CHAPTER VI 



NEW AND BEAUTIFUL ROCK PLANTS 



THAT wave of plant-development which has followed 

 the great tide of flower-love over the civilized world, 

 and particularly, perhaps, over Great Britain and 

 America, has carried with it many beautiful rock plants. 

 The earth has been ransacked for new kinds, while 

 hybridists have made crosses between species and 

 propagators have raised large numbers of seedlings in 

 the hope of finding valuable variations. 



The most remarkable gains have been made in 

 Primulas. Here it is not a case of one method of de- 

 velopment alone being at work, but all three simul- 

 taneously. The great collectors Forrest and Wilson 

 have sent us magnificent new species, principally from 

 China ; and these, hybridized, have already given us 

 the first fruits of what may prove to be an extensive 

 series of lovely forms. 



A person who is passing through a novitiate in Alpine 

 gardening may hardly do more than make a passing 

 acquaintance with novelties, partly from doubt of 

 sufficient practical knowledge of their culture, partly 

 on the score of expense. It is not always practicable 

 to tack on to the cost of a new garden the expense of 

 new plants, and in any case there are old species which 

 are too important to be passed by. But it unquestionably 

 quickens the interest of an established rock garden to add 



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