xii PREFACE 



essential, it is necessary to have a frame for the 

 picture, and that frame can only be obtained by 

 creating the Alpine field. One day at Friar Park, 

 Sir Frank Crisp, the creator of this beautiful 

 alpinum, taking me aside and making me walk 

 around with him, showed me a vast, empty 

 field which stretched away to the north of the 

 Matterhorn, and said : " It is here that I wish 

 to establish a Swiss field to soften the too rocky 

 aspect of the garden and to give it a fitting frame." 

 And since then I am unable to conceive that there 

 was ever a time when the Alpine garden at Friar 

 Park had not its setting of Alpine fields. There 

 was no idea of making such a thing when the 

 garden was begun ; but once the rockwork was 

 finished the rest imposed itself. One needs the 

 flower-filled field, Valpe en fete, by the side of the 

 grey rocks. 



This is why, in our horticultural estabhshment 

 at Floraire, we make constant efforts to repro- 

 duce expanses of Narcissi, Columbines, Gentians, 

 Daphnes, Primulas, etc., grouped in masses as we 

 have seen them in nature, and as Mr. Flemwell 

 gives them in his book. 



