218 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



G. acaulis may be purchased at from sixpence to a 

 shilling, and many of the others for sums almost or 

 quite as moderate, but then it will be seen that for this 

 modest sum we should buy the mere plant. Charm- 

 ing, undoubtedly, but carrying with it no special 

 associations of glorious rambles or break-neck 

 scrambles, recalling no pleasant relationship with 

 brother enthusiasts ; a mere item in an invoice. 1 

 Having broken the ice and so Alpine a simile 

 may surely be allowed to us under the circum- 

 stances we have much pleasure in introducing to 

 our readers the edelweiss, the subject of our 

 twenty-fifth Plate. This, though it grows freely 

 enough in England under cultivation, must be 

 sought elsewhere. Despite its grand name the 

 noble white flower it is quaint rather than beau- 



1 A youngster we once came across was laboriously, but 

 very happily, making a collection of the armorial bearings 

 of the various colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, one old 

 friend of the family supplying him with one, and presently 

 another with another, and so by degrees his store grew ; 

 but in an evil day some one found out that these arms could 

 all be purchased collected together in sheets, and well- 

 meaningly sent him the whole set. The series was at once 

 complete, and all enthusiasm in it died out. It turned out to 

 be after all but a question of paying some few pence and 

 any one could do that and so the old zest was gone. 

 Instead of being cut from college correspondence, letters of 

 Uncle Tom from Balliol, of Cousin Harry from Trinity, of 

 the old schoolfellow gone up to Pembroke, these arms were 

 all drilled faultlessly, soullessly, into line, and were absolutely 

 bare of association. 



