110 SPRING FLOWERS 



acres of gorse just bursting into bloom ? Not that 

 Forsythia is to be despised where it will flourish, which 

 is not everywhere ; but it is scentless, and gorse is of 

 exquisite fragrance ; also it has to be pruned carefully 

 after flowering to ensure a display in the following 

 season. The best variety is F. intermedia, a hybrid 

 between F. suspenses and F. viridissima. 



If May brings with it mourning for the good things 

 that will return no more, it makes ample compensation 

 by the fulfilment of hope long deferred, and the en- 

 chanting surprises which it has in store for the sagacious 

 amateur. Especially for those who have succumbed 

 to the fascination of alpine plants, a class of amateurs 

 which has been so abundantly recruited within the 

 last quarter of a century. Pioneers in the movement 

 were Mr. William Robinson, who first, in the early 

 'seventies, explained the virtue of rockwork in the 

 cultivation of alpines as being, not inherent in the 

 rocks and stones, but in the effective drainage and root- 

 shelter ensured thereby, 1 and Mr. Backhouse, of York, 

 who stocked alpines largely and devoted a large section 

 of his nurseries to demonstrating their proper treatment. 



Much water has run under the bridges since those 

 early days ; nearly every nurseryman of enterprise can 

 supply alpines unknown forty years ago, and many 

 writers have followed Mr. Robinson in extolling their 

 charms. Latest, and dangerously persuasive, comes 

 Mr. Reginald Farrer with two volumes, 2 so luminous in 



1 Alpine Flowers for English Gardens. London : John Murray. 

 1870. 



2 My Rock Garden, and Alpine and Bog Plants. London : Edward 

 Arnold. 1908. 



