NEW AND BEAUTIFUL ROCK PLANTS 93 



tating effect on the grower. These masses of undis- 

 tinguished flowers, these myriads of commonplace and 

 ignoble things, become as tiresome as great congregations 

 of people without refinement or distinction, whose 

 habits, manners and customs are always the same, 

 and if not actually offensive, nevertheless arouse a 

 feeling of repulsion because of their commonness. They 

 are important only by their numbers, and thus can only 

 arouse interest at a distance. There cannot be a doubt 

 that many rock gardeners have lost the interest which 

 they once had owing to the influence of certain 

 assertive plants, which, beautiful enough in their youth, 

 become the ogre of the place, smothering Iocs vigorous 

 things, usurping space that belonged to delicate gems, 

 affording cover for pests, and impoverishing and drying 

 the soil. They have developed, indeed, all the evil 

 force of weeds, while retaining a certain elemental 

 and barbaric beauty, which by turns seems to condone 

 all the mischief that they have done, and to make them 

 worse offenders from their vulgar brilliance. Consider, 

 however, all the undoubted virtues of these plants : 

 their hardiness, their adaptability to all kinds of soil, 

 their unappeasable appetite for growth and flowering 

 consider all these things in conjunction with the 

 possibility of developing kinds which have intrinsic 

 beauty of bloom, and it becomes at once apparent 

 that they are of great importance. Given individual 

 beauty, each plant will be cherished and tended. It will 

 not be neglected, overlooked, or forgotten. It will 

 receive the same attention as the most beautiful weakling. 

 It will be sought day by day as one of the stars of the 

 Alpine garden. Its good and bad qualities will be under 

 constant observation. If it is encroaching it will be 

 checked. If it is overlying some tiny neighbour it will 



