92 THE NEW GARDENING 



varieties of the garden, and, descending the distant 

 rocks like a purple cascade, makes a satisfactory picture ; 

 but on the nearer slopes of the Alpine garden, where 

 each blossom can be distinguished, it seems a poor thing 

 beside its great, brilliant modern rivals. 



In the early days of rock gardening few gave a thought 

 to any material except the natural species which clothe 

 the acclivities and carpet the moraines of Alpine regions. 

 They did not anticipate a time when the hand of the 

 hybridist would have brought the species into union, 

 or made selections from hosts of seedlings, and thus 

 produced new forms, in some cases much more intrinsically 

 beautiful than the parents which had seemed so charming. 

 The time has come with certain plants when it is the 

 modern forms alone which have any real importance with 

 cultured flower-lovers, and the Aubrietia is a case in 

 point. This plant has all the primitive vigour, tenacity 

 of life, profusion of bloom and ready seeding which make 

 the potential weed. The natural species are in bloom for 

 the greater part of the year in the garden, only periods 

 of bitter cold and burning drought curbing the flowering 

 habit. In spring a fever of growth and blossoming 

 seizes them. They are overtaken by a wild passion for 

 extension. They spread over earth and rocks like Poppies 

 over a field of young corn, and every new-born shoot 

 breaks into bloom. They continue spreading long after 

 their cousins the Arabises have finished. They outlast 

 the May Tulips equally with the April Daffodils, and are 

 still a mass of flower, although the colour may have 

 turned from purple to red, when the June Roses come 

 in. There is danger in this fecundity. It is not merely 

 physical danger to other plants, less robust of consti- 

 tution and more compact of habit, but the moral danger 

 that they may have first a deadening and then an irri- 



