246 ALPINE FLOWERS 



many in England. There is a Swiss catalogue that offers two 

 thousand five hundred different kinds of seeds; and a German 

 that lists about three thousand four hundred. This illus- 

 trates the immense range there is for individual taste and 

 experiment. 



However, beginners are appalled by such big lists, and most 

 Americans want to know where they can buy plants, because they 

 are generally in a hurry and do not mind the extra expense if they 

 can get results the first year. Unfortunately, there is no way of 

 buying alpine seeds or plants in America, at the present time, 

 except by picking out the alpine species from general catalogues. 

 As beginners do not know which plants are alpines, I shall be 

 forced, at the risk of seeming unduly technical, to give lists of 

 alpine plants and indicate how they can be secured. But you 

 would find it much pleasanter to buy a good book, like Hulme's 

 "Familiar Swiss Flowers," decide from the coloured plates what 

 you want, and then send your list to one of the specialists in hardy 

 perennials for an estimate, because they often have many species 

 which they do not catalogue. 



THE TALLER ALPINE FLOWERS 



Let us begin with the flowers that actually grow in the Alps, not 

 because they are any better than those of our own White Mountains 

 but because they are more famous and easier to get. Doubtless 

 you know most of these already, and think of them only as border 

 plants, for they will grow in lowlands without rocks, and you can 

 buy the plants from any one of a dozen American nurserymen, 

 In rich soil they may grow two to four feet high, but in the rockery 

 they will be smaller and correspondingly prettier. For even 

 coarse weeds become refined and look like wild flowers when grown 



