forget-me-not require all our care. They are ever- 

 green, and more beautiful to look upon in winter than in 

 summer, so far as the foliage is concerned, and their foliage is 

 beautiful, while, unlike many other plants which have attrac- 

 tive leafage, or a peculiar form and habit, they flower freely 

 in the early summer. 



One would think that coming from habitats so far removed 

 from all that is common to our monotonous skies, it would 

 be impossible to keep these little stars of the earth in a living 

 state ; but our climate suits them well, and they are the 

 chief stay of the cultivator of alpine plants. In autumn, 

 when most plants quail before the approach of darkness, 

 winter, and frost, and casting off their soiled robes, the Eock- 

 foils glisten with silver and emerald when the rotting leaves 

 are hurrying by before the stiff, wet breeze. 



