ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK-GARDENS. 141 



deep mass of down-like snow falls upon alpine plants, like a great 

 cloud-borne quilt, under which they rest safe from alternations of 

 frost and biting winds with moist and spring-like days as in our green 

 winters. 



But these conditions are not always essential for their growth in 

 a cool northern country like ours. The reason that alpine plants 

 abound in high regions is because no taller vegetation can exist 

 there ; were these places inhabited by trees and shrubs, we should 

 find fewer alpine plants among them ; on the other hand, were no 

 stronger vegetation found at a lower elevation, these plants would 

 often there appear. Also, as there are few hard and fast lines in 

 nature, many plants found on the high Alps are also met with in 

 rocky or barish ground at much lower elevations. Gentiana erna, 

 for example, often flowers very late in summer when the snow 

 thaws on a very high mountain ; yet it is also found on much 

 lower mountains, and occurs in England and Ireland. In the close 

 struggle upon the plains and low tree-clad hills, the smaller species 

 are often overrun by trees, trailers, bushes, and vigorous herbs, but, 

 where in far northern and high mountain regions these fail from the 

 earth, the lovely alpine flowers prevail. 



Alpine plants possess the charm of endless variety, and include things 

 widely different : tiny orchids, tree-like moss, and ferns that peep from 

 crevices of alpine cliffs, often so small that they seem to cling to the 

 rocks for shelter, not daring to throw forth their fronds with airy grace ; 

 bulbous plants, from Lilies to Bluebells ; evergreen shrubs, perfect in 

 leaf and blossom and fruit, yet so small that a finger glass would 

 make a house for them ; dwarfest creeping plants, spreading over the 

 brows of rocks, draping them with lovely colour ; Rockfoils and 

 Stonecrops no bigger than mosses, and, like them, mantling the earth 

 with green carpets in winter, and embracing nearly every type of the 

 plant-life of northern lands. 



In the culture of these plants, the first thing to be remembered is 

 that much difference exists among them as regards size and vigour. 

 We have, on the one hand, a number of plants that merely require 

 to be sown or planted in the roughest way to flourish Arabis and 

 Aubrietia, for example ; and, on the other, there are some kinds, 

 like Gentians and the Primulas of the high Alps, which are 

 rarely seen in good health in gardens and it is as to these that 

 advice is chiefly required. And nearly all the misfortunes which 

 these little plants have met with in our gardens are due to a false 

 conception of what a rock-garden ought to be, and of what the 

 alpine plant requires. It is too often thought that they will do 

 best if merely raised on tiny heaps of stones and brick rubbish, such 

 as we frequently see dignified with the name of " rockwork." Moun- 



